High Gain tone sounds digital

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ibonsnake

ibonsnake

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Hi guys! I have one question,using the Axe FX II XL+,the problem is that any distortion preset sounds really bad in my DAW Cubase LE9 recordings (Axe->USB->PC). I've tried with different presets but the final result is the same (sounds like shit). The clean presets sounds amazing and real but the high gain presets not. I cant get that "CD quality" high gain tone as a REAL SOUND. Tried Misha Mansoor Rythm preset and created some identical presets but all high tone sounds really digital...

-Quantum 9.03 firmware
-No internal clipping
-USB direct recording
-Tried with headphones directly through Axe Fx
-Actually using Axe ->Interface -> PC

I've tried all these,any suggestions?
(Sorry for my bad english)

Greets from spain!
 
It’s hard to know what’s wrong with your soup if you don’t let us taste it. “Sounds digital?” Digital doesn’t have a sound. ;)

All I can do for you at this point is offer a random guess: do you have cab modeling turned on?
 
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The Periphery presets from the front page of AxeChange are very old (about 20 firmware updates have been released since). At minimum, reset the amp block on them by double tapping the Bypass button while at the edit screen for the amp block. You are probably better off starting from the latest factory presets or starting from scratch with just an amp and cab block.
 
Rex said:
It’s hard to know what’s wrong with your soup if you don’t let us taste it. “Sounds digital?” Digital doesn’t have a sound. ;)

All I can do for you at this point is offere a random guess: do you have cab modeling turned on?
Click to expand...

yes cab sims on
 
If it's inconsistent, chick your gain staging and be sure there's no over-scale points in the signal chain.
 
Try different amps and cabs (more so the cabs) if you don't like your tone, try making some EQ adjustments as well. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your tone. I personally don't like it, but its every bit "CD quality" because there is tons of stuff out there that sounds just like that, for better or worse.

What is not "real" about the tone ?
 
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lqdsnddist said:
Try different amps and cabs (more so the cabs) if you don't like your tone, try making some EQ adjustments as well. There doesn't seem to be anything wrong with your tone. I personally don't like it, but its every bit "CD quality" because there is tons of stuff out there that sounds just like that, for better or worse.

What is not "real" about the tone ?
Click to expand...
I mean is not "real" because it doesnt sound like an real highgain amp as the clean tones.
check the highgain tones of this video
 
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ibonsnake said:
hope you can hear
Click to expand...

With a 'very' old preset like that, you will need to reset the amp block, and do some re-adjusting. The guitar tone on your track seemed a bit bass/low-mid heavy, over gained? and too loud in the mix.

Try double (or even triple) tracking the rhythm track, like in the ML sample above. It makes a huge difference.
 
That's a good tone, I liked that more than the video! Sounds like a mic in front of the amp, just like it's supposed to. Now go ahead and record that again and it will crush worlds.
 
ibonsnake said:
hope you can hear
Click to expand...

I run my Axe spdif into my interface with the Axe acting as master clock, so I have never done it using USB, BUT, when I do my sessions in protools I run my session at 48Khz to match the Axe Fx's output. When ever I run at 44khz I get digital particles in my signal.

Just throwin it out there.
 
I was wondering if it was a clocking issue or bit rate/sampling rate mismatches too. I run my Axe with the analog outs in to the interface and couldn’t be happier. I’ve never tried the digital output because of issues like that. I agree backing down the gain may help and dialing in your own tone instead of an ancient preset. Once you overcome a few of these obstacles, you’ll wonder what you did without this thing. It’s a magical box once you learn it and make it your own, not somebody else’s. I find some IRs have a fizzier more digital sound than others too. I’m always looking for warmer IRs to cut back on the buzzsaw fizz that a lot of IRS have. So it could be a mismatch with your IR and amp too
 
A few of my comments based on my experience as a guitarist. First off, sounded pretty killer in my opinion but there were a few things that might be steering your reasoning for thinking it sounds "digital".

It had a slight "crisp" sound which is normally associated with the "bright" setting and too much presence. I agree with the gain adjustment. Sometimes too much gain can cause the tone to sound "fake". One last thing, make sure you are adjusting the setting that Cliff mentioned in another post, especially with a high gain amp.
 
Tone sounds a bit too squishy. Partly because of your low tuning. If you lower the gain it’ll help the clarity.
If your using a drive pedal block then try and set the volume on it to 3-4 and then gently increase the drive on the pedal up until you get what your after.
Consider lowering the gain on the amp block and then perhaps activating the sat switch with a lowish value (1-2) to make up for the lack of gain.

If your using those PRS 85/15 pickups then I made what I thought was a nice tone (but tone matched so not as good) on axechange. I used 3sigma IRs of the v30 Fatboy cabinet (3a)
http://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=5828
 
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