First shared AX8 Recording! Feedback needed!

fragmentsmusic7

fragmentsmusic7

Inspired
Hey everyone,

I've been really shy with wanting to post anything on here. I'm starting to get the hang of the basics of the AX8, and built this preset using a Mesa and an Ownhammer IR.

I'm looking for feedback, because I don't think the guitar tone quite works. Not that I dislike it, but maybe it doesn't work with what I'm going for. I have a really hard time making sure a guitar tone matches the song.

The setup is really simple, it's a Drive->Amp->Cab->Reverb.

In a worst scenario, I would like to get a really good recording tone I can send off to an engineer to mix/master. In a best case scenario I want to try and get better and at least mix these new songs myself.

This is getting kind of long, but any and all feedback would be really appreciated. It's two tracks, hard panned L/R. The playing is sloppy, but the goal is getting the guitar tone right.

Any advice/help would be greatly appreciated (except lower the gain, because I'm testing that now).

 
The guitar is to loud in the mix

I would remove all reverb, that kind of tone does not need reverb, except the mix engineer wants to put the whole band in a 'space', in which case, it is better to leave the reverb decisions to him.

I think, Chris is right that less bass and gain might help also. Maybe double tracking too.
 
Smittefar said:
The guitar is to loud in the mix

I would remove all reverb, that kind of tone does not need reverb, except the mix engineer wants to put the whole band in a 'space', in which case, it is better to leave the reverb decisions to him.

I think, Chris is right that less bass and gain might help also. Maybe double tracking too.
Click to expand...

A. This isn't a mix at all. It's just double tracked, hard panned Left and Right and a drum back track. By no means am I even near a mix point yet. The focal point is getting a tone before I even mix. This is missing the leads, bass, piano and synth parts that I'm not going to add until I have a good rhythm tone.

B. I stated that I would love to start mixing my own material as well, but I will definitely remove the reverb if I have to go the worst case scenario route and end up using a mix engineer.

C. I'm going to roll off more bass later today. I'm thinking I'm going to have to lower the gain on the drive, because the input drive is pretty low. This is double tracked, panned hard L and hard R.
 
Alright so here's the updated version.

Input Drive is at 2, Drive on .39. Rolled off the bass all the way to 1.5. Took out the reverb. Rolled off a whole lot and this is what happened.

 
Definitely sounds better now.

The problem about not hearing it in the mix is that the tone has to co-operate with the other instruments. Right now, I think it lacks balls, but if there is a bass somewhere doing the same sort of riff, the guitar does not need the low end.

I think it sounds a little flat. I might try to put a filter block in front of the amp and give it a peek around 800 Hz - It might need a lot of boost (8 dB). I would like the sound to be more in your face. Maybe a bit more muting in the playing would help as well.

Regarding the reverb, I am not saying, the mix engineer cannot be yourself. The amount of reverb to add to a track is just a very difficult decision to make before you hear the track in its entirety. It is easy to add reverb, but it is damn difficult to remove it.
 
Smittefar said:
Definitely sounds better now.

The problem about not hearing it in the mix is that the tone has to co-operate with the other instruments. Right now, I think it lacks balls, but if there is a bass somewhere doing the same sort of riff, the guitar does not need the low end.

I think it sounds a little flat. I might try to put a filter block in front of the amp and give it a peek around 800 Hz - It might need a lot of boost (8 dB). I would like the sound to be more in your face. Maybe a bit more muting in the playing would help as well.

Regarding the reverb, I am not saying, the mix engineer cannot be yourself. The amount of reverb to add to a track is just a very difficult decision to make before you hear the track in its entirety. It is easy to add reverb, but it is damn difficult to remove it.
Click to expand...

I can definitely add a bass at the very least. To my ears, I hate the way the new guitar sounds, but I know it'll fit better in a mix. It doesn't help I only have headphones to use that are old and worn out. I have nowhere to put my monitors currently which is causing additional heartache.

Here it is with Bass and the changes in the filter block. The amp definitely is still missing balls/in your face. But without adding in what I took out, I'm not sure where to go with it.

 
fragmentsmusic7 said:
I can definitely add a bass at the very least. To my ears, I hate the way the new guitar sounds, but I know it'll fit better in a mix. It doesn't help I only have headphones to use that are old and worn out. I have nowhere to put my monitors currently which is causing additional heartache.

Here it is with Bass and the changes in the filter block. The amp definitely is still missing balls/in your face. But without adding in what I took out, I'm not sure where to go with it.

