Maybe new AF2 owner... Mam, Dad, I'm so scared!!!

I don't tweak too much.

The defaults work for me on just about every block.

The learning curve is learning the concepts of blocks, routing and gain staging.

In my opinion you can get stellar tones using the defaults once you get a good grip on the routing and gain staging concepts.

My current shows coming up are in a Grateful Dead'ish band. No metal. I'm using the Deluxe Reverb only with the same IR and a Drive block for solos.
 
Pllm said:
3rd, I spent hours reading your threads/comments and it seems like you all spend days tweaking your sound... And that's time I would prefer to spend playing guitar.
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I think that's just a mirage. The vast majority of owners are busy playing. BUT, when someone finds out something interesting/cool/unique they will share it. I seem to see the exact opposite. While there are plenty of tips & tricks posts, I think most are folks that are running into trouble getting something done and come here asking for help...like should I buy one or not? ;)




Pllm said:
4th, it seems like most of the AF owners are metal players
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nah, it's just that their music is so much louder than the rest we have a hard time being heard! ;)

Just kidding, there are all kinds. You can make this bloody beast do almost anything.



Pllm said:
5th, I have a live planned for beginning of March... So 1 month to set up my patches (10 main patches)...
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Should not be a problem. Figure a week to futz around and learn the beast. And a night or two to setup patches. As many have said, you might very well be able to jump start things right off the bat with the stock presets. There's lots of good stuff there.
 
To the OP - it sounds from your initial post that you are not looking for amps you love your Orange, you are looking for effects to initiate added creative, soundscapes to create new songs and sounds. You are also intimidated and want to spend most/all of your time playing (as we all do). You had/have the G-System but are frustrated by some weak functions (gate, eq etc). To me you are not a candidate for the AxeFx and the MFC (which you have to have it should not be considered optional if you are gigging), you should be on the waitlist for the FX8 it will crush the G-System, is a direct challenger to it and will have all the effects of the AxeII inside and should/will resolve all your issues without being intimidating and will have a better gate, eq's etc...be lighter, smaller, better tone, no tone suck and a perfect 4cable method unit to gigging bliss. No it may not be available in time for your upcoming gig, so get by with what you have for now. Not to mention its thousands of Euros cheaper than an AxeXL/MFC setup.
 
I bought the gystem and used it for about 2 months before I switched over to the axe fx xl. It seemed like the additional items I needed to make it work was never ending, plus there is no more support from TC. I went from Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier with the matching 4x12 cab, Gsystem 5 additional pedals and all new cables to an axe fx and mfc-101. So easy, light and awesome sounding.
 
As one of the many non-metal Axe-Fx users, I will simply say that my Fender Princeton Reverb Reissue has not been turned on in about a year since the clean tones I get from the AC15 model and now the new Fender Concert model are so good. The pushed clean to edge of breakup tones are also amazing.

As far as endless tweaking goes, Fractal gives us almost every tool available to mess with the tone/feel of a rig we create. There is more than enough rope to hang oneself if you spiral out of control with every parameter in the box. If you do decide to get one or you are able to try one, limit yourself to the basic amp controls in the amp block and spend enough time finding the cab model that gets you close to what you want to hear. I got my Axe II back at firmware 10 and I was able to get the "whoa this is the real deal" feeling after about 3 minutes with the AC15 amp model. Everything has only gotten better and simpler to dial in since that firmware.
 
Pllm said:
3rd, I spent hours reading your threads/comments and it seems like you all spend days tweaking your sound... And that's time I would prefer to spend playing guitar.
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I don't think you can use forums as an accurate measure in cases like this. For every post here from someone trying to obsessively recreate the tone they hear in their head or of their favorite player, there are likely a hundred people who are too busy playing and recording guitar to post here.

A similar thing happens with forums for software. When you go there you see posts where people are ranting about bugs and how they can not use whatever program it is. You might look at those posts and think 'wow that software is a complete mess, how is it legal to sell that thing?'. But again you don't see posts from all of the people who are not experiencing any issues with the software. People post on the internet when they have a complaint, no one posts 'everything's fine..again' :)

As for the concern about the Axe being only good for metal, I thought that initially too.. but experience has proved me dead wrong.
Little jam I recorded recently with the latest firmware (17.04). Playing is a little sloppy but close your eyes and listen and tell me this isn't a valve amp.. it's not though!
 
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Thanks all for your comments, feedback and opinions!
Very usefull indeed. I'm gonna think about it in the few days!

Pll.m
 
Don't worry about a thing. You can try factory presets and likely will be happy with them. Take the step! You won't regret it.
The absolute worst thing that could happen is that you'll decide to sell it at 100% (or more!) of your original cost. (Nothing holds it's valve like an AxeFX!)
 
Pllm, where about are you? There maybe an AF2 user who'll let you have a cabby on his rig. I'll be taking my rig to The Guitar Show in Birmingham (UK), I run both FRFR and proper cab (4x12).
 
Pllm said:
Hi all,

I'm not yet a Axe FX owner but I've been watching videos and reading your comments for the last 2 months... And I'm really puzzled.

I'm not a "great" guitar player but I love to play. For now, I own a Telecaster ash deluxe and a Les Paul R09, both played on an Orange Thunderverb 50H with a G System for the effects. I'm bored of the G System. Too heavy, too "uncomplete" (you need a booster, a good noise gate as the G system' one is crap, a good EQ as the one of GS is crap, a good...). At the end, it's too much weight and too much "points of failure" for me. I do love my Thunderverb, great tone without much tweaking but I'm more and more interested by effects to create new songs. So I've started to sell all this stuff (except the guitars as I've been told it's still needed, even for the AF) and I'm getting closer to an AF2 XL.

But it's not... that easy.
1st, impossible to try this unit (I live in France/Paris).
2nd, even then, not sure I would be more comfortable after a try.
3rd, I spent hours reading your threads/comments and it seems like you all spend days tweaking your sound... And that's time I would prefer to spend playing guitar.
4th, it seems like most of the AF owners are metal players
5th, I have a live planned for beginning of March... So 1 month to set up my patches (10 main patches)...

And on the other side:
- Having 1 rig for acoustic and electric (and even for my bass), that would be great.
- I've heard so many good sounds...
- Having 1 rig that I could easily play live (direct to FOH with in-ear monitoring) and during rehearsals (direct to FOH or in the return loop of an "random" amp), it seems so great.
- Even 1 rig that can be used for 2 guitars in case the other tube amp is down... That's great !
- ...

Well, so I'm puzzled. Any comments on this? Is this a good idea or am I going through months of disillusion?
Help me see the path, I'm lost!

Pll.m
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ok as a newbie myself (bought an axe-fx xl about a month ago) im gonna tell you my story/experience. i hope people wont get mad at me because of this.. (btw sorry for bad english)

im a full time musician so im playing a lot of different stuff but my personal taste is playing metal. i was saving money for an axe-fx for about almost 1.5 year (in my country u.s dollar is about 3 times expensive then our money.. because of this its extremly expensive)
i watched every youtube videos about unit and totaly amazed from its sound quality and easy to use (people are just throwing an amp and cap block and boom its done)
plus people are sharing their presets so you can download your favorite tones and use it until you learn how to dial a tone for your taste! and i was like ''ok this is the end of my game im gonna get one of these learn to use it in 2-3 weeks and done!''
so as i said i finally bought one about a month ago but reality is a little bit different then i expected.

first of all presets that i downloaded from axe change are mostly didnt worked as it should be because all presets that i wanted are from older firmware's so almost all of them sound different then i listened in the videos or soundclips.
first thing that i do at the time is asking help from fellow axe-fx users and so i learned about fw differencies and i said ''ah ok then i should just learn to dial a tone myself it shouldnt be that hard'' and yes building a preset is really simple you just throw an amp and a cap and its done i rarely changed 1 or 2 things in the amp and thats all! (btw im not that picky about guitar tone just a decent one and im a happy guy until i die) i played with just 2 amps for 3 days (6 hours each day) amazing rock tones!
but when i decide to dial a heavy rhytym tone thats when the bad days started.. i just couldnt dial a decent one it just dont work no matter what i do.. its always too fizzy or bouncy/muddy.. i researched the forums learned some of the different knobs in the amp block but not all of them coz there are so many knobs that dont have a simple explanation even in manual.
so i started to messing with knobs that i learned clearly about a week but still im only %30 close to the sounds that i wanted.. i tried to tone match thing but you need to have a isolated guitar track so i skipped that option pretty fast.. then i learned the main difference is coming from the ir (cab block) so i started trying different cab's with the same amp block but still no help even started to consider buying a cab pack but im not sure atm
and now im still trying to find a tone similar something that i heard in the videos/soundclips but as i said im way to far from it and now im starting to thing there is something different going on.. either im stupid (i really hope so) , there is something different in the people's axe-fx (like some secret cab presets etc..) , or there is something really wrong with my axe-fx coz its nothing like that i expected when it comes to heavy stuff.
dont hesitate to call me stupid but this is my first month with axe-fx xl im still trying.. dont get me wrong im not saying its a bad product its worth it. but dont expect it to be easy like you heard or watched from outside.
 
