Loving the axe 2 for bass guitar

Man, my experience is SO opposite to the above. I designed Axe-Fx II bass presets for some of the biggest tours in the world and everyone — artist, monitors, front-of-house — has been blown away. I've also worked one on one with many bass player customers, including amateurs and big name pros (some from the artist page, others who chose not to be public endorsers) and I've never had anyone think the tone wasn't killer. For me the Axe-Fx (and AX8) is the secret weapon of bass.

One of the best days of my career at Fractal Audio was dialing in a "multi-band" bass preset with engineer Paul Northfield, who worked on my favorite Rush albums. That preset had a DI, a bass amp, and a guitar amp. We phase aligned everything with precision delays (cab block, compressor look-ahead). That's been the model for everything I've done since.

Another thing I'll tell you that in the name of "consistency" I've been asked to make a fair number of custom IRs and tone matches of bass devices including some of the ones you named above. (Sorry, I can't share these, as they are the property of the artists who use them.) This works just fine if that's what you like, but I never found the tone to be "better" using this method -- just "right and ready" for a given band or mix.
 
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Gday Matt,
Are any of these killer bass presets in the axe fx presets, or available somewhere else?
I'd love to get/buy/find some - particularly that are suitable for rush tones!

Thanks
Pauly


Man, my experience is SO opposite to the above. I designed Axe-Fx II bass presets for some of the biggest tours in the world and everyone — artist, monitors, front-of-house — has been blown away. I've also worked one on one with many bass player customers, including amateurs and big name pros (some from the artist page, others who chose not to be public endorsers) and I've never had anyone think the tone wasn't killer. For me the Axe-Fx (and AX8) is the secret weapon of bass.

One of the best days of my career at Fractal Audio was dialing in a "multi-band" bass preset with engineer Paul Northfield, who worked on my favorite Rush albums. That preset had a DI, a bass amp, and a guitar amp. We phase aligned everything with precision delays (cab block, compressor look-ahead). That's been the model for everything I've done since.

Another thing I'll tell you that in the name of "consistency" I've been asked to make a fair number of custom IRs and tone matches of bass devices including some of the ones you named above. (Sorry, I can't share these, as they are the property of the artists who use them.) This works just fine if that's what you like, but I never found the tone to be "better" using this method -- just "right and ready" for a given band or mix.
 
I'm still wondering...does FAS yet provide any STOCK bass presets (amp, cab sim, etc.) yet for the AxeFxII and AX8. IIRC, they did a series for the FX8 a long while ago.
 
I'm still wondering...does FAS yet provide any STOCK bass presets (amp, cab sim, etc.) yet for the AxeFxII and AX8. IIRC, they did a series for the FX8 a long while ago.

Pick up an ax8 a couple of weeks ago, lastest firmware. No bass looking presets I can see.
 
I had a bunch of presets I did on the Exchange many firmwares ago that were pretty well received from the messaging I got.

@Admin M@ and I worked on some fantastic bass stuff together for an artist and the artist was really happy with what we came up with.

From time to time, when someone posts a bass preset with a problem in the forum, I troubleshoot and post a "repaired" version, for which usually the OP never gives feedback on or even says thanks. /shrug

So now I just work on presets for my cab packs, unless somebody asks me to do something very specific.

The right cab IR loaded in the Fractal mated with the right amp and effects routing is actually killer if you have good monitoring.

Are there models that I would like to see in the Fractal to make dialing in easier?

Sure (if you do a search you will see my requests), but 95%+ of people's bass amp/fx requests are possible already in the unit, as Matt says, if you just ignore what amps and drives are labelled as in the unit and just listen to what they are doing. If you know your families of amps and drive pedals, and you define your goal tone, then you have a road map to get there.

I have plenty of stuff posted on my site if you want to try it out. The investment is minimal compared to what you invested for your Fractal, or if you throw in the towel and get a new modeler, a Bk7, etc.
https://www.drbonkerssoundlab.com/product-category/bass-guitar-cabinet-files/

People who do try my stuff love it, based on the feedback I receive.

I never had anyone tell me that my packs' bass ir's or presets were not useful or sub-par. The most detailed feedback about certain bass cab packs I post on my site.
 
