FXII just as an FX processor

godwentpunk

godwentpunk

Inspired
Hey all,

Right now, I want to start with using the FX2 soley as an effects processor. Hopefully, later I can use it to it's fullest potential but for now, baby steps.

I understand that I would not need an AMP or CAB blocks, just the FX blocks I want to use.

As I read SO many posts about people having problems with their tone (ie, thickness, volume and all of the other issues)--which people do resolve... I was wondering how many of these issues will effect me just using this as an FX processor.

Maybe you guys who just use the FX2 for only effects in your FX loop can chine in. I would like to hear how much tweaking you need to do to make your effects sound right. I do understand that you will have the tweak the FX to get it how you want it to sound but I was hoping that is all that needs to messed with. I don't want to have to worry about my overall tone.

thanks

joe...
 
Hi I use the AXe - also - for effects on my saxophones. I run the sax through the AXE. Just as I would with a guitar(WIRELESS MICROPHONE). No cabs and amps - of course. I find that I have to increase the volume a lot. I do it in a compressor, but it can be done a lot of Places - without decreasing the sound quality. I am very pleased with the sound and possibillities the AXE gives me. - AAEN
 
Just get a good direct sound and blend the fx with your direct signal. Think of it like a pa system where you add fx into your channel
 
I've tried the Axe FXII with my guitar plugged straight into the front of the Axe FXII and out the outputs of the Axe to one (or two) Vox AC 30's and it sounded great. I left my amps set the way I normally use them. I created a virtual FX pedalboard of my favourite effects with the Axe FXII. The amps sounded just the same as if I was plugging straight in. The Axe FX didn't degrade the tone at all.

I went through all the effects in the Axe and tried them all out to discover which ones would work the best for my needs. I created a virtual pedalboard with the effects I liked best. Then I tweaked each effect that I decided to use to suit me.

If your amp has an fx loop you can use it like Steve Vai does. He uses the Axe FXII as effects only in the fx loops of a pair of real amps. Sounds great. You won't need to use the amps and cabs in the Axe FX if you use it for effects only.
 
Yes, I plan to place in my FX look of my TriAmp MKII. I'm feeling much better now knowing that most of the work people are doing are amp/cab related and not so much so FX related (other than normal FX tweaking). I just didn't want to create my patches to find out later that it sounds thin, flabby, too soft or some of the other hurdles people have been going thru. I really want to implement this new tool with the least amount of effort required to make it work correctly out of the box.

joe...
 
i've been using my axe fx this way for a few years now. i actually don't use the effects loop of my amp- i run the axe fx straight into the front input of the amp and it sounds great! i did try going into the effects loop when i got my axe fx and, to tell you the truth, i couldn't tell the difference between running it that way and running it straight into the front input.

you are correct- just set up your signal chain as you would with a real pedalboard (no amps or cabs in the chain) and you should be good to go. i use a liquid foot 12+ midi foot controller and basically have each patch set up as a virtual pedalboard with the IA switches on my LF12+ turning on and off the effects. i also use 2 expression pedals. one is always controlling volume while the other one is either a wah, a filter sweep or as a delay time controller.

most of the effects took very little tweaking (chorus, delay, phaser, wah, etc....). the effects that i had to spend a lot of time on were the drive blocks. IMO, the drive blocks are the weakest part of the axe fx right now. i only found 3 or 4 useable drives and had to play around with stacking 2 of them and then tweak the various parameters in each drive block. it was pretty frustrating at first, but i was able to get fairly close to a couple of the boutique drives that i used to own (BB preamp, barber direct drive, MI audio crunch box, barber small fry, zendrive, etc....)
 
