I constantly feel like I'm guessing with my Axe FX II

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I'm not going to bag on the KPA. I like it a lot and when I had one it worked really well for me. Different beast from the Axe and maybe that's what you need. Who are we to say? There are times when the options and power of the Axe are frustrating as you slowly fall into the black hole of just. a. little. more.

But at this point in the evolution of the Axe, the quick and dirty basic sounds (fender/marshall/mesa) are not struggles. The default settings for many amps plus dropping the treble in the global I/o for everything from 4k and above down about 3db gets me pretty close. That's probably just because I use FRFR and I am just so used to a more traditional cab.

Scott does counseling for the Axe over Skype and I can't think of anyone that can help you out better than him. I can't imagine that a session or two would cost that much and I bet what you would get out of it would be more than worth it. Even if you just use him as a sanity check to make sure that everything is functioning correctly. Heck, everyone seems to love a '59 les paul neck and I can't stand the things. Different strokes for different folks.
 
I bought the Owehhammer Cab Pack 3 and wonder if there is a way to install the whole thing at once in the fractal instead of individual cabs. Where can I find info and videos instructing me???
Thanks,

Love & Peace,
David
 
DavidGoldberg said:
I bought the Owehhammer Cab Pack 3 and wonder if there is a way to install the whole thing at once in the fractal instead of individual cabs. Where can I find info and videos instructing me???
Thanks,

Love & Peace,
David
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You can use cab manager in axe edit. Select all cabs in your folder then drag and drop them in cab manager.


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I too was in a weird place with the axe-fx at first but like anything and EVERYTHING, you have to put in the time to get what you want. Such is the life of a guitar player. I personally love tinkering and tweaking so for me the axe-fx is a dream come true. I went from REALLY bad tones to REALLY killer tones in a matter of weeks. But you have to first know your gear and how it works in the real world, bc it is damn near identical inside the axe-fx. And with the axe-Fx, I feel like it is imperative to understand how audio fields work and their purpose (Stereo/Mono).

Some important controls to pay attention to:

AMP
-obviously all the basics stuff, gain, lows, mids, highs, presence depth etc. etc.
-EQ section of the amp. I almost always tweak these frequencies. Boosting the 1K and 2K for higher mids. and then bringing my lows down to tighten everything up.

CAB
-Low cuts and high Cuts controls. If its too wonky then take out some of that low with the low cut knob..and vice versa if its really sharp and piercing.
-Proximity control knob (if your using a NULL or MIC on the Cabinet...I would highly suggest it) This can add a lot of life to your tone and it literally translates to mic distance from the front of your cab...the further away the bigger and more airy the sound, the closer it is the tighter it is.


MOST IMPORTANT
The biggest game changer for me was the Enhancer block (can also use multiple pan/volume to achieve same effect). I use it on every single patch i have now. Place it at the end of your chain and toggle it on and off...it is an immediate GAME CHANGER. STEREO FIELDS.....this will make any tone or patch go from FLAT and LIFELESS to FULL AND ALIVE. You can go as big as you want or small it doesn't really matter, just find that balance that YOU like. However, your output must be stereo, not mono for this to work.

Also play around with running blocks in parallel to each other and or adding multiple signal paths from in to out...that can change things significantly as well.
 
I agree with the above regarding stereo field.

You might also want to try tweaking the unit without the Axe Edit software. I find I use my ears more then. Sounds odd but I think there is some value in doing that.
 
lysergene said:
You might also want to try tweaking the unit without the Axe Edit software. I find I use my ears more then. Sounds odd but I think there is some value in doing that.
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I think you're probably right about that. You make fewer and less dramatic tweaks when doing it manually, or at least I do. I've found that small changes can make more difference than one might expect, so anything that slows you down could work out to be a Good Thing.
 
lysergene said:
I agree with the above regarding stereo field.

You might also want to try tweaking the unit without the Axe Edit software. I find I use my ears more then. Sounds odd but I think there is some value in doing that.
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Definitely. I found myself too, when typing values in, I do the roundings all the time (like steps "1.0", "1.1", "1.2" for Master Volume for example), so I miss all the nuances where those "sweet spots" might be. Turning the knob makes you hear all in between and you get the idea about the impact of the specific parameter on your tone much better. Maybe it would be even better to close eyes while doing it :).
 
