Presence defaults to real world noon equivalent.

Presence control defaults to noon equivalent on real world amps.


  • Total voters
    8

Cron

Inspired
I think this would be a better starting point for new axe-fx'ers if they intend to match their current rigs or amps they've owned in the past.

Im suggesting axe-fx amp models who's real world counterparts have presence controls, default to 5 which would be equivalent to noon on a real amp and amps without presence controls in the real world default to whatever the value actually is (be it 0 or some static value).

Presence is after all a power amp parameter.... same as depth. And we obviously have different depth defaults for amps. What would be so bad about having either 0 or 5 default for presence correspoding with the real thing?
 
I voted "no".
The parameter value of the presence control clearly says "-10 - 0 - +10".
That should be clear enough.

A "real world amp" defaults to nothing, so why should the Axe default to 5?
 
This would only make sense if the real world amps without Presence would default to '0'.

...And even if it would default to '5', new users could still be confused by seeing such a high default value, eventhough it isn't, since they may not realise that noon is 'off''. RTFM is something I highly recommend to especially new users of such an advanced machine ;)
 
gittarzann said:
IMO it should default to noon on the real amp, so I guess that is around 3:00, no?

The value should be 5......that is around 2:30.


About the other comment someone made about a real amps presence not defaulting to 5 : Every person I have ever encountered or watched inlcuding myself sets all controls to noon on a real amp (except volume of course) and tweaks from there. I read the axe manual and browsed the wiki....... ive owned my axe-fx for over a year and I only found out 2 days ago that noon on the axe-fx = presence off! I know that doesnt mean everyone is as dumb as I am but obviously lots of other ppl were also unaware of this judging by the other thread. What I remember from reading the manual is that the axe-fx has a greater presence range than normal amps.

People are at times going to play the axe-fx and judge it off 30 mins worth of noodling and playing around with the controls. IMHO people buy the axe-fx primarily to get the sound of a real amp in a 2u box. It doesnt make sense for Cliff to not maximise the chance of the axe-fx sounding like those amps when someone gives it a quick go. When I look at how ppl set their amps i never see anyone setting their presence to 0. People usually keep it round the half way mark.

Maybe the visual aspect of this meaning that noon = presence off is worse than amps not defaulting to half way of a real amps range (5).
 
VegaBaby said:
...And even if it would default to '5', new users could still be confused by seeing such a high default value, eventhough it isn't, since they may not realise that noon is 'off''. RTFM is something I highly recommend to especially new users of such an advanced machine ;)
Fair enough RTFM - but there also needs to be a degree if intuitiveness with how things work. On the other 'presence' thread there was a 'boogie' guy saying that he couldn't get the axe boogie sims to work as he expected a boogie to work (without a lot of eqs etc). Once he twigged that presence needs to be cranked up to three-quarters to get typical mid way boogie presence level, it all fell in to place. Presence (as I understand it) is highly interactive with other tone controls on a lot of amps, so unless you have the presence set approriately, you may not get the amp to react as you expect - so 'using you ears' alone as other have said may be more difficult than it appears.
I think, I'm just surprised (embarrassed!!) that I had missed this info. I'll have had the axe for 2 years in July and I had completely misunderstood the presence control. I've been very happy with the sounds I've been getting, but I often don't fuss too much with the presence and I never really take notice of the numbers on the controls. I notice I usually have the 'bass' level way down on all my patches. Perhaps I'll get even better results with a new understanding of the presence control.
 
