HELP - can't get a decent HIGH GAIN tone

Bodde said:
It really shouldn't be that hard to get a decent high gain sound. If it takes you are a year to get a good sound either the machine is not good or you are doing something wrong. If it takes that long you would be better off with a real amp.
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....that exactly the problem. Doing something wrong for a very long time.
Your absolutely right it shouldn't take that long but when you have a box with the power of the Axe FX thrown in your lap you get option paralysis and end up in all manor of audio cue-de-sac's.
I've seen post after post of people not happy with the sound they have created. The stock IRs just don't do it for me for high gain personally, that took some time for me to come to that conclusion. People miss the fact that the RW IRs have no microphones baked in. It took a lot of time to understand what the Master Volume was doing to the sound. The endless conversation of where to place your high and low cuts in the amp block.You learn your preferences and one day they all come together and you immediately forget all the wasted time you spent trying to get there.

I myself only had experience with a Marshall 65R Valvestate and a Boss GT5 before moving on to a POD and then Guitar Rig.
I was always one of those guys that just played with a dirty sound and a clean sound and a wah and that was it. It was a big step up to the organic realism of the Axe FX.
 
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Hadean said:
Thanks for the tip, I'll try it when I have a moment. In this preset the drive in the amp block is set to 3.3 and the drive block has it set to 0.
Actually, I'm using an Ibanez rg2627ze with emg707 pickups.
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Here's an idea. Rather than going back and forth with suggestions, I would recommend uploading a DI sample of your guitar and attach the 6160 preset you've been using to a forum post. That way we can re-amp your guitar through our units and play with / tweak the preset first-hand. That's likely going to be much faster and more effective.
 
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Jason Scott said:
Here's an idea. Rather than going back and forth with suggestions, I would recommend uploading a DI sample of your guitar and attach the 6160 preset you've been using to a forum post. That way we can re-amp your guitar through our units and play with / tweak the preset first-hand. That's likely going to be much faster and more effective.
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Nice idea, I'll send you that after work this evening!
 
Jason Scott said:
Here's an idea. Rather than going back and forth with suggestions, I would recommend uploading a DI sample of your guitar and attach the 6160 preset you've been using to a forum post. That way we can re-amp your guitar through our units and play with / tweak the preset first-hand. That's likely going to be much faster and more effective.
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Hi again, here I uploaded a dry track of my guitar (yep, still the same riff). I recorded it with my focusrite 2i2 to keep it unsullied from my axe.

23. Ibanez RG2627ze Dry Signal Focusrite


Down here, the preset of the FAS6160 (same as in 22. FAS 6160 OH412 MES V30 OH1 Vol - 7db).
(feel free to try with other presets of yours that sound good for your setup)

Thx again for your help :)
 

Attachments

  • FAS 6160 OH412 MES V30 OH1.syx
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you need to make it downloadable
not sure if soundcloud processes the audio also . have you got a dropbox or anything like that?
 
The file is 44.1khz. Its that what you normally use?
Also it's a stereo Dry Signal. It's probably best practise to make mono Dry tracks.
I always think of it as the Guitar is mono and the Axe FX does the stereo bit....
 
I'm just listening to this on cheap ass earbuds at work, so take this with a grain of salt, but whenever you dig in, I hear like a fizzy sound. Do you have the input level set too high in the Axe FX? Is your input meter hitting the red constantly?
 
Here's the same file but in mono (I recorded it mono, but by default Reaper renders in stereo) :



Moreover, it's 44.1khz because I used my focusrite to record it and not the axe (when I record with the axe it's 48khz).
 
Screen Shot 2018-08-27 at 19.05.17.png

So before I start playing around with a ramp I just recorded some Dry Signal by pressing Bypass on the axe FX.
I record a Custom 24 85/15 pickup, PRS SE with USA Tremonti Pickup which is very hot,Charvel with Seymour Duncan JB. I dug in abnormally hard when playing to try and get it as loud as possible.
You can see you dry signal is way louder than any of these. I'm not sure if this is normal with EMG pickups as i've never had them before.
I'm going Axe FX>Spdif>Steinberg UR28M interface>iMac. The joy of SPdif is that you don't have to worry about clipping the Audio Interface.
 
HarrySound said:
View attachment 49256

So before I start playing around with a ramp I just recorded some Dry Signal by pressing Bypass on the axe FX.
I record a Custom 24 85/15 pickup, PRS SE with USA Tremonti Pickup which is very hot,Charvel with Seymour Duncan JB. I dug in abnormally hard when playing to try and get it as loud as possible.
You can see you dry signal is way louder than any of these. I'm not sure if this is normal with EMG pickups as i've never had them before.
I'm going Axe FX>Spdif>Steinberg UR28M interface>iMac. The joy of SPdif is that you don't have to worry about clipping the Audio Interface.
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Well as they are active pickups I imagine they should be higher than the passive ones. But I couldn't say if that much is "normal". Anyway, looking forward to listening to your clips !
 
Almost sounds as if the pickup is way too close to the strings. Definitely could be somthing else but there is a good bit clipping when you pick harder.
 
StickMan said:
That is not what I would expect a dry signal to sound like.
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I agree. It sounds like the possible source is coming from the dry signal being slightly flubbed out. Further processing is amplifying that "problem". Nice playing by the way,very articulate.
 
somethings definitely not right, you can absolutely hear some type of clipping like artifact when you dig in.
 
Thanks for the DI sample(s) and preset. In a nutshell, the input is way too hot. When re-amping, the input lights are clipping randomly. Dropping the volume of the WAV file by 7dB definitely helps, but that's not really a solution because the issue is baked into the sample during recording. Thus, I think we can rule out the Axe FX, and since the result sounds the same when played through both the Focusrite and Axe FX, I don't think it's an issue with either. I'm inclined to believe it's potentially related to your pickup height or, quite possibly, a defective cable.

Here's a re-amp of your sample with the WAV file reduced by -7dB:


Definitely better, but still has too much input gain to my ears.
 
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Jason Scott said:
Thanks for the DI sample(s) and preset. In a nutshell, the input is way too hot. When re-amping, the input lights are clipping randomly. Dropping the volume of the WAV file by 7dB definitely helps, but that's not really a solution because the issue is baked into the sample during recording. Thus, I think we can rule out the Axe FX, and since the result sounds the same when played through both the Focusrite and Axe FX, I don't think it's an issue with either. I'm inclined to believe it's potentially related to your pickup height or, quite possibly, a defective cable.

Here's a re-amp of your sample with the WAV file reduced by -7dB:


Definitely better, but still has too much input gain to my ears.
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Hi, sorry for the late answer - was quite busy today. :sweatsmile:I think I may have not recorded my guitar properly for reamping with the axe. Actually I've turned the input gain level on the focusrite up to just before it started clipping red. This may have led to the 5-7db of extra gain. Should I have turned it all way down to zero ?

Here's the same riff but recorded through the axe fx (everything bypassed) instead of the focusrite (so that you can see the real level output of the pups). Anyway I agree that the guitar kind of "fizz/clips" a little when I dig hard on the strings. I will look after that at the music shop.

26. Ibanez RG2627ze dry signal Axe FX MONO
 
Hadean said:
mmmh, apparently active emg pickups tend to clip internally when the strings are hit too hard :sweatsmile:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/emg-81-internal-preamp-clipping.117773/

http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/threads/why-are-my-dis-clipping-help.512625/

https://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1717786

http://www.sevenstring.org/threads/emgs-distorted-when-recording-di.238703/
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Just lower the pickups until the clipping goes away. It should take about 5 minutes with a screwdriver to adjust properly.
 
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