So I played through a Two Rock combo yesterday.....

papaflann

Inspired
First of all I feel like I am a fairly experience fractal user. I've had it about a year and a half. I tweak with it for hours on the weekends and I feel comfortable dialing in some good tones...I"m a low to mid gain player blues rock/ fusion etc...

I haven't played through a real amp pretty since the fractal arrived. I use K12's to dial in sounds at gig level. I never do any recording, the fractal is my amp.

All I kept saying to my wife yesterday while we were in Austin Vintage Guitars was, "man this doesn't sound like my axe fx." I've spent hours tweaking mid gain tones and dialing in stuff and man that two rock was legit. It was just a breathe of fresh air for some reason. I was playing a '82 les paul custom, which didn't hurt either. The above quotation means: "man this thing sounds a lot better than my axe fx"

I haven't really been drawn to the two rock models on the axe fx though. I"ve spent time with them but they don't sound as good as the FW18 soldanos or Dumbles/Ford's for example.

I guess my post gets summed down to the age old argument of Axe Fx vs. amp in the room sound. I just haven't heard a really nice amp in the room sound in a long time. Ive played with other people with amps in the room but they just weren't two rocks!!!!

The versatility of the axe is more desirable to me than having the two rock, but just the pure tone of the two rock was amazing. It was like the tone I've always been looking for and never knew how to get it kind of thing.

I love my axe fx and i'm not gonna sell it to get the two rock...I may buy a two rock at some point though, hell and the 82 custom.

anyway I had to post this on here....I don't know really where to go from here.

I"ve used the delays in the cab block to get the amp in the room sound. I use the room level in the cab block. I've used a little slap back delay before the cab block.

I was just super impressed with the two rock and how sexy it was....and i'd love to have that same vibe with the axe fx....cheers
 
Do you play your Axe through a power amp and cab? If you're just messing with FRFR and trying to replicate the sound and feel of amp in the room, you'll never be satisfied.

If you had been playing the Two Rock through an isolation set up, and hearing the miced up result, then you'd have a fairer comparison.

On your actual experience though, congratulations. That's a great rig to jam through!
 
Do you play your Axe through a power amp and cab? If you're just messing with FRFR and trying to replicate the sound and feel of amp in the room, you'll never be satisfied.

If you had been playing the Two Rock through an isolation set up, and hearing the miced up result, then you'd have a fairer comparison.

On your actual experience though, congratulations. That's a great rig to jam through!

You're right Big Wolf. The only person that would listen to me talk in there was my wife and she doesn't know anything about guitar gear, but I did tell her that the amp sounds amazing as is, but if you're playing live you're leaving out the most important relationship: the mic on the cab. But the one thing i'm having a hard time wrapping my head around is: So if the fractal is superior, then why don't we see Mayer and Oz Noy and other great players using them more often. I know there were some pics of Edge having a couple in his monstrous rack (boobs) but do they know something we don't?
 
Do you play your Axe through a power amp and cab? If you're just messing with FRFR and trying to replicate the sound and feel of amp in the room, you'll never be satisfied.

If you had been playing the Two Rock through an isolation set up, and hearing the miced up result, then you'd have a fairer comparison.

On your actual experience though, congratulations. That's a great rig to jam through!

In reference to your FRFR statement, I've always thought to get the most nasty out of your Axe is to consider using a CLR or RCF etc...I know the k12 is in that lineup but I think those two are more gold standards, especially the CLR.
 
Like most AF users, I have a bunch of real amps to play thru - vintage AC30's, Twins, Tweeds, JCM, and others - they all sound better than the Axe FX if I'm just A/B'ing. But, the Axe gets me 90% or better of all my tube amps plus dozens more. It also let's me get the saturated tone of those amps at just about any volume. The effects aren't too shabby either ;-) Finally, by the time you put a real amp on stage, mic it up, deal with stage rumbles, mic bleed, etc., the AF2 just becomes an all around better compromise at FOH. But, if your gig allows you one real amp, limited effects and the necessary stage volume to get the tone you desire, by all means get a real amp! Unfortunately, I don't have that luxury...
 
Get an open back cabinet and a small power amp. Turn off cab modeling. Now you'll have amp in the room.

this...apples and oranges, no matter what FRFR you use, it will never sound like a cab, especially an open back cab.

I know the OP isn't arguing this, but it always confuses me when people make the comparison....they just aren't the same thing at all. I'll admit to sitting down and playing a nice amp and enjoying the experience...you're not a guitar player if you don't, but I love what I get with my Axe 100x better.
 
Get an open back cabinet and a small power amp. Turn off cab modeling. Now you'll have amp in the room.

+1. As per Wolf's post also. If you want AITR you can get it with the AFX but you need to commit to a guitar cab and external power amp. It'll be cheaper and more flexible than a head. I have FRFR and AITR AFX rigs. It's awesome.

