Should the "AIR" effect be more pronounced?

Should the "AIR" effect be more pronounced?

  • Total voters
    34
mortega76

mortega76

Fractal Fanatic
I tried messing with this feature but just didn't hear anything using my headphones... would it be better if it was more "exaggerated"? What does everyone think?
 
mortega76 said:
I tried messing with this feature but just didn't hear anything using my headphones... would it be better if it was more "exaggerated"? What does everyone think?
Click to expand...

Too tell you the truth, I don't even know what it really does!
 
I won't vote yet, because I'm still trying to figure out how or if I want to use it. I can definitely hear it though. I could be completely wrong, but it sounds to me like it mixes in some pre-cab signal and the frequency control adjusts a hi cut filter for that signal.

I was playing around with the Uberschall model last night and experimented with the air feature to add in some fizzy "hair" to the sound for lack of a better term. I forget my settings, but I kept going back and forth trying to figure out whether I liked it or not. There are multiple ways to brighten or darken the amp sound, so I'm still debating how to best approach it.

I'd love to hear some more guidance from Cliff or a tip of the week on what it does and the intended usage.
 
javajunkie said:
mortega76 said:
I tried messing with this feature but just didn't hear anything using my headphones... would it be better if it was more "exaggerated"? What does everyone think?
Click to expand...

Too tell you the truth, I don't even know what it really does!
Click to expand...
Me neither! :D

But if I could actually hear what it did then maybe I would know how to use it...
 
Haven't really checked this specific dial yet, but there are several dials in the Axe that I just don't hear much difference with. Warmth comes to mind. There is difference with that one, but it's not much in my ears. Then again, I don't hear a difference flipping the switch from Mono Lo-Res to Mono Hi-res cab either. No matter what I use to listen to it, monitors or headphones.
Probably the lowly stuff I use is not sophisticated enough to convey it, or my ears are worse of than I thought.
 
mortega76 said:
javajunkie said:
mortega76 said:
I tried messing with this feature but just didn't hear anything using my headphones... would it be better if it was more "exaggerated"? What does everyone think?
Click to expand...

Too tell you the truth, I don't even know what it really does!
Click to expand...
Me neither! :D

But if I could actually hear what it did then maybe I would know how to use it...
Click to expand...
mitch said:
I won't vote yet, because I'm still trying to figure out how or if I want to use it. I can definitely hear it though. I could be completely wrong, but it sounds to me like it mixes in some pre-cab signal and the frequency control adjusts a hi cut filter for that signal.

I was playing around with the Uberschall model last night and experimented with the air feature to add in some fizzy "hair" to the sound for lack of a better term. I forget my settings, but I kept going back and forth trying to figure out whether I liked it or not. There are multiple ways to brighten or darken the amp sound, so I'm still debating how to best approach it.

I'd love to hear some more guidance from Cliff or a tip of the week on what it does and the intended usage.
Click to expand...


It appears that is exactly what it does. I load a cab that was blank, meaning when it is active the sound gets muted. As I added Air the signal came in, meaning a direct signal was being mixed in most likely. The frequency appears to be where the freq lowpass filter is being applied. I imagine it is also delay compensated for the cab IR.
 
I can only guess.... It creates a pre-delay by "amplitude notching" the impulse in a narrow
bandwidth around 1KHz (adjustable to 3 KHz)
Since the impulse is relatively short to begin with you can not create huge pre-delays
but you could do it with the reverb block instead.

:?:
Of course I could be completely off

:oops:
 
AndrewSimon said:
I can only guess.... It creates a pre-delay by "amplitude notching" the impulse in a narrow
bandwidth around 1KHz (adjustable to 3 KHz)
Since the impulse is relatively short to begin with you can not create huge pre-delays
but you could do it with the reverb block instead.

:?:
Of course I could be completely off

:oops:
Click to expand...

Nope, or when I did my experiment I would have seen that. What I saw was basically the direct signal but attenuated above the air frequency. No notching. It appears to be the direct signal w/ a lowpass filter. The palmer pdi-05 has a similar feature.
 
