Delay Spillover & X/Y

J

JazzMac251

Inspired
I've done the reading on the whole "spillover" issue. It breaks my heart, but it is what it is. What I don't understand is how the delay blocks process X/Y changes. It seems like you can't NOT have spillover.

I've been tasked with reproducing an artist's original music live, and doing so requires me to do the whole "textural guitarist" thing, i.e. TONS of delays and reverbs. First, I discover that this incredible, top-of-the-line piece of gear lacks the spillover capability present in just about every medium-tier delay box out there. Well, you can have spillover, but if your "landing" preset doesn't have essentially the exact same settings as your "starting" preset, you're not going to like the results.

Now I'm finding out that basically the same is true of X/Y states too. To put it in simple terms, I need X to be 1/8 notes, Y to be 1/16th notes. Due to the high mix and feedback levels (textural guitar), swapping between the two states turns the tails of the previous delay into a warbly, unusable mess of unprofessional garbage. It seems like there's no real fix for this, either.

I can understand working within the limitations of the system. I get that a complex device like the AxeFX is always going to have idiosyncrasies based on functional limitations of the hardware. But, after reading through years of customer complaints about this type of issue, it's hard not to feel a little irate about this. This is pretty standard functionality present on most half-decent delay boxes these days, and it's absolutely essential to providing a professional-quality performance as a guitarist. Doubly true if you do the textural thing. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my Axe2, but, the truth of the matter is, if the heavy-fx thing was my main bag, I would be selling this thing in a split second. This is not usable.

I guess I just have to make an absurd amount of 1-delay-block-only presets to cover the various sounds on each song, use the second delay block solely to keep tail-continuity between patch changes, and hope to God I don't run into any situation where I trigger patches out of order. Fantastic...

People have been crying about this for YEARS!! Have the unit continually take samples of the last X repeats, load them into a buffer within memory, then dump the buffer to the audio output during patch/X-Y changes. Use the architecture already in place for the Hold function. Store it in unused Looper memory. I don't know...just do SOMETHING...
 
Good ideas, but in your case I think you should use a second dedicated delay unit and suffer no more. No one said the Axe-FX had to be the only effects unit in your signal chain.
 
that's exactly what I do…
I have 2 delay blocks in the preset…
one for soloing and the other for my "tone-morph cleaned' riffing tone because they have different settings
I'd like to do the same for the reverb but I'm out of available CPU, so I've configured what seems to be a best compromise setting and I control the different reverb levels via modifiers and a mixer block
 
I feel the same as the OP, but I have learned to Work by it(Working within the limits of this)(And still happy about my AXE). But now that the FAS-team have worked out this great sounding amps and cabs. Maybe now they will find time to Work some more on the effects-side of the AXE. Spillove might be a good place to start....... AAEN
 
AAEN said:
I feel the same as the OP, but I have learned to Work by it(Working within the limits of this)(And still happy about my AXE). But now that the FAS-team have worked out this great sounding amps and cabs. Maybe now they will find time to Work some more on the effects-side of the AXE. Spillove might be a good place to start....... AAEN
Click to expand...

Yes. This is what I hope also. Many people have been saying this for a long time but still the focus on each FW update is on amps and cabs. The effect section is already nice but also needs some improvements.
 
JazzMac251 said:
Now I'm finding out that basically the same is true of X/Y states too. To put it in simple terms, I need X to be 1/8 notes, Y to be 1/16th notes. Due to the high mix and feedback levels (textural guitar), swapping between the two states turns the tails of the previous delay into a warbly, unusable mess of unprofessional garbage. It seems like there's no real fix for this, either.
Click to expand...
You can achieve what want by having two delay blocks in parallel (one block for 1/8 notes, the other for 1/16.) from each other and using "scenes" instead of preset changes to switch between the sounds. Make sure to have the bypass mode in the delays to "mute in" or "mute fx in" if in series so the tails rings out.
 
moab said:
You can achieve what want by having two delay blocks in parallel (one block for 1/8 notes, the other for 1/16.) from each other and using "scenes" instead of preset changes to switch between the sounds. Make sure to have the bypass mode in the delays to "mute in" or "mute fx in" if in series so the tails rings out.
Click to expand...

+1
 
Somebody please help...I also have the spillover problem, I've made a patch using the same Delay blocks in both rhythm and lead patches with the same FX chain but it's like when I'm changing from my rhythm patch to my lead, the tail is audible, when I change back from lead to rhythm, the tail's cut. Bypass mode in the delay blocks are set up to mute fx in. It's really-really annoying, even the crappiest Boss multiple FX units can do spillovers better.
 
bluevoodoo said:
Somebody please help...I also have the spillover problem, I've made a patch using the same Delay blocks in both rhythm and lead patches with the same FX chain but it's like when I'm changing from my rhythm patch to my lead, the tail is audible, when I change back from lead to rhythm, the tail's cut. Bypass mode in the delay blocks are set up to mute fx in. It's really-really annoying, even the crappiest Boss multiple FX units can do spillovers better.
Click to expand...

If your lead and rhythm patches use the same FX chain, have you tried using the X/Y function on the Amp and Cab blocks to switch tones instead of changing patches?

example: Amp/X + Cab/X = Rhythm while Amp/Y + Cab/Y = Lead

Just a thought
Karma
 
The Axe-Fx can do a lot. Sounds like you're replacing the entire rig of an artist who uses lots of delays and reverbs. That can work but it's the sort of scenario which requires more complexity. Are you using scenes? Are you using multiple delay blocks as described above?

The box has some amazing spillover capabilities when used to its full capacity.

PS: If you are doing something extremely complex you might be the rare musician who needs a second Axe-Fx.
 
Admin M@ said:
The Axe-Fx can do a lot. Sounds like you're replacing the entire rig of an artist who uses lots of delays and reverbs. That can work but it's the sort of scenario which requires more complexity. Are you using scenes? Are you using multiple delay blocks as described above?

The box has some amazing spillover capabilities when used to its full capacity.

PS: If you are doing something extremely complex you might be the rare musician who needs a second Axe-Fx.
Click to expand...

Please Sir ... may I have some more [information]? :)
 
This crosses into another thread about using two units together. I have built a few rigs where a single Axe-Fx was not enough. In a few cases, the need for 3+ simultaneous amp tones drives this (because FOH demands discrete signals from all amps all the time to preserve an existing mix/monitor architecture). In some cases, the blocks required simply require too much CPU for a single preset. In one cases, the customer (not a superstar) wanted a huge arsenal of effects for what in my personal lexicon has come to be known as "decoration" -- spontaneous selection via IA switch at any time. Multiple drives, phasers, delays, and other "pedals", all of which must "always" be available (and with perfect spillover expected.) In this case, it was simply a matter of daisy chaining two Axe-Fx IIs together (via AES IIRC?) to actually place 4 Delay Blocks, etc. into a single "Metapreset." The same might apply here, where the OP talks about needing "TONS" of delays. OK. The box gives you 2, plus 2 multidelays, plus 2 harmonizers which can be set to "SHIFT 0" and used as two more delays, and a MEGATAP, and some microdelays, and well... XY on some of those... but if that's not enough, and you can't get it working between scenes and XY, then maybe adding another Axe-Fx would be best.
 
PS: Re: "just about every medium-tier delay box out there."

Really? 6+ simultaneous serial or parallel delay effects, plus XY, plus perfect spillover? I don't know of many/any, especially where sound quality is also a concern.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom