How well does Tone Match work and how hard is it to get isolated tracks?

Has anyone tried tone matching a piezo-equipped guitar to a recording of a real acoustic? Does it work well?
You can also use pre-made acoustic guitar IRs, which is a pretty common technique these days. 3 Sigma has a pretty good selection.

Here's an example of them in action - its a dramatic improvement over a dry piezo pickup.
 
1: How well does tone matching actually work?

Tone Matching can work astoundingly well when used correctly.

2: It appears it will only match the amp/cab tones but does not put in the needed effects, for example if a solo has delay and reverb, I will still need to mess with those blocks to figure out the type of delay and reverb I need and I will also have to adjust each of those block settings ....is this correct?

Correct. Tone Match does not match effects.

3: How does the tone matching work if a solo or part of a song im trying to match contains wah pedal or some other effect which drastically impacts tone?

You can still obtain the overall flavor of a tone, despite the use of effects, but it depends on how and the extent to which the tone is affected.

4: Last question, how hard is it to get isolated guitar tracks or to make them myself? I honestly have no idea about this.

Not that hard if you search the web, however you only need a snippet of the guitars, and you can often find such snippets in the studio versions of the songs themselves, either at the beginning or during the bridge or some such. There are plenty of studio versions of songs with guitars that play in isolation at some point.

If tone matching really is not going to work for my needs I will stick with getting the FM3 but if tonematching really will save me time on trying to dial in my favorite songs then I just might save up for the axe fxIII.

Personally, I love Tone Matching and think it's one of the most powerful tone shaping tools available in the Axe-Fx. Here are some examples I've recorded:

 
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You are comparing yourself to a recorded gutiar tone which has undergone much adjustment during the mixing stage. Producers strip away top and bottom to give each person their slice of the equalization pie.

Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Also, unless you are using their exact guitar, the tone going into the AXE is off to begin with.

The tone matching process can compensate for those differences.
 
Well done! This is an aspect of this amazing box that I never really got into creating for myself, tho I ve used some by @Moke and others...on my summer to do list.,,,
And the 3 sigmaaudio ones touted above aren’t bad at all, either
 
No kidding! Listening to isolated track of some of my favorite guitar lines has been an incredible learning experience. Sounding great in the mix and great soloed can be two very, very different things.

There are many examples of guitars that sound the same in isolation as they do in the mix.
 
All you need is a dry, unaffected miked guitar tone that you like (no reverb, now!). With a little care, your piezo will sound more like a real acoustic than it ever has.
You know, I got those 3 Sigma Gibson Hummingbird IRs a while back for use with my Helix. Never thought of using them with my Axe until just today lol! Have you tried these? I think I stopped using them because there was a nasaliness that I just couldn't dial out. Maybe I need more time with them. I wonder how professional acoustic IRs differ from acoustic tonematching?

Also, I think some time ago someone posted something along the lines of the ultimate acoustic tonematch page which had tons of raw acoustic guitar sounds. This ring a bell to anyone?

Thing is, it's not that my live acoustic tone is bad, just that I know it could be better.

Anyway, I'll stop hijacking this thread :)
 
Not a fan of it all. The steps and setup are cumbersome, confusing, and complicated.

Creating a tone match in the Axe-Fx III is super simple once it's set up.

As mentioned above, you’re better off just downloading someone else’s preset. I cannot imagine a scenario when tone match would be preferable to just about any other solution.

Tone Matching is far more preferable to buying someone else's presets because presets you buy are tailored to the guitar of the person who created them and may sound completely different with your guitar.
 
Creating a tone match in the Axe-Fx III is super simple once it's set up.



Tone Matching is far more preferable to buying someone else's presets because presets you buy are tailored to the guitar of the person who created them and may sound completely different with your guitar.
I respect your opinion, I just don't agree. Sure; anything's easy once it's set up and you know what you're doing. And you don't have to pay for presets; there are MANY great ones on the Axechange. But overall, I'm sure you're right. And I agree that not all paid presets are what they're cracked up to be. The only two exceptions I've come across are AustinBuddy's naked amps and ML's Dream Tones (Petrucci tones); but if you go in using a single-coil strat trying to cop some Dream Theater tones, that's on you if it don't sound like the record lol!
 
I respect your opinion, I just don't agree. Sure; anything's easy once it's set up and you know what you're doing.

When I say setup, there are literally only 3 parameters that need to be set and 2 of those (Reference Channel & Local Channel) should be set to "Sum L&R". The third parameter (Reference Source) should be set to whatever Input you want to use. I mean, Axe-Edit has a bit of a learning curve but I think most people would agree it's dead simple once you understand the concept and connect the unit to a computer via USB.

