What do you do to make the Axe feel fluid and as close to amp+pedals as you can get?

Orvillain

Orvillain

Power User
Just curious really, more about everyone's strategies rather than specific features or what have you. I know about the performance pages, but is there anything else you do that sorta bridges the gap between the two worlds of multi-fx and amp+pedals??
 
I don't do anything to make the Axe III feel more like an amp and pedals. I take it for what it is; a digital amp modeler and multi effects unit. The only thing I have ever attempted to do is emulate a lot of the amps I've owned or wanted as well as a lot of pedals I've had or wished I could have.

Frankly, I don't understand why there would be a 'need' to bridge the gap between the digital and analog world. The workflow of the Axe III is simpler and easier than any analog rig I've used. I suppose I can see the desire to twist knobs but I personally get more satisfaction tweaking parameters in Axe Edit than I ever did messing around with knobs on an amp or pedal.
 
Do you mean in terms of the feel of the amps or making it feel like a pedalboard setup? In regards to the amp feel, it already feels exactly like my real amps so I don't do anything special there. For controlling everything, when I first started with the AxeFxII, I tried to make it like a pedalboard because that's what I was used to. Now I just use scenes and I have my "sounds". It's easier for me to switch lots of things at once and in all honestly, I don't stray from my main sounds 99% of the time. For the times I do want to just mess around, I use Axe Edit and tweak things.

I really approach modelers as their own thing. They're not amps and they can do things that amps/pedals can't. You can treat them the same and set up your foot controller to work like a pedalboard but I find that to not be efficient and that I enjoy playing with a Bradshaw type setup.

At the end of the day, just lay things out how you like them, it's all about playing guitar anyways.
 
Thats the beauty of fractal products, you can set it up and use it in a myriad of ways. For the old school folks that want all their stomp pedals to click on and off one at a time just like the pedal board to the more advanced that want to automate everything and never touch a button switch or expression pedal with everything being controlled in a timeline with a DAW.

I'm in the less tap dancing the better camp. Cover's one song per preset using scenes, in most cases I can do three scenes and handle the rest with three expression pedals if need be. One of the reasons I drooled over fractal stuff for years before pulling the trigger. The thought of going back to an amp and pedal board is beyond meh to me.

Now if we could get Elon Musk's mind controller hooked up to this thing!
 
I have a really specific strategy for the way I use the FC-12. The Effects layout is the one that I have customised most, and is my "home" layout. I have laid it out pretty much how I used to layout my effects pedals, and colour coded the switches to remind me of pedals I used to use a lot. Compressor is red like a Dyna Comp, overdrive green like a Tube Screamer, Flanger purple like a Small Clone, Phaser orange like a P90, etc. I'm getting a bit long-sighted now I'm in my mid-50s, and could probably do with a little bit of sight correction to read the scribble strips better, but in my normal mode of playing that layout is really recognisable, kind of familiar in colours, and I use it like a bunch of stomp boxes laid out in front of me.

I think we already discussed that I have some "long presses" that take me intuitively between the Scenes and Presets layouts, and I'm usually working between Effects and Scenes. Scenes are all set up either as important starting points (clean, overdrive, fuzzy rhythm), or setups that would involve too much tap dancing to get to easily (compressed lead with overdrive and delay, monster fuzz with aggressive flanger and helicopter landing chopped tremolo). I use pretty much the stock Scenes layout, and have left the preset up, preset down buttons active. If I start running out of scenes for a particular setup I'll duplicate the preset to the next one up just for the convenience of moving swiftly between songs. My main preset is duplicated 5 times at the moment, so that I have scenes available with ever extended levels from basic rock/pop through to serious mayhem, idiocy and wigging out on 4 of them. The 5th is just a really specific set of them for one particular song that needs very specific simultaneous effects switching across 5 scenes, and some slightly different delay times to what I'd normally use. Importantly for my tiny brain, I'm only ever a long press away from getting back to the relative familiarity and safety of the Effects layout, where I can breathe a minor sigh of relief.

The thing I miss most about the Axe FX II is the ability to have an FxUnits RAC12 sitting in the rack. Not sure if you ever came across them, but it was essentially a set of amp controls in the rack, and meant you could set up to have all the usual amp controls at your fingertips whenever you wanted them. I still don't really have a strategy to get that fluidity back without putting my reading glasses on and pressing a few buttons on the front panel. On balance, the FC-12 is such a huge leap forwards from the MFC-101 that it's not that huge a deal, but I do miss just having bass, middle, treble, presence, gain and level controls just as if it's a real amp behind me. Having said that, I used to put myself in all sorts of trouble by pressing the "save" button mid gig and saving block state changes to scenes and presets that I really hadn't intended to.

That's kind of the tip of the iceberg, as I also have strategies for less complex setups, especially those where I use the volume control of the guitar and the way I pick for dynamics, and with those ones I often switch between amps in the Channels layout (to which I have added a few effects switches in familiar colours, but fewer of them, because I don't need them for those playing styles). But most of the ideas are variations on the theme of having a home layout that feels like stomp boxes.