Man, my experience is SO opposite to the above. I designed Axe-Fx II bass presets for some of the biggest tours in the world and everyone — artist, monitors, front-of-house — has been blown away. I've also worked one on one with many bass player customers, including amateurs and big name pros (some from the artist page, others who chose not to be public endorsers) and I've never had anyone think the tone wasn't killer. For me the Axe-Fx (and AX8) is the secret weapon of bass.

It's great to know that the Axe Fx has this potential. Could you make your knowledge and experience available in actual presets we can use as starting points for killer bass tones? Why not make this into a commercial product like IRs already are even showcasing specific artists packs?
 
To be honest, when the rug was pulled out from under bassists with the whole "we're modeling a BK7" only to find out that "we're not modeling a BK7", it was really off-putting, and just illustrates how things seem to go for bassists here. It demonstrated that the head didn't seem to be in sync with the arm. Heaven forbid there be a consolation such as "we know we improperly led you down the Bk7 path, and we can't do it, but here's something that we CAN do that you might like just as well". Nope. No gesture of contrition for having dangled a juicy carrot and then pulling it away. Tough titty. Go home empty handed.

FAS seems to be so ambivalent about bassists that it APPEARS that they'd be fine if bassists just sort of went away. Maybe that's not true, but you'd be hard pressed to present a strong counter-argument these days.
 
To be honest, when the rug was pulled out from under bassists with the whole "we're modeling a BK7" only to find out that "we're not modeling a BK7", it was really off-putting, and just illustrates how things seem to go for bassists here. It demonstrated that the head didn't seem to be in sync with the arm. Heaven forbid there be a consolation such as "we know we improperly led you down the Bk7 path, and we can't do it, but here's something that we CAN do that you might like just as well". Nope. No gesture of contrition for having dangled a juicy carrot and then pulling it away. Tough titty. Go home empty handed.

FAS seems to be so ambivalent about bassists that it APPEARS that they'd be fine if bassists just sort of went away. Maybe that's not true, but you'd be hard pressed to present a strong counter-argument these days.
Jim, I totally understand where you are coming from. I

think they just kind of assumed that when they said they couldn't model the BK7, that it was due to a technical issue rather than a lack of will issue.

I do agree with you that it seems when we query about certain promised bass amp models, we get met with silence.

But there is so much in the device that bassists can use. Think of it this way, there were few differences between the Marshall Super Bass and Super Lead. With the way the modelling is exposed, you can make the plexis sound like a Super Bass with the right ir.

That is true for a lot of amps in that they share a lot of the same topology with a lot of the already modeled guitar and bass amps.

The only amps that seem to be a holy grail in the Fractal are unusual topology sold state amps (such as with cascading in series EQ) and the hybrid tube pre/solid state power amp bass amps.

And due to the way the way certain modern solid state components are built, it's very difficult to model accurately for a variety of undisclosable reasons.
 
@dr bonkers - I do appreciate your insights, and clearly, you're part of the solution side of things, not the problem. The question is this: should bassists necessarily know how to adjust virtual components "under the hood" of a guitar amp model in order for it to emulate a known bass amp? This is a moot point IMO if Fractal simply does this for the bassists and creates a preset. In your Marshall example, a preset called SuperBass and a companion cabinet IR. Not sure why that's such a hard thing for Fractal to wrap their heads around, especially since it's been forever since bassists were directly accommodated with....anything, without having to pay for it ;-)

As for solid state amp/preamp emulations, I get it. The amps mostly desired are tube amps. But a lot of the drive models are not. I guess this would be a matter of FAS being interested enough in solid state component emulation to create new algorithms so that things like the GK800RB and other bass amps - as well as guitar amps like the Lab Series LF - could be added to the modeling lineup.

There are just so many extremely well-known bass items missing from the roster. This is NOT about whether the AxeFXII can emulate certain sounds - we all know that if you are adept enough at toying with the parameters, just about anything is possible. It is about FAS indulging the bass segment of the market so that the heavy lifting has been done for us already, much in the same way the guitar segment has been treated since day one.

This is, as always, a very frustrating discussion. For now, I'm done.
 
B7K confirmed for the next firmware update per Cliff.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...t-potential-new-fw.130670/page-2#post-1548339

Mr Fist, I think it's time for you to do the happy dance.

