They All Sound the Same, It's About Workflow

I only know which modeler I currently own and use (2 of them, in fact). :)

Not into these sorts of trap-tests, because I care about how things sound with my setup, and in
the band I play in, and in the context of the other gear I use. That's how I make audible determinations.

Sorry. A little. :)
 
ZipGun68 said:
The main thing that doesn't translate over speakers is the "feel" for me. Since I picked up my AxeFxIII a little over a year ago I have been amazed with both the sound and feel. So I for one am grateful for your "Ass busting" efforts and achievements.
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Yup. That's one of the main reason why I've never been keen on amp plugins. They sound great nowadays but the feel just isn't there for me. Then again I've only ever used Focusrite interfaces and have yet to try the instrument DI's on other brands.
 
simeon said:
3 and 4 sound the worst to me. 1 and 2 sound the most real. 2 is different from 1 in that it sounds less "controlled". if i had to guess, i'd say that was the amp and 1 was the axefx.
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That's what I thought too but we are wrong :tearsofjoy:

I just listened again by quickly skipping thru the track to the same snippet of all 4 samples and this way it's clearer that 1 and 4 are the closest, maybe listening to them in the order they're recorded creates a sort of psychoacoustic effect or the auditory memory gets erased too quickly to be able to compare "distant" samples
 
FractalAudio said:
Three takes are modelers, one is the real amp:
https://www.fractalaudio.com/tmp/Be_Be_Be.mp3

Deluxe Reverb Vibrato channel
Gain 10
Bass 2
Treble 8
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A & D are the real amp and Axe-FX. They both sound the same to me.

My logic is that you listed the settings that you used across the board. Assuming the real amp is the one you modeled, two of the four examples should sound identical.

(B) sounds like it was profiled. The clipping doesn’t behave like the other three. Aliasing perhaps?

(C) sounds close so it may have been the other modeler.
 
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They don't sound the same.

I find that the sizzle is more pronounced and obnoxious in the second clip, which is also the harshest sounding.

The third clip is lower in volume and it is darker too. Also, the bass sounds less controlled in the last chord.

I find clip one and four the most alike.

My guess is that the first clip is a Fractal, and the fourth is the analog amp. The first sounds less noisy. I could be fooled because it is the only clip without prenoise before the playing to prime the ear to be alert of the high pitched harsh noise.

It is hard to say what is the most accurate. If the amp is harsh, a slightly dull modeller might be preferable to some. If the amp is less harsh, some added harshness might be preferable to some. If the amp-cab pairing is floppy in the bass, a slightly thinner modeller may be preferable. If the amp is thin in the bass, a more floppy modeller may be preferable to some.

Personally, I find the AXE wonderful. And I have very little experience with the various modelled amps. So, since I can not judge it anyway, I don't care as much for accuracy as I do for inspiration and feel. And I do get a lot of that from the AXE FX3. At the moment, I mostly play the FAS models.
 
Okay third try on this.

1. Rings out like the real amp
2. Bass build up feels off
3. Bass build up feels off
4. Rings out like the real amp

Some are just really harsh on like the 3rd or 4th listen. Honestly it takes me a while to hear a difference until I've played them for a while. My ears notice the harshness after a few listens.

I'm terrible at micing cabinets so this sounds like my engineering experiments.
 
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2 has something going on in the higher end zone that might serve it's purpose in a mix but isn't my favorite sound by itself. 3 sounds like there's some proximity effect with a mic going on.

1 and 3 are pretty similar, but seems like 3 has something in the mids making it a little more forward sounding, not in the attack, but in the sustained areas.
 
nickd said:
The second one sounds shittier to me. First and last are the nicest sounding, third is close, second is the one I least prefer.
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FractalAudio said:
This guy gets it.
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Honestly, they all sound very similar through my computer speakers but the high end of #2 is a little harsh. #3 just sounds a little flat overall. #s 1& 4 sound the best but would like to hear them back to back. Regardless, playing live in front of a crowd, the difference would be indistinguishable, IMO.
 
FractalAudio said:
Three takes are modelers, one is the real amp:
https://www.fractalaudio.com/tmp/Be_Be_Be.mp3

Deluxe Reverb Vibrato channel
Gain 10
Bass 2
Treble 8
Click to expand...
I listened several times with my DT-770 headphones then took a break and listened to other stuff to reset my listeners, then tried again with my HD650 headphones. The difference is extremely subtle but I think it's the second clip.

PS - Looking backwards through the other responses, since Cliff already said someone picked the same one and was right, here's what I think I heard.
  • The high-end sound of the amp model's distortion has a very realistic bite to it. There are layers to the tube distortion sound, and they are harder to make out in the other three. I noticed it first in the DT-770, which have a bit of treble emphasis then was able to pick it out again with the HD650 headphones.
  • The decay at the end of the clip seemed to have a little more deep resonance, like I'd expect from a close-miked cabinet. The others were accurate and really good, but I didn't catch the feeling that the wood was shaking quite as much.
I'm probably off base. I'm always concerned with ear fatigue and confirmation-bias which happen too easily and can get in the way of blind-listening tests.

The four would be impossible to tell apart in a live or ensemble setting because there'd be too much going on and room acoustics would play too big of a part.
 
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FractalAudio said:
Wow, why am I busting my ass making things so accurate when people can't hear how obviously different the first two are?
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Sounds the same to me on HS8s, but hoping for a final descriptive of the differences + insight into why they are different in these ways, to help the tone deaf among us better appreciate (or learn to) the tonal nuances, and the hard work that you do.
 
This thread reminds me, that 20-30 years ago, (in my part of the western world) many people had better Hi-Fi systems than many musicians' "monitors" these days.
 
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