Q1.05 vs Q2.00 Friedman HBE

Crapshoes said:
In future I'll include the solo guitar sound, but I think the context in a mix is what matters most honestly. When are you ever going to have a recording with JUST the guitar? (I know that's genre specific) The big thing for me is that bass tone influences your perception of the guitar tone so much... I should have taken the bass out if anything. Seeing as it's the same bass sample both times, the perceived difference in the amps would be much less. Lesson learned!
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Context matters if you're simply interested in sharing a recording, but then why post them here if that's your goal. However, you stated that the samples were a comparison between Firmware 1.05 and 2.00. That being the case, it's far more challenging to discern the subtleties between the two updates with the guitar(s) sitting in a full mix, in my opinion. If it's the guitar(s) we're concerned with, it's much preferred to hear them in isolation.
 
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Jason Scott said:
Context matters if you're simply interested in sharing a recording, but then why post them here if that's your goal. However, you stated that the samples were a comparison between Firmware 1.05 and 2.00. That being the case, it's far more challenging to discern the subtleties between the two updates with the guitar(s) sitting in a full mix, in my opinion. If it's the guitar(s) we're concerned with, it's much preferred to hear them in isolation.
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That's your opinion and you're entitled to it. But I'm still pretty adamant that the individual guitar sound doesn't matter nearly as much as how it sits in a mix. How many times have you shaped a tone only to find that when dual tracked it sits horribly? Maybe if you play solo all the time then a singled out guitar benefits you, but from a recording perspective the mix is everything. IMHO of course.
 
first one sounds better to me, it has more clarity, though it's also a bit louder so...
 
Crapshoes said:
That's your opinion and you're entitled to it. But I'm still pretty adamant that the individual guitar sound doesn't matter nearly as much as how it sits in a mix. How many times have you shaped a tone only to find that when dual tracked it sits horribly? Maybe if you play solo all the time then a singled out guitar benefits you, but from a recording perspective the mix is everything. IMHO of course.
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Under normal circumstances, you're right. Context does matter. It's far more relevant to hear a guitar in the mix than in isolation... under normal circumstances. However, the point of your samples was to compare subtleties of tone between two firmware versions. How am I suppose to compare nuances in tone with your guitars sitting squarely in a full band mix? It's like asking someone to compare the subtleties of two slightly different saute'd pieces of shrimp in a gumbo. There's too many flavors at play.
 
Jason Scott said:
Under normal circumstances, you're right. Context does matter. It's far more relevant to hear a guitar in the mix than in isolation... under normal circumstances. However, the point of your samples was to compare subtleties of tone between two firmware versions. How am I suppose to compare nuances in tone with your guitars sitting squarely in a full band mix? It's like asking someone to compare the subtleties of two slightly different saute'd pieces of shrimp in a gumbo. There's too many flavors at play.
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And as I said, I'll be sure to include the solo'd tracks in the future. But for the record, the point of this example was to compare the tonal change between firmware in the context of a mix. Comparing guitar tone on solo'd tracks is almost an irrelevant exercise since the individual performance would change so drastically. The slightest nuances change our perception of tone and feel, and affect the way we respond to the amp. Even using the same DI for both would be unfair because one might have a really compressed feel causing the other to sound really lacking in dynamic timbre by comparison. However, in the mix you can grasp the broader changes that will really matter to the listener. And in the end that's all that matters. At least that's my opinion.

Edit: Run on sentence
 
Soultrash said:
first one sounds better to me, it has more clarity, though it's also a bit louder so...
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The guitar track's output on the master was relatively the same, there may be a hundredth variance in db here or there but I believe that's pretty negligible.
 
Crapshoes said:
And as I said, I'll be sure to include the solo'd tracks in the future. But for the record, the point of this example was to compare the tonal change between firmware in the context of a mix. Comparing guitar tone on solo'd tracks is almost an irrelevant exercise since the individual performance would change so drastically. The slightest nuances change our perception of tone and feel, and affect the way we respond to the amp. Even using the same DI for both would be unfair because one might have a really compressed feel causing the other to sound really lacking in dynamic timbre by comparison. However, in the mix you can grasp the broader changes that will really matter to the listener. And in the end that's all that matters. At least that's my opinion.
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In my opinion, changes in tone between firmware versions aren't stark enough to be heard within the context of your mix, and the individual performance will be exactly the same if you re-amp the guitar sample(s) through different firmware versions.
 
It's also worth mentioning that if you change your playing for one sample to account for the difference in feel (or anything else) of the amp, you're adding another layer of complexity that the listener has to take into account. To what extent is the difference in tone the result of your playing and the result of the firmware? When both guitar samples are the same, you can effectively eliminate guitar playing as a factor in shaping tone and narrow any difference(s) down to the firmware.
 
Surly a clean sound would give more chances of hearing any difference - am I one of the only Axe FX users who is not a metal/thrash player - ?
 
andyp13 said:
Surly a clean sound would give more chances of hearing any difference - am I one of the only Axe FX users who is not a metal/thrash player - ?
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We are definitely a minority!

The 1st clip sounds better to me for the context of the song, but they both sound good.
 
I would love to hear some sounds such as slightly driven tones, bluesy, sounds similar to Drew Zing, or Steely Dan overdrives etc. Nearly every example of the Axe FX sounds seem to be metal/thrash, don't get me wrong you metal/thrash guys get great sounds but when I told a fellow musician only the other day that I am an Axe FX user he said "really? I didn't think you were into metal, I checked them out on YouTube and the only examples are metal"
I had to admit, he's not far wrong.
 
andyp13 said:
I would love to hear some sounds such as slightly driven tones, bluesy, sounds similar to Drew Zing, or Steely Dan overdrives etc. Nearly every example of the Axe FX sounds seem to be metal/thrash, don't get me wrong you metal/thrash guys get great sounds but when I told a fellow musician only the other day that I am an Axe FX user he said "really? I didn't think you were into metal, I checked them out on YouTube and the only examples are metal"
I had to admit, he's not far wrong.
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I play a lot of cleaner sounding stuff too, it just so happens that the band I write with is a metal act so naturally my recordings gravitate towards that. I think there are plenty of Blues and Jazz players using the axe for clean and over driven tones, but they aren't as vocal about it on the Internet.
 
I liked the first sample more; it cut a bit more. Nothing that a slight tweak in the preset couldn't take care of I'm sure.
-
Austin
 
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