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jb70 said:
i've been using my axe fx this way for a few years now. i actually don't use the effects loop of my amp- i run the axe fx straight into the front input of the amp and it sounds great! i did try going into the effects loop when i got my axe fx and, to tell you the truth, i couldn't tell the difference between running it that way and running it straight into the front input.

you are correct- just set up your signal chain as you would with a real pedalboard (no amps or cabs in the chain) and you should be good to go. i use a liquid foot 12+ midi foot controller and basically have each patch set up as a virtual pedalboard with the IA switches on my LF12+ turning on and off the effects. i also use 2 expression pedals. one is always controlling volume while the other one is either a wah, a filter sweep or as a delay time controller.

most of the effects took very little tweaking (chorus, delay, phaser, wah, etc....). the effects that i had to spend a lot of time on were the drive blocks. IMO, the drive blocks are the weakest part of the axe fx right now. i only found 3 or 4 useable drives and had to play around with stacking 2 of them and then tweak the various parameters in each drive block. it was pretty frustrating at first, but i was able to get fairly close to a couple of the boutique drives that i used to own (BB preamp, barber direct drive, MI audio crunch box, barber small fry, zendrive, etc....)
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I couldn't agree more on everything jb70 says. I've been using the unit as an FX only unit for a couple of years now and I'm crazy happy with the results. I'm really picky when it comes to getting effects to sound non-digital and clean and bright and whatever and worst case i've had to do a little tweaking here and there. Also chiming in with the drives being the thing that needs the most tweaking so sound "open" but in most cases the settings to make it happen is in there. There's plenty of youtube and spotify links that other people posted where I use it like this if it would convince you that it doesnt sound thin or whatever, but I think you already figured out that the unit keeps pretty on par with boutique pedals by now :) I'm plugging the axe straight out of output 1 into the input of my fender hot rod deluxe which is sort of a basic mid-range clean amp with good punch so I think you will achieve good results.

As stated, the drive blocks are the forgotten children of the axe-fx right now, as their modeling doesnt keep up with the amp/cab/delay sims right now but its hopefully just a matter of time when that changes.

Give it your best shot and post your result and the fantastic people on this forum (and me) will help to try and find your way to perfection.
 
godwentpunk said:
Maybe you guys who just use the FX2 for only effects in your FX loop can chine in. I would like to hear how much tweaking you need to do to make your effects sound right.
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Depends on what you consider much tweaking. The effects in the Axe need more tweaking than say a pedal because you have much more parameters to consider. Say a simple chorus pedal has three knobs and it sounds good right away but you only have one chorus sound available. The chorus in the Axe needs more tweaking but then you can have many different chorus sounds. Some effects on the Axe sound good right away other need some tweaking. Working with the Axe fx takes a lot of time than working with pedals. But you have much more flexibility and routing options. That's the reason I like the Axe fx.

I also think some effects in the Axe fx can have improvements and hopefully the effects section will get more attention now because the focus of the updates was more on amp and cab improvements.
There are still a lot of people who use the Axe fx mostly for the effects and not the amps.
 
Bodde said:
I also think some effects in the Axe fx can have improvements and hopefully the effects section will get more attention now because the focus of the updates was more on amp and cab improvements.
There are still a lot of people who use the Axe fx mostly for the effects and not the amps.
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i'm hoping the same thing. if you compare the amp models in the newest firmware to the amp models in the first few firmware releases it's not even in the same universe. just think if the drive blocks got those kinds of upgrades!
 
I'm sort of in the same boat. Considering multiple different changes to my setup. Going back to 4 cable(which I did with my ultra and Rockerverb), putting it in the loop for just effects (using wah, comp, OD pedals in front of amp), and or just going to a straight pedal setup to try for awhile.

I'm picking up some pedals so I can play with this method for a more simple approach. I find myself just tweaking with the amps in the axe for way to much time. I need a b rig of just pedals and my orange. Then last night though I was loving the axe... I think I have a disease :)
 
Since all of my FX will be time based, using the FX loop is my preferred option for me. My TriAmpII has 3/6 channels so I'm ok without needing a OD pedal... Maybe just a DB boost only.
 
godwentpunk said:
Since all of my FX will be time based, using the FX loop is my preferred option for me. My TriAmpII has 3/6 channels so I'm ok without needing a OD pedal... Maybe just a DB boost only.
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you should be good to go then! just make sure to run your clean boost in front of the amp and not in the FX loop (you will need to do the 4CM for this)
 
Well, my order is placed so hopefully by next week, I will have my fx2 in hand. I guess that's where the fun begins and where I get no sleep.
 
godwentpunk said:
Well, my order is placed so hopefully by next week, I will have my fx2 in hand. I guess that's where the fun begins and where I get no sleep.
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Stock up the refrigerator.

