Hey guys!
Didn't think the thread would see this much action. I am not monitoring over the iMac speakers. I have a pair of Adam A7's. And I feel as though the ATH-M50's are doing a pretty good job as well (good bottom end for me, low mids might be lacking). I will have to try monitoring through my Saffire interface when it's quiet. Perhaps the tone will be better. I'm also going to try hooking my axe up to monitor through the line inputs rather than USB 2.0 to see if that makes any difference. One thing at a time.
As I said before, my statements were made in a period of despair. This probably isn't as bad as I'm making it out to be. It's probably mostly my frustration with the constant knob-twisting that, with each tweak, isn't really helping me get to where I want to go. When I play with a single amp and mono hi-res cabinet, it sounds a lot closer to what I'm looking for. It's when I get into stereo and any of the advanced amp settings and cabinet selections that things start to get iffy.
Mark - I sure hope you are right. It's just that it doesn't console me much when I obviously have so little understanding right now about the triode and transistor gains/frequency cuts as it is. Pentode might just make my head explode. I will get over this. Albeit, without ears, it's tough to listen to high gain sounds. But Evelyn Glennie did it, so why can't I?
I will have to consider looking into custom IRs for the cabinets, although my wife may just punch me in the face when I talk to her about it. I did, in fact, just buy a pretty expensive studio set up. Any free stuff out there that's awesome?
I guess the way to put it is that the high gain sounds I'm getting out of the Axe-II settings are pretty lo-fi sounding. That, in part, is due to my guitar. I have no illusions about trying to get modern high gain tones out of an alder Mexican Strat (macassar ebony neck/fretboard by Warmoth) with 250k pots and a SD JB SH4 humbucker in it. I know this is partly the issue, because when I bypass everything, I can hear that there are EQ issues right out of the instrument. I would be endlessly wanking on a BRJ that will be much more tailored to what I'm seeking. Unfortunately, the ebony fretboard had a hairline fracture in it, and it had to go back to wood shop. It should be in my hands by mid-late November.
Right now, it's a bit akin to pummeling a giant grizzly bear with a side of tasty, peppered bacon. The bear is confused and doesn't know if I'm trying to feed or make fun of him (The bear is a high gain amp sim). I get close, but in the end, it sounds like I'm back in the 70's. Cleans and slightly gritty tones are super great. I'm loving it big time. Plexi tones, Shiva cleans, Fender Reverbs, AC-30 = wicked. Recto, Das Metall, Peavey 6160, Energyball = not so much. As in, hmmm... maybe a strat doesn't sound so good trying to play progressive metal?
Partly, it is my room. I can hear when I play through my monitors that there are some frequency freaks hanging out in the corners and bouncing off my walls. I have nine foot ceilings with nice big corners for all those nice, long, low frequencies to get trapped in. I would have already put up treatment, but spent about 2.5 weeks looking for/talking with acoustician/installation companies in the area (Boise "nowhereville" Idaho) only to be lead on about being able to order OC 703, and then never hearing back. Now, as it turns out, my wife's car might need a new heater core - to the tune of $1,000. So it might be a good thing I waited.
The Axe-Edit issues - grape, bolarry, danny, et al - the reason I'm doing a total re-install is so that I can make sure I put the program and it's corresponding folders into a file path where I don't change where it's being installed (whoops). I have searched, queried, followed all my file extensions dealing with Fractal Audio, and I'm telling you - there was no Axe-Edit.settings file anywhere on my system. Weird as it is, I just couldn't find it. I will re-install later today and will hopefully find out what it is I'm looking for.
And now it's off to work to get my management pre-training. An extra $400 a month will not hurt. I had pretty funny dreams last night. I was being chased through a parking garage by a bunch of little Axe-fx's... with teeth. There was even one driving a classic car (maybe a 57 Chevy) that was trying to run me over. Oh brain, you so funny! Thanks again guys, and I'm hoping that with the advice you've given me and fixing the major issues I've been having, I will sooner than later be starting a thread called "Awesome and Ridiculous".
