polishing your preset tones

Chiguete

Chiguete

Experienced
So what would be the tips you guys would use to polish your tones inside the AX8 instead of adding things in a DAW or live... for example COMPRESSION tips. What I'm talking about is that in the studio they add compression to the recorded guitars to polish things up and not to give an actual compressed effect like you would have with a pedal in the rig or like in the racks or in the FOH that you allways see compressors in there, how would you try to get that result using what the AX8 gives you?
 
High cut and low cut in the cab block is a must for me, across all presets. It helps in making the presets more gig-ready and just brings that little extra something to make your guitar sit better in the mix. This is also something almost every engineer do to guitars.

Many people also use compressors after the amp and cab block. But I prefer not to use it myself, as I like my guitar sound a little more lively when I play live. In the studio I don't use much at all, as the engineer wants to have full control over the entire mix. But I usually do some high and low cutting there as well, if the engineer and producer allows it.
 
I have done a lot of recording. I get the best result by recording two tracks, one effected and one dry. As noted by E-Sound, the engineers I have worked with generally prefer dry tracks so they can control the mix. The problem is for the guitarist, dry tracks are not very inspiring so the headphone mix I get is the effected track. The effects are added to the headphone mix. I have worked with some engineers that wanted the guitar effected on the initial track, but they are the exception not the general rule. The difficulty of course is that with recorded effects on the initial track, it can be a real problem trying to the the track to sit in the mix well.
 
in the amp block graphic eg section on all presets the 2 low end and 2 high end sliders I reduce a few db each. Works better live now, less boom and hi sizzle.
 
E-Sound said:
Many people also use compressors after the amp and cab block. But I prefer not to use it myself, as I like my guitar sound a little more lively when I play live.
Click to expand...

Definitely no compressors live for me. That is unless you are specifically going for that clean/compressed/chorused 80's sound. I find that even a little compression takes all the life out of a preset. Almost all of the presets that were included on the AX8 when it first came out, especially the Fender presets, had a compressor as the first block in the signal chain. The first thing I did was turn off or remove the compressor block on those presets to bring some life and dynamics back to the tone.

As far as recording goes, a lot of engineers don't use compression on distorted guitars. The amp already compresses the signal enough, depending on how saturated it is.
 
AX8 doesn't really do re-amping, but the big things I'd start with are compression, cabinets, and high/low cuts. Use a looper to record some licks then play it back on the loop while making changes. Try playing with the output compression in the amp block as 2112 said. For the tone itself, try to use different cabinets to make the biggest EQ adjustments. Like if I want a bright almost scooped sound it's much easier and more natural to change to a bright cabinet than to EQ a dark cab. Then fine tune the high and low cuts in the cab block, and finally the amp tone controls.
 
Thanks guys- based largely on feedback from this thread, I'm going to try reducing output compression Amp block for live use... I find that I want the compression when loud testing my sounds at home to have similar levels for clean and dirty from guitar volume knob... but in the band mix I think I do need that extra punch that the output compression takes away. It is annoying when playing alone to have that punch, but in the live mix it is needed. I'll give this a shot at rehearsal tonight.
 
- High Cut and Low Cut in Cab block

- a bit of Output Comp in the Amp block (not the same as a compressor before the Amp block)

- GEQ block set to 5-band Passive, with middle band turned up a bit, at the end of the chain

- Stereo Enhancer, if you play stereo

- De-Phase in Cab block, if you use multiple IRs

- Some preamp modeling in Cab block
 
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yek said:
- High Cut and Low Cut in Cab block

- a bit of Output Comp in the Amp block (not the same as a compressor before the Amp block)

- GEQ block set to 5-band Passive, with middle band turned up a bit, at the of the chain

- Stereo Enhancer, if you play stereo

- De-Phase in Cab block, if you use multiple IRs

- Some preamp modeling in Cab block
Click to expand...
Hey Yek

Great advice. Curious, which output compression are you referring to?

In the dynamics tab their are 2. Top right output compression and then bottom left can be set to output also.
Thanks
 
yek said:
- High Cut and Low Cut in Cab block

- a bit of Output Comp in the Amp block (not the same as a compressor before the Amp block)

- GEQ block set to 5-band Passive, with middle band turned up a bit, at the of the chain

- Stereo Enhancer, if you play stereo

- De-Phase in Cab block, if you use multiple IRs

- Some preamp modeling in Cab block
Click to expand...

Is that GEQ at the start or the end of the chain
 
ethomas1013 said:
Why there as opposed to the 5-band Passive EQ in the amp block?
Click to expand...

I forgot that the AMP block also offers this option (set EQ to "Post P.A.").

Still, I find it easier to use a GEQ block, mainly most of my blocks are "global blocks". Yes, I know that's an Axe-Fx-only feature.

Through some trial and error I found I like the GEQ best at the end of the chain (after CAB). Maybe because it's closest to eq-ing at the mixing board.

ethomas1013 said:
Neither one of those parameters is available in the AX8.
Click to expand...

True. I don't always check the forum section. ;-)

De-Phase can also be done in Cab-Lab though.
 
yek said:
- High Cut and Low Cut in Cab block

- a bit of Output Comp in the Amp block (not the same as a compressor before the Amp block)

- GEQ block set to 5-band Passive, with middle band turned up a bit, at the end of the chain

- Stereo Enhancer, if you play stereo

- De-Phase in Cab block, if you use multiple IRs

- Some preamp modeling in Cab block
Click to expand...
yek,

Thanks for the tips! Especially the 5-band passive EQ. I also like it at the end of the chain instead of the amp block EQ. I'm currently trying to dial in Dimebag's "Walk" tone and the EQ tightened things up nicely. I played with the high and low cut in the cab block but haven't found the magic settings yet. I'm much closer than I was a couple days ago thanks to your post.
 
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