I still have a Triamp MkII ALSE that I keep just for the hell of it. You're probably already aware of this that the Triamp has a switchable series/parallel effect loop that which also has a switchable level between pedal and line. You probably want to look into using the four cable method when you get it so you can put the filter effects like phaser, tremolo, and wah in front of the amp, and the others in the EFX loop. It's documented in the manual.

I found from past experience, that the Triamp gets its best tone when the EFX loop is switched to parallel. The only issue you could have if you decide to go that way may be the phasing of the dry signal as a result of the extra time it takes for the dry signal travel through the A/D and D/A converters inside of the Axe-FX. On my TC Electronics GeForce, it has a kill dry function that mutes the dry portion of the signal. The Axe doesn't have that as far as I can tell, so the mix would have to be set to 100% for post amp effects blocks. In that case, the mix of each EFX block with dry signal going through the amp is controlled by the volume on the EFX block. That also means that the post amp EFX blocks should be in a parallel routing in the Axe-FX as well with exception of things like compressors and filters which would always be 100% mix irregardless of where they appear in the chain.

Regardless, if you have any problems with regard to integrating the Axe and the Triamp together, feel free to shoot me a line.
 
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I also use my Axe Fx 2 for both Fx and amp depending on the gig. I use a Aracom Attenuator which has a very transparent DI out. I plug into the rear of the Axe Fx 2 to either a Matrix GT1000fx or a Mesa Boogie 2 90.
I use one 4 x 12 Marshall cab for what ever amp I'm using( Matsha Friedman, Splawn Nitro, Metro Plexi, custom made Marshall, etc) and a stereo 4 x 12 cab for be Axe Fx.

The Axe Fx has real good sounding effects. I made patches specially for Fxs only and since your won't be using any Amp or Cab sims, you can load up the Axe Fx with a lot of Fx's so you won't have to change patches.
 
eljodon said:
I also use my Axe Fx 2 for both Fx and amp depending on the gig. I use a Aracom Attenuator which has a very transparent DI out. I plug into the rear of the Axe Fx 2 to either a Matrix GT1000fx or a Mesa Boogie 2 90.
I use one 4 x 12 Marshall cab for what ever amp I'm using( Matsha Friedman, Splawn Nitro, Metro Plexi, custom made Marshall, etc) and a stereo 4 x 12 cab for be Axe Fx.

The Axe Fx has real good sounding effects. I made patches specially for Fxs only and since your won't be using any Amp or Cab sims, you can load up the Axe Fx with a lot of Fx's so you won't have to change patches.
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BEST thing i did was setting the levels correct for your type of loop. Pull the return while adjusting level so there is no volume increase/decrease while you pull and push the return back in huge step
 
kippiejr said:
BEST thing i did was setting the levels correct for your type of loop. Pull the return while adjusting level so there is no volume increase/decrease while you pull and push the return back in huge step
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I use a patch cable and hook it up to the FX send/return of an amp and then adjust things to where like you said, the volumes are the same. I use this practice to also check how well a FX loop works for an amp as far as tone suckage. On my TriAmp, the loop/non-loop test proved to be tones that are almost 90% identical. The loop tone is just a little thinner then the non-loop which I think I can adjust.
 
I only use the Fx loop with my amps for just a noise reduction unit. The Fx loop works for me if I'm not using an Attenuator and cranking the amp higher than 5-6 on my master.
It's so much cleaner running the Axe Fx 2 from be output of a good Attenuator.
I did tried using the Axe Fx 2 with 4 cm and it sounded great as long as I keep my master at 5 or 6. The Axe Fx 2 is quite transparent as long as the levels are set properly.
 
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