Smilefan's Axe II Patches Thread

[yek]

Ha, nicely written.

[EDITED]

P.S. Maybe you know it already but the VoxBlues also has a TC30 IR. It's in the FarField-Ref map.

 

[smilefan]

Did the gig go well?

Yes!! Had gigs Friday and Saturday. The band was thrilled (they are always skeptical of the never-ending parade of guitar gadgets I show up with). My drummer in particular was very enthusiastic. He always said the Ultra sounded like a combo of a real amp and a recording of a real amp. He thought the II sounded absolutely real and never would have guessed it wasn't a tube amp (he has really good ears - our band's critic).

I pretty much felt like the II sounded and reacted as good as any tube amp I've ever owned.
You haven't really heard the II's realism improvements until you crank it up in a live band setting.
Single note lines, and hard strummed chords, they penetrate the mix like a real top quality tube amp.
Couldn't be more thrilled.

 

[teddis]

Hey SmileFan,
Congrats on this patch man.....it is so HUGE. I love it.

Thanks for sharing !!

Here is another from me. A clean '65 BF Twin, tweaked for "bigness"
like a real Twin sounds in the room. Turn your PU volume down a bit
if its overdriving (mixed for single coils) and turn your amp up loud
in the room to get the full snappy, bouncy effect.
In my patch I have:

Cab A - Redwirez TwinD120s-TC30-Cap-0in. IR
Cab B - Redwirez TwinJensenC12N-TC30-CapEdge-0in. IR

If you dont have the RW's then use stock cabs:

Doubleverb D120 RW R121 cond mic-side A
Doubleverb C12N RW D112 dyn mic - side B

with a little presence boost. Enjoy.

 

[smilefan]

Hey SmileFan,
Congrats on this patch man.....it is so HUGE. I love it.

Thanks for sharing !!

That means alot, teddis. Makes it worth taking the time to do this.
I'd hate to think my patches sound like a $39 Boss fuzz pedal thru other
people's systems.

 

[symphx]

Ha, nicely written.

But I don't agree with the "parallel = sonically better" conclusion.
It's often the case in the "real amp" world because of shitty effect loops and such.
But the AFX is a digital device. There are no timing issues, and the path THROUGH an effect is (or should be) the same as AROUND an effect.

The reason the parallel patch is louder is because you're mixing 3 signal paths. Summed signals are louder and louder signals seem to sound better.

To prevent the volume increase when summing parallel rows, put Mix to 100% (delay and reverb) and dial in the Level as desired.

There's a 2nd reason the presets sound different. The series one has the delay trails reverberated. The parallel one doesn't.

Putting FX in parallel rows is still very useful because it's easier to keep the overall level the same when adjusting the Mix.

Parallel rows with effect blocks - Axe-Fx II Wiki

P.S. Maybe you know it already but the VoxBlues also has a TC30 IR. It's in the FarField-Ref map.

I do believe Yek is correct; someone perhaps Yek but I think maybe the manual itself says there is absolutely no degradation in sound whatsoever with series routing. There is no truth in the digital world to the theory that a direct sound reaching the output with parallel reveb or delay, is any different, unlike the same setup with a rack in real world. All that changes is summed volume and differences in how to set the "mix" in the patch or final output.

 

[smilefan]

Today we have another delay patch. A technique known as the
feedback loop. In the analog world, its taking the output of a pedal
and feeding it back into itself to create a controlled (hopefully)
oscillation. Like pointing a mic at a speaker that’s amplifying it.
You control the amount of oscillation in the loop by adjusting the amount
of signal at the “Send” and “Return” points of the chain. Usually
it involves a delay to generate swells or degrading/infinite repeats.

The effect that most popularized the use of this principle, was the
Electro-Harmonics Memory Man, which had a ‘feedback’ control allowing a
feedback loop to oscillate within the unit. The Memory Man can be heard all
over U2’s first 3 albums, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “I Will Follow”, etc..
Feedback loop-based effects are heard on countless pop/rock records .

Take a look at my patch in Axe Edit or on the LAYOUT screen.
Note how the loop always begins with Return (RTN) and ends with
Send (SND). Neither Send or Return point need be connected to your
main signal chain (their connection is implied since both have to be present
for the other to work). There is no end to the amount of possibilities you can
create with such a loop. Try using different delay types and modulation effects.
Change your tap points. Experiment! Fun, spacey, atmospheric sounds await.

Feedback Loops can be a sonic hot mess, so I created a Wet side and Dry
Side in the below patch, with the loop repeats ping-ponging across, to keep
it clean. Enjoy.

 

[yek]

I'm gonna run through your presets tonight or tomorrow. To be sure, these are designed to go into a poweramp and cab (EVM), aren't they?
Or into studio monitors?

 

[teddis]

I was running them FRFR last night.......nice.

 

[smilefan]

I'm gonna run through your presets tonight or tomorrow. To be sure, these are designed to go into a poweramp and cab (EVM), aren't they?
Or into studio monitors?

