Does anyones Axe-FX II sound this good?

Man, I guess I would not have attributed this difference to just guitar/tweaking. I will try a couple of different guitars/pickup combinations and see what I get. Will report back findings...
 
Man, I guess I would not have attributed this difference to just guitar/tweaking. I will try a couple of different guitars/pickup combinations and see what I get. Will report back findings...


And firmware too ... !

Look for a more recent example from Cooper ! Some months ago he did an example of cross fading between two amps. I think he used the Shiver-Clean and Shiver-Lead. I was on the same firmware as he was and I built a preset off his example and they matched almost identically. Slight difference between his guitar and mine. But other than that, it was spot on ....

Now, I really don't care for the Shivers, so once I had the preset working the way it was supposed too ..., I just substituted an Amp pair that was more to my liking !

Good Luck !
 
I think Cooper's skill & fingers have a lot to do with it, but my PRS sounds great recorded, but not as good / big / open as Cooper.

What are you using for monitors when setting up your tone? I use an Atomic CLR and I think the recorded tone is pretty similar - typically I have to reduce the gain when recording vs live playing.
 
I am new hear myself and agree with the OP. I have tried every axe I have (around 15 or so) and every amp combo I can think of. I like to think my fingers work pretty good after 35 years plus of playing but maybe I am wrong? Maybe Cooper is using "Pro tools"?
Just thinking out loud so carry on all.
 
I have done more test fiddling with pickups, 5 different guitars, I/O gain and mine still sound dull. If I add a 4db high shelf I start to get closer. The quest continues...

BTW - I am monitoring with Neumann KH120 monitors in a fairly well treated/bass trapped room and Sony 7520 HF....
 
I feel the same way - there are no tricks there. But different fW and different player and different guitar. My Tele select has Fender USA PAF's-which has something similar to coil splitting sound just as good as Coopers sound. Not the playing, the sound.

No tricks.

And Cooper would not post process to fool anyone-they are factory presets............period.
 
I might have missed it, but I didn't see anywhere in this thread where you (OP) mentioned what you are monitoring through? Headphones? FRFR? Amp+real Cab? What is your setup? That matters.

I don't suspect there is any post processing on this. I could be wrong, but having seen a bunch of Cooper's stuff, including his webcasts, that would be surprising. I suspect he would be against coloring the sound and not representing a DEMO in a straightforward manner.

Cooper is a great player, and he playes a style matched to each preset, so it's a great way to show those sounds. But he is just showing factory presets here and the answer is YES, mine sounds like that.
 
I might have missed it, but I didn't see anywhere in this thread where you (OP) mentioned what you are monitoring through? Headphones? FRFR? Amp+real Cab? What is your setup? That matters.

I don't suspect there is any post processing on this. I could be wrong, but having seen a bunch of Cooper's stuff, including his webcasts, that would be surprising. I suspect he would be against coloring the sound and not representing a DEMO in a straightforward manner.

Cooper is a great player, and he playes a style matched to each preset, so it's a great way to show those sounds. But he is just showing factory presets here and the answer is YES, mine sounds like that.

Just two posts above yours he says he is using Neumann KH120 so it won't be the monitors.
 
Guess the only real solution would be to have Cooper come and play through your rig. If he still sounds awesome, you know its not the gear....

Player variability is a pretty amazing thing sometimes. When I used to work as a photographer for Kerrang! magazine I'd do lots of features of various bands, often at the venues, and being a huge gearhead, I'd be as interested in the artist rigs, if not more so, than actually getting to talk with the artist themselves (frankly a lot of the musical styles featured in Kerrang! weren't exactly my taste...)

Anyways, I'd sometimes get to pick up a guitar or two and play it through a given rig (always pretty awesome because I've otherwise never get to stand on the stage of a 5,000 seat venue with a real touring sound system etc) and it was always pretty amazing how much I still sounded like myself, and then when I'd hear the artist perform later that night, they sounded like their tones.

I think the way you fret notes, the way your attack the strings with a pick, your overall level of feel and dynamics in your playing really gives a huge variability to tones.


