VIDEO: Axe-Fx Harmonic Knob behavior

Thanks for the video - awesome work.

Would love "tutorials" on tone crafting with the AXE FX deeper pre and amp params like this for Crunch, Sag, X-former, triode hardness, etc. just like this one Harmonics. Super helpful for people like me.

Also, wonder what you think about the HARM param on other amps - I'll have to play with it bit more as it does seem to "smooth out" some grit that I like too much on the Carol Ann or the JTM45.

O/T - I wasn't sure what you meant by "pinch harmonics" but I guess I do it all the time, and that's not even my "style" - it's just something that I stumbled on long long ago (early 80s) and toss in every now in then.
 
Thanks!

Crunch: Sort of works similar to Harmonics in a sense. The lesser values to me give me more tube type tones where the higher values sort of give me less. In other firmwares, the Crunch really made pinch harms jump out using higher values. But if you went too high, your sound would choke out...almost like using too much noise gate. It behaves differently now to my ears. For example, the 800 mod I like defaults to 16%. I notice some of the dynamics, pinch harms and overall sound, seems more transistor using higher numbers. So I set all my crunch knobs on every amp to 0 because to me, they feel and sound more tubey.

Sag: the best way I can explain it is....the lower the number, the more your amp breathes and opens up. The higher the number, the tighter and more refined it gets. Almost like it is compressed in a good way. Like the harmonics knob, lower numbers give you a bit more mids and open-ness, higher numbers tighten and give you a little less warmth and you're a bit more restricted. There we go...that's a good way to explain it. The lower the sag number, the less restriction on the amp. The higher, the more it tightens up...almost like a governor on your car.

X-former knobs....though many, including Cliff, have spoke highly of this gem of an option, as much as I mess with it, I find myself always reverting back to the default values for any amp I mess with. I've tried all different configurations with all the X knobs. You can come up with some cool sounds, but nothing ever blows my doors off in my personal applications.

Yeah, that Zakk Wylde does the pinch type thing. I use them less and less these days. But they sound so much better when you have a tube amp or in our case, a properly modeled tube amp with a strong 12AX7 front end. Transistor sounds when you do that technique, don't have that "choke" sound that almost appears to hit you in the back of your throat. LOL! :) It's an irritating effect...but it sure is fun when you can nail it at will. I kinda stole it from Eddie...as he is the only one I know that makes them "choke/scream" while they remain musical. :)
 
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Definetly heard the difference. Thanks for the video. That preset sounds great by the way! Have it posted anywhere?
 
Nice job explaining one of the many features!
Cool real world example too. Sounds a bit like rock n roll!
 
Nice vid, Danny. Great to hear what it does for an amp and style I don't tinker with.

I think it would be great to better understand a bit of the intent behind controls like this from the FAS crew themselves, with this level of detail. For example, yes, I can hear the differences in settings, but how does playing with the harmonics knob differ from playing with the presence control, or the triode cutoff frequency, or the bright knob? Does it work only on even order harmonics, where other things affect all harmonics equally, or...? Things like that.
 
That is a great demo of what it does, thanks for sharing Danny! Now I have something new to play around with that I haven't really thought about yet. Def like it more when you set it near the 460 setting.
 
Many thanks, Danny for showing us this.
You were talking very fast - a little difficult for a bavarian:D

What I didn´t know or didn´t recognice: The sound gets more highs (or the mids dissapear) when you turn up harmonics.

And that´s maybe the explanation, that some amps are less cutting in the mix - with less mids?!
 
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Danny, once again you have done a fantastic job here in explaining things.

You know... I have often wondered why on earth Fractal themselves don't put out video classes on things like this, or do more demo's. I mean, I thought that is what they brought Mark Day on for... but he is really not that active except for the occasional short video of him playing a song or something.

If someone did a series of video's just like this, and went page by page, parameter by parameter through things, it would be a tremendous thing. (I'm aware of Cooper Carter's stuff by the way)

Heck, could you image if Cliff or Matt (or another Fractal employee) did a 2 hour seminar on advanced parameters and put that on the site?

It's an area where Fractal has tons of room for growth in my eyes. We get tons of firmware updates, which do a couple of things. One, it is constantly improving the product, but at the same time it causes a lot of debate and confusion amongst users. A dedicated person or project towards eduction on the product and making it more usable would unlock a lot of power for people and open a floodgate of creativity. It would be a whole new field where the company could innovate and redefine (again) how customer support should look. "We'll teach you how to be an expert with this super powerful thing we've built (that so many people struggle to really understand)"

The same thing could be said about so many music technology products...it's the single largest hole to be filled in music today in my opinion: Making the high level of technology available more usable and faster for the consumer. (I think about my learning curves with Ableton Live, Logic, Axe-FX, DMXIS, and other products and I get a little nauseous.)

What if there was a forum channel here, kind of like the preset exchange, but it was just a string of 50 videos, all kind of like the one above?
A video that went through the speaker page, and the different settings.
A video that explored multi-delay's and the dozens (hundreds) of ways you can set and use them.
A video or two on using compression to shape tone and gain (I know a great one to post there, from Mr. Danzi)
A video (or small series) on EQ. Before the amp, after the amp, before the preamp, before the power amp.
I could go on all day... you get the idea... but if this resource was all in one place, easy to locate and search through for all of (or at least many of) the questions people have... image what it would do for the average (or newer) Axe user.

Anyway, that's my Fractal dream. I love the box and what it can do. I would really love to be able to further understand how to get more from it and bridge the gap to power user.
 
It's an area where Fractal has tons of room for growth in my eyes. We get tons of firmware updates, which do a couple of things. One, it is constantly improving the product, but at the same time it causes a lot of debate and confusion amongst users. A dedicated person or project towards eduction on the product and making it more usable would unlock a lot of power for people and open a floodgate of creativity. It would be a whole new field where the company could innovate and redefine (again) how customer support should look. "We'll teach you how to be an expert with this super powerful thing we've built (that so many people struggle to really understand)"

This is traditionally called "Change Mgmt." and is a key success factor for software adoption. It's is a focus area all unto itself, and we're likely here only because FAS is so fantastic in new releases and updates.

I work for well-know independent, 3rd party company developing enterprise software strategies/implementation planning (and deal with enterprise S/W for fortune 1000 companies); this is a "top 3" success criteria for these program that can cost tens, if not hundreds of millions of dollars.

I personally love the idea and [self-serving] would volunteer in a heartbeat to be candidate for the position at FAS. :) [/self-serving]
 
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