So I took the Axe-FX II out of the house today for an experiment and...

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Robotechnology

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It was successful! 8)

The back story:

I am in a band that tunes to "D" standard. I took one of my fixed bridge guitars strung up with 10's and set it up for "D" standard to use for my band as that is what they tune to. The problem with this is that I have a few more guitars I'd like to use for rehearsal and live shows with my band but, it is uptempo stuff (female fronted melodic/power metal) and I just don't dig the lower string tension and do not want to switch to 11 gauge strings. Enter the Axe-FX II :twisted

For me the whole signal path is part of the tone, so I'm easy to please as I love my guitars, power amps and cabs. Throw the Axe into the mix and the sonic nirvana continues. Believe it or not I've just been using the factory presets these past few months with my Axe except for 2 patches that I've made my own. Which brings us to today. Next week we have a gig opening up for Sebastian Bach. I've been using my Egnater Vengeance for this band with my "D" standard tuned guitar. Worked great for reheasals and our last gig. But, as I said the lower string tension sucks. I have to really concentrate during fast alternate picked rhythm work (90% of what we play) so much that it takes some of the fun out of playing :(

I drove to rehearsal with an "E" standard tuned guitar, an EVH 5150 III 50 Watt head and my Axe-FX II set to one of my patches (EVH III Red amp model and a pitch block transposing the signal a whole step down to "D" standard). I used the studio's Mesa Recto 4X12. The entire signal path was Suhr GG into instrument in of Axe-FX II using output 1 left into the effects loop return of the the EVH and lastly the EVH's speaker out into the Mesa cab.

The other guitarist assumed that I was using the Axe in the loop of the EVH for minor effects use and that my guitar was tuned to "D" standard. It wasn't until practice was over when he commented on my 5150 III head sounding so good that I spilled the beans and told him that it was just being used as a power amp and that he was hearing the Axe-FX II as the preamp/tone generator! Then I went in for the double whammy and said listen to this... played a riff then, switched to a preset without a pitch block and played the riff again. Did that twice and then he figured out that I was using the Axe to "detune" my guitar.

Bottom line is the Axe-Fx passed it's trial by fire for me with flying colors and will be on stage with me on my next gig :)

Anyone on Long Island that wants to check out the Axe-FX II live doing the pitch transposition thing I described above, come check us out at the Emporium in Patchogue next Sunday (the 25th) and say hello. Doors open at 6. I'll be there all night as I am a fan of Skid Row ;) Also, below is the video we shot a month ago. I'm the one sporting a Fractal T-Shirt and playing a Jackson CS Star. Alas, only the T-Shirt is Fractal (otherwise the recording would sound better as the other guitarist recorded it prior to my joining the band and went direct):

 
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I usually use only 1 guitar during an entire gig (cover band - everything 1/2 step down). We do stuff with turnings in D, C, even B. I just set up different patches w pitch blocks. Works amazingly, only the VERY TINIEST BIT of latency on B patch...
 
tguitar said:
I usually use only 1 guitar during an entire gig (cover band - everything 1/2 step down). We do stuff with turnings in D, C, even B. I just set up different patches w pitch blocks. Works amazingly, only the VERY TINIEST BIT of latency on B patch...
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Same thing I do.. i played a whole gig once with the same guitar (parker with d-thing drop tuner) and my axe. our E stuff we play 1/2 down, 1/2 down stuff is still 1/2 down and use the axe to drop 1/2 more to get c# stuff.

It's odd, sometimes it bugs me sometimes not.. nice to not have to drag a bunch of guitars though.

Dave
 
BTW, Cliff said something about the improved behaviour of the pitch shifter when downshifting (in FW8 IIRC). However, I could not really feel any difference to former FWs and still have to fall back on Simeon's marvellous workaround. Since the topic has not come up until now I assume everybody else is happy with the pitchshifter or all use Simeon's approach (did I mention that it was a stroke of genius)?
 
So, I was curious about this and wated to use it on a few songs instead of bringing other guitars.... I tried the pitch block with detune settings.
Can you list the steps and settings you are doing please? I would like to see if I a missing something. I would only be going down a half step but it didn't feel right to me.

Thanks
 
GuitarMan86 said:
So, I was curious about this and wated to use it on a few songs instead of bringing other guitars.... I tried the pitch block with detune settings.
Can you list the steps and settings you are doing please? I would like to see if I a missing something. I would only be going down a half step but it didn't feel right to me.

Thanks
Click to expand...

don't use the detune type in the pitch shifter, use the fixed harmony type

put the pitch block before the amp

set mix to 100%

set voice 1 shift to minus the number of semitones you want to downtune to

turn the other shifter's level down to zero

turn the track adjust parameter down until you get a good balance between latency and solid pitch

you might also want to turn the hi cut up to 20khz
 
The improvement in the pitch shifter was more to do with the performance and the accuracy of the shifts (particularly when playing complex chords). There is still latency and there always will be as that's the nature of the beast. But we'll continue to try to improve it whenever possible :).
 
AdamCook said:
...there always will be as that's the nature of the beast. But we'll continue to try to improve it whenever possible :).
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I think the problem is not the latency itself but the strange feeling it gives you. IIRC, in Simeon patch there is a parallel volume block controlled by an adsr which lets the non-detuned sound come through for the first milliseconds before the detuned sound kicks in. This gives the impression of an immediate response to your playing since you cannot hear that within the first milliseconds the sound is not detuned yet.
However, IIRC, this only worked within fairly narrow margins so there was the question if this could somehow be incorporated into the pitchshifter block itself.
 
simeon said:
don't use the detune type in the pitch shifter, use the fixed harmony type

put the pitch block before the amp

set mix to 100%

set voice 1 shift to minus the number of semitones you want to downtune to

turn the other shifter's level down to zero

turn the track adjust parameter down until you get a good balance between latency and solid pitch

you might also want to turn the hi cut up to 20khz
Click to expand...


Thank you Simeon, much appreciated... I will give that a try.
 
Thanks for your suggestion Simeon, I'll try setting up a patch using your method as well. One thing I did notice was that certain amp models had more latency than others when using my whole step down preset, so experimenting with changing to similar sounding amp models may also help with anyone experiencing excessive latency.
 
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GuitarMan86 said:
Thank you Simeon, much appreciated... I will give that a try.
Click to expand...

When I use this setup and just do a simple preset with a pitch, amp, reverb block and the above settings for a whole step down...on the pitch block...I can definitely feel and hear the pitch shifting. Doesn't really feel correct...although in tune. I did mess with the track adjustment parameter to. Still tinkering.
 
Sweet gig! Be sure to say hello to Fractal Audio Systems artist Nick Sterling at the show. He plays guitar for Sebastian Bach.
 
Nick isn't playing with Bach at this time. I've met Nick and his dad quite a few times so I definitely would have hello and hung out with him had he been there. Great player!

Jiffzillla said:
Sweet gig! Be sure to say hello to Fractal Audio Systems artist Nick Sterling at the show. He plays guitar for Sebastian Bach.
Click to expand...
 
Robotechnology said:
Nick isn't playing with Bach at this time. I've met Nick and his dad quite a few times so I definitely would have hello and hung out with him had he been there. Great player!
Click to expand...

Well damn...looks like I'm out of the loop. In that case, my post was obviously not the droids you were looking for. :) Sweet gig anyway! And yes, Nick is a great player.
 
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