New Owners: What did you learn today?

2nd day with Axe II...

Ok, after another 2+ hours working on my core AC30 model, I'm much more impressed. First, it's not like a real, loud AC30 in a room (keep in mind I dont use a power amp and cab so I dont move air and get the true effect). But I bet if I had a 2x12 speaker cab and power amp that it would sound just amazing and ever so close to a real AC30. Fractal has definitely improved the amp modeling and overall tone of the Axe effects. Yesterday I thought "oh, oh, this is only a little better" but just like on all previous units, you have to spend time with it. I went through every parameter a few times in detail and turned myself into a recording engineering trying all sorts of combinations and I converged into something I like a lot. The Axe is so powerful, you can create great tones or absolutely horrible tones (just turn all the parameters far left and see what you get - yucko). It's not just about having the unit, but knowing what to do with it. I'm getting some very nice crystal clear AC30 mids and chime. And the cab models!!! New mic placement and room size parameters open up the tone. Nice and full and lush. New speaker resonance files.

I'll be adjusting some more, and will post some clips. The delays, reverb, all of it is awesome. I'll have to test the monitors also.

New backup features, USB etc. etc. etc. I'm now very happy with the Axe II and only on the second day.

Only downside is time to get used to it and rebuild all my presets. Going to be a long summer.

SUMMARY: When you get your Axe II, don't rely on the amp models as is. The ADVANCED page is the KEY TO AMAZING TONE. If you don't know what the parameters mean, just experiment full left and right and get a feel for how the tone changes. Some change tone more than others. It take HOURS, but it's worth it. You can model ANY tone at all for ANY song if you are willing to invest the time.
 
I learned that if the Ultra was an Indy car the II is F1 all the way. It translates what ever I feed it. Lots of players are going to lose it on the first corner. This thing will make me a better guitarist.
 
I learned to start with a simple Amp+Cab first, THEN add effects after I've dialed in a good tone.

I also learned dual-amp setups only use around 25% of the CPU without other effects and 50% of the CPU with delay, reverb, wah, and drive enabled.
 
Getting the hang of the high and low cut params in the cab block. Not so much use for blocking PEQ blocks now.
 
-first night with mine, and those ABCD knobs are badass, make tweaking so simple and quick.
-I'm a slow learner (took me weeks to learn to get good tones on Ultra) and i am really close after just about 4 hrs last night to some solid tones i like!
-I learned that my speaker cab (carvin 4x12 w/ cheap speakers) aren't good speakers for the Axe. makes everything sound incredibly trebley.
-I learned that headphones/studio monitors sound really good, and that by turning off delay in each preset i found very usable tones.
-I learned that I suck at creating patches (tried to copy the violin patch over, and it just doesn't sound right. I think i need an acoustic IR)
-I agree that first night of Axe coming the day before early work meeting made a painful work meeting.
-I learned that I missed my Ultra way more than i was letting myself think i did. Most guitar i've played in a month since I sold the Ultra.)
 
aleclee said:
Getting the hang of the high and low cut params in the cab block. Not so much use for blocking PEQ blocks now.
Click to expand...

You know...I had some extreme high-end sizzle I was trying to get rid of in a patch last night...might try this method.
 
I learned the following in my first day with the AFx II:
- The plane back from OK couldn't be fast enough.
- I really love playing guitar. (The AFx II made me all the more aware.)
- It will take me a long time to get used to having the ABCD knobs. I'm far too conditioned in using the main dial.
- Input impedance is a major tone/feel shifter. Find a high gain patch and spin it around: eye opening.
- "Euro Crunch" was apparently a factory preset that I tweaked to become my main heavy gain tone. With some tweaking to the cab block in the new preset, I got all my old tone back, with an extra sprinkling of magic dust to give it some more punch!
- Despite being 90% the same stuff, there's some more depth in the II over the Ultra. As a tweaker, I look forward to spending some time with it and learning the nuances.
- There is wisdom in the factory patches. While the nutty sounds might not be useful to you, you can learn all sorts of tricks and new ideas by looking at how they're structured. Some wild sounds are very simple patches, while others have modifiers working against one another.

While I'm not likely to do a normal review, I'll probably expand this into a newcomer "check this stuff out" guide at some point. For now, I have to go deeper.
 
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I played it about 3 hours this AM for the first time since getting it. Unfortunately I was super busy when it got here Tuesday. Many things I found are just a repeat of things already said. There's another thread about whether the II "smokes" the previous generation. All depends on how you define it. If it's the totality of experience, yes, it does. I upgrade firmware the minute I got it. Flawless. I downloaded the drivers and hooked it up to my Mac as an audio interface. Flawless. Total time spend wondering why it wasn't working how I thought it should? Zero. Total time in life of Ultra (2.5 yrs)? Maybe 5-10 hours spent changing midi interfaces, rebooting, etc to get firmware update started beyond what the actual updates took.