Click to expand...

whats your signal chain? (guitar, drive, amp model, and cab) I know the story so far uses marshal stacks for their tone, give the 50w plexi models a try
 
PRS CE24->TS808 Drive->Mesa Boogie Red Modern 1->Ownhammer IR (I will have to double check it, but I think it's either a Marshal or Orange/Mesa blend from the hard hitters collection)
 
definitely try out the plexi 50w through a marshall IR (i just tried out the 6550 with the basketweave TV mix stock cab and pretty much nailed it using the zen drive in front). I dont have a guitar with ceramic buckers but I have dimarzio titans in a super strat so I cant imagine it being too far off. If you use fractool to convert it I can probably put the patch up for you if you'd like
 
Brownmatthall said:
definitely try out the plexi 50w through a marshall IR (i just tried out the 6550 with the basketweave TV mix stock cab and pretty much nailed it using the zen drive in front). I dont have a guitar with ceramic buckers but I have dimarzio titans in a super strat so I cant imagine it being too far off. If you use fractool to convert it I can probably put the patch up for you if you'd like
Click to expand...

I do actually use Fractool! A patch would be cool, even if just to see for future reference trying to get a tone. I've only had the AX8 for about 3 weeks, and I love it, but hate myself for not getting tones I like/need for recording quicker!

Any and all help is appreciated! Thanks!
 
http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=4764

What it sounds like on my guitar, if it your pickups are hotter and it sounds overly compressed back the volume off on the drive block. Otherwise use the EQ on the amp block to taste, if the noise gate cuts your sound out turn the threshold CCW. You'll more than likely get an even better sound using the OH IR's so by all means swap em out but be aware i use the low cut and motor drive in the cab block
 
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Brownmatthall said:
http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=4764

What it sounds like on my guitar, if it your pickups are hotter and it sounds overly compressed back the volume off on the drive block. Otherwise use the EQ on the amp block to taste, if the noise gate cuts your sound out turn the threshold CCW. You'll more than likely get an even better sound using the OH IR's so by all means swap em out but be aware i use the low cut and motor drive in the cab block
Click to expand...


I really need to start learning what all this stuff is, because I know the low cut and it's function. But I have no clue what the motor drive is in the cab block! Haha. I'll record a double track with this right now once I see how hot the pickups react!
 
fragmentsmusic7 said:
I


I really need to start learning what all this stuff is, because I know the low cut and it's function. But I have no clue what the motor drive is in the cab block! Haha. I'll record a double track with this right now once I see how hot the pickups react!
Click to expand...
it uses magic or something to simulate the speakers being pushed and compressing. most people leave it alone but i find the right amount of it adds a nice character to dirty rhythms haha
 
Brownmatthall said:
it uses magic or something to simulate the speakers being pushed and compressing. most people leave it alone but i find the right amount of it adds a nice character to dirty rhythms haha
Click to expand...

It sounds like I really need to dig into that stuff even more. I still need to pick up the tutorials, money has been tight though so I've had to wing it.

Here is your settings with the song, I only changed the Gate and the input drive cause apparently my pickups are super hot even when they are moved further back from the strings.

 
fragmentsmusic7 said:
It sounds like I really need to dig into that stuff even more. I still need to pick up the tutorials, money has been tight though so I've had to wing it.

Here is your settings with the song, I only changed the Gate and the input drive cause apparently my pickups are super hot even when they are moved further back from the strings.

Click to expand...

yeah i looked it up and the 85/15 set is pretty hot (some said comparable to the gibson 500T even) so I tried to account for that. but i think if you turned the mid knob down a smidge (enough where everything kinda gels together) i'd be happy with the tone. http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Axe-Fx_II_Wiki_Home is a great resource for learning the unit as well, and its free!
 
Brownmatthall said:
yeah i looked it up and the 85/15 set is pretty hot (some said comparable to the gibson 500T even) so I tried to account for that. but i think if you turned the mid knob down a smidge (enough where everything kinda gels together) i'd be happy with the tone. http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Axe-Fx_II_Wiki_Home is a great resource for learning the unit as well, and its free!
Click to expand...

Yeah I think I'm going to need to really start reading everything I can until I get the tutorials.

The mids you had at 5. This is now at 4.25, but the rest stayed the same.

 
Thank you to everyone who gave feedback and pointers! I'm still really really new to all of this, so I'm trying to dig deep. I'm driving myself crazy with how bad I suck at making these tones though! Haha.
 
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