Hi everybody,
My name is Chad and I am James' guitar tech. Thanks for the kind words regarding the new guitar rigs we have going. Special thanks to "Guitarjon" for his enthusiasm in recreating all those old album tones! Jon's hard work and Fractal's technology and dedication to quality, realistic amplifier/cabinet sounds make having these sounds at home a real possibility. If I've learned one thing in the last six months of AxeFx immersion is that you need both human talent and technology that can match your imagination and what you want to hear in your head. The Fractal team has been (beyond) extremely helpful in helping us realize our new AxeFx guitar rigs.
Maybe I can offer a few facts for those of you who are interested in return.
Changing from our tried and true analogue guitar rigs to AxeFx systems was a giant leap for the band and us tech's alike. Everyone felt that the technology provided by FAS was good enough to make this kind of change. There were several reasons to try this. Once the problem of getting our equipment to Antarctica was established, we had a reasonable excuse to make a leap of faith. The Grammy's backed that up.
We began to duplicate our live rigs last fall virtually with the AxeFx. The tones have been a work in progress since day 1. The tones have changed slightly even since the beginning of this South America run and will probably continue to be tweaked and experimented with. The ability to now listen to James play for two plus hours lets me hone in on areas of the sound that need changing or tweaking or eq'ing. The first two shows were played without the Matrix amps and 4X12's. Someone mentioned a lack of feedback or sustain. This was true and we were working on solutions for that without resorting to cabinets. In the end we felt that ditching the cabinets wasn't an option. We needed to try it.
My theory has been to replicate James' live rig first, then to build on these sounds as we go. I think this is a living breathing beast that we will "feed" as we move forward. Some of the reasons we felt that moving to the Fractal is the amount of control. I can change tubes in an amp on a stage in the middle of a some God forsaken field without any hesitation. As a touring tech, there are obvious advantages to not having to maintain tube amps during a normal show day. I can concentrate on how it sounds rather than why it doesn't work or why it sounds different today.
This leads us to the consistency factor. We have three going on four systems of gear. They have never sounded the same between them for obvious analogue reasons. We often see our "Black System" and our "Blue System" in the same week on tour. This is for shipping/cartage reasons. If you knew how much money it cost to move this equipment around the world, you would shit yourself. This brings us to how much weight and space we are now saving by using the AxeFx rigs. Day in and day out, our new "digital" rigs will make it possible for the band to play more shows due to reduced shipping costs alone.
The live guitar rig needs to please James, the monitor engineer, the FOH engineer and our recording engineer. The AxeFx is doing that for us. One long standing issue has been the 4X12's in the isolation boxes (large road cases with cabinets, SONEX and microphones inside. They would build up in the low mids and hamper the low end detail we can now get with the Cab Sims. It's like dialing back the "Proximity" control on the AXFX to a pleasing level. With James right hand, and how fast these notes need to develop and get out of the way of the next note, we are now experiencing a much tighter sound. You all know how much control you have with your own unit regarding the amps and cabinets and drive and shape and feel so I don't need to tell you that we get to do the same. The trick for a tech like me is to be able to translate what a guitar player wants to hear and apply it to the technology to get a desired result. Having way more than your typical 8 or 9 amp knobs is a new toolbox I get to use to do this.
Anyway, I use OUTPUT 1 for two discreet amp sound outputs. One Diezel and one Boogie sound. I use a second AXFX for the clean sounds (JC 120 e.t.c.) I am switching between the heavy and clean sounds via the tried and true VooDoo Labs Ground Control and Audio Switcher. [I used the RJM pedalboard last year with Def Leppard last summer and liked it a lot too] All Effects are programmed into scenes for seamless switching as was mentioned. OUTPUT 2 is for the live cabinets. I am also sending some signal from the CLEAN AXFX into INPUT 1 LEFT of the HEAVY AXFX to send this to the live cab as well if needed. I am using one TM block in the Boogie chain, stereo cabinets and thus far I have not had to use the EQ block I have placed before the output just in case. There has been no need!
Again, thanks for your interest and it is nice to hear positive feedback thus far. We will be working and listening as we go but we are very happy with what we are producing. Please don't get hung up on what our presets look like. You guys have the all the means right there in front of you to create exactly what you want to hear. Hell, Guitarjon gave you the rest!
Happy Tweaking,
Chad
Thanks again to Matt and the rest at FAS for live fixes and updates throughout our long programming days!
