i'll tell you something you already know

Singtall

Singtall

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as many people may know, i write presets for several manufacturers. i've been working on presets for months now, so not much time on the axe-fx II. i finally got a chance to fire it up today.....unbelievable! so rich and creamy sounding and feeling.....i played for hours. i enjoyed it very much and realized how bad i missed playing on it.

for a goof, i plugged back into a modeler that i have been writing presets for....instant nasty and raw tone, like playing a chain saw into a Marshall stack. lol. not that the other modeler is that bad, because many people love it......it's just that the axe-fx is that good by comparison.

i know you guys already know this to be a fact, but i just wanted to say that it's not just a cult of kool-aid drinkers over here....the axe-fx II is really the king!
 
done. presets in the works.

one thing that i'm gonna do on the axe-fx II that can't really be done on anything else is make artist presets with alternative options.

example: Van Halen I preset - first i dial up a plexi and and cabinet combination that gets me close enough to the artist tone that i can fake it well. then i add tonematch to finish the job. i then add effects that EVH used on different layers. so you end up with a complete artist tone. the good part about dialing it in before tonematch is that you get an alternate tone reminiscent of the artist (but not dead on) when tonematch is turned off.....something that can be used to build your own base tone. using this particular preset as an example, though i like the early EVH tone when listening to a cd, i hate it when playing through it. i can't deal with the feel. when i turn off tonematch i get a tone that i can get into much easier.

most people want a particular artist's tone, but i think it's better to find your own tone at some point. my goal is help people do just that. start off with the tone you think you will like, then grow from there.
 
Singtall said:
example: Van Halen I preset - first i dial up a plexi and and cabinet combination that gets me close enough to the artist tone that i can fake it well. then i add tonematch to finish the job. i then add effects that EVH used on different layers. so you end up with a complete artist tone. the good part about dialing it in before tonematch is that you get an alternate tone reminiscent of the artist (but not dead on) when tonematch is turned off.....something that can be used to build your own base tone. using this particular preset as an example, though i like the early EVH tone when listening to a cd, i hate it when playing through it. i can't deal with the feel. when i turn off tonematch i get a tone that i can get into much easier.

most people want a particular artist's tone, but i think it's better to find your own tone at some point. my goal is help people do just that. start off with the tone you think you will like, then grow from there.
Click to expand...

I really like the approach you have described and am looking forward to your contributions. Thank you!
 
so far this is a time consuming pain in the butt to do. having to turn off all effects that i don't want in each scene just eats up a bunch of time. it's much faster to add one effect to the main preset and save it as a different preset. hmmmm....i gotta see if this will be worth doing by scene at this point.
 
ok, here is a quick example preset of what i'm talking about doing:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vzcako1s8d46ipz/Van Halen I.syx?dl=0

scene one is the basic tone as heard on the cd. i used the song "you really got me" to work with.
scene two adds a phaser.
scene three adds a flanger for "atomic punk" effect.
scene four adds a delay for fun solo playing.

try turning off the tonematch for a thicker studio tone that might be better to jam with,
turn off tonematch and the eq for a warmer tone.
 
Checked it out.

Your gate settings were very aggressive with both the main gate set and the Gate block in use. I disabled the main gate and just left your Gate block setting as they were. Even the Gate block alone felt like it was closing a little sooner than I would have liked for ringing chords but I'm sure this just needs tuning to the guitar being used and the output of the pickups.

I checked it out with and without the extra blocks you have for tone shaping and it's really interesting, the changes you made with the PEQ and the tone match block. Can I ask why the PEQ block if you're tone matching? Does the tone match not get you right on the mark?

With my amateur stylings and my totally-non-van-halen-PRS guitar I had some fun with it:



There's some wonderful bite and edge to it all while still being chewy when you hold a chord. I felt a little bit of the swirling sound was lost with the low end rolled off the way it was, but that's a personal taste thing and not an accurate-to-van-halen thing I'm sure.

No MFC at home right now so I couldn't punch in the flanger or phaser. Also: 1/2 step higher than Mr. Halen plays it I believe. :)

Anyhow, two thumbs up from me!

(@Moke and the rest of the Halen aficionados can lay in to my sloppy Eddy stylings now! :D )
 
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if you can make a duplicate of the old 11 rack 'EVH brown sound' preset. that would be awesome. still the best preset that i have ever used regardless of modeler.
 
the gate settings are for my guitar at my studio. i can't stand hiss and noise, so i choke it down with the gate. feel free to adjust for your guitar.

as far as the PEQ and tonematch settings, you may not have read all of this thread to get why i did what i did.
1) i dial up whatever amp gets me the right feel
2) i add an eq to get me closer to the sound i'm after
3) i use tonematch as polish.

this approach allows the end user to have the exact tone of the artist in question, and a fatter version for jamming alone (without tonematch engaged), and a warmer preset for building there own tone (without tonematch or PEQ).
 
more thoughts:

tonematch by itself added way too much high end hiss. not really the axe-fx fault as much as the end user not sampling perfectly. as a result i ended up not using tonematch at it's 100% settings. i adjusted until my ear said it was close enough.

the axe-fx provides all of the tools you need to get anything you want, but you can't be afraid to break the rules and do whatever is needed to get that tone. example: i used a Friedman amp model instead of a plexi for the EVH preset.
 
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