Morphosis
Official G66 Support
Maybe i am currently in my - we call it in german "Zweiter Frühling" - "second spring time" with the Axe. Maybe it`s just honey moon phase with some of my new IRs, anyhow ... maybe we can get a great discussion, which approaches there are to get to "core tone". With core tone i mean the basic "raw sound": Amp+Cab. But also ones, they`ll also work under "outreach circumstances", means: Should also fit in the mix, cut through in rehearsals, live on stage, etc...`cause: Years ago, when starting with the Axe Standard, this was my most issue: great sound at home, but big issues with presets i`ve done at home, when playing these in band context.
So, how are your approaches? I will start with mine:
So, in general: I don`t use the "rough" and wide banded EQ of the amp sim, to complement a given IR - instead i match with an IR, which complement the sound well and use amp eq just for what it is: to finetune the sound to the used guitar frequency spectrum.
Parameters exclusiveley maximal used:
- Input Drive in correspondence of the Master
- Bass (mostly to adjust the input drive setting on Non-Master amps, if power amp is driven hard and gets squishy
- Mid / High to liking (if needed)
- Presence and Bright switch (to liking / if needed - sometimes bright is to much for a Start type, but needed for a Les Paul...)
So, in my opinion, at least for me, it is soooooo simple and super fast to get great tones - like with the actual amp - out of the Axe-Fx in no more time, i would need on the real counterpart. Beautiful
So, with this approach i get decent, playable tone in under 50 seconds from scratch, and - as demonstarted in these videos with exactly ZERO tweaks on the amp & cab block ... love my Axe-Fx these days! :
So, how are your approaches? I will start with mine:
- Rule 1. Keep it simple! IMO, the Axe is just sooo goood these days, i don`t have to touch any advanced parameters, nothing, the actual amp would also provide.
- Rule 2. I never ever start with tweaked amps, i always start from "scratch", with default settings. Tweaked amps means: They are tweaked to a certain signal path, maybe to a certain IR, to complement the frequency response of the whole path.
- Rule 3. I don`t tweak the amp blocks EQ or additional EQs to a certain, pre- defined speaker sim (IR). I do it the opposite: First, i find a speaker sim (IR) which brings me to the subjective ballpark with the wanted amp, i am looking for. After that, i do minor amp tweaks secondly and for last, as finetuning.
So, in general: I don`t use the "rough" and wide banded EQ of the amp sim, to complement a given IR - instead i match with an IR, which complement the sound well and use amp eq just for what it is: to finetune the sound to the used guitar frequency spectrum.
Parameters exclusiveley maximal used:
- Input Drive in correspondence of the Master
- Bass (mostly to adjust the input drive setting on Non-Master amps, if power amp is driven hard and gets squishy
- Mid / High to liking (if needed)
- Presence and Bright switch (to liking / if needed - sometimes bright is to much for a Start type, but needed for a Les Paul...)
So, in my opinion, at least for me, it is soooooo simple and super fast to get great tones - like with the actual amp - out of the Axe-Fx in no more time, i would need on the real counterpart. Beautiful
- Rule 4. I do NOT or TRY to improve tone all the time. If it sounds to satisfaction, i don`t try to improve. Or i would get lost in the parameters rabbit hole... If it sounds good, it sounds good. Done.
- Rule 5. If doing it from scratch you always know, how, why and for what tweaks are made in the signal chain. I like to know, what`s going on in my signal chain... and why ...
So, with this approach i get decent, playable tone in under 50 seconds from scratch, and - as demonstarted in these videos with exactly ZERO tweaks on the amp & cab block ... love my Axe-Fx these days! :