New and very overwhelmed Axe 2 owner! Where in the world to start?

Well, I did "something" wrong..

I was just spinning the knob and going thru presets and hitting buttons on the mfc and it just started sounding like ass..:(

Whatever button I hit, it sounds like I killed the Atomics..everything all fuzzy and sounding terrible, no matter what patch..and it was just at bedroom level or left..

Anyone got an inkling what I might have done?

And there is some "popping" here and there really faint, but only heard that a few times..popping like a crackling kind of thing...


Help?
 
Learn how to make a handful of simple presets. Just amp-cab-reverb or delay.

Without knowing your specific tastes, here are a few general ones most guitarists would like:

Get the twin reverb preset, change the amp to a Super, turn off the delay, and then up the reverb or cabinet room. Or Download Tyler Grunds (???) voodoo chile preset and tweak to taste with new firmware. (The IR is important here.) When you can play accurately enough it actually sounds like an SRV album. Crazy.

Play the Friedman BE and HBE presets. Play some zeppelin, ACDC, etc. awesome sounding amps.

Play FAS Lead 2 presets. Smokin hard rock lead amp.

If you like to play metal play the FAS modern and the Diezel presets. Can also check out the Rectos, the 5150, and the petrucci preset.

Play the Mark Day preset.

The the modern Van Halen preset.

Try the Cliffs of Dover preset.

Try tone matching.

Have fun.
 
My suggestion is to think long term. It took me over a year to understand how it works and what the parameters do, and I'm still not even close to being a master. Take it one song, one preset, one parameter at a time.
 
Ok..whatever I did, and I still have no idea, turning it off for a while fixed it or reset it or whatever..so am back to make ing BAD ASS tones with this..

But is the Axe Edit program thingy is broke, how do you load the Mark Day and Periphery and other patches?
 
I'm fairly new at this too...Ive been tweaking mine for over a year... and even though its true to try and enjoy PLAYING the presets now, there will come a time when its time for you to jump into making your own way on this thing...what I have found is this, and it echos Scott Petersons earlier post:

Determine what your goal is..By that I mean

A)determine your playing level..because making presets/patches for playing at 20db(bedroom level) is going require different things for patches you want to use at ~100db(live band volumes)
B) determine what your configuration of choice will be: for example, Are you running Full Range(FRFR)??.. or are you going into an amp and guitar cabinets??...or maybe some other configuration like into a Tube Head to guitar cab, using the 4 cable setup??, or maybe just direct recording into a computer..??...you need to decide because the settings and the patches you will make for one way do not just transfer over to another way(at least in my opinion thus far), because of the cab sim and power amp sim settings and ALL KINDS of other settings that change for each scenario... ..I've tried almost all of them..thus, I've spent over a year and MANY HOURS of dialing in sounds for various setups....

C)Determine how you are going to operate your foot controller: are you going to run it like a stomp box?? are you going to just set up a bunch of unique presets? are you going to try using the 'SCENES' function?...you need to decide and go forth with that method...I've ended up doing different ones and using different areas in the bank for different configurations....
D) READ< READ< READ...all the info...over and over...on the forum, Yek's wiki, Google your questions and READ ...ALOT. Ask stupid questions on the forum..the people here will help you.;)

Unfortunately, FOR ME, this was how I got to where I am today, which is by no means the end of the JOURNEY for this device...and I can't say it was EASY...(heck, i just loaded my first PRESET from Axe-Change the other day WITHOUT Axe-Edit...).Its a LONG ROAD..but don't get discouraged because it can be done...I might take some flack for that, but I feel its the truth. Before the Axe FX I was not learned in MIDI, and sysex stuff, MIDO-OX, computer interfaces, none of it..and for me, there was a steep learning curve, but I am determined to get there because the Axe FX is the most versatile device I have ever seen....... GOOD LUCK! KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS because there MUST be more people like US who are in varying degrees of darkness, and are going to need alot of help unlocking the secrets of this crazy box...
 