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Hi all!

NiceChris, many thanks for your kind proposal. I'm in Paris, so Birmingham is a bit far! (was living in Hull 10 years ago but that's another life)...
I finally made the big step this morning: payment has been sent... Dice are rolled... Can't wait to receive it!!

I finally decided that if I succeed in selling my old stuff (G System, amp, cab...), I should be able to buy the AF2. A big part is sold, no other expenses planned for February (even food).
I think I'll post my feedback of the first steps, in case anyone is interested.

Thanks again for your comments, I'm part of the familly now!
Pll.m
 
I gig using presets that I tweak just slightly. I play funk, jazz, metal, rock and blues. For most of my rock and blues tones the presets depend on my rolling off the volume on my guitar and they clean up incredibly well, very naturally.

Treat it like you would any other gear chain. Pick a nice amp and stick a few stomps in front of it, and a rack effect or two after. The same principles apply to the Axe as any other gear chain. Any tone building problem I have had has been to do with straying away from this mindset and experimenting, in which case there will always be an amount of trial and error.
 
Tonewicker said:
ok as a newbie myself (bought an axe-fx xl about a month ago) im gonna tell you my story/experience. i hope people wont get mad at me because of this.. (btw sorry for bad english)

im a full time musician so im playing a lot of different stuff but my personal taste is playing metal. i was saving money for an axe-fx for about almost 1.5 year (in my country u.s dollar is about 3 times expensive then our money.. because of this its extremly expensive)
i watched every youtube videos about unit and totaly amazed from its sound quality and easy to use (people are just throwing an amp and cap block and boom its done)
plus people are sharing their presets so you can download your favorite tones and use it until you learn how to dial a tone for your taste! and i was like ''ok this is the end of my game im gonna get one of these learn to use it in 2-3 weeks and done!''
so as i said i finally bought one about a month ago but reality is a little bit different then i expected.

first of all presets that i downloaded from axe change are mostly didnt worked as it should be because all presets that i wanted are from older firmware's so almost all of them sound different then i listened in the videos or soundclips.
first thing that i do at the time is asking help from fellow axe-fx users and so i learned about fw differencies and i said ''ah ok then i should just learn to dial a tone myself it shouldnt be that hard'' and yes building a preset is really simple you just throw an amp and a cap and its done i rarely changed 1 or 2 things in the amp and thats all! (btw im not that picky about guitar tone just a decent one and im a happy guy until i die) i played with just 2 amps for 3 days (6 hours each day) amazing rock tones!
but when i decide to dial a heavy rhytym tone thats when the bad days started.. i just couldnt dial a decent one it just dont work no matter what i do.. its always too fizzy or bouncy/muddy.. i researched the forums learned some of the different knobs in the amp block but not all of them coz there are so many knobs that dont have a simple explanation even in manual.
so i started to messing with knobs that i learned clearly about a week but still im only %30 close to the sounds that i wanted.. i tried to tone match thing but you need to have a isolated guitar track so i skipped that option pretty fast.. then i learned the main difference is coming from the ir (cab block) so i started trying different cab's with the same amp block but still no help even started to consider buying a cab pack but im not sure atm
and now im still trying to find a tone similar something that i heard in the videos/soundclips but as i said im way to far from it and now im starting to thing there is something different going on.. either im stupid (i really hope so) , there is something different in the people's axe-fx (like some secret cab presets etc..) , or there is something really wrong with my axe-fx coz its nothing like that i expected when it comes to heavy stuff.
dont hesitate to call me stupid but this is my first month with axe-fx xl im still trying.. dont get me wrong im not saying its a bad product its worth it. but dont expect it to be easy like you heard or watched from outside.
Click to expand...

this makes me feel sad because of how much it cost you and you're not satisfied. I'm somewhat in the same boat, but im more satisfied than you it sounds, but all I can say is keep at it and watch youtube videos. I found some 30 minute youtube vids of someone creating their own patch. it was cool to see what parameters they used to achieve their tone, even if it wasn't the same tone I'd shoot for, it helped show how to use (and not use) the AXE.