And you don't have to pay for presets; there are MANY great ones on the Axechange.

The difference is, Tone Matches are tailored to your guitar specifically, and you're in complete control of the creation process.
 
You know, I got those 3 Sigma Gibson Hummingbird IRs a while back for use with my Helix. Never thought of using them with my Axe until just today lol! Have you tried these? I think I stopped using them because there was a nasaliness that I just couldn't dial out. Maybe I need more time with them. I wonder how professional acoustic IRs differ from acoustic tonematching?

Also, I think some time ago someone posted something along the lines of the ultimate acoustic tonematch page which had tons of raw acoustic guitar sounds. This ring a bell to anyone?
Acoustic body IRS are sensitive to your guitar. I tried the Fishman Aura IRS. Only a couple of them worked well with my guitar. The rest...not so much.
 
I've been using tone matching for a long time now. My first IR on this was posted in 2012 on Axe Exchange under the name "Tommy". It is matched to Tommy Emmanuel's Blue Moon as Cooper suggested above. More recently I did another tone match using the Acoustic guitar intro of "Crazy On You" by heart. That one is really good because it does not have significant reverb in it, as opposed to Tommy's which is drowned in reverb.

I use Smoothing quite a bit on this. otherwise the comb filtering effect is too strong and you get the nasal effect. Anyhow, I'm attaching some results here for you guys to try. These are shot using my Parker Deluxe so your milage will vary as all piezo's are not created equal.

My final results are quite good as long as you don't play with someone playing acoustic next to you. If you do, the difference is apparent.
 

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I've been using tone matching for a long time now. My first IR on this was posted in 2012 on Axe Exchange under the name "Tommy". It is matched to Tommy Emmanuel's Blue Moon as Cooper suggested above. More recently I did another tone match using the Acoustic guitar intro of "Crazy On You" by heart. That one is really good because it does not have significant reverb in it, as opposed to Tommy's which is drowned in reverb.

I use Smoothing quite a bit on this. otherwise the comb filtering effect is too strong and you get the nasal effect. Anyhow, I'm attaching some results here for you guys to try. These are shot using my Parker Deluxe so your milage will vary as all piezo's are not created equal.

My final results are quite good as long as you don't play with someone playing acoustic next to you. If you do, the difference is apparent.
Dude , you must be psychic, I was just now playing my trusty old purple Fly Mojo thinking I needed to update my piezo tone matches for this guitar and knowing you are a Parker guy, was about to research what you just posted...thanks for making my day easier.
 
Dude , you must be psychic, I was just now playing my trusty old purple Fly Mojo thinking I needed to update my piezo tone matches for this guitar and knowing you are a Parker guy, was about to research what you just posted...thanks for making my day easier.

He he! A word of warning, the Mojo and my Deluxe do not have the same Piezo system. You have the Fishman Powerchip and I have the old custom preamp. Should be relatively close though.

I posted a wish to be able to export a custom mix from the cab block. In the meantime, here is the mix I use:
"Tommy" at -3.67 dB and aligned at 4.7 mm
"Heart 50% smooth" at 0.00 dB, with proximity at 6.00 (give it a little of that dreadnought oomph).

Let me know how that works out!
 
Just to temporarily re-hijack; the 3Sigma acoustic IRs are pretty dope, especially with the Axe’s ability to mix and pan 4 IRs. I’m only using two but it’s fat and full and sounds great. We’ll see how it sounds at the gig tonight; but I’m super happy through headphones :)
 
I've been using tone matching for a long time now. My first IR on this was posted in 2012 on Axe Exchange under the name "Tommy". It is matched to Tommy Emmanuel's Blue Moon as Cooper suggested above. More recently I did another tone match using the Acoustic guitar intro of "Crazy On You" by heart. That one is really good because it does not have significant reverb in it, as opposed to Tommy's which is drowned in reverb.

I use Smoothing quite a bit on this. otherwise the comb filtering effect is too strong and you get the nasal effect. Anyhow, I'm attaching some results here for you guys to try. These are shot using my Parker Deluxe so your milage will vary as all piezo's are not created equal.

My final results are quite good as long as you don't play with someone playing acoustic next to you. If you do, the difference is apparent.

I definitely need to try the "smoothing" - using a Brian Moore with RMC piezos and getting a very nasaly tone. Tried using Blue Moon and She Talks to Angels as reference tones.
 
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