So many cabs... I'm lost :(

Ugly Bunny

Ugly Bunny

Power User
I know in time I'll find it a good thing to have so many cabs, but at the moment, it's overwhelming and I have no idea what to pick for any tone. Eventually, after auditioning a bunch, I start to get ear blind and lose the sense of what I was even going for.

Is there a way or a function that automatically pairs the "right" cab with the amp? Helix does this and it's a great feature. I imagine some people use the same few cabinets for all their stuff, and I'll probably settle into it as well, but I really just don't even know where to start; and then soon we'll have the ability to load in our own (and I've got a few hundred of my own from various preset packs on the Helix) and I'll have even more options...

How do you go about narrowing down cabs or selecting favorites, or knowing what's what?
 
Have a tour through the first 100 or so presets. That will give you a great idea of what cabs Cliff has selected as nicely paired cabs for a large number of the amp types in the unit, as well as give you an amazing overview of the capabilities of the unit in general.
 
I'm a 4 x 12 kind of guy, so I started there. And there are so many great presets to choose from, I would start there. Then look at the amp and cab. A lot has to do with your ears as well.
One warning, a good portion of the finished tone has a lot to do with what you are playing the AXE III through. Amp, cabs, monitors, headphone are all going to have a different tone result. With my rig, I add an EQ block
 
I'm finding it easier to choose a bright ir and a darker ir then blend them in the cab block. My favorite is a 4x10 fender something and a 2x12 something. Love the new cab block!
 
slinky005 said:
Have you tried filtering the cab types?
This really narrows it down as many of them are variations on the same cab model.

Here is a helpful guide:
http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2...et_models_list#Factory_cabs_in_the_Axe-Fx_III
Click to expand...

I get the feeling that many folks are unaware of the Wiki. It's a phenomenal source of details and guidance. Yek's amp model run throughs in particular come to mind. If/when I ever get a III, the wiki's going to be open full screen on my computer indefinitely.
 
hdcs said:
I get the feeling that many folks are unaware of the Wiki. It's a phenomenal source of details and guidance. Yek's amp model run throughs in particular come to mind. If/when I ever get a III, the wiki's going to be open full screen on my computer indefinitely.
Click to expand...

I think you guys are missing the point... he mentioned the Helix and how it auto pairs cabinets. The UI was probably done by an engineer not a UI/UX person, hopefully it will evolve over time.
 
Some good responses here, thanks! Yeah, it's just overwhelming. But I will take another journey through the presets (before it starts getting to the weird ones lol) and take a closer look at what's being used. The first time I did it, I spent about 3 hours with the first 25 alone. It was glorious. Love this thing!
 
What always helps me is to pick an already recorded guitar tone that I’m after that day and use that as a baseline to compare against. Most distorted guitars use a sm57 mic and a Royer 121 mic. Load yourself a Marshall with a 57 in one slot and a Marshall with a 121 in the other and have a blast! That’s pretty much been my jumping off point except I prefer Mesa Cabs over Marshall.

If it’s clean or break up tones, I usually go for 1x12 and 2x12 cabs. I’m not picky about the mic but, I like adding a “room” IR in addition to a another single mic IR. I rarely need to blend more than 2 cab IRs but, it’s definitely doable within the Axe and Axe Edit. Anyway, hope that helps!
 
I agree that it is currently far too overwhelming when browsing cabs. Filtering helps a little, but right now it only filters by cab size. Filters for microphone type and brand of cab would help. You can do that now with Axe-Edit if you open the cab picker and do a search for something like "160" to find all the IRs that use a Beyerdynamic M160 mic. Then make sure the little pin icon on the cab picker window is engaged and then click through your selection.

Right now there are only three out of five quick controls assigned to the ABCDE knobs on the front panel for the cab picker: Sort A-Z, Filter, and Exit. One of my current wish list items is to have an expand/collapse function when browsing cabs just like you might have when browsing a computer file system with the little +/- signs. The first level would be the overall IR type ("OH 412 Recto V70" for instance) and the second level would be all of the individual IRs (57, 121, Fat, Fwd, etc.). At least that's my idea for fixing this problem of scrolling through pages and pages and pages of IRs.

Other general IR advice: 1) figure out what microphones and speakers you like 2) don't forget to give your ears a rest. If all else fails, a good Greenback IR and a good V30 IR is a beautiful combination that goes well with everything IMO.
 
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