Disappointed :(

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I tried to keep this brief but it did't work...

I've always been a fan of guitar technology, since the 90's using pre amps by every manufacturer that even glanced outside of the analogue box, Digitech, Line 6 etc. Rocktron were the best by far for me,i tried all of their preamps and had a Prophesy for years and years, my rig consisted of the Prophecy and a Mesa 50/50 into a marshall, nice and simple.

I always recorded the Prophesy direct, i miked it up occasionally but the results were never really better, just unrepeatable :) Though, as i know you're all thinking, that couldn't exactly have been the holy grail of tone, and you're right, it wasn't, always had to dial out a lot of nasties after the fact, though i became very handy with a notch filter :) When i heard the first Axe FX i was gobsmacked, hearing all the great tones people were getting, then the Ultra came out etc etc... I decided to sell my whole rig and invest in one, that was about 6 or 7 years ago now.

It so transpired that the money i got for my gear just trickled in and trickled out, it wasn't even halfway to being enough money anyway even if it hadn't frittered away, so for the next few years i ended up going through every single software amp modeller ever made, for what it's worth, Amplitube 3 is the best in my opinion, TH2 is a close second, maybe followed by LePou with IR's if you can be even remotely arsed to work that hard to get a pleasing sound, which i guess kinda leads me to my point, but not before i mention Bias = Toy.

I did finally get an Axe FX a few months ago, i got the Axe FX 2 XL with the MFC101 mk3.

I'd arrived! Or so i thought.

I expect, i literally EXPECT, that for this amount of money, and all the good sounds i've heard people get with all of the AXE's, to be able to get through the first 100 presets and say wow that sounds great at least ONCE, just once, but nope, massively bassy, muddy, treble bereft sounds that i struggle to see how they would fit into any mix with out so much tweaking that i might as well have miked up an amp.

Now i'll try to nip some preconceptions in the bud because i know the fan boys will be seething by this point. Firstly, look back up to where i say Rocktron Prophesy lots of times, i'm not a technophobe, you can't even work with, let alone love a Prophesy if you are one, it's quite similar in it's complexity but with no software interface, i can twiddle for England! I have fiddled and twiddled my way to through this unit, and the quest for brightness and tightness in the box ends disappointingly every time, just a quick point here, a Fender Bassman with my PRS Custom 24 going through it IS NOT THAT DARK! End of... Usually if it was too dark you could simply move the mic closer to the centre of the speaker, this should have the potential of being waaaaay too bright but i think the AXE is allergic to treble so you don't have that option.

I am running my PRS, into the XL2, into a Universal Audio Quad, both USB and XLR, obviously i've tried both, there is no discernible difference, out of the Apollo and into a pair of ATC SCM20ASL monitors, pretty much as good as it gets quality wise, and i'm sitting here watching Kemper videos and thinking to myself "but what if i want to turn the gain down?" You can't, a Kemper isn't the answer for me either but why am i even looking at them?

Unless i'm missing something really major, i'm just really disappointed, i waited so long for one of these and i'm less inspired now than ever by my guitar tone, and i'm far from the only person making this exact complaint, but the responses these people get either end up being condescending or just plain stupid shit like "have you checked the tone knob on your guitar?" !!!!

i'm not expecting any help from here, but if you have the miracle answer please tell me, if you just want to flame me, keep it to yourself, as well as any questions that might even remotely fall into the dumb fuck category the above question fits so neatly into.

My final point is an example, i'm trying to remix an old track i recorded with the prophesy some years back, I thought it would be great to use my new AXE FX to bring some new life into the track with a higher fidelity guitar sound, but so far, and i've been at a for couple of weeks now, i cannot find a sound that even comes close to sounding as good as what's already recorded, that just ain't right, i sold the Rocktron for £350, i think i might just give up, i do not want a big old amp rig with loads of pedals and wires and shit, i never have, and there are no current viable hardware alternatives.

I suppose i do already have a whole bunch of modelling software, i've resisted until now but i think i'm going to whack an instance of Amplitube onto my project and give it whirl while i think about putting this thing on eBay.

:(
 
You're doing something wrong. I'm sure someone on this forum will help you out.
The Axe can do just about anything. You just need to know how and have the right equipment. I had a ton of tube gear, cabinets and pedals. Sold them all. No need for them. Be patient, keep trying and trust your ears.
 