It sounded pretty pronounced already when I messed with it briefly. Maybe your phones were not reproducing those frequencies.
 
Air is nothing more than low-pass filtered direct signal mixed with the processed signal. Sometimes adding some Air can help remove the boxiness. I was unaware that the PDI-05 did the same thing but I'm not surprised someone else thought of this too. You typically need to set the Air Freq above 3 kHz before the effect is noticeable. I like it around 3500 or so. It adds a little sizzle to high-gain tones and removes that boxy sound.
 
FractalAudio said:
Air is nothing more than low-pass filtered direct signal mixed with the processed signal. Sometimes adding some Air can help remove the boxiness. I was unaware that the PDI-05 did the same thing but I'm not surprised someone else thought of this too. You typically need to set the Air Freq above 3 kHz before the effect is noticeable. I like it around 3500 or so. It adds a little sizzle to high-gain tones and removes that boxy sound.
Click to expand...
Cool thanks for that Cliff... does that mean that if I crank up my input it will be more pronounced as well? I still can't really hear it via my headphones... maybe somehow making it "active"? Maybe?
 
mortega76 said:
Cool thanks for that Cliff... does that mean that if I crank up my input it will be more pronounced as well? I still can't really hear it via my headphones... maybe somehow making it "active"? Maybe?
Click to expand...
I would suggest checking your signal chain (all the way across and to your headphones). There is no way this parameter cannot be heard. Sure, it's subtle, but not subtle enough to not be heard. Are you sure your cab sims are activated, that the cab block is in the chain, etc.?
 
FractalAudio said:
Air is nothing more than low-pass filtered direct signal mixed with the processed signal. Sometimes adding some Air can help remove the boxiness. I was unaware that the PDI-05 did the same thing but I'm not surprised someone else thought of this too. You typically need to set the Air Freq above 3 kHz before the effect is noticeable. I like it around 3500 or so. It adds a little sizzle to high-gain tones and removes that boxy sound.
Click to expand...

No delay what so ever?
Not even a little phase?
I ask because on clean tones it seems to take off some high end.

:?:
 
AndrewSimon said:
No delay what so ever?
Not even a little phase?
I ask because on clean tones it seems to take off some high end.
Click to expand...
That's because there's always nonzero group delay in the speaker IR, even if it has been processed with a minimum phase transform.
 
It just occurred to me how we're a funny bunch... months ago, someone suggested as a possible enhancement a mix parameter for the cab blocks, and many people were very enthusiastic about it.

Now Cliff adds the Air parameter (which, after a bit of puzzlement, has been revealed to be adding some of the dry signal to the cab signal, i.e. a "hidden" mix parameter), and as a result most of us are going "huh?" or "wtf?!??!"

Now that I know what it is (and that I understand why it was like throwing a blanket over my amp when I left it at the default 1000 hz frequency), I'll play around with it some more... armed with the knowledge that it's some form of mix for the cab block.

I'd be curious to know what the resulting "mix" level is at Air=100%...

Daniel
 
FractalAudio said:
Air is nothing more than low-pass filtered direct signal mixed with the processed signal. Sometimes adding some Air can help remove the boxiness. I was unaware that the PDI-05 did the same thing but I'm not surprised someone else thought of this too. You typically need to set the Air Freq above 3 kHz before the effect is noticeable. I like it around 3500 or so. It adds a little sizzle to high-gain tones and removes that boxy sound.
Click to expand...
Very cool....thanks for the clarification.
mortega76 said:
I still can't really hear it via my headphones... maybe somehow making it "active"? Maybe?
Click to expand...
Mo, just to better hear it....take a high gain amp, crank up the highs and presence, then set the air to 100% and sweep the air frequency. As you sweep the frequency up, you'll definitely start hearing the raw buzzy amp tone coming through. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance this with the other tone control options for my own taste, but it definitely can have a strong effect at the extremes.
 
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