Of course having a reference/traditional physical amp is a perfectly reasonable/fine thing to do, too, just on principle if nothing else; if I were to get a head, personally, I'd make sure I got one with an FX loop so it could act as a power amp for the AFX. :D
 
this...apples and oranges, no matter what FRFR you use, it will never sound like a cab, especially an open back cab.

I know the OP isn't arguing this, but it always confuses me when people make the comparison....they just aren't the same thing at all. I'll admit to sitting down and playing a nice amp and enjoying the experience...you're not a guitar player if you don't, but I love what I get with my Axe 100x better.

Yep, I wheel in my Lonestar Special every now and then, and love playing through it for half an hour or so, get bored, and go back to the Axe......
 
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In reference to your FRFR statement, I've always thought to get the most nasty out of your Axe is to consider using a CLR or RCF etc...I know the k12 is in that lineup but I think those two are more gold standards, especially the CLR.
My experience:
CLRs (and other good FRFRs) are where it's at for that pristine "like the album" tone. traditional guitar cabs get you "in the room" tone... not "like" it, but IT.

Edit: oh, I see everyone else has already said pretty much the exact same thing including the man himself, soooo... +1.
 
It's not about what is superior. It's about using what you like. I LIKE the sound of FRFR because I use In-Ear monitors for both live and practice. An amp wouldn't allow me to do that.

I LIKE to plug into an amp in the room. In fact, I LOVE cranking up tube amps. Much like some guys like driving 100mph. It's not practical, however.
 
Yeah, the other weekened I went to a buddy's place and sat my Axe-Fx and CLR rig next to a buddy's 80's JCM 800 modded with 6550's and 4x12 cab.

I was able to *almost* ape the tone exactly with the single CLR, and it was definitely every bit as loud and as big sounding, but it wasn't totally spot-on identical. I'd say it was as good, and my friend even agreed that it was "just as good but a little different." But when I disabled the cab modeling and plugged the Axe-Fx directly into the FX Return he'd had modded into his 800... forget it. Identical. It was pretty amazing to behold actually.
 
So, just a thought. Have you tried Cliff's recommendation for running two cabs with one cab delay set @ .060-.070? Also, I'm using the new Cab IRs in Cab Pack #10. This seems to sound "bigger" to me...and closer to the AITR.
 
Did you mention what model Two Rock you were playing? Was it a Jet 35? They have quite a few different sounding models.
 
I'll never part with my Soldano Astroverb and Bogner Duende, playing through a real amp still has something special for me. The Bogner has an fx loop, so using it as poweramp with the AxeFx kind of gives me the best of two worlds.... ;-)
 
Get an open back cabinet and a small power amp. Turn off cab modeling. Now you'll have amp in the room.

This. I keep trying different tube rigs from time to time to see if I'm missing anything and each time I'm disappointed. I have come to realize that I used to chase the tones I heard on records that inspired me, not the tones they players would hear in front of their amps. Amp in the room and the sound of a mic'd mixed amp are worlds apart.
 
I was always chasing that "amp in the room" sound. My job keeps me busy enough that I'm just a hobbyist guitarist. I finally bought a SS power amp and play through an open back cab and a closed back cab. Twin 2x12 and a Marshall 4x12. The axe provides all the preamp and power amp (I leave the power amp modeling on) and all the effects. I TOTALLY have that amp in the room sound and I can add a cab in before the FX loop and get the direct through the PA also. I can pan between a Marshall roar and a twin glisten with a pedal and get all combinations in between. If you prefer the "amp in the room" sound then you should use speaker cabs and a SS power amp.
 
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This way I can have the "Amp in the room and the sound of a mic'd mixed amp" sounds at the same time. Of course this does take a greater investment as I do use a lot of equipment.
 
It's funny, I had a very similar experience recently. I plugged into an amp at a guitar store that I had tried in the axe fx but had never played in real life. I was blown away by the real thing. I bought the amp and brought it back to my studio and jammed on it for a while. Out of curiosity, I then fired up the axe fx and went to the model of the amp I just bought and dialled in similar settings, only to find that it did indeed sound just like a recorded version of the real thing. What I was experiencing was just "amp in the room" versus FRFR. To confirm, I routed the AFX into my matrix power amp into the same cab and it basically sounded identical.

I learned a couple things.

A) I still love playing with an amp in the room.
B) AFX can give you amp in the room. But it also gives you an endless world of added convenience, quality, features, flexibility, reduced hassle (the list goes on and on and on)
C) It can be hard to dial an amp you've never heard isolated in real life and don't really know what it should sound like.

I'm glad I'm able to own both. It's nice to crank up a head into a cab every once in a while because it's enjoyable, but also reminds me why I love the Axe FX. And revisiting the analog world helped teach me a little about how to dial a few tones in the digital world - because it turns out the Axe FX truly is THAT faithful of a replication of those real life amps.
 
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