Had my ultra for 2 days now

J

JCBitB

Inspired
I feel like someone just dropped the finest marble and chisel in front of me (perhaps on my foot...) but it's up to me to carve out "David". Right out of the box this thing is unlike any amp(s) I've ever felt, but there's soooo much to get into under the hood that I'm kind of reeling. How do you guys keep from feeling overloaded? Or do you just embrace it and run with it!?

I also understand why there are so many bad examples on the net of this thing now... Even when this thing sounds bad, it feels great.

Glad to be a part of the community, can't wait to learn from you folks, but my break's over now. Time to dive back into the manual/wiki's/guides/youtube vids :shock: :D
 
just start with the parameters you know from traditional amps and get comfortable with dialing that way before you mess with the advanced stuff, otherwise you'll start messing things up and wonder why you cant get things to sound good. Everyone's been there when they realize they dialed the SAG to 10 or off or something odd that ruins any chances of making a decent tone.
 
I am also a new Ultra owner and it sounds like each patch is independent and the worst case scenario is that we could wreck 1 patch at a time...or are there global things we could screw up that would mess up everything?
 
Marshall30thAnn said:
I am also a new Ultra owner and it sounds like each patch is independent and the worst case scenario is that we could wreck 1 patch at a time...or are there global things we could screw up that would mess up everything?
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Yes, and yes ;-)

Most parameters are local to a single patch. Many are not, and are global. Read the manual, and read Yek's How-to (link in my sig, below)
 
yea you can mess up a global setting lol, but when in doubt if you are in a block like an amp instance or an effect instance and something went wrong just hold the bypass button a few seconds on the front when it's selected. This will restore it to the factory default for that block in that preset, and then you can start over tweaking.
 
I read as much as I could handle or try to make sense of before even buying it and I was still overwhelmed.

I think that what really got me beyond that initial point was just finding a few patches that I liked and played. Axe-Edit is also great because it's a lot easier to edit with, but I will warn you that you have to be prepared for some setbacks setting that up for the first time depending on the rest of your gear. MIDI interfaces aren't all compatible with it; the MIDISport 2x2 seems to be the best working for the price IMHO.

When I got into Axe-Edit I started paying attention to the layouts and started stealing some ideas AFTER spending a considerable amount of time with just one or two amps and trying different cabs to build a base tone for a foundation. Trying to dial in a bunch of amps with a ton of effects from the get go will get you no where really fast if you ask me. And really once you get the amp and cabs sorted out and get a feel for them the rest is really just flavor or color to enhance that.

Be prepared to alienate any family and lose a lot of sleep for the first couple of weeks though. It's addictive. Also beware of facial pains from the stupid grin that this thing causes. :mrgreen:
 
" the MIDISport 2x2 seems to be the best working for the price IMHO"

So if I get a midi floor controller and small laptop, i still need a MIDISport to get the computer connected to the AXE?

I have been perhaps going about this the worng way. I have been going thru the presets looking for usable sounds, figuring that the people who built this are going to be the experts. I figure I would then cluser them together in contigous range of patches, and them mess with their relative volume.

Are you guys really building your own from scratch? I have been playing guitar 33 years, but I dont know how to set voltage levels and reverb decay and all that. In the end of this excersize, am I also going to become a super-sound-tech? Have you found this to be an education in that regard?

sorry to the op. i dont mean to hijack this thread.
 
Marshall30thAnn said:
" the MIDISport 2x2 seems to be the best working for the price IMHO"

So if I get a midi floor controller and small laptop, i still need a MIDISport to get the computer connected to the AXE?

I have been perhaps going about this the worng way. I have been going thru the presets looking for usable sounds, figuring that the people who built this are going to be the experts. I figure I would then cluser them together in contigous range of patches, and them mess with their relative volume.

Are you guys really building your own from scratch? I have been playing guitar 33 years, but I dont know how to set voltage levels and reverb decay and all that. In the end of this excersize, am I also going to become a super-sound-tech? Have you found this to be an education in that regard?

sorry to the op. i dont mean to hijack this thread.
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Yes you need a MIDI to USB device in order to edit with the PC. You'd need one in order to program your foot controller too by the way. Some people have had luck with cheap ones, but the one that has never had an issue AFAIK is the 2x2.

And no you don't need to become a super tech. To be honest I think that dialing in a bad tone is pretty hard, but to get a specific tone you will need to learn how to navigate the parameters and understand laying out the signal path in a patch. I personally dial in my amp and cabinet and then usually add a bit of reverb; adjust to taste and most of the time it's just selecting a preset and adjusting the mix and overall level and then doing the same type of thing for each effect.

Some people get into adding PEQ's and all kinds of filtering...to be honest I haven't gotten to that point yet, but I know that if I came across the need to that I could download a patch from AxeChange with one in there, copy the settings and paste it into my preset to have something to go from as a reference.

To me it's only as complicated as you want to make it. I've got about 10 core patches that I use and all the other stuff is just kind of neat and for the future.
 
Thanks shasha and everyone. I am sure I speak for the op as well as myself when I say that it is good to sound so good when playing, but the task of harnessing this and getting it organized for real-life, can be daunting. This forum is GREAT. Thank you everyone.
 
Marshall30thAnn said:
I am sure I speak for the op as well as myself when I say that it is good to sound so good when playing, but the task of harnessing this and getting it organized for real-life, can be daunting.
Click to expand...

You aren't kidding... It sounds great, but it's gonna be a long road to really personalize my tone, I can tell. I'm not complaining, because I know the rewards will be huge, but daunting is putting it lightly.

I have a digital board (Tascam DM3200) that I'll be using to connect midi to my AxeFX, so I'm just praying that it will play nice! Can't wait to edit with a mouse and keyboard.

Also, I really need to read into the delay block. I was expecting it to be like the drive block, where you can select between the "standard" devices, but instead it's like a completely blank slate. I know I'll probably appreciate that once I know the ins and outs, but I could sure go for a fast-forward button right about now...
 
Id love to see an "effects" section on this forum or maybe an effects axechange like we have for presets .It would be a big help to those like me who have trouble creating quality effects
 
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