Scott Peterson said:
I help a lot of people one-on-one that express the same sorts of issues.

What you want is in there - though with the caveats very well explained above - the key isn't just turning parameters and knobs and hoping you get lucky and it isn't 99.999% of the time just downloading presets. The key is having a method to get what you want, not getting lost in the box. This is a creation machine, not a plug-n-play box.

Today I went over a guy's house and he had a Mesa 50/50 power amp into a Peavey XXX 412. That's his rig.

So, given that rig I turned the power amp and cabinet modeling off globally; we got some decent tones, but nothing that great right away. I plugged in my CLR, we cranked up a bit and got killer tones, really had him smiling then. I plugged back into his rig and we tried it with the power amp modeling and cabinet modeling on and lo and behold... it sounded fantastic. It really did. I had him really digging it within a few minutes... the key isn't that I'm so smart (I'm not) but I understand and can find what you need to use in order to get good tones out of the box. It's not some magic parameter, it's not some magic piece of gear you need. It is one ABSOLUTELY overwhelmingly simple (yet complex) thing you *need* to have down *first*. What?

I've said it a million times before, and I'll keep saying it -=- it's the IR. Find the right IR for your amp, then dial the amp. It's simple then. It's all about the IR. Once you have that down; it's almost child's play to dial stuff in. In real time, I'll drop my IR into the AFXII via FractalBot, I'll dial in the reverb and delay (maybe) and then the amp. In under 5 minutes - it's all good from there. Why? The IR.

If you don't understand IR's or how to work with them or the cabinet block; that's where you start. I have videos up about dialing the reverb and delay. I have a video up about dialing the cabinet IR using Cab Lab and Own Hammer IR's.

I'll be doing more videos soon, I'll keep answering questions and if you want to contact me - PM or email me. I'll try to help. Don't guess; it's a wild goose chase. It's not about buying more gear or any specific gear; it's about learning how to work with what you have right now.
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So Scott, I have hundreds of IR's and keep thinking one magic day I will go through them all and find the magic IR's. But question, are you saying or suggesting you have found a few IR's that you use as go to IR's across many different amp types? (which would be great). ie. is there a perfect IR for ones particular setups, frfr solution room etc. across mesa, engl, fryette etc.

OR ARE you saying you have found a good IR for every type of amp in the axe, which you like? In other words I would love to have an IR for all high gain, one for mid, one for clean and be done!
 
tonaholic said:
So much this. Best results I've had are with the new OWNHAMMER IR's with the Scott Peterson mixes ( SP mix). Killer thorough FRFR and direct to recording. I'm a bedroom player mostly but I've managed a large guitar store and know my gear. Got a chance to bring my axe/clr to a jam tonight and it floored everyone with it's tones. Once you have the good IR's, you just dial the amps like real life and maybe some effects if you want.

Now I need to learn scenes and how to mix amps/cabs like joe bonamassa/Eric Johnson. Maybe a second CLR too.

But seriously, just get the Ownhammers. They're really a game changer.
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same question for you Ton, do you find you have a few GO TO IR's for the genre you want, or do need a different IR for different Axe Amp models; I am really looking for a real wide open minimal coloring full range IR that lets me really hear the high gain amps full range. Im afraid just like in "real life" the cab is over coloring the amp model.
 
symphx - I rebuilt all my presets after 16.02. Complete blank sheet with full reset of everything

To cover something like six hours plus of songs, I use 15 presets and three of those are 'specials' designed for one-time use in a few specific songs.

I have an Acoustic tone for piezo bridge, two Cleans (round & thin), Grit, Dirt, Crunch, Rock, Metal and three Lead sounds of varying gain and effect level. Within those I've used 5153 Green, Nuclear Tone, AC30 Hot, 1987x, Brit Silver and 5153 Red.

With the exception of the Acoustic tone and one other special, I use two Cab blocks in every preset. When it all shakes out, I've used two Factory Cabs and four User Cabs - and not all of them are UltraRes. That's it. I've got hundreds to choose from, but the further I dig into the endless pit of IRs, the more 'Meh' I get about having so many options. The wood disappears into the trees.

It goes without saying that one of the Factory Cabs is 103 Basketweave TV - there's just something so right about that IR
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