stevorc321 said:
VegaBaby said:
...And even if it would default to '5', new users could still be confused by seeing such a high default value, eventhough it isn't, since they may not realise that noon is 'off''. RTFM is something I highly recommend to especially new users of such an advanced machine ;)
Fair enough RTFM - but there also needs to be a degree if intuitiveness with how things work. On the other 'presence' thread there was a 'boogie' guy saying that he couldn't get the axe boogie sims to work as he expected a boogie to work (without a lot of eqs etc). Once he twigged that presence needs to be cranked up to three-quarters to get typical mid way boogie presence level, it all fell in to place. Presence (as I understand it) is highly interactive with other tone controls on a lot of amps, so unless you have the presence set approriately, you may not get the amp to react as you expect - so 'using you ears' alone as other have said may be more difficult than it appears.
I think, I'm just surprised (embarrassed!!) that I had missed this info. I'll have had the axe for 2 years in July and I had completely misunderstood the presence control. I've been very happy with the sounds I've been getting, but I often don't fuss too much with the presence and I never really take notice of the numbers on the controls. I notice I usually have the 'bass' level way down on all my patches. Perhaps I'll get even better results with a new understanding of the presence control.

Yeah then the next person comes around wondering why his amp sounds like an ice pick and "too bright" and the he realizes the presence was turned up. Difficult or not, using your ear not your eyes is just about the only reliable way to get desired results. There are just too many other variables. The same is true for analog amps. The tone controls (bass, treble, mid) set at 12:00 are not a good place to start on many amps. They are that way for convenience no other reason.

Moving the default knob position will not really change any intuitiveness, IMO. The person that thinks that 12:00 is 5 will just think 3:00 is 7.5. You have to understand there are negative values available that you don't get with a normal amp. The presence is not interactive w/ the preamp tonestack AFAIK. Altering it can change the apparent tonal quality of the tone, but so can any EQ. It does interact highly with the power section though. "Appropriate" on a amp or tone will vary wildly, so you would have to tweak it anyway. Personally, I don't care. I'm going to turn the knob anyway.
 
javajunkie said:
stevorc321 said:
VegaBaby said:
...And even if it would default to '5', new users could still be confused by seeing such a high default value, eventhough it isn't, since they may not realise that noon is 'off''. RTFM is something I highly recommend to especially new users of such an advanced machine ;)
Fair enough RTFM - but there also needs to be a degree if intuitiveness with how things work. On the other 'presence' thread there was a 'boogie' guy saying that he couldn't get the axe boogie sims to work as he expected a boogie to work (without a lot of eqs etc). Once he twigged that presence needs to be cranked up to three-quarters to get typical mid way boogie presence level, it all fell in to place. Presence (as I understand it) is highly interactive with other tone controls on a lot of amps, so unless you have the presence set approriately, you may not get the amp to react as you expect - so 'using you ears' alone as other have said may be more difficult than it appears.
I think, I'm just surprised (embarrassed!!) that I had missed this info. I'll have had the axe for 2 years in July and I had completely misunderstood the presence control. I've been very happy with the sounds I've been getting, but I often don't fuss too much with the presence and I never really take notice of the numbers on the controls. I notice I usually have the 'bass' level way down on all my patches. Perhaps I'll get even better results with a new understanding of the presence control.

Yeah then the next person comes around wondering why his amp sounds like an ice pick and "too bright" and the he realizes the presence was turned up. Difficult or not, using your ear not your eyes is just about the only reliable way to get desired results. There are just too many other variables. The same is true for analog amps. The tone controls (bass, treble, mid) set at 12:00 are not a good place to start on many amps. They are that way for convenience no other reason.

Moving the default knob position will not really change any intuitiveness, IMO. The person that thinks that 12:00 is 5 will just think 3:00 is 7.5. You have to understand there are negative values available that you don't get with a normal amp. The presence is not interactive w/ the preamp tonestack AFAIK. Altering it can change the apparent tonal quality of the tone, but so can any EQ. It does interact highly with the power section though. "Appropriate" on a amp or tone will vary wildly, so you would have to tweak it anyway. Personally, I don't care. I'm going to turn the knob anyway.
Well if it's not interactive with the preamp tonestack, I have no problems with a default to zero. I was going on comments from the other thread that the presence setting impacts how the other tone controls work. That's what I was getting at with intuitiveness - if the presence has to be at three-quarters to make the boogie sims act like real boogies, that would be difficult to intuit. If that's not the case (and I have little experience with these amps) and presence is only affecting the high-top end, then as you say, just turn the knob until it sounds good!
 
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