New axefx II owner: High gain patches sound flubby and farty

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ollioj

Member
Sorry for the massive post!
I just recently bought an axefx about a week ago, after learning how to work with the axefx via the front panel etc I started making some patches, cleans sounded amazing!
Then when i went into making high gain patches, majority of cabs and amp heads i used (especially the 6505/5150 models) sounded really farty and flubby in the bottom end and only half decent with full chords
It took a good 100hz highpass on everything possible and another highpass on the whole chain to almost clean up the mud. The only tone i've been happy with so far is a Herbert 2+ channel paired with a German 412,
and this is with a fair few filters and a lot of tweaking,

I then tried downloading Misha and Nolly's patches and they all sounded horrible until i did so much tweaking that they didnt' end up sounding close at all to the original sound, and especially the bass tone sounded horrible and
infact i haven't been able to find a bass tone i'm happy with yet
I really am thinking i'm doing something wrong here :S but I have done system resets and (on V10.02) checked to see if the poweramp sim is on and it is. Also i am playin through a mackie hd1531 but it sounds bad even when i record straight to computer, i don't mean bad as in unplayable but just really doesn't sound close to what it should sound like or what sounds ive heard from it over the net!

What could i be doing wrong? My guitar is a an rga72qtm with stock pickups and that actually usually holds up pretty well against other guitar pickups like my mates emg 81's i tried and still wasn't pleased with the tones i was getting

PLEASE HELP!

TLDR; Poweramp sim is on, taking hours of tweaking to get an only average tone, Monitoring through an FRFR Mackie HD 1531.
 
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got cab sims on?

do the presets sound ok?

what cabs have you tried apart from the german (this one has an absurd amount of bottom end)
 
What kind of speakers do you use?

Play with a backing track, then it is easier to hear how it fits the mix.

Turn bass down. I also cut in global eq: 31 band (-12 dB) 63 band (-6 dB)

You can also play around with 240 ....

And of course; try other IR`s
 
Cab sims are on active yes, presets sound really flubby and bland, although i'm just assuming that's cos i'm playing them with a drop Bb active pickup guitar (standard guitar is stringless atm)

other cabs i've tried are: 2x12 Boutique, 412 recto v30 (both of them), the 412 1960's, and the 412 citrus and pvh 6160 II also a few others i can't remember!

I said in my post that i'm playing through a mackie hd1531 so yes FRFR :)

I'm still trying to figure out currently how to import 3rd party IR's correctly haha

Thanks for the quick feedback guys appreciate it :)
 
Go back to FW 9.02 and see if you like that better. It's more ready-to-go for high gain stuff. Plus I believe nollys and mishas patches are for 9 so they'll sound like poo on 10
 
It sounds decent with headphones, although they're really colored and make even my solid state sound like a cranked 65 almost haha
Alright i'll do that tomorrow thanks! How does one like update to a previous firmware btw?
 
what are you monitoring the Axe through?

- FRFR monitors
- studio monitors
- traditional amp with the 4cm
- power amp and traditional cabs

this all makes a difference
 
When I Updated to v10 I had a bug with the power amp and cab sim, both were on, but only after I manually deactivated both and the reactivated them they were really working, you could try this.

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 7 mit Tapatalk 2
 
Make sure your speakers are not out of phase. The could lead to loss of bass. Your speakers are monster speakers!
 
ollioj said:
presets sound really flubby and bland, although i'm just assuming that's cos i'm playing them with a drop Bb active pickup guitar
Click to expand...

ok. go put some new strings on your standard guitar and get back to us then. nothing we suggest will make any difference if that's actually the case!

in the meantime, find a preset on the forum that someone has posted along with a sound clip. download it and see if yours sounds the same. if it doesn't, make a recording and post it.
 
Marcus Siepen said:
When I Updated to v10 I had a bug with the power amp and cab sim, both were on, but only after I manually deactivated both and the reactivated them they were really working, you could try this.

Gesendet von meinem Nexus 7 mit Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...

I will try this tomorrow, thankyou :)
 
eljodon said:
Make sure your speakers are not out of phase. The could lead to loss of bass. Your speakers are monster speakers!
Click to expand...

What do you mean by out of phase? bit of a noob sorry :(
The mackie does make the axefx sound really sick at loud volumes in a band practise situation but at quiet volumes both through the mackie and normal home speakers (logitech z506) the sound isn't very nice!
 
simeon said:
ok. go put some new strings on your standard guitar and get back to us then. nothing we suggest will make any difference if that's actually the case!

in the meantime, find a preset on the forum that someone has posted along with a sound clip. download it and see if yours sounds the same. if it doesn't, make a recording and post it.
Click to expand...

That is a fair point i'll do this tomorrow :)
I've already made some recordings!
First is a 6505 model without highpasses i believe (has a really weird farty frequency at 0:10 with chuggs)
https://soundcloud.com/olli576/tone-test-xoxo
with chuggs and diminished chords on this one i recorded then put a eq band on and found at least 6 problem frequencies!

second is my cleanest patch a herbi 2+ w/ german 412
https://soundcloud.com/olli576/highpass-tone-deizel
 
If everything sounds "farty", its probably your speakers... I haven't heard the Mackie HD series, but the previous mackies had hyped low end, and shrill highs.

Also, is your guitar body made os Basswood ? When I was selling guitars ( many years ago ) I tried Ibanez models with Basswood bodies, and the sounded lifeless and farty ... IMHO, they should have just dropped the "b" from basswood... ;-)
 
flyingfadr said:
If everything sounds "farty", its probably your speakers... I haven't heard the Mackie HD series, but the previous mackies had hyped low end, and shrill highs.

Also, is your guitar body made os Basswood ? When I was selling guitars ( many years ago ) I tried Ibanez models with Basswood bodies, and the sounded lifeless and farty ... IMHO, they should have just dropped the "b" from basswood... ;-)
Click to expand...

The mackie is capable of a ridiculously tight and well recovery bottom end at loud volumes and really clean clarity in the mid-high range so i don't think it's the mackie, (i have the bass and high dialed back on the back eq of it to make it roll off like a real cab would)
plus the patches still have the fart frequency when recorded so (well like i said mainly the 6505-5150 models)

and nah my guitars mostly mahogany bodied with a quilted maple top and maple neck!
 
Try putting in a PEQ in your grid... Go to the low frequency band.... Set it at around 250hz to start... Turn up the level until you can see the "v" in the display, then set the "q" so it looks very narrow on the screen... Then, either play or record what you're playing with the looper, and slowly sweep the frequency until you find the frequency that farts obnoxiously loud ;-). Then reduce the level of the frequency until just enough fartiness is gone... Adjust Q to taste...
 
Besides the great advice posted here, I recommend updating to the most recent firmware (10.05).
 
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