Speculum Speculorum
Power User
* Please account for the fact that Soundcloud does alter the mix a little bit, compressing here and there where it shouldn't. Otherwise, it's a pretty speedy and nice upload option *
The day before Thanksgiving, I managed to cut my thumb badly enough that I had to get five stitches across the fleshy pad. Since playing guitar was out of the question, I was forced to take a break from tracking for the album I've been working on. Still wanting to compose and mix some music music, I figured I would fall back on some electronic music that would eventually be integrated into the album. Then I decided now would be a good opportunity to make a serious attempt at using the Axe-fx II as an outboard effects processor. Since it's unlikely I'll ever use all 380+ slots on actual instrument patches, I am dedicating 300 on up to setting up various studio effects combos that I will come back to. With the addition of scenes, I don't think I'll ever have any trouble running out of space.
I have always felt that the effects on the Axe sounded great, and with it's ability to receive line-level re-amped signals, I figured what the heck – I'll give a mix a shot. I am using essentially the same method I use for re-amping a guitar or bass, which is a combination of analog sending and using the USB from the Axe as my input. I had tried all-analog reamping before, but I got some serious fuzzy LF/HF noise that I can only assume is due to my otherwise great interface. It's no problem – the method I'm using gets great unaltered sound back in digitally with literally no latency issues. Instead of sending out mono and receiving mono or stereo, this time I sent all stereo signals out to the Axe-fx II, utilizing both rear inputs. To compensate for some volume loss (L+R summing) I had to change the input buffer (between 6 and 9 db increase) but I was able to make it work. I am pretty thoroughly happy with the results, and am encouraged by my efforts.
All of the synthesizer sounds are provided by Omnisphere. Since this was a simple experiment, I used simple sounds, and really any synthesizer program could have done the job. I stuck with sine, square, and triangle waves with slight use of LFO on filters, used some custom made envelopes on the filters, and sometimes some small doubling through the harmonizer functions within the program. I sent the output to an AUX bus that was sent out to the Axe-fx, and simply created a stereo track with my 'Axe Send Bus' as the input. If I wanted to work with a recorded piece of audio, I would simply do the same thing with the audio track. If I wanted to blend in an effect with the recorded audio, I would simply send an AUX from said audio track to the 'Axe Send Bus'. Easy.
Some ask why I would use the Axe instead of Omnisphere's effects, which are top notch. Well, partly this was an experiment and I wanted to see how it went. But I also personally find that Omnisphere's distortions are inferior by comparison to the great sounds I can get out of the Axe. Also, sometimes I don't want to record a synth wet. I just want to get an idea down and play with it as I craft the mix together later. A great ping-pong delay might eventually get completely buried in the mix later, and then I have to re-record my synth parts to adjust. This process, while an additional step, helps me control my mixes better. I won't always use it for my synth stuff, but I will always use the delays and modulations, drives, and various other tools on vocals.
The drums are supplied by Superior Drummer's Allaire, which is a small kit from the NY Studios collection. All of the effected parts are blended in by sending an AUX from the recorded audio after EQ-ing and compressing the samples.
I used a variety of drive pedals and the FAS Modern with a personal mix of OwnHammer's Beta V32 cabs to create the raunchy, grinding melody and it's doubling an octave up. The background texture is a triangle wave which was sent through the Axe for 2 different delays and the enhancer.
Aside from that, I used a variety of stereo delays, modulations including choruses and flangers, the enhancer, a rotary block, and other tricks on almost every track (there are 16 of them). For example, instead of creating a parallel compressed track for my snare drum, I sent the track out to the tube driver pedal and then compressed the heck out of the audio track in Logic. I also recorded 2 takes of the overheads, one which was only the drums, and one which was only cymbals (by muting them each within the superior drummer mixer). I used the same parallel technique on the OH Drums as I did on the snare, and I used a nice stereo flanger on the cymbals because why not, and blended it in with the signal. I used varying amounts of stereo widening on parallel tracks for my tom drums to give the track that over-the-top big sound I was looking for. There are a host of other things that I did while messing around with the mix to get it where I wanted it to be.
I did use my Lexicon reverbs for mixing (a Hall, a Plate, and 2 different room reverbs), because they're just awesome. I used a variety of compressors including the Waves CLA's (which are my bread and butter), Logic's standard parametric EQ, and also used Ozone 5 for a small amount of post-processing EQ and it's awesome limiter at the end of my chain. Steven Slate's Virtual Tape Machine was used on every track including the master output (in between my bus compressor and limiter), which I feel gives a great sense of depth and glue to the mix.
I will continue to add to this thread as I continue along with using the Axe-fx II as an outboard processor. Feel free to ask questions, or add to the discussion with your tips, tricks, and thoughts on the matter. For now, I feel like I'm now getting the best use out of this wonderful unit that I can.