You're doing something wrong. I'm sure someone on this forum will help you out.
The Axe can do just about anything. You just need to know how and have the right equipment. I had a ton of tube gear, cabinets and pedals. Sold them all. No need for them. Be patient, keep trying and trust your ears.

Thanks, however i must say that i do trust my ears, but when even they finally start wincing at the harshness created by the 1000db treble boost required to just make it sound like i'm miking the front of the cab and not the back, i start looking at the sales receipt again.

I have the right equipment...
 
I understand where you are coming from.

When I first got my Fractal unit several years ago, I found the presets underwhelming compared to what I heard Chris Buono and Mark Day post in terms of tones with the unit.

My eureka moment came from nuking several presets and starting from scratch with an amp I knew from real life experience that was in the Fractal and and a cab I knew from real life that was also in there.

I sat with the Wiki guide on one side of the screen so I could figure out what some of the more alien parameters did and Axe Edit on the other side of the screen in order to tweak things. In a half hour I had a tone that I really liked and that was pre-Quantum FW 12.

The tone stack, amp block EQ, filter settings in the cab block, and EQ/Filter block are your allies in getting a not so dark tone.

My advice is, before you give up, try building a preset from scratch with a goal in mind of what tone you want to achieve.

I hope this helps.
 
The Axe is definitely not "allergic to treble". I usually play through a traditional cab and it's as bright as the modeled amp, sometimes painfully so. Have you tried different IRs? Have you checked the global EQ or done a system reset?
 
I totally get what you're saying. I would highly recommend going to the Axe Change website and trying out some of the presets there.

Also, what kind of music are you looking to play? I know the Axe Fx is intimidating to fiddle with, but once you find one good tone you're happy with and start tweaking a bit, it all seems to fall into place.
 
All good suggestions. My question is whether other music and sources sound correct through your system? How about if you were to run an audio source through the axe fx, with all the blocks empty and just a shunt running from input to output. Does that source still sound full and pretty much the same, or does it sound really bad? Maybe there is something mechanically wrong with your device.

This thing is the Cat's Ballz......look at the endorsees list page. All those dudes cannot be wrong. Just sayin'
 
Hey man.
That´s really sad to hear that you are disappointed with your gear. I hear you.
I´ve had some similar feelings earlier on in life with the Digitech Gsp 21, with the Line 6 Flextone, II, III and Vetta.
Its frustrating spending all that money and then not being able to get the sound that you hear in your head.
BUT, have in mind that the Axe Fx II is a very very sophisticated piece of gear. The Prophesy you mentioned is awesome. Fantastic piece of gear, but the Axe is able to do the job for you.
If you are as impatient as I am and like to have the perfect tone in 17 seconds... well dude, that´s not gonna happen.
You HAVE to tweak and tweak and tweak. Try around, mess around,
If you think about this way. You are driving a Mazda 3... you drive to work, to the gym, to the supermarket and what not..you drive safe.....and you get the basics done right? Then you get your hands on a Lambo or a Ferrari. You still gonna drive it safe not speeding or doing something crazy....BUT you know that it has the horsepower to feed at least 6 of your Mazda 3´s. If you are willing to let loose and try the horsepowers, you´re gonna love it. If you hold it in, then you´re always gonna be too careful and then YES, you just wasted a load of money on the Axe.
With things like Tonematch, the awesome presets you can download from the forum, I mean, the Axe offers almost every dish available in the world, any carbrand and what not. You only have decide what dish you wanna eat, or what car you wanna drive.
Simply, I just think its a tweaking question and what YOU really want, so don´t be too disappointed.
If you play the Axe fx every day, I´d give it a rest for a week. Then you come in with fresh ears and your opinion could be completely different.
If you have a good trusty friend, give him/her the Axe for the weekend and you probably be surprised of the sounds your friend tweaked.
A couple of hours ago I came home from rehearsals. I downloaded a new preset yesterday and I was very sceptical but still excited to try it out at band level. I did the Dizzy 3 I recall (Diezel), dude, it f****g blew me away today. I am going to tweak it for my main rythms. Awesome amp. Really.
So good luck to you man. You have a fantastic piece of gear and I wish you all the best.
Cheers..
 
Only because you didn't clearly state it, have you tried building your own preset? I don't thing I have ever loaded up a factory preset, from the day I got the axe I built my own presets and started by loading every thing from scratch at default settings. And as stated above, I started with amps and cabs I had real world experience with, which made it much easier to dial in. I also learned amir about the advanced parameters on amps I knew in the real world which helped me better understand and hear what they were doing since I knew what the amp should actually sound like in its raw natural form.
 
