musicman0001
Experienced
And my answer is simple (and yet so complicated) and it's not the axe fx that is "to blame.
When i started modelling I was so happy that finally I had so many amps and effects. I started with the Purple Monster from Digitech which was a hybrid solution (digital and analog) and it had real tubes. FRFR & amp/cab emulation was not really (to me) on par, but trough a cabinet I suddenly had so many sounds to tweak to my needs wich could easily be accessed by a footswitch.
Now years later I have "similar" set up (The III Turbo), but now using FRFR, so I can create sounds more in line with what you hear on the record and what the audience is hearing when listen to a live performance. And as a guitar player used to hearing sounds through a cabinet and not very known in all the things that happen after it leaves the speaker cabinet.
What I learned througout the years reading this forum and my own search I can summarize some of my "black eyes" I encounterted:
When i started modelling I was so happy that finally I had so many amps and effects. I started with the Purple Monster from Digitech which was a hybrid solution (digital and analog) and it had real tubes. FRFR & amp/cab emulation was not really (to me) on par, but trough a cabinet I suddenly had so many sounds to tweak to my needs wich could easily be accessed by a footswitch.
Now years later I have "similar" set up (The III Turbo), but now using FRFR, so I can create sounds more in line with what you hear on the record and what the audience is hearing when listen to a live performance. And as a guitar player used to hearing sounds through a cabinet and not very known in all the things that happen after it leaves the speaker cabinet.
What I learned througout the years reading this forum and my own search I can summarize some of my "black eyes" I encounterted:
- Cliff is (almost) allways right, and he seems to be very knowledgable on the science of audio
- Yes there can and will be bugs, all products have challenges to fix or to overcome
- FRFR is absolutely (!) NOT the same as "amp and cab" and a lot of people keep comparing grapes and raisins (same fruit, but very different)
- Every person has different taste and expectations
- The sounds of guitars on most records are NOT the same as you think they are
- FRFR and recording are very complicated due to soo many factors (your ears, your expectations and brain, the way you have set up your guitar, speakers, IR's, microphones, gainstages)
- The whole setup you use to create or to recreate the sound (even with the same speakers, tools, etc..) can be dissapointing as others seems to get it right from the start. Again: it's not the axe fx, but it's the whole chain
- Audio is just very very complex, and the ones that got it right are lucky, have the proper setup or they really understand audio very well
- Speakers and a threated room or how you place them really do matter (and for me already it starts with how strings are set up!!)
- It has been mainly me, not understanding it all and too big expections
- Fletcher–Munson and air-movement at your pants (added as indeed this is very underestimeted subject)
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