Gotta say, I was surprised to see the bass set so high here. Seems like with the bass set so high plus the 80hz set so high on the GEQ that it would be a flubby mess.Great video! I actually A/B'd a Mark IV way back to the GEQ and really fine tuned the settings to match the real life counterpart and the way you would normally set the GEQ like f.ex. Petrucci does:
The Axe-Fx settings for this GEQ setting that matches the response are +7.00 for 80hz, 0.00 for 240hz (this knob worked a bit differently on the real amp), -6.5 for 750hz, +2.00 for 2200hz and +6.50 for 6600hz. Not sure why I posted this... well maybe it helps people out.
To get the Mark series amps super tight, don't be afraid to set the bass at 0. That's what many people do with the real amps as well. Don't worry it still has bass.
The response of the sliders in the real amp is very nonlinear. In the middle 50% or so they almost do nothing. The response becomes more pronounced as you get near the end of the travel. One of the drawbacks of analog graphic EQs though the Mesa is worse than most. To do it properly you need a custom taper (an 'S' taper) but the Mesa tapers are off-the-shelf IIRC. The sliders in the Axe-Fx are ideal. If set to 3 dB you get 3 dB.
I've used Mark series amps for most of my life so they're definitely the most important amp sims in the unit for me. For this reason I've A/B'd a lot of them with the Axe-Fx Standard, Ultra, II and now III. The GEQ is the only thing that I have to set differently to match the "real deal". Here's an A/B video of a real Mark IV vs Quantum Axe-Fx II with exactly the same settings besides the 240hz slider:
I feel the same way except I am a high gain player and no way ever would I have Bass so low and then crank it in the EQ etc... that thought totally escaped me. I may have figured that out had I kept my Mark V but didn't have enough time... a key point in the tutorial for me was the low base but Mark EQ aspect.
It's an extremely minor issue but I don't struggle getting that sound with my Mark V. It's hard to explain. The chugg is more in the middle frequencies and you hear multiple strings scrape while I feel like all modelers chugg at a lower frequency and are looser while the high end pick transient is maybe even too fast. Fractal is definitely the closest modeler for the Mark series sound. I try not to diss Kemper but it was never able to mimic any of the different palm mute sounds of my amps. Orange, Recto, JVM and Mark IV all had a very boomy and loose low end with the Kemper. Nothing like the real amps.I always thought that "chug" sound come mostly from the hand.
I personally use heavy strings, heavy picks and heavy downpicks
I feel the same way except I am a high gain player and no way ever would I have Bass so low and then crank it in the EQ etc... that thought totally escaped me. I may have figured that out had I kept my Mark V but didn't have enough time... a key point in the tutorial for me was the low base but Mark EQ aspect.
The part I added that wasn't really covered was the Input EQ. I found it really took Leon's settings even further (for me) anyhow... we all are after a diff sound and I really LOVE the Input EQ
I hope Leon (hope you are listening) does more of the different block videos. For people like me (non-pro, not really gigging, not tons of pedal knowledge etc) learning what all these blocks are good for is awesome... loved the drive block video... hope more like that come along
