Don’t Neglect the “Ideal” Amp Page

Jarick

Jarick

Experienced
Wanted to throw this out there from my experience. Since I got the Axe FX 3 I really appreciated the Authentic amp page. It told me what original controls were on the amp and simplified my choices for tweaking.

But the last couple weeks I for some reason struggled to get the right clean and breakup sounds that my ear wanted to hear. I played around with tons of models and impulses and everything.

Last night I’m playing with a Fender amp thinking the bright switch makes it too bright and the treble knob doesn’t hit the right frequencies. It dawned on me that I should switch to the Ideal page and just adjust the presence which wasn’t on the original amp. Problem fixed. Then I could dial down the mids a little more and it sat just where I wanted it.

Flipped over to the AC20 which again I couldn’t get the high and low end where I wanted it and tweaked the tone knobs a bit and much better.

Felt kind of sheepish and dumb for kind of neglecting these settings, and part of me wants to say “but you’re not supposed to use those controls”, so thought I’d share!
 
Jarick said:
Wanted to throw this out there from my experience. Since I got the Axe FX 3 I really appreciated the Authentic amp page. It told me what original controls were on the amp and simplified my choices for tweaking.

But the last couple weeks I for some reason struggled to get the right clean and breakup sounds that my ear wanted to hear. I played around with tons of models and impulses and everything.

Last night I’m playing with a Fender amp thinking the bright switch makes it too bright and the treble knob doesn’t hit the right frequencies. It dawned on me that I should switch to the Ideal page and just adjust the presence which wasn’t on the original amp. Problem fixed. Then I could dial down the mids a little more and it sat just where I wanted it.

Flipped over to the AC20 which again I couldn’t get the high and low end where I wanted it and tweaked the tone knobs a bit and much better.

Felt kind of sheepish and dumb for kind of neglecting these settings, and part of me wants to say “but you’re not supposed to use those controls”, so thought I’d share!
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I totally agree!
 
I agree. One of the great things about this is that I can get the sound I want, instead of what the amp dictates. It’s great to be able to replicate authentic sounds as a good starting point, but then you aren’t nearly as constrained. And you don’t have to risk electrocution by going in and modding the hardware of a high-voltage circuit.
 
greiswig said:
I agree. One of the great things about this is that I can get the sound I want, instead of what the amp dictates. It’s great to be able to replicate authentic sounds as a good starting point, but then you aren’t nearly as constrained. And you don’t have to risk electrocution by going in and modding the hardware of a high-voltage circuit.
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I’m scarred from capacitors, and other non-discharged components that I was in too much of a rush, to DISCHARGe 🔥💤
 
AlGrenadine said:
I never use the Authentic page
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Me neither. It's great for a lot of guys that it was implemented but personally, there's a lot of great tones available that may depart from "authentic" that are just as good, if not better. To me it's the equivalent of playing around with different preamp tubes. Playing around with the Ideal parameters, as well as the parameters in the other "advanced" pages, has led me to a core set of go-to parameters that give me exactly what I want every time.
 
Jarick said:
Wanted to throw this out there from my experience. Since I got the Axe FX 3 I really appreciated the Authentic amp page. It told me what original controls were on the amp and simplified my choices for tweaking.

But the last couple weeks I for some reason struggled to get the right clean and breakup sounds that my ear wanted to hear. I played around with tons of models and impulses and everything.

Last night I’m playing with a Fender amp thinking the bright switch makes it too bright and the treble knob doesn’t hit the right frequencies. It dawned on me that I should switch to the Ideal page and just adjust the presence which wasn’t on the original amp. Problem fixed. Then I could dial down the mids a little more and it sat just where I wanted it.

Flipped over to the AC20 which again I couldn’t get the high and low end where I wanted it and tweaked the tone knobs a bit and much better.

Felt kind of sheepish and dumb for kind of neglecting these settings, and part of me wants to say “but you’re not supposed to use those controls”, so thought I’d share!
Click to expand...
yeah. if i have the real amp in front of me, sure i want that authentic tone. but if i'm modeling something to fit in a direct signal path, why limit myself over something like bass or mids? less choices are just less choices, not necessarily the right ones or what's needed at the moment.

we used to see ideal all the time :)
 
I only have a II and an AX8, but from when I since started with the Ultra I noticed that i have so much control over the amp models, I ended up making them all sound similar. Like everyone else, my ears gravitate toward particular sounds and I adjusted to that. But the differences in all the amp choices are part of what makes playing through Fractal gear so enjoyable.
 
I’m from the other camp, personally. There are so many complaints from people “I spend more time tweaking than playing”. Enter the authentic page. I love it, but that’s just me.
 
Many (or most?) of the old rock heroes played modded stuff. Ideal or authentic, who cared, they tried everything they could.
 
666was999 said:
Many (or most?) of the old rock heroes played modded stuff. Ideal or authentic, who cared, they tried everything they could.
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There are just as many (if not many more) people who never modded their amps, but that's neither here nor there. In the case of the Axe-Fx though, when I'm interested in adjusting parameters that corresponded to the knobs on the actual amp, I'd rather not have to spend time looking up which knobs correlate to what. That's time better spent playing. I love having a tab specifically devoted to the actual controls on the real amp. Obviously, anyone who doesn't need or want such a tab doesn't have to use it. Personally, I use just about every tab in the Amp block, including the Authentic tab.
 
I start with the authentic controls and then I tend to mess around with the Power Tube settings. Mainly the Bias and Negative Feedback controls. I like messing around with those fort high gain tones :)
 
Satch4u3 said:
Authentic controls are awesome. I never use Ideal anymore. If I can't get the tone using Authentic controls, I move on to another amp model.
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That’s where I was getting hung up. I couldn’t get a Fender Clean sound I loved. Went from model to model. Now I can get close and then tweak a couple other tone knobs and I’m there.
 
You can’t get to the “normal” channel of a Fender from Authentic ... (Ideal/input trim)

That being said, I use it more than I thought I would. It’s a great place to start.
 
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