Im sure im kicking a dead horse here...

JiveTurkey said:
In Leon's AM/VP vid; he has the input pad set to 18db.
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That would not affect gain. You will not hear any difference in level as you adjust the Input Pad. The AM4 compensates for different input pad settings so your guitar is always processed at the same level it would be when connected directly to an analog amp or pedal.
 
JiveTurkey said:
In Leon's AM/VP vid; he has the input pad set to 18db. That might account for some differences depending on what your input settings are. At the end of the day; these kinds of "scientific" comparisons are a timesuck and not worth the squeeze ime.
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Adding to what Matt said...
From the wiki:
Input A/D Sensitivity on the Axe-Fx III and FM9, and Input Pad on the FM3, AM4 and VP4, are NOT gain controls. They do NOT affect the overall volume level, they have NO effect on output clipping or on amp gain. The control optimizes the signal-to-noise ratio (sensitivity) of the analog-to-digital converters. The adjustment is applied before the A/D converter and is offset by a corresponding but opposite boost at the output of the converter.
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Use a compressor on everything. I use the Dynamicomp for cleans to even things out, then on leads, I use no distortion/od boxes, only compression to give me more of that "sustain". best thing I ever did was to lose the drive/gains, that way I can play much cleaner and still get sustain.
 
steveforward said:
Use a compressor on everything. I use the Dynamicomp for cleans to even things out, then on leads, I use no distortion/od boxes, only compression to give me more of that "sustain". best thing I ever did was to lose the drive/gains, that way I can play much cleaner and still get sustain.
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Might be worth a try too. My drummer claims he can hear some guitars and not others, even though the hotter ones are the ones he can't hear. Lol.
 
State of Epicicity said:
I don't accept the different guitars, different players argument.
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That is the point of the re-amping and clip compare exercise. Reamping LT's (or CC's, or whoever's) DI into their provided preset on your Ax3 and comparing your generated re-amp output to their provided output clip is useful as it will either:
  • Match, indicating guitar / hands is accounting for the difference the user hears.
  • Doesn't Match, indicating the follow up paths to be investigated, mainly:
    • Global settings.
    • FW Differences (as could be the case in the 1st test we tried above).
    • Hardware malfunction (least likely imo but possible).
@2112 , Leon, is it possible for you to repost a short DI / Output Clip with matching Ax3 preset under current firmware so folks can calibrate against it? (the one you posted here is quite old now so we suspect FW differences are causing mismatched comparisons).
 
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JiveTurkey said:
hese kinds of "scientific" comparisons are a timesuck and not worth the squeeze ime.
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Its work to do, but worth it for those that truly want an answer as to why their tone doesn't match someone else's when played thru the same preset on their instance of the same modeller. I wouldn't call it scientific - more like having LT come to your house (via DI + preset) and play thru your Axefx - if it's the same, you have your answer (guitar / hands) - if it's not the same, you have a direction to follow (re-confirm no post processing on the reference tone, confirm you are re=amping correctly, check fw, methodically check globals, last resort: check for hw problems). What's not worth it, imo is the endless shots in the dark without any plan of attack for resolution and without any resulting definitive answer like often seen in "why don't I sound like xyz" threads.

What's most amazing to me is that often, not in this thread, but often, we have posts immediately assuming Axfx is problematic wrt getting a target reference tone when the guitar is clearly not the same (or we embark on discussing possibilities without even confirming wha the guitar is). Guitar makes a huuuge difference - I am reminded of it today as I try to get a good sound out of a PRS style guitar I recently bought which sounds like total dog doo compared to very similar guitars I own (similar pups, same scale length, same wood ...) thru the same preset - so much different that I had to record DIs for both of them and A/B them back and forth thru the preset to prove to myself that, yup, this latest guitar I bought, tho very similar to others I own, sounds like shit compared to those other guitars thru the same preset - it's not a gear problem. Being methodical ("scientific" if you will) helps avoid going round and round.

Some of the drudgery in doing this could be for the tone superstars here (CC, LT, Burgs...) to perhaps regularly (maybe after major FW releases) post sample packages including Output Clip with matching DI + Preset. Of course they'd need some sort of compensation for this as it's pretty dry stuff that doesn't likely generate any clicks for them - maybe thru their patreon subscriptions - something like that.
 
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ToneRanger - where did you find Leon's DI track that you used for this comparison? Been surfing his YT channel and have not found the video containing it yet.
 
State of Epicicity said:
Okay, I found the preset and demo I was talking about of the Metallica Breadfan cover. See if your guitar sounds as meaty as the demo. Mine sounded nowhere near as gainy, even with hot pickups and aggressive playing.

Here's the preset: https://axechange.fractalaudio.com/detail.php?preset=11866

Here's the demo:
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What do you think are the reasons for the difference?

If the preset / FW / globals are the same and you are
listening to the clip thru the same monitoring you play thru, imo, different guitar / hands is most probable. Just because 2 guitars are similar with hot pups does not mean they will necessarily sound close to the same thru the same modeller / preset. Add hands to that and the difference can be even larger.

But as above, assuming no p.p. and the same FW / globals, if we had the DI and Axfx preset to match that clip, we could 100% prove guitar/hands is the difference or not. Without such evidence, we'll never know for sure - we could debate other possibilities till the cows come home without resolution despite the most obvious answer (the one many frustrated tone seekers don't seem to like to hear for some reason) in plain view: guitar / hands.
 
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