Hmmmmm ......... just had my 63rd :eek: birthday this week. Imagine my learning curve for the Ax-Fx II and MFC. Always up for a challenge. Loving the sounds though. Reading and watching (Utube) and devouring the forum for info from you guys. Will hopefully master the setup by years end. ..... or not? :roll
 
The Axe Edit program currently corrupts the presets if you try to edit parameters. You can use it to load presets and move things around, then use the front panel to change the values. There are threads out there of safe things to do with AE until the new one is released, hopefully soon.
 
hussamd said:
The Axe Edit program currently corrupts the presets if you try to edit parameters. You can use it to load presets and move things around, then use the front panel to change the values. There are threads out there of safe things to do with AE until the new one is released, hopefully soon.
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I cannot even find the Axe Edit program..the links to download are gone from the FAS site..:(
 
They took it down because of the problems with it and the last few versions of firmware. It is being worked on will be available "soon" (inside joke). It is coming though.

What I always suggest is that you do go ahead and run through the presets as is and see what it is capable of, but when you start learning to create patches that you start with a systematic approach. If you've ever had a rig with a pedalboard it's the same exact concept in terms of wiring that vs putting a preset together. The main thing to me to learn first and foremost is how to dial in an amp and a cab. Things like reverb, delay, etc are all like stompboxes that flavor the tone, but the heart to any preset is the amp and the cab and this where you will spend most of your time dialing in any tone.

So I say to start with a clean grid and then put just an amp, a cabinet and perhaps a reverb at the end of the chain. Make sure that you put shunts in between to connect them all from the input to the output in the grid. You can start from a preset that works and just shunt everything that isn't one of those three blocks if that's easier. Now try to go through the amps and learn how to switch between cabinets that kind of go with them. There is no right or wrong, but the purpose of this exercise to get familiar with the controls and hear what is going on. Then just start dialing in the tone once you find an amp and cab combo you kind of like.

After that you can start adding effects one at a time. Be mindful of whether you want to go before of after the amp/cabinet. Things like modulation tend to work best before and things like reverb and delay work best afterwards, but they aren't hard fast rules. Most of the settings are similar to any other pedal out there until you get into the advanced parameters.....speaking of which should not be looked at as necessary to tweak on.

Too many people start digging into advanced menus for two reasons....because they are compelled to tweak for the sake of tweaking or they missed the correct parameter in the main part to make the adjustment necessary to get where they are trying to go. The advanced parameters to me are the screwdriver and soldering irons of the digital world. If I had an amp and cab in front of me I wouldn't open it up and start messing with cathode bias to adjust the tone stack of a real amp. I wouldn't go in and start unwinding the transformer by hand. That's what these parameters do. I will say that the first generation of the AxeFX did lend itself to deeper tweaking as a necessity at times, but the AxeFXII is so much closer to the real amps from default that it's hard to put an amp and cab in a preset and not be half way there.

Another tip is to save often. Once I get closer I always hit save and then enter twice. If I get into trouble or screw it up, just hit recall, change presets and come back and it will restore to your last good point. Don't be afraid to make a mistake, just be prepared to overcome it.

And the last thing that I can't emphasize enough is that you are not going to create 100 presets over the first weekend. I spent 2 months playing a bassman preset because I found something I liked about it early on and spent time dialing it in and getting used to the system...but even more importantly I got familiar with how the AxeFXII responds to my playing. You start changing amps every two seconds and you'll never get a solid basis on what it does and how it works because you are all over the place. Plus you end up spending more time tweaking than playing and that is not the point of this thing.
 
Well..I found the threads about Midi-Ox and such and managed to load up some of the Periphery presets as well as Mark Day's stuff off of the Axe-Change.

Some load, some wont load no matter what I try, but I got several to play with and look at man..this unit just keeps on getting better and better!!
 
Birdie said:
Well..I found the threads about Midi-Ox and such and managed to load up some of the Periphery presets as well as Mark Day's stuff off of the Axe-Change.

Some load, some wont load no matter what I try, but I got several to play with and look at man..this unit just keeps on getting better and better!!
Click to expand...

They all probably load, but some presets end up in a completely different slot than you would expect it to, so you actually have to look for it :)
 
Birdie said:
But they would not have over-written anything as I did not "save"..right?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately they do replace whatever is in the patch they end up in, so you can risk loosing a preset you've made even if you don't save. So do make backups of your work before you upload any more :)
 
strat714 said:
Remember you can always restore or reload presets, so don't be afraid to get crazy. Use your ears to tweak and have fun.
Click to expand...

This was/is one of the hardest parts for me. I try to create a new preset somewhere but am like "But I may use that... let me find another spot." I will never use it.
 
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