Modeler Stress Test

1 and 2 are very close, but I have to say that to me all 3 sound really horrible. But I guess the purpose of this test wasn't to show off how good unit xy can sound :D
 
I'm not familiar with the amp being used, so don't know what it should sound like. However, my feelings are:

AXE
AMP
COMPETITOR

Can you do the same blind test with an AC30TB??
 
1 and 2 are very close, but I have to say that to me all 3 sound really horrible. But I guess the purpose of this test wasn't to show off how good unit xy can sound :D
I dunno, I think it is. "Good" is subjective. The guitar tone in "Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the sky" sounds good to me, but not for the same reasons that I like other "good" guitar tones.
 
1 and 2 are very close, but I have to say that to me all 3 sound really horrible. But I guess the purpose of this test wasn't to show off how good unit xy can sound :D

^^ This

FWIW, I certainly see [and hear] the aim of this test ... but all 3 sounds, to me are also horrible ... although sonic "pleasure" is irrelevant in this test.

I'll go out on a limb and say 3 is the real amp ...... those Fenders get very "farty" / "flubby" when you crank all the knobs to 10 :)

Also, FWIW, and given the other aliasing thread was v Helix, I'll assume [ ? :( ? ] the "other" is again a Helix.

So I pulled up the 2 Helix Fender Vib channel amps, and:-

- set everything to 10
- Hum and Ripple OFF [ my preferred and what should be Helix stock ]
- Inout Impedance to 230k [ my preferred ]
- all other amp settings stock
- stock Cab with SM57 Lo 90hz / hi 12K
- 91' USA std Tele Broadcaster Bridge
- all other Helix Globals set to stock / default

and the resulting clips sound nothing like clip 3 ... hence why Im saying 3 is the real amp.

Ben
 
^^ This

FWIW, I certainly see [and hear] the aim of this test ... but all 3 sounds, to me are also horrible ... although sonic "pleasure" is irrelevant in this test.

I'll go out on a limb and say 3 is the real amp ...... those Fenders get very "farty" / "flubby" when you crank all the knobs to 10 :)

Also, FWIW, and given the other aliasing thread was v Helix, I'll assume [ ? :( ? ] the "other" is again a Helix.

So I pulled up the 2 Helix Fender Vib channel amps, and:-

- set everything to 10
- Hum and Ripple OFF [ my preferred and what should be Helix stock ]
- Inout Impedance to 230k [ my preferred ]
- all other amp settings stock
- stock Cab with SM57 Lo 90hz / hi 12K
- 91' USA std Tele Broadcaster Bridge
- all other Helix Globals set to stock / default

and the resulting clips sound nothing like clip 3 ... hence why Im saying 3 is the real amp.

Ben

Hmmmm.....I wonder if number 3 could be a Kemper. From what I can tell, Profiling' appears to be based on empirically sampled responses rather than circuit modeling and would have to rely heavily on interpolation and extrapolation - which would likely mean the least accurate at the extremes.

RR
 
The only reason I couldn't comment was because I had listened to the sample on some very crappy mono earphones on my work laptop and I was worried I would make the wrong call. Luckily I was thinking the last sample was a bit different but didn't have the guts to commit to that!

EDIT: Sheesh, so many people got it right! Nice one!
 
Hmm......well , you made ME listen again. ( I bet - I won't be alone.)

Thanks for the recording , - and the answer. Impressive.
 
Before I I saw the result of Cliff, I prefered the first one - the amp.
The AxeIII sounds a little bit more muddy, smooth to me.

The gain structure - nice to hear at fading chords is more rough than at the real amp, real ampsound seems to have more "details"?

Is that new Ares modeling also for Amp settings helpful, it the amp is not cranked up to the limit?
 
Last edited:
Awesome, I guessed right...more importantly, while none of the takes sounded "good", the best of the bunch was the III ( by popular vote - I don't know, can the Russians get in and mess with the electoral on this :D ? ). Not surprised though, the II already beats many of the amps it's modeled, so I'd expect the III to be even better then the real thing!

No real reason to keep asking if Ares is coming to the II and AX8, Cliff stated that any epiphanies will make their way to other units whenever possible...he even said he'd have made the III a free update if he could have, but when they quit making the chips for the II and a higher performance alternative became available, the choice to upgrade the hardware was required. Yes, it's a very different model of business then the competition that puts out insignificant hardware upgrades every couple of years and then hype the crap out of their crappy box - it's one of the reasons FAS has dedicated customers ( the other being their stuff is just plain better then anything else, right? ).
 
1 and 2 are very close, but I have to say that to me all 3 sound really horrible. But I guess the purpose of this test wasn't to show off how good unit xy can sound :D

Right, not the purpose at all. One of the hardest things to model is output transformer saturation which is why I chose a Deluxe Reverb and dimed the bass. Fender Amps have very undersized transformers that saturate easily (which is part of their sound). Cranking the bass further stresses the OT.

Normally I would turn the bass way down, maybe even to zero, when using that much gain.
 
A great "stress test" of a modeler is how well it performs at extremes. How accurate is the modeling when the amp is pushed to the limits? Amps do crazy things when their virtual power amps and power supplies are pushed to extremes.

In this test I've compared the Axe-Fx III (with our new "Ares" modeling), another product and a real amp. The amp used is the Vibrato channel of a Deluxe Reverb with Volume, Bass and Treble all at 10. The equivalent model was chosen on the III and the other product and the respective controls also set to 10.

Can you guess which is which?

www.fractalaudio.com/tmp/stress_test.mp3
Clip 1 is the real amp!
 
Back
Top Bottom