I think I need another Axefx

sandmannn69

sandmannn69

Experienced
I love the amp tones in FW10. The Marshalls, Fenders, every amp seems to have its characteristic sound and feel that differentiates it from each other and has it in spades. I've owned plenty of tube amps (Marshalls, Fenders, Deizels, Egnators, Blackstars, etc.-all gone now thanks to Axefx) so I think I know a great amp sim when I play it. FW10 gives that cranked, in-your-face response so well with such feel and without the painful volume, its ridiculously good.

Yet, I also love the smooth, polished sound of FW9, which seems to fit so well into the mix with minimal tweaking. It's like sitting in the control room behind the board with FW9, or on the other side of the glass with FW10 letting the sound engineer worry about the mix.

I think the Axefx has progressed from its original intent to sound like what you hear on a CD to the "in-the-room" sound and feel in front of an amp/cab. Unfortunately, I don't think its very healthy for my axefx to be flipping back and forth between FW9/10. Guess its either decide which one is more desirable or buy another one. I'm pretty sure I know what Cliff would recommend, but that's just crazy talk. What a great dilemma to have, I am so spoiled!
 
Pretty sure part of FW10 is being able to get your tones from previous firmwares.
I think you turn off mimic and do something else in the advanced parameters to get the "smooth" FW9 and older tones.
Anybody know what the other parameters were?
 
I guess nobody's gonna tell you not to buy another Axe II if you have the money... :)
 
I'm going to buy another so I can keep 9 on one and play with 10 or whatever else comes on the other plus I need a backup!
 
REDD said:
I'm going to buy another so I can keep 9 on one and play with 10 or whatever else comes on the other plus I need a backup!
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This is what I would like to do. (Have 2) because honestly for me I was a little disappointed when I bought mine with 8.02 on it. I thought "this is going to take some work" then 9 came along and it was "YEAH BABY!!!!" Hardly any tweaks at all. For example I've played dozens of plexi models and various modelers and never got the wow plex feelingi. I always thought they were crap (having never played a plexi) but with fw9 they were suddenly awesome and became one of my favorite models. I thought wow I finally get it. Now fw10 has so many advancements and benefits I want to like it but I'm still on the fence. I can't get on with any of the plexi's, my FAS modern lost something, but some other amps are vastly improved like the Bogners. And being able to use edit is huge for me. But honestly I'm really debating going back to fw9. I'm not complaining but that's my 2 cents.
 
I saw something before that may help you. From Cliff:

FractalAudio said:
Yup, that's what amps sound like. If you don't like it turn Triode Hardness to zero, turn off MIMIC and it will sound like V9.
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So you could have some patches set up both ways. Can Triode Hardness be assigned to a CC? If so, you could do so and crank it up during your playing as an alternative to more volume for emphasizing a particular part and making it cut through the mix more.
 
orpeus said:
I saw something before that may help you. From Cliff:



So you could have some patches set up both ways. Can Triode Hardness be assigned to a CC? If so, you could do so and crank it up during your playing as an alternative to more volume for emphasizing a particular part and making it cut through the mix more.
Click to expand...

I remember seeing that but couldn't remember the specifics. Thanks for reposting it, I'll try those settings next time I flip back to 10.
 
I kinda get what OP is saying ... Axe FX to me was always about the crystal clear clean sound you hear on a mastered CD ... Now it's about "mimicking" (no pun intended) everything I hate about an amp - the fizz, feedback, hum and generally everything unwanted to a modern guitarist like me.

Inb4 "you can turn mimic off," "revert back to FW 9," "set modelling to v9" etc.
 
orpeus said:
I saw something before that may help you.

From Cliff:
Yup, that's what amps sound like. If you don't like it turn Triode Hardness to zero, turn off MIMIC and it will sound like V9.



So you could have some patches set up both ways. Can Triode Hardness be assigned to a CC? If so, you could do so and crank it up during your playing as an alternative to more volume for emphasizing a particular part and making it cut through the mix more.
Click to expand...

Man, that's slicker than snot. Just flick off mimic and dial TH to zero, and bang-back to FW9!

You just saved me $2200, thanks orpeus!
 
sandmannn69 said:
Man, that's slicker than snot. Just flick off mimic and dial TH to zero, and bang-back to FW9!

You just saved me $2200, thanks orpeus!
Click to expand...

Nice - so you could also set up X/Y with the same amp, same patch, and turn on/off the parameters - V9 and V10 on 1 switch.
 
can anyone confirm that the original intent for the Axe was "to sound like what you hear on a CD"??

i thought it's purpose was to be the most accurate amp modeling device/fx unit ever made.
 
i think it was to hear what you would from a studio control room - a well-mic'd guitar amp.
 
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sandmannn69 said:
Man, that's slicker than snot. Just flick off mimic and dial TH to zero, and bang-back to FW9!

You just saved me $2200, thanks orpeus!
Click to expand...

Cool, have fun!

As to the modelling intention question, I agree with Chris; my impression is that the intended function of the combined amp and cabinet modelling in the Axe is to accurately reproduce that a well-mic'd amp sounds like. That being said, I'm not sure that the v9-v10 difference corresponds to what you hear on a CD versus the actual mic'd amp sound; good CD recordings of guitar also include the overtones and artifacts that v10 reproduces more faithfully than v9; they just sound a lot different in a mix, whether it's on a CD or through a PA, than they do when you are hearing a guitar all by itself.

All the same, having the ability to adjust triode hardness is very nice to have. It is important that the default settings produce a result similar to the amp advertised by the model name, but the more distinct options that you have under the hood to get just what you need with a certain sound and context in mind, the better.
 
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