Designed for Matrix/EVM playback, at volume (unless otherwise stated).

 

[yek]

So how do you feed the FOH? Mic the cab or take a second signal coming out of Out1?

I ran through your presets. I esp. like the galloping delay and the signature Vox tone in the last one.

They sound fine direct, but through the EVMs quite boxey. Your open cabs probably are much different than closed ones.

 

[smilefan]

Enough of all these useful, constructive patches. Let’s have some fun!
The below patches are a couple variations on a theme. The biggest, most oppressive
flange sounds I could make while still retaining a measure of clarity.

If you take a look at how I made these, you’ll see I’ve split the signal into two flangers with
very short delay times, one out of phase with the other, both using a lot of negative feedback.
This is very similar to the technique used to make Jimi Hendrix’s legendary thru-zero flange
effect on the song “House Burning Down”. One patch has the flanger pair at the end of the chain,
the other has them pre-delay after the cab. You'll hear a significant difference from this one change.

Fun Pop Quiz: Who quoted the term “flanging”?

According to historian Mark Lewisohn, it was John Lennon who actually gave the process the name "flanging". Lennon asked Beatles producer George Martin to explain how Abbey Road Studio’s new “Artificial Double Tracking” process worked, and Martin replied "now listen, it's very simple, we take the original image and we split it through a double-bifurcated sploshing flange with double negative feedback". Lennon, ever afterwards requested the "flanging" effect.

 

[smilefan]

So how do you feed the FOH? Mic the cab or take a second signal coming out of Out1?

I ran through your presets. I esp. like the galloping delay and the signature Vox tone in the last one.

They sound fine direct, but through the EVMs quite boxey. Your open cabs probably are much different than closed ones.

In my world, there is no FOH, generally speaking. I play a backyard party circuit and tiny clubs where we bring our own PA and depend heavily on stage volume to carry our instrumental sound. Like they did in the musical Stone Age ('50's, '60's, '70's).

I'll bet my patches sound boxy thru those 1x12 closed back cabs. I use big, oversized open back pine 2x12's expressly to get away from the boxy-ness I hear in closed cabs. Also, you dont use cab sims with your system do you? All these patches are based around specific cab IR's. They'll sound pretty naked/crude without them.

It wouldn't be too hard to rewrite my patches for a split FOH/amp feed thru OUT 1&2,
with some PEQ in the OUT 2 chain to your amp to compensate for the boxy effect those
closed 1x12s have.

 

[smilefan]

Hello?? Is this microphone on? Am I the only person posting Axe II patches?
Calling Scott Peterson! Yek! Are you ready to start making aural artwork?
How about sonic fingerpainting? Come on folks, I want to score some patches
too!

OK, Friday. Time for some wah-wah. I never got into '60's wah sounds. Too polite
and mild-mannered for me. But the '70's! Jimi Hendrix, Ernie Isley (who actually studied
under Jimi while he toured with the Isley Brothers), Eddie Hazel (Funkadelic),
the monumental "Theme From Shaft" - which was actually performed by a white
session player named, of all things, Robert Johnson.

Those guys gave the wah wings, and made it sound like it was on fire. I swooned to
the sound of '70's era Funk and R&B, and its wah-drenched tones.

So here is an automated wah based on the sounds of that era. What's interesting
about it is that I'm feeding two cascaded Bender Fuzz's into the wah. It's not a wash out
of fuzz because, though the gains are high, the Mix's are very low, and I've narrowed their
EQ range down to 88-2200Hz with the Hi Cut and Low Cut. That way the fuzz helps thicken
and accentuate the midrange intensity of the wah. Some grit and texture, but not destroying the
snap and pop of the strings. That's what made '70's wah sounds so cool. That thick,
syrupy, vocal midrange that stood out like a pimp in a covent.

Play some funky E7#9 chord stabs with Blues Scale runs, soul bruthas!
This is made for vintage style pickups, turn down if you have high outputs.

 

[Bumbleish]

Great patches...thanks! I think the user cab info is useful so keep them coming

 

[smilefan]

Here is a pretty sound not often heard. A vibrato circuit! Not to be
confused with tremolo, which is cyclical volume variation.
Vibrato is frequency modulation, the changing of the pitch of a signal.

Historically, tremolo-equipped amps first appeared in the
late 1940’s, followed by Fender’s 1955 flagship amp, the Tremolux.
In the late ‘50’s a company called Magnatone released the first
amps with real pitch-shifting. They sounded pretty cool. As if each
note had a little angelic waver around it. If you’ve ever heard a Buddy Holly
recording, you’ve heard a Magnatone.

You hardly ever see amps with pitch-shift Vibrato. It’s a complex and
labor-intensive process to wire. Fortunately, its a snap to program
one in the Axe. In this patch I took a Bandpass Filter and attached an LFO to its
‘frequency’ parameter, and tweaked the curve for a strong, clear vibrato.
I encourage you to go into this patch’s LFO’s response curve screen and play with the
curve setting. You’ll see how dramatically you can alter the signal. Fun stuff!

