Axe-FXII user here.
I'm very pleased with this piece of kit and have no plans to upgrade to the III yet, but....
I've always found the pick attack on any of my clean Presets to be markedly different sounding from what I hear through a real tube amp of a similar type to the one being modeled.
I actually held off on getting into a modeler until 2009 because it was the first time I'd heard a modeler do a convincing clean tone.
That was the Axe-FX Ultra.
I actually sold my Triaxis rig shortly after that because everything I could get out of that rig was easier to get from the Ultra.
I'm a jazz player mostly and the tones I need to coax out my rig are probably different than most of you.
And I'm quite happy with the Axe-FX cleans and have been for a long time.
But still I notice this one thing about the attack and it just makes me wonder either how to get it or why I can't.
It's a type of warm pop that happens on a real tube amp on the attack transients that's just not there with modelers or even my good ss amps like the Pearce G2rs I still own.
The attack on the Pearces is actually a bit more authentic sounding to my ears than the Fractal stuff.
But the Fractal stuff sounds better overall.
IIRC I also notice this "pop" when using just a tube preamp (e.g. Alembic) into a ss power amp.
But it's a long time since I've done that.
I've tried every parameter in the Axe's Amp Block to see if I can bring out this quality a bit more but nothing seems to do it.
I've always thought it would be related to more Sag, but increasing the Sag parameter on my clean tones seems to do nothing at all.
None of the Dynamic parameters (Depth, Presence, etc.) seem to help.
Neither does the Pick Attack parameter.
Frankly, many of those type of parameters on the fractal gear don't sound like they affect hyper-clean tones at all.
They all seem to be geared towards tweaking a more gainy tone.
Also...
When turning the Axe's pwr amp modeling off and just listening to the preamp model, the attack is not improved in the direction I'm after either.
So I'm not sure if this is a preamp or a pwr amp issue.
I've also tried placing a tube buffer (Valvulator) in front of the Axe's input, but it does nothing helpful in this regard.
What am I missing?
BTW I tend to stick with either the USA Clean or the DblVerb sims in the Axe.
But this thing I'm talking about is universal across all Amp Types.
I'm very pleased with this piece of kit and have no plans to upgrade to the III yet, but....
I've always found the pick attack on any of my clean Presets to be markedly different sounding from what I hear through a real tube amp of a similar type to the one being modeled.
I actually held off on getting into a modeler until 2009 because it was the first time I'd heard a modeler do a convincing clean tone.
That was the Axe-FX Ultra.
I actually sold my Triaxis rig shortly after that because everything I could get out of that rig was easier to get from the Ultra.
I'm a jazz player mostly and the tones I need to coax out my rig are probably different than most of you.
And I'm quite happy with the Axe-FX cleans and have been for a long time.
But still I notice this one thing about the attack and it just makes me wonder either how to get it or why I can't.
It's a type of warm pop that happens on a real tube amp on the attack transients that's just not there with modelers or even my good ss amps like the Pearce G2rs I still own.
The attack on the Pearces is actually a bit more authentic sounding to my ears than the Fractal stuff.
But the Fractal stuff sounds better overall.
IIRC I also notice this "pop" when using just a tube preamp (e.g. Alembic) into a ss power amp.
But it's a long time since I've done that.
I've tried every parameter in the Axe's Amp Block to see if I can bring out this quality a bit more but nothing seems to do it.
I've always thought it would be related to more Sag, but increasing the Sag parameter on my clean tones seems to do nothing at all.
None of the Dynamic parameters (Depth, Presence, etc.) seem to help.
Neither does the Pick Attack parameter.
Frankly, many of those type of parameters on the fractal gear don't sound like they affect hyper-clean tones at all.
They all seem to be geared towards tweaking a more gainy tone.
Also...
When turning the Axe's pwr amp modeling off and just listening to the preamp model, the attack is not improved in the direction I'm after either.
So I'm not sure if this is a preamp or a pwr amp issue.
I've also tried placing a tube buffer (Valvulator) in front of the Axe's input, but it does nothing helpful in this regard.
What am I missing?
BTW I tend to stick with either the USA Clean or the DblVerb sims in the Axe.
But this thing I'm talking about is universal across all Amp Types.