Hope that's interesting, if maybe not that helpful! :)

Liam
 
Nothing. Its way better both in tone and usability imo. Ive been moving forward the last 7 years, not backward.
 
I had a huge board with several drives, and the big 3 Strymon pedals routed through a BOSS ES-8.

Don't miss it, at all. I can do the MIDI-type multi switch with one button thing with scenes, or have a whole different rig, board and all, with a simple preset change. Not to mention a stomp layout within each preset....or not.

Having the performance page stuff ties it all together live.
 
You could start with what you think the differences are and what you're going for maybe?

Its literally an amp and pedal rig in the digital domain
 
Customize you FC (or FM) layouts to work for what you want to do. Performance screen up during the show if any little tweaks are needed, but that is rare. Then....Just like Cooper said....Plug in, Turn it up and PLAY!
 
For me, Analog means imperfect and complex.
A constantly fluctuating changeable mode of expression
-- that is still subtle.
Anything that adds a pleasant variability to the tone is a good thing to me.
Not unlike a flanger or a chorus adds variability
-- just more subtle and with an imperfect, not fully-predictable, intention.

I like to set the pitch follower modifier to the Variac on the Power Supply section of the Amp Block.
I reverse it so the lower notes push the voltage to 150% and the higher notes run around 70-90%.

The semi-chaotic imperfections of pitch following lend themselves
to a complex, organic flux of slightly unpredictable behavior.
While, I like having very stiff low notes with a looser feel on leads,
I also like the slightly chaotic element of a breathing, shifting tone.
The level of "unpredictability" is hugely influenced by how cleanly or loosely I played.

I prefer the sounds of the high-voltage Marshalls during 1966 and 1967.
I like the sound of a Marshall Major for that and for other reasons.
But, it is still nice to have a thicker, warmer, browner sound on the highs.

I set the pitch modifier quite extremely.
--- 150% on lowest notes, 90% or even less on high notes.
--- reverse, Start: 100%, Mid: 50%, End: 0%
--- Scale: 2.000, Offset: -100%

It does not need to be set for such a wide voltage range.
That is just my taste.

However, this does cut into my CPU capabilities.
Without the pitch modifier I will push the CPU limit to the very edge, 80-84%.
With the pitch modifier I stay below 70%.

That is on the FM3.

I also like to set the Preamp Type in the Preamp section of the Cab Block.
I set the Preamp Type to "Tube"
and the Preamp Mode to "High Quality"
I Ieave all the other preamp controls where they are.
It adds another level of warm complexity
that is hard to detect and stays more transparent
because there is no EQ'ing.

I always set the IR Length to "Ultra-Res" in the Cab Block.
And, I have have found 3rd party IR's that suit me best (Mikko)

I always use 2 speaker cab IR's
Usually a 4x12 with EV12L's
and a 4x12 with old H55 Greenbacks with Pulsonic cones.
I always roll-off some of the bottom end of the Greenbacks.
And, I roll-off various amounts of top-end on both Speaker IR's.

My tone tastes are quite dated and a little retro.
But, perhaps my thoughts will trigger something useful.

Basically, tight, punchy bottom; warm, expressive top;
with subtle, unpredictable - but not random - imperfections.
 
I do miss my pedalboard when I’m messing around trying to find interesting effect tones. It’s much tougher for me to just stumble upon interesting sounds when I’m using Fractal. Used to be I’d turn a few knobs on some Strymon, Mid-Fi, Chase Bliss, Earthquaker Devices, etc., and bam, unique and original and fun sounds for me to incorporate into songs. Often riffs/parts would be completely inspired by these somewhat accidental sounds. And for me that doesn’t really happen at all with Fractal. With Fractal it feels like you need to have the idea in mind first, then figure out how to get there. Overcoming that would be the final piece for me.
 
It would be much, much harder to get the sounds I like with amps and pedals... The Axe is already there, so the situation would be reversed. Can someone make amps and pedals flow like an Axe Fx??? Didn't think so :)
 
jaycal6 said:
I do miss my pedalboard when I’m messing around trying to find interesting effect tones. It’s much tougher for me to just stumble upon interesting sounds when I’m using Fractal. Used to be I’d turn a few knobs on some Strymon, Mid-Fi, Chase Bliss, Earthquaker Devices, etc., and bam, unique and original and fun sounds for me to incorporate into songs. Often riffs/parts would be completely inspired by these somewhat accidental sounds. And for me that doesn’t really happen at all with Fractal. With Fractal it feels like you need to have the idea in mind first, then figure out how to get there. Overcoming that would be the final piece for me.
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Interesting. I always imagine things first, then try and make them. I wonder if thats why I gel so easily with multi effects. Im a highly conceptual person.
 
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