I would say hold your horses, and don't panic, or do anything rash. This thing is not plug and play. Forget the factory presets. You can use them for ideas, routings etc, but they are usually no good for personal use. It's all about the cabinet modelling. Here's my experience, from an FRFR perspective. Do an IR of your favourite cab, and use that. It will sound identical, and all your preset creations will be awesome, and as you would want them.
 
I have an AX8 and an FX XL II Plus, in two different locations. I spent a lot of time tweaking and learning (still fucking around now with the AX8) - until I got the hang of it. I have some great tones now, but it took a lot of trial and error and was a steep learning curve....and this is (AXE FX) going through a Matrix 1000 and Mesa 4 x 12 traditional cab. I can get the sound I want through FRFR's / cabs and headphones.

My AX8 runs through a Blackstar Club 40 and the Celestion 12" driver it comes with (FX return) - and it's taken me quite a bit of seat time to get the hang of that one as well.

I won't ask about your tone controls on the guitar, as I too feel that's a pretty foolish question; no doubt your issues aren't there.

I have had no luck with the stock presets, and have had to either build or tweak them to suit my taste, but i'm there now.

All I can say - is patience and a lot of seat time will eventually get you there. There is no magic solution or miracle answer...
 
My advice is, before you give up, try building a preset from scratch with a goal in mind of what tone you want to achieve.

Yes best advise. Forget the factory presets and also the presets from other users for now. Completely delete the preset and start building your own. Just use an amp block and a cab block and nothing else. Stay with one amp and cab block and fiddle with the knobs. It takes some time and patience to get used to. If you don't like it after a few months of tweaking and trying come back again and sell it....:). The Axe fx is not for everybody but give it a chance and a lot of time. As said by others it is not plug and play.
 
Using IR's are key for me. I use Ownhammer Marshall 4x12 IR's and they are much brighter than the factory ones I have heard. Also use the low cut in the cab block helps a lot.
 
Thanks for being nice guys, i know i sound like a grumpy arsewipe, but, well i guess i am a bit grumpy, but i'm not an arsewipe i promise :) Your help and advice is very much appreciated, ill keep trying because i really have no choice other than getting rid of it, which is in all honesty, a bit rash :)

The best sounds i have got out of it so far have been from starting patches from scratch, but i'm still a bit 'meh'.
I've had the most success with the VH4 model, and i'm not even really after a metal tone :)
 
Alright, I deleted my post.

You mentioned you have an XL, so it's probably 2nd hand.
In that case: first reset the device (Utility > Reset> press Enter). You won't lose anything.

Make sure you have the latest factory presets (download them from the website), or build a simple one yourself, as mentioned above.

Now eliminate possible issues by using headphones (port on front panel).
 
Thanks for being nice guys, i know i sound like a grumpy arsewipe, but, well i guess i am a bit grumpy, but i'm not an arsewipe i promise :) Your help and advice is very much appreciated, ill keep trying because i really have no choice other than getting rid of it, which is in all honesty, a bit rash :)

The best sounds i have got out of it so far have been from starting patches from scratch, but i'm still a bit 'meh'.
I've had the most success with the VH4 model, and i'm not even really after a metal tone :)

Not my first post, and why bother saying that? Please don't respond.

As long as you eat crow properly when you're wrong, grumpy is fine.

Reset that unit as per Yek's instructions and then post that preset and sample.
 
I have an AX8 and an FX XL II Plus, in two different locations. I spent a lot of time tweaking and learning (still fucking around now with the AX8) - until I got the hang of it. I have some great tones now, but it took a lot of trial and error and was a steep learning curve....and this is (AXE FX) going through a Matrix 1000 and Mesa 4 x 12 traditional cab. I can get the sound I want through FRFR's / cabs and headphones.

My AX8 runs through a Blackstar Club 40 and the Celestion 12" driver it comes with (FX return) - and it's taken me quite a bit of seat time to get the hang of that one as well.

I won't ask about your tone controls on the guitar, as I too feel that's a pretty foolish question; no doubt your issues aren't there.

I have had no luck with the stock presets, and have had to either build or tweak them to suit my taste, but i'm there now.

All I can say - is patience and a lot of seat time will eventually get you there. There is no magic solution or miracle answer...


Thanks mate i'll keep trying :)
 
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