Its mixed hot so you can hear the effect clearly (Pitch Vibrato is a subtle effect).

 

[maxdown]

I'll bet my patches sound boxy thru those 1x12 closed back cabs. I use big, oversized open back pine 2x12's expressly to get away from the boxy-ness I hear in closed cabs.

I'm getting a pine 2x12 made - just got the EV's today. Would you be a complete star and give me a WxHxD of one of those cabs (oh and a rough height of the open area at the back between the top/bottom panels)?

I was designing with a theory of 'less wood = flatter speaker sound' in mind - so the (birch ply .5 inch) baffle would have been 28/29 inches wide by 14/16 inches tall - then wrapped in at least 3/4 inch dovetailed pine. Probably around 10/11 inches deep

Was going to try sticking an EV in a Marshall 1x12 1912 cab - but (a) discovered the bolt circle wrong size and (b) the baffle was made of cheap MDF .... cheap bastids.

 

[smilefan]

I'm getting a pine 2x12 made - just got the EV's today. Would you be a complete star and give me a WxHxD of one of those cabs (oh and a rough height of the open area at the back between the top/bottom panels)?

I was designing with a theory of 'less wood = flatter speaker sound' in mind - so the (birch ply .5 inch) baffle would have been 28/29 inches wide by 14/16 inches tall - then wrapped in at least 3/4 inch dovetailed pine. Probably around 10/11 inches deep

Was going to try sticking an EV in a Marshall 1x12 1912 cab - but (a) discovered the bolt circle wrong size and (b) the baffle was made of cheap MDF .... cheap bastids.

30x20x12. Open back space - 6 in. Less wood = Better speaker fidelity (at least to my ears).
Something like birch ply cant help but muffle frequencies. I think you'll be thrilled with cabs
like that.

 

[maxdown]

30x20x12. Open back space - 6 in. Less wood = Better speaker fidelity (at least to my ears).
Something like birch ply cant help but muffle frequencies. I think you'll be thrilled with cabs
like that.

Cheers for the info ..... looking forward to getting mine made now.

 

[yek]

Here is a pretty sound not often heard. A vibrato circuit! Not to be
confused with tremolo, which is cyclical volume variation.
Vibrato is frequency modulation, the changing of the pitch of a signal.

Historically, tremolo-equipped amps first appeared in the
late 1940’s, followed by Fender’s 1955 flagship amp, the Tremolux.
In the late ‘50’s a company called Magnatone released the first
amps with real pitch-shifting. They sounded pretty cool. As if each
note had a little angelic waver around it. I’ve you’ve ever heard a Buddy Holly
recording, you’ve heard a Magnatone.

You hardly ever see amps with pitch-shift Vibrato. It’s a complex and
labor-intensive process to wire. Fortunately, its a snap to program
one in the Axe. In this patch I took a Bandpass Filter and attached an LFO to its
‘frequency’ parameter, and tweaked the curve for a strong, clear vibrato.
I encourage you to go into this patch’s LFO’s response curve screen and play with the
curve setting. You’ll see how dramatically you can alter the signal. Fun stuff!

This is not an attempt to ape a vintage Magnatone, but more to bring pitch vibrato into
the modern age. Its mixed hot so you can hear the effect clearly.
No custom IR's here. All stock.

Hi Smilefan,
I tried the Vibrato preset. Without the Panner block there's not much going on, it's very subtle. Could you check if Axe-Edit handles your preferred settings the right way?
Or is the Panner a necessary part of the fx?
BTW, the preset has a mono Cab in it. Which means that the panning of the Filter block gets summed to mono.

 

[cobbler]

Another brief history lesson. A tale of two Deluxes.
The 'narrow panel' Fender Tweed Deluxe (the famous model
5E3 circuit), and the Fender Brownface Deluxe (circuit 6G3) .

They sounded quite different. The Tweed had a crude, grumbly, farty, dense
breakup. The sound was almost all mids. Alot of ZZ Top's early recordings,
much of Keith Richard's work, and virtually all of Neil Young's electric work were
done on Tweed Deluxes (Neil's "Hey Hey, My My" is a classic example of its splattery
sound).

Thought you might get a kick out of this...

Cragg was tinkering with Young's guitar rig, which sat in a little area to the rear of the stage. A gaggle of amps, a Magnatone, a huge transistorized Baldwin Exterminator, a Fender Reverb unit and the heart of it all: a small, weather-beaten box covered in worn-out tweed, 1959 vintage. "The Deluxe," muttered amp tech Sal Trentino with awe.

"Neil's got four hundred and fifty-six identical Deluxes. They sound nothing like this one." Young runs the amp with oversized tubes, and Cragg has to keep portable fans trained on the back so it doesn't melt down. "It really is ready to just go up in smoke, and it sounds that way flat-out, overdriven, ready to self-destruct."

http://thrasherswheat.org/friends/cragg.htm


456? Unbelievable!