I'm watching with guarded optimism. The B7k is a nice start and will please a lot of bassists. If FAS makes bass item additions a regular thing vs. every 4-5 years, then you can count me back in. Flowers and dinner are nice. I'm looking for a ring and a commitment! LOL
 
Man, my experience is SO opposite to the above. I designed Axe-Fx II bass presets for some of the biggest tours in the world and everyone — artist, monitors, front-of-house — has been blown away. I've also worked one on one with many bass player customers, including amateurs and big name pros (some from the artist page, others who chose not to be public endorsers) and I've never had anyone think the tone wasn't killer. For me the Axe-Fx (and AX8) is the secret weapon of bass.

One of the best days of my career at Fractal Audio was dialing in a "multi-band" bass preset with engineer Paul Northfield, who worked on my favorite Rush albums. That preset had a DI, a bass amp, and a guitar amp. We phase aligned everything with precision delays (cab block, compressor look-ahead). That's been the model for everything I've done since.

Another thing I'll tell you that in the name of "consistency" I've been asked to make a fair number of custom IRs and tone matches of bass devices including some of the ones you named above. (Sorry, I can't share these, as they are the property of the artists who use them.) This works just fine if that's what you like, but I never found the tone to be "better" using this method -- just "right and ready" for a given band or mix.
Man, my experience is SO opposite to the above. I designed Axe-Fx II bass presets for some of the biggest tours in the world and everyone — artist, monitors, front-of-house — has been blown away. I've also worked one on one with many bass player customers, including amateurs and big name pros (some from the artist page, others who chose not to be public endorsers) and I've never had anyone think the tone wasn't killer. For me the Axe-Fx (and AX8) is the secret weapon of bass.

One of the best days of my career at Fractal Audio was dialing in a "multi-band" bass preset with engineer Paul Northfield, who worked on my favorite Rush albums. That preset had a DI, a bass amp, and a guitar amp. We phase aligned everything with precision delays (cab block, compressor look-ahead). That's been the model for everything I've done since.

Another thing I'll tell you that in the name of "consistency" I've been asked to make a fair number of custom IRs and tone matches of bass devices including some of the ones you named above. (Sorry, I can't share these, as they are the property of the artists who use them.) This works just fine if that's what you like, but I never found the tone to be "better" using this method -- just "right and ready" for a given band or mix.

@Admin M@ please can you give us a sample of that "multi band" preset to work with... it very dificult to get bass tones with the axe, if you can share some layout of this multi band form, would be great!!! Come on!!! Share
Some GOOD presets
 
How do most of you monitor and listen to bass through the Axe FX II? I've got an Atomic CLR and have been trying very hard to build a decent sounding bass patch using the bass amps & cabs that are built in and am struggling quite a bit. I'm wondering if it's my monitor set up? I know CLR's are full range, but any bass patches I try to build using just an amp and cab model sound thin and fake, even after considerable tweaking of the tone stack and other advanced parameters.
 
How do most of you monitor and listen to bass through the Axe FX II? I've got an Atomic CLR and have been trying very hard to build a decent sounding bass patch using the bass amps & cabs that are built in and am struggling quite a bit. I'm wondering if it's my monitor set up? I know CLR's are full range, but any bass patches I try to build using just an amp and cab model sound thin and fake, even after considerable tweaking of the tone stack and other advanced parameters.

Welcome to the club of frustrated bassists. Personally, I just don't think that Fractal has demonstrated a true commitment to bassists with respect to really nailing the bass side of things compared to the guitar amps and cabs. It's not that the bass amps/cabs sound bad, but speaking personally, they never scratched a familiar itch for me - especially the bass cabinet IRs. Guitarists have 250 amp models to call upon, and a ton of stock cabinets. It's much easier for them to quickly dial up an "a-haaaa!" guitar tone. Not so easy for bassists...for whatever reason.

Supposedly this will get a little better if Darkglass B7k is a flavor of bass tone that you like, when Fractal finally adds it. It still doesn't really address the lack of bass cabinet IRs with any distinctive, readily recognizable character to them. I've yet to hear a cabinet IR that sounds just like my SVT Classic 8x10. I know I'm not alone, either.

Just keep at it.
 
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