In Completely Over My Head

R

rrogers

Inspired
After watching the evolution of Fractal's products since the first units hit the market, I finally decided to buy when the price dropped to $1999 on the Axe FX II. I received my Axe FX II last week and ran it into a pair of old Roland monitors that were gathering dust in the corner.

Presets were good - really good - and I could still here the character of each of my guitars with the Axe. That is, for me, an area where other modelers have always fallen short. I was able to successfully run it 4CM as well, and it performed flawlessly with my Mesa. I may have to try the humbuster cables, but the 4CM setup is substantially less noisy than my pedal board (using a Boss NS-2 on the board).

As far as dialing in my on sounds, I am in way over my head. My basic take on editing the Axe is I can pretty much have more or less of everything. I can get usable sounds with no problem, but as I look at the options I realize there is a lot the box can do that I am unable to take advantage of.

What is a realistic learning curve for mastering deep editing? Six months? A year?
 
rrogers said:
What is a realistic learning curve for mastering deep editing? Six months? A year?
Click to expand...

Never. Cause there is so much you can do and Cliff, is always adding, or in some cases removing. But you can get a good understanding.
How long depends on you and how deep you want to go.
 
Why worry? Use the amp block page basics for a while. Still more options than a regular amp.

The rest will just come - IMHO, if you try to jump there, well, ..........who knows. Learn it inside and out as is.
That's what I did and the rest just came. But still, I their are so many knobs that I have never ever touched. And I have been here since April 2009.

What I mean is, as you get more familiar and are rolling along you will begin to understand the black box more and more and more then..................................
 
Stratman68 said:
Why worry? Use the amp block page basics for a while. Still more options than a regular amp.

The rest will just come - IMHO, if you try to jump there, well, ..........who knows. Learn it inside and out as is.
That's what I did and the rest just came. But still, I their are so many knobs that I have never ever touched. And I have been here since April 2009.

What I mean is, as you get more familiar and are rolling along you will begin to understand the black box more and more and more then..................................
Click to expand...

comes a new update with added features.....:lol
 
It depends on the person, how much they know already, and how much time they're willing to put into it. As others have written, you can get great sounds out of the unit right away. But, if you want to know what every knob does, then you need to open the manual and look in the wiki.

This forum is a great place to go if you have specific questions about specific options. You'll find a large number of people are willing to respond.


--
"The quality remains long after the price is forgotten." -- Sir Henry Royce
 
There is lots of free tutorial videos out there for learning stuff as well as some great for pay stuff like Cooper Carter's 16'ish hours of videos in his two CreativeLive courses.
 
set up a simple patch: amp block---cab block---reverb block. Adjust the reverb to taste and then select an amp type and complimentary cab type. Use the AxeFxII wiki an the owners manual for guidance, but once you've settled on an amp and cab, concentrate on just the basic gain, Bass/Mid/Treble/presence, Master Volume parameters and see how they work, just like any amp.

Unless you are looking for bells and whistles, it doesn't need to be very difficult or complex. Start slow an work methodically.
 
You can make it as simple or as deep as you want. Just because there are a million parameters doesn't mean you need to adjust them all. The Tech notes area of the forum has a lot of great articles written by Cliff that can give you insight to some of the deeper parameters. Also, you can set up a looper before the amp block, record a riff, & just start turning knobs & changing values to see what things do. Some are very subtle & others affect the feel more than the tone. It can be a bit of a moving target with all the firmware updates but it is a fun ride!
 
rrogers said:
but as I look at the options I realize there is a lot the box can do that I am unable to take advantage of.
Click to expand...

a common new user mistake is to see all the capabilities, buttons and options and think "if i don't turn all of these, i don't have the best tone." this is not true in the slightest. especially with the recent firmware, many default settings are good to go and sound amazing.

for me, these days i literally choose a cab, choose an amp, adjust gain, master and level... maybe bass mid treb. that's it. if i'm doing too much more than that, i've chosen the wrong amp to begin with.

don't let the existence of options CREATE the necessity to use them.

if you are curious, the Axe-Fx II Wiki has descriptions for all of the advanced things in the amp block and other blocks as well. but more often then not, people spend hours trying advanced things only to find that when they reset the block, it sounds great, if not better compared to all the other stuff they just did (mostly because they don't understand the advanced parameters they were messing with).
 
