FAS: Do you still do comparisons with guitar cabs?

C

Chris Hurley

Power User
Just curious- does FAS still do a/b testing of axe-fx II versus the real amp through an actual guitar cab or is it all just comparing the mic'd tone?

Find myself wondering how close these things are to the real article when played in the same fashion.
 
I can only compare the 5150 and the Triple Rec. I have the AXEFX2 and MATRIX GT1000 and sit around all the time A/Bing. The 5150 is fairly close to the axefx model except the presence and depth dont really match up with the real amp. You pretty much need the presence off and the depth only on a little bit. You also need to not have the bright switch turned on on the AXEFX mode also. The Rectos still arent as close but the 5150 is pretty darn good. I actually think it would sound even closer with a tube power amp. The Matrix is pretty dull sounding.
 
ang said:
i too have to set the depth and pres to off or fairly low with the 5150. i used to have the bright switch off in firmware 6 and older. might have to try it off again. where do you like to set your master to?
Click to expand...

Yes, presence and bright all off. Usually I have the master really low like on 2. Depth I turn on just a little bit for the low end.
 
I have a Bogner Ecstasy 20th Anniversary with the matching Bogner cab, and am running the Axe FX II in 4CM mode, with cabinet and power amp modeling disabled globally (I'm using the real Bogner power amp and cab) - so I can A/B the preamp from the actual Bogner with the Axe FX II's model of it - "Euro Blue" and "Euro Red". I find that they are very close, and in some ways I actually like the Axe II's model a bit better for the blue channel. My real Bogner Ecstasy blue channel sounds a little muddier than the Axe II's model. Kudos to FAS - in this case it seems the models are excellent.
 
I don't A/B using cabs anymore since power amp coloration plays too much of a part. I put the amp and cab under test in isolation and then A/B that to the model using an IR of the cab/mic. I use the IR capture utility in the Axe-Fx since that captures the whole chain including mic pre so I'm guaranteed it's apples-to-apples.

In my tests the results are nearly indistinguishable, usually just a tiny adjustment to the tone controls (which is unsurprising given the tolerance of tone control pots). For completeness I then do a Tone Match and analyze the results. If the Tone Match deviates by more than a dB or two from flat I revisit the model.

Re. 5150s and Dual Rectos: Newer 5150s don't have a bright cap but mine does. Older Dual Rectifiers sound different than newer ones. My models are based on the amps in my possession and may sound different than other amps of the same name due to circuit changes over the years. I often try out two or three versions of an amp before settling on the one I want to model. I have two 5150s and two Dual Rectifiers. The models are based on the ones that sound best to me.
 
^ nice work, as always, Cliff

I wonder if it's practical or even sensible to do actual cab modelling. I guess there will always be speaker selection(s), so that's probably not very different than current cab IR selection. But other aspects might be variable such as amount of open back, cab dimensions (WxHxD) , maybe amount of padding, etc. Might be useful for advanced fine-tuning of cabs the way we do now with amps.
 
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