Time to get first very playable sounds. 5 minutes max. Used Double Deluxe preset. Adjusted input gain. Killed delay. Adjusted amp gain structure a little. Adjusted reverb to taste in headphones. Done. In the Ultra I spend countless hours tweaking this and that to get to that point. Later in the morning I checked the input impedance control. Huge tweakability. Added a little extra impedance and the slightly overly zingy sound from the amp disappeared and the whole thing warmed up, just like using a little extra cable.

Played some high gain presets which typically aren't my thing. Holy S*&*%t. There was some serious juicy tone coming out. Tried the Trainwreck preset. Wow. It was a little gainy for me, but I'm sure with a little tweaking I could get it where I wanted it. The ability to dial in the gain or clean up from the guitar volume was stunning. Tried a few other presets. Tape Delay preset sounded gorgeous. I typically don't use presets, but I found the presets to be WAY more useable or very close than on the Ultra. The amps are WAY easier to get to sound good. On the Ultra I had to use a lot of eq, both amp and otherwise to deal with the whacky low end and to try to get some high end shimmer. As Scott said, all you need to do for that shimmer now is dial the presence control to taste. I wasn't experiencing the crazy low end stuff either.

So, my very early impression is that if minimizing tweaking time and maximizing playing time is important (and why wouldn't it be?), the II is a huge improvement on the Ultra. With one usb cable I was immediately laying down some totally useable sounds on some tunes I'm working out within 30 minutes of starting to play the Ultra. Sound-wise, my early sense is that the II sounds better, more responsive and more detailed. It's not a lights out "smokes" kind of thing in terms of sound. The Ultra sounds great when tweaked right. More than just the sound itself for me was the improved sense of responsiveness. As I say, I'm not a high gain person by nature, but I agree with what Cliff said that the high gain contingent will notice more sound difference. Even I was much more immediately drawn into high gain presets than I ever was with the Ultra.

Bottom line early impression with me and II is that the percentage of time I spent tweaking vs playing will be worth the cost all by itself. I think for new adopters this will be a HUGE benefit in time saved. For me I feel like I can now put some of the time I spent getting good basic sounds into some more creative uses. In that regard, the whole ease of reamping via USB will be a revelation.

Mike
 
This morning's lesson was in the elegance of the X/Y feature.

On my MFC, I used the "Hold tap to tune" feature, which freed up an IA. I then use that switch for Amp X/Y. That gives me two "flavors" for a given preset. I'll use clean/dirty settings for the same amp, lead boost, or a different complimentary amp. It makes things a bit more pedalboard-like...in a good way.
 
aleclee said:
This morning's lesson was in the elegance of the X/Y feature.

On my MFC, I used the "Hold tap to tune" feature, which freed up an IA. I then use that switch for Amp X/Y. That gives me two "flavors" for a given preset. I'll use clean/dirty settings for the same amp, lead boost, or a different complimentary amp. It makes things a bit more pedalboard-like...in a good way.
Click to expand...

Plus, since there's Amp1 and Amp2 and the X/Y feature you can have 4 amps in 1 setting right? Sounds lovely to be able to have multiple gain staging abilities even before the Drives, Filters and EQ's! Sadly, I'm still a few months away from Axe II ownership, but I'm trying to figure out ahead of time how I want to set everything up. I'm going to grab the MFC too, so I'm trying to plan out everything in advance.
 
alcaldwell said:
Plus, since there's Amp1 and Amp2 and the X/Y feature you can have 4 amps in 1 setting right? Sounds lovely to be able to have multiple gain staging abilities even before the Drives, Filters and EQ's!
Click to expand...
Assuming use of both amp blocks.. yes.. 4 amps in one preset!
 
I learned that the re-amp feature rocks my socks!!!

Mark
 
Re-amping is the best. I am really excited that AXE II has that. I reamp all the time it eleminates tons of variables in recording.IMO
 
What I'm most excited by with reamping is that rather than tweaking guitars in the mix with other plugins, I can tweak the original patches. That way, when I play them live, they'll fit properly in the mix.
 
Yup, was just trying to get this working last night, but couldn't figure out to capture the dry tracks (I had my input min/max set to 0/1 in Reaper). Now that I have it working this is the coolest. I can play a song part, loop it, then tweak until I get the sound right. THANK YOU, CLIFF!
 
I learned my axe 2 froze. It left a P shape in the in out lights. turned off on several times, went away. came back P again. went away. I dont want to try again tonight, thoughts?
 
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