Aim for the sound and tones you love first, is the best beginners goal IMHO. There are a few pet parameters in the amp block I keep returning to myself. Read Cliff's notes for hints on these :) Then listen how others use the machine. Yek's and Freman's presets are great and you can dissect them in axe edit to see how the sounds were achieved.
 
it's not that hard, really, once you get used to the workflow. start basic, expand from there, it will come to you quickly.
 
The axe is the most versatile single piece of guitar equipment in existence. I don't think anyone - even Cliff!! has every angle and aspect of the possibilities figured out. And we get even more all the time :) Every single Axe Fx user could have a unique signature sound if they wanted and that's really saying a lot IMO :)
 
We've all been there. There is a lot of help available here. Also, don't be afraid to get crazy. I like to take a preset I like and copy it over a preset I don't like and just get creative. If you back up your presets you never have to worry about losing anything. Even if you do lose it you can always reload the factory presets.

Start by finding a preset that you like and just play around. Get a feel for it, but don't save it. That way to back to square one and get to know your way around. It is a very deep unit, but it becomes more and more intuitive as you learn. and the more you play with it, the better you'll get at it. Persevere and reap the sonic benefits. May the force be with you! Woot!
 
Similar to how I approach computer programming languages, I think it helps to have a specific goal (target sound) or problem you're trying to solve (reverb doesn't match what you want) then drill in researching the options, learn to specify your problem in more detail (e .g. reverb tail too long, too dark, and too much of a pre-delay).

Reading about how your favorite guitarists' gear is set up gives you directed ideas to experiment with.
 
Be careful man. I went through a year and a half of deep editing hell when I got the Standard and it didn't do my playing technique or my mood much good. After all that, I decided I like the sound when its kept simple. So i think I learn't a lot, but at a price, but on the flipside, I don't really use much of that knowledge any more. Actually, just playing with the standard amp control knobs and a geq and doing it well is an art unto itself.
 
^This. The advanced parameters can add a little spice, but it's easy to get lost in the woods there if you're not careful. IMO, the basic control should at least be able to get you within a couple feet of the finish line, if not all the way across. If you're needing to do major tweaking there, then something else is wrong.
 
Once you understand a few basics, I think you'll find the AXE not so mysterious as it is right out of the box. For me it's this: when I want distortion, I crank up the
guitar volume controls and play around with Drive, Comp, Reverb, and Delay. For a cleaner sound I just tone down the volume. One of the most important discoveries
I made which sets the AXE apart from a pedal board, is how easily the AXE deals with noise. I had a couple of ZOOM multi-effects pedal boards before I bought my AXE,
and they both were so noisy and unmanageable they drove me crazy. But I ain't crazy no more. The learning curve among the AXE, AXE Edit, and the MFC 101 seems
pretty steep at first, but it really doesn't take that long to figure it out to the point where you're satisfied. That's my take on it. I'm satisfied where I am with it. And I'll
continue learning it bit by bit.
 
I learned every little thing my brain could understand that I knew I'd be using in the Axe day one, and I did a decent job of programming my first batch of patches. Those patches were good for a start, and got me through s few gigs, but once I programmed those I a made a point to never stop learning about everything in this box, because now I'd call those patches amateur at best. I think April was a year now, and I still learn new things and apply them where I can, and I'm always improving.

Here's the thing though, it's no different from when I had a tube, amp and pedals. I was always learning new things about my gear, tips & tricks & the like, only thing is it costs a lot less to swap out a block in the Axe than it ever did to buy a new pedal to try some new tone shaping tip.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
rrogers - it sounds like you are doing just fine to me! You're not in over your head at all if you just got it and you've run direct, 4CM, and are dialing in your own tones that make you happy.
 
Dont bother.

I learned what all the parameters of the amp block (never have learned all the FX blocks) when I got my first AXF Standard 8 years ago. I spent quite a while adjusting each from min to max, on clean broken and driven tones, on most amps. I had a good handle on what I needed to use to fine tune tones.

BUT .... in its current form, on its current FW level I just dont touch much outside of gain, B/M/T/P master. Possible the bright, depth, Dynamic presence and depth, low cut and bright cap value. Thats about it. I can get pretty much what I want from those - and theres always the graphic EQ in the block if you want to sculpt something a little more dramatic.

If theres something specific I want to do at any time - theres plently of help to find the parameter/s to try.

Gone are the days of spending an age with advanced parameter to fine hone a tone - there all there with basic controls. If you want to be picky you can be. And the tools are there if you need them - but generally ............
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom