Strymon Timeline and AxeFx?

R

randombastage

Experienced
Anyone own an AxeFx and also buy a Timeline?
I feel like I'm lazy for wanting one because the AxeFx most likely can cover that but after trying to dial in some of the YouTube Timeline demo sounds on my Axe I realize I have neither the talent nor patience to pull it off.

I like to plug in a guitar or effects unit or amp and get inspired by what it does and just play... not spend my playing time programming, especially when my programming skills and ear for what's what are/is so limited.

I feel like if I buy one I'm being foolish with my toy funds. Am I the only one here with these thoughts?
 
I too like the immediate gratification of fx pedals etc....but if I can program them into the axe I'll get to it eventually. That being said, some units I have and use live because of the ease and instant access....you don't want to be fooling around with parameters live at a tight set....well at least I don't want to anyway....

I also incorporate some of them into the axe......some of them do things that the axe can't and vice versa....I don't know if or when cliff might come out with versions of my favorite fx, pedals, or amps, so if I need something, I get it. It might still get incorporated into the axe even if a sim of it comes out.

I still use my eventides, even with the axe. They go more in depth, and the sound is equally as amazing, so when I need to save CPU, I can dump stuff like the chorus/reverb/delays/etc on the eventides, and still have headroom on the axe.

just goes to show you that even with new toys, you can still play with the old ones.....
 
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Me too

Yea...I have the same feeling for the most part. I'm interested in an El Capistan from Strymon, as well as a basic MXR CC. Don P. has a great El Capistan patch tho. I still think it'd be fun to pop around with a pedal. I'm also probably going to get the Way Huge Fuzz Pickle pedal. That thing is great - but Im SURE I can get everything with the AXE...I still want it though. I was playing with my Fulltone OD pedal last night and managed to get the axe drive block to sound EXACTLY the same, so yea...I feel kind of stupid buying pedals. But...I also am reticent to buy a $700 foot MFC thang as well.

So yea...swollen pickle and el cap in the future? I dont think i can help myself.
 
methinks if the axe had more knobs and buttons that it might give us that same kind of instantly gratifying feel.....I know that I like to reach out and grab a few knobs, tweak away and get a great sound. With the axe it's a little more tedious even tho the effect will more than likely be better.

I was thinking about it, and I realize that I still like and enjoy tweaking my vg-99, because of this....LOADS of knobs and buttons, and it makes it very easy. The MFC makes things a little easier, but in terms of layout and ease of use, the vg-99 is still much easier imho.

Cliff, if you could get your hands on a vg-99 (i'll gladly send you mine to try out) you'll see what I mean - easy to navigate and tweak, nice layout, and 'quick' features. There are also 'catagories' that you can define, which makes it easy to grab a patch in the ball-park you need and tweak......eg. you go to 'crunch' category and all your crunch sound are there.....you go to 'Z0MG MELAT LEAD' and all your metal lead sounds are there too...very handy for recording when you're doing sessions......you quickly find out what the artist likes and try a couple patches in the category, and tweak to suit after.

I might be old school, but I think I like buttons and knobs over menus and parameter lists :p
 
. Just for those that don't know. You can assign the ABCD knobs to any modifiable parameter in the delay.
 
javajunkie said:
. Just for those that don't know. You can assign the ABCD knobs to any modifiable parameter in the delay.
Click to expand...

Correct me if I'm wrong but if you are using a foot controller to call up your presets...stomp on your go-to crunch preset for example, then decide to tweak a parameter via the ABCD knobs turning it does nothing because you are in Recall mode. And even after you open the block you want to tweak the ABCD knobs have to be assigned to 4 consecutive parameters on the same page...so, in an amp block for example, you can't have Drive and Master assigned at the same time to two of the ABCD knobs because they are on different pages within the Amp blocks sub menus. And you can't have A and B to control Delay time and mix and C and D assigned to Gain and Master of the Amp block all at the same time.

I hope I'm wrong and someone shows me how to do it correctly but right now, as far as i understand, the way things work the ABCD knobs are more of a tease than functional for my use. I'm so used to scrolling to get the parameters highlighted for the Value Wheel to control that I don't even use them when in the Block menus and can't make use of them in Recall mode where they would be the most use to me.

edited to add: I was wrong and the correction is in the thread that follows...
 
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I suspect that might all change in the future tho with firmware updates....the II is still young.

I like my eventides even tho they are MUCH less easier to program and figure out than the axe....but they have lots of knobs dedicated to controls already, which makes things all the more easy. The axe does most if not all of the sounds, but it's so much easier to tweak the eventides as well. It's also nice to be able to tweak several parameters simultaneously. The vg-99 also has 6 main buttons in addition to the one big one, and all 6 serve as dedicated controls...so you have 6 controls to adjust with each page flip. Quick n easy, and makes great on-the-fly adjustments. The vg-99 also has knobs and buttons like nobody's business, making a workflow smooth and quick. My wish for the axe III is that it has something similar, if not better.

More buttons/knobs = more fun, simple as that.
 
randombastage said:
Correct me if I'm wrong but if you are using a foot controller to call up your presets...stomp on your go-to crunch preset for example, then decide to tweak a parameter via the ABCD knobs turning it does nothing because you are in Recall mode. And even after you open the block you want to tweak the ABCD knobs have to be assigned to 4 consecutive parameters on the same page...so, in an amp block for example, you can't have Drive and Master assigned at the same time to two of the ABCD knobs because they are on different pages within the Amp blocks sub menus. And you can't have A and B to control Delay time and mix and C and D assigned to Gain and Master of the Amp block all at the same time.

I hope I'm wrong and someone shows me how to do it correctly but right now, as far as i understand, the way things work the ABCD knobs are more of a tease than functional for my use. I'm so used to scrolling to get the parameters highlighted for the Value Wheel to control that I don't even use them when in the Block menus and can't make use of them in Recall mode where they would be the most use to me.
Click to expand...

Ok I'll correct you :)
In layout menu go to the delay - select delay time - hit enter - As source select Manual A (or B, C, D which ever you want to control the delay time). On min - select something like 1, max 500. up the dampening just a touch to smooth things. Thenturn up feedback and mix, exit to the recall screen. Turn manual A - it changes the delay time

And yes you can have several parameters from different effect all controlled by one knob

"And you can't have A and B to control Delay time and mix and C and D assigned to Gain and Master of the Amp block all at the same time."
you can absolutely do this. albeit on a preset level not global.



Several of default presets that Matt did have this feature. Echo Deva is one.
 
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I think most users seem to want the ABCD knobs to act more like amp controls. Probably something like:

A-gain
B-Bass
C-Mids
D-Treble

Very basic function considering what is possible with the knobs, but I think this would be the most helpful.
 
jon said:
I think most users seem to want the ABCD knobs to act more like amp controls. Probably something like:

A-gain
B-Bass
C-Mids
D-Treble

Very basic function considering what is possible with the knobs, but I think this would be the most helpful.
Click to expand...

That's exactly what they do on my II. So what do you mean ?
 
javajunkie said:
Ok I'll correct you :)
In layout menu go to the delay - select delay time - hit enter - As source select Manual A (or B, C, D which ever you want to control the delay time). On min - select something like 1, max 500. up the dampening just a touch to smooth things. Thenturn up feedback and mix, exit to the recall screen. Turn manual A - it changes the delay time

And yes you can have several parameters from different effect all controlled by one knob

"And you can't have A and B to control Delay time and mix and C and D assigned to Gain and Master of the Amp block all at the same time."
you can absolutely do this. albeit on a preset level not global.



Several of default presets that Matt did have this feature. Echo Deva is one.
Click to expand...

Wow, I'm a dummy. I should have known Fractal wouldn't have left the control as crippled as I described it!

I just stumbled upon the assignment ability and came back here to serve my self some humble pie but you beat me to it...and graciously without a single RTFM too, thanks!

One thing I'm seeing is once I assign the knob to control a parameter it drops the level to zero and while in edit mode the assignment is obviously not linked for purposes of enabling the ABCD knobs as edit controls no doubt but you can't use them or the value knob to bring the level up from zero, when in Recall mode it is linked again but you can't see the value change. I'm guessing the drop to zero can be dealt with, probably a setting somewhere to allow control to "reset" upon program change or not? But having the values pop up on screen in recall mode while they are being altered is kind of critical.

anyway, my apologies to Fractal for thinking they were as dumb as I was, It looks like it's time for me to step away from the forum and RTFM ;)
 
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yek said:
Only when in the Amp's edit screen. Several users have posted the wish to be able to use ABCD for amp control in regular Recall mode.
Click to expand...
If the bass, mid, and treb in the amp block were opened to modification, we could do this at least on preset level.
 
javajunkie said:
If the bass, mid, and treb in the amp block were opened to modification, we could do this at least on preset level.
Click to expand...

I think that would be my use of them 75% of the time. On a preset level isn't so bad since the other 25% of the time I'd want to have them assigned elsewhere anyway so a 'global only' solution would be limiting the potential flexibility of the feature.
 
Actually that wont work well the way things are set up now. It will default to the minimum value when you assign a,b,c,d as a modifier.
 
javajunkie said:
Actually that wont work well the way things are set up now. It will default to the minimum value when you assign a,b,c,d as a modifier.
Click to expand...

I just tried this on the "Time" value and it was not as smooth as using say an expression pedal seemed to be jumpy and yes it defaults to "1" which is a bit of a shame, it would be cool to be able to assign the knobs to time and feedback.... Hello DUBbbbbbbbb!
 
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