Gahhhh Please help with DIRECT RECORDING tone...

Z

Zombre

Member
Hey all I am an Axe-FX Ultra owner, and I must say I feel like a baffled retard. I am not getting ANYTHING resembling a cool sound using my YJM stratocaster. Yes I've read the manual, and yes I've tweaked every friggin knob there is and still, I'm getting frustrated. Still, before I get rid of this thing (I love the effects, and how it sounds through a poweramp/amp) I thought I'd snivel here...

I like high gain music, Malmsteen, Tool, QOTSA, Eric Johnson etc. I know this thing is not a 'modeller' per se, I was just hoping that it would be superior to the Podxt, and it doesn't seem to be so far in respects to amp sim and amp modelling. I find myself prefering to use cabinet sims in Logic (Amp Designer) Although this is a huge pain in the crotch... I have friends who tell me that I'm insane. Please prove them right, help me find a way to a tone? My favorite amp is a Marshall JVM 410H through a Marshall AV1960 cab. Coming close to this 'feel' would make me so happy...

I use YJM Strat into Axe-FX Ultra>Presonus Firestudio Project>Logic Studio.

I'll be happy to go into more detail as I go and can post clips, etc.
 
You're definitely doing something wrong.

IIRC the YJM has really low output, so the input knob is going to be CRUCIAL. Are you hitting the red led when you play hard? If you max it out and still doesn't get that high, you'll have to boost the level inside, by setting a drive block or something before the amp.

BTW, direct tone is supposed to sound like a miced amp thru studio monitors, not like standing next to a half stack. It can be tweaked to sound more like and amp in the room, but not out of the box. Try matching the tone of a favorite album of yours.
 
I cannot help with the High gain stuff but I am pretty positive that many, many folks here can help. I only play in a studio. I have found in the last year that Friday and Sat nites the forum is not so busy. Many, many of these folks play out. I can tell you the Podzxt cannot be used in the same breathe with the ultra and hopefully you will do "youself" a favor and hang for a while until the real knowledgable folks chime in. You will not regret it!
Good luck.
 
lol I figured it out. very simple fix.


Plugged 'er into the 'mic/line' ins as opposed to the 'mic/inst' ins and wowee. Just AB'd it vs Logic Amps and Line6 Podxt and yep, it pretty much owns 'em easily. I can't believe I'm such a feckin' bonehead. I've been slaving for MONTHS literally. And you know, it's not that it sounded bad in the mic/inst input, it was getting a lot of extra gain, bass noise, etc. OK, back to the drawing board, this changes everything.
 
lol It's funny, when i first got this thing I was so excited by the potential of it, but it didn't feel like I made any progress 'tonally' so I was sort of ready to shelf it. Of course, one little discovery and I'm stoked about it again. Man, I'm such a child! lol
 
That's really cool. I've never even tried plugging the guitar into the mic/line instruments in the back. I wonder why your particular strat sounds so much better that way! :eek:
 
Zombre,
Dude you're not a bonehead, but something is not right if you have to plug into those inputs with your guitar. I've always gone through the INSTR jack with my electrics, and never have had an issue. What is the signal path you're using for direct recording?
 
I believe he's saying that he plugged the Axe-Fx outputs into the mic inputs on his audio interface and, as such, he would have been clipping the snot out of them.
 
Yep, exactly. I didn't realize it. And really, it didn't sound bad, just not as good as I thought it should for how much we all rave about it (And paid for it). Actually it still kept up with the pod, logic plugins, etc it was just kind of noisy and just a wee bit harsh, I couldn't understand why as it sounded absolutely amazing through my amp. I figured that it should sound VASTLY superior to the pod and the plugins and in reality, I kept getting the same sort of fizzz...

I guess we all make mistakes, eh? Anyways, thanks to my post and the replies here it dawned on me what was happening. Thanks guys. I would have just sold this thing and probably taken a hit on it and then re-bought it later after I realized what I did...
Hell I was trying EVERYTHING, even put a resonator block after my amp block to crunch it out, lol totally unneccesary now hahaha

The tune where I finally got fed up...
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=139127
Same tune with the resonator, lol after hating the tone... Still not great, but better.
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=139153

And now today that I got it nailed I'm going to redo it again. Thanks again, folks!

On another note, I think I'm going to jump into a good foot controller next month maybe the Liquid or VoodooLabs...
 
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