Another big part of it is what power amp/speaker you're playing through. I'm researching this stuff right now actually. For instance, Atomic CLR monitors are awesome (expensive) and they really let the AXE shine, whereas other amp/speaker combos tend to color the tone, or they're just not clear, so you don't get those great results.

keep at it man
 
I would definitely not sell your gear (at least your amp since it sounds like you are happy with the amp) until you get to spend some time with one.
I've had mine for a little over 2 years now and absolutely love it for recording, but I recently learned that I do not get along with FRFR(even had the CLR ,already sold it).
I play in a blues based rock band so I don't need 200 different tones , when not playing in the band I play mostly "shred" type of music and some metal.
So my JVM now has the Axe FXII in 4CM mode and I'm just using it for effects. I could use it with a power amp (and I may, I just have not found a power amp that I am completely happy with,
and I've tried quite a few) but since most of the stuff we're doing with the band is Marshall based, and I already have the real deal with a killer old JCM800 cab to go through,
I don't need to "try and make it work".
so the point of my post is ...there is no right or wrong way to use this awesome piece of gear, but don't go selling off an amp you like before you try it,
you may be better off just waiting for FX8 and getting something like the mesa cabclone if you want an easy interface to record your amp with
 
Pllm, come over to Birmingham anyway. It'll be fun.

For rock and metalling, I run the AF2 into a Matrix power amp then to a Marshall 4x12. It sounds phenomenal. What I really should do is two 4x12s and really take off. I do not tweak much, it's just a case of trying different amps, and seeing what you like before going tweak crazy.

I never thought of myself as an Engl Powerball man, but I am with the AF2.

Before I get flamed, I believe that FRFR is great for weddings and stuff like that, but it just ain't right playing "Children Of The Grave" through a wedge. It's kinda disrespectful.
 
NiceChris said:
Before I get flamed, I believe that FRFR is great for weddings and stuff like that, but it just ain't right playing "Children Of The Grave" through a wedge. It's kinda disrespectful.
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:lol OMG, that's the funniest thing I've read all day. Love it!

To the OP and others having issues, you might consider having someone help you get your tones dialed in. I know Chris at AxeFxTutorials.com does this, and others on the forum as well. (Sean Ashe and I think Scott Peterson?) It may cost you a little $$ to have them help you, but think of all the time and frustration you'll save.

Just know that you're in good company...many of us have spent many hours dialing in tones that we're happy with. Don't get me wrong, the tones are there, but it may take those of us who aren't natural born tweakers a little longer to get there.
 
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Just pull the trigger, it will be the best decision you will ever make on gear, hands down. AND you will sell everything you currently own, thereby giving you money to buy a new guitar or two:D

'Nuff said..........:eagerness:
 
mrstrat said:
:lol OMG, that's the funniest thing I've read all day. Love it!

To the OP and others having issues, you might consider having someone help you get your tones dialed in. I know Chris at AxeFxTutorials.com does this, and others on the forum as well. (Sean Ashe and I think Scott Peterson?) It may cost you a little $$ to have them help you, but think of all the time and frustration you'll save.

Just know that you're in good company...many of us have spent many hours dialing in tones that we're happy with. Don't get me wrong, the tones are there, but it may take those of us who aren't natural born tweakers a little longer to get there.
Click to expand...

Just wanted to say I don't offer those services, I did once upon a time but no longer. Thanks for the shoutout though :)
 
Pllm said:
Thanks all for your comments, feedback and opinions!
Very usefull indeed. I'm gonna think about it in the few days!

Pll.m
Click to expand...

So... I'm very disappointed...

Oh, not about the AF2, which I received yesterday and that's a GREAT purchase! I'm very happy. Only had 1 hour for the first try but I really enjoy this introduction. I spend times switching between default presets and found some good ones. Very interesting to play with those presets via the editor. As I previously had a G system... I'm not used to such quality editor :) I'm disappointed because I'm travelling for business for 3 days and then travel for familly for a week... So 10 days without playing... Grrrrrr.

In fact my first real test will be in 2 weeks, rehearsal with my band. I'll have one day to prepare my AF2 with nice presets. I don't know yet if I will use FX return of the local amp or direct through FOH but my presets will be prepared for both options. My idea is to find one good preset (amp/cab basically) and build standard presets based on that. I have 10 presets (with scenes) to build, but with the scenes, it should be easy (so far, I'm confident).

I've built by rig with a 4U gator case with AF2, power conditionar and in-ear monitoring + a FCB1010 (not configured yet). Lot of work in front of me and the first hour is full of promises!
 
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