As in inverse, sometimes people with fantastic chops and "crappy" gear still get tones I seem to love. I'll listen to some Youtube vids of guys playing these amazing Gilmour solo's using something like a POD or Boss GT (which lets me honest, are no Axe-Fx) and they will sound simply great. I then go to my $2300 effects processor and dial up a Gilmour tone and doesn't sound as good to me.... not the gear though because I've seen Brit Floyd and without a question in my mind the Axe can do those tones perfectly.

Did Bobby and Damian just tweak their units better ? Or do they have some special Axe version with higher quality hardware in it ? Doubtful... they are probably just simply amazing players, and that right there is all the difference in the world
 
I have done more test fiddling with pickups, 5 different guitars, I/O gain and mine still sound dull. If I add a 4db high shelf I start to get closer. The quest continues...

BTW - I am monitoring with Neumann KH120 monitors in a fairly well treated/bass trapped room and Sony 7520 HF....

Try one of his newer videos maybe? He did one a few weeks back on firmware 18 where he used 4 or 5 factory presets to make a song that might be easier to get close to. I think the one you are trying to reference right now was on v15 and it will be very hard to replicate that unless your on 15 yourself.
 
This may be the best place to ask this question. Ive been using the MArk II live for over a year now in a cover band with the MFC controller factory presets. 5 banks with alternate effects for each total 10. Maz 38, T wah, Smokey Jazz, Vox AC tone stack, ODS Clean,100 ODS 100 Overdrive and Super reverb and JTM 45. Okay, I now go left out mono direct into a api 3124+ and into apogee symphony I/O, the bass player ( and IT Guy ) runs mainstage for the band and record all gigs with logic. Im using Westones ES 5 for ear monitors. FOH our 2 bose LI model II and two KW 118 and 2 KLA 12 arrays for large gigs, just the bose for small clubs. The sound level is kept low ( bummer - its there band ) , bar owners like the sound controlled. Most people ask to turn up the volume, but everyone can talk. It stays packed, people our there having a good time. MY PROBLEM is - I tweaked the headroom on the super reverb channel to be bolder and my drive gives volume and dirt to the signal, but now when I go the JTM for slide I lose the tone and sound is weirdly compressed. weird thing was that before the JTM overdrive and my ODS drive and my Vox setting were always more punchy and my super rev ( clean ) before sounded compressed, too compressed . Last night I could not hear them and had to stay on the one setting. f I raised the volume on my AXE FX the signal loss was worse. The bass player who runs the sound said Im at max on his setting, and when I go over the limit his compressor limiter software he uses kicks in. I presume this is the problem. What do I do , he tells me I need to get the unity gain set better between the effects I using. Im saying if I am supposed to step out front with lead tone I need the headroom for the boost. With amps we had no problem with this. But we all run direct and use inner ears now. any advice would help to get the consistent tones I need. cause the Mark II is truly amazing when the sweet spot is reached. Over the past year, I added more delay to open up the sound. Now I know I need to do something else. Any advice on pre show sound check technique or preset setting adjustment would be great. Or tutorial addressing this issue I know just time in the saddle would help, but Live gigging with out an amp is its own beast. And for now with this band, this is the law of the land.


JB uses Les Paul, Suhr, PRS, Fender and Divided /13, two rock, custom audi electronics ,matchless vintage fender and marshal amps plus more, ( run a studio ) but for now in this band AXE FX all the way.
 
My setup is PRS custom 24 bridge PU tone on brightest --> AxeFX --> USB --> Logic Pro X (48K sample rate). No processing/plugins.

Mine sounds like it has a wet blanket over it.

That is 95% the guitar tone you're trying to copy, not the capability or tone of the factory preset. What I have found is that with the AFX you don't "seek out and copy" what others are doing [in this case using factory presets], you have to make your own (preset) if you want to copy or mimic a tone.

