[SOLVED] Axe-Fx III sounded bad before Reset System Parameters

M

MetalMan

Member
I am wondering if I am doing something wrong? I have used the headphone output of the fractal with a studio headphone (AKG K240 Mk. 2) and it genuinely sounds like ass: thin, flubby, and fuzzy. Totally different from YouTube videos with the same exact presets. The FX are killer though, but I am supremely disappointed by the amp + cab sim.

My tube amps through Two Notes Wall of Sound sounds much more alive: thicker, tighter, clearer. Even with EQ from WoS off.

Why is there a dramatic difference?

I have downloaded the most popular patches on axechange, so it obviously must be something on my end?

This isn’t a dealbreaker because I primarily use the 4cm method, but when traveling I would like to use the Axe FX for casual playing.

Any tips on what I should do regarding the amp + cab sims?
 
Feflicker said:
Also, headphones 🤢
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My main question about the headphone thing is - why does your Axe FX recording with no post processing sound awesome through my headphones, but every patch I have ever actually played through my headphones sound wretched?

Plenty of reasons why your patches sound better with you playing them - guitar, fingers, talent (lol) - but can't really blame the headphones.
 
IMO, these kind of threads should require brief recordings to show what the current and expected output are.
 
I struggled with this a lot when I started as well. First check your cables because that is rule #1 from Cliff. Hopefully the above comments about resetting solved your problem, if not here are some things that helped me. I have yet to get any of the axechange presets or gift of tone presets to sound as good as the people putting them on there. All of my guitars run really hot pickups and I detune most of them. I found after the new Beta's that my input signal was clipping a lot and now that is fixed, I'm running at 5% now. I had to lower my pickups away from my strings on one of my guitars to even get the 5% to not clip. Another trick I use is using a high pass on the amp block to kill some of those lower freq's that was making the amp muddy. Perhaps the opposite would work for you depending on your pickups? Burgs, Leon and CC make some amazing sounding presets but they rarely translate to other peoples rigs. You will have to tweak to your style and guitar/pickup combos. Hope this helps
 
MetalMan said:
I am curious - why the system parameters reset made such a difference?
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Sometimes you make a change or turn something on/off that you didn't intend, and parameter reset undoes that and gets you back to baseline. The baseline tones are great, so there you go.

We've all done it, and being one of those 'all' I can tell you I've never figured out what I did that made it sound bad.
 
MetalMan said:
I love you Yek. It sounds so different, it is amazing right now.

I am curious - why the system parameters reset made such a difference?
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Since you mainly setup for 4CM, you could have had settings for 4CM that don’t work for full range modeling. The reset put things back for full range modeling. If you use 4CM again, you may have to change settings.

Power amp modeling and cab modeling being off are the two that would cause the bad sound you described.
 
Headphones are tricky. My first pair was a Beyerdynamic DT880 Pro 250 ohm, and the fizz in the high gain models (JPIIC, etc.) drove me crazy. It was just like it's described in the Wiki: Seems like it floats on top of the tone, separate. I used high cuts in the cab block as suggested in many places, which helped, but I still didn't like the sound.

They failed, so I went with a highly recommended model- Audio Technica ATH-M50x, and wow, what an improvement!! I noticed it immediately. I still hear that fizz, but have come to accept that it's simply a characteristic of how a close-miked cab truly sounds. I still tweak my factory presets, but it doesn't bother me nearly as much. Turn up the volume, and they really sound amazing!

I also use an EQ correction curve, which imo has nothing to do with that fizz, but it does help to flatten their response. Which is what you want, so as to hear the true sound of the models. Good luck!
 
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