I have 3 PRS guitars and they all sound entirely different through the Axe-FX, which is to be assumed. You will find that it really really depends on the guitar you are building a preset around. As an example, I use my AFX at my church and build a couple different presets using my PRS Studio with the narrowfields and a 57/08 pickup. If my friend uses the AFX using his PRS SE guitar, some of the presets sound completely thin and crappy. If I plug my guitar in, they sound great.

It's the more philosophical approach in how you utilize this great device. The factory presets are designed exactly for what Cooper is eluding to, showcasing the amazing tones that are possible/have potential. If you want to make a new tone or closely mimic another, you have to develop it around what guitar you are using (at least in my experience). I hope this helps mate, good luck!
 
Last edited:
I'll post on this one once again. All my tones had a "dark" sound to them if anybody understands that one? I don't care who played through it. I think it was my guitars even though they are all "high end guitars? With that said, I am able to get some killer tones/sounds out of the unit now so I am happy camper.
 
I'll post on this one once again. All my tones had a "dark" sound to them if anybody understands that one? I don't care who played through it. I think it was my guitars even though they are all "high end guitars? With that said, I am able to get some killer tones/sounds out of the unit now so I am happy camper.


This is why amps have tone controls, in additional to the nearly unlimited tone shaping options provided by the graphic Eq's, parametric EQ blocks, etc.

These tools are meant to be used. If it sounds dark, adjust. If it sounds too bassy, adjust, so on and so forth. Turn down the bass, use a different EQ etc.

I see thread after thread with people complaining that a given model sounds muddy, or has too much lows, or doesn't cut well etc but they never adjust the controls for the default location.... ????


I make different variations of my presets based on which guitars I'm playing with; for example I have 3 50 watt Plexi Treble patches in a row, with totally different EQ for my strats vs my LP's. Its the cool thing about the Axe, with a press of a button I can radically change my rig around to suit a guitar, and as such, all my guitars sound great.

Just can't expect that a preset I dialed in using low output vintage strat pup's is going to still sound good with a LP with a Super Distortion it in, but both can sound amazing with some adjustments
 
Yes I understand, but thats is not entirely true, partly true. out of the box the AXE is great. Of course dialing in is true with tube amplification and the axe. especially when u add to may pedals with tube amplification u get into tone issues. and you guys have awesome recorded tone, seriously - great demos.
I am not in control of logic and mainstage, but there is no question my tone is effected by what is happening on the board. Maybe this is the wrong tread for this question. thanks guys signing off - joe
 
This is why amps have tone controls, in additional to the nearly unlimited tone shaping options provided by the graphic Eq's, parametric EQ blocks, etc.

These tools are meant to be used. If it sounds dark, adjust. If it sounds too bassy, adjust, so on and so forth. Turn down the bass, use a different EQ etc.

I see thread after thread with people complaining that a given model sounds muddy, or has too much lows, or doesn't cut well etc but they never adjust the controls for the default location.... ????


I make different variations of my presets based on which guitars I'm playing with; for example I have 3 50 watt Plexi Treble patches in a row, with totally different EQ for my strats vs my LP's. Its the cool thing about the Axe, with a press of a button I can radically change my rig around to suit a guitar, and as such, all my guitars sound great.

Just can't expect that a preset I dialed in using low output vintage strat pup's is going to still sound good with a LP with a Super Distortion it in, but both can sound amazing with some adjustments


Dude I know all of that. I did adjust every amp I had and still couldn't get it to sound like what the OP is talking about. Give me more credit then that. BTW:No disrespect meant to you.
 
The bass player who runs the sound said Im at max on his setting, and when I go over the limit his compressor limiter software he uses kicks in. I presume this is the problem. What do I do ,

He runs the entire mix through compressor limiter software? hmmmm!!!
I guess you could just reduce the level in the the amp block until his compressor limiter threshold is not met by the JVM.
 
I have to agree about the JP guitars just sounding fantastic through the Axe-Fx. There's something about those pickups that have a character all of their own in those instruments. If you're trying to compare and don't have one, then that may account for the tonal differences.
 
Back
Top Bottom