What does your Axe-Fx base tone typically consist of?

[kvik]

For headphones and monitors I always use the Cab low cut but vary it a lot depending on whether I'm playing to a backing track or a drum machine and trying to fit in versus just playing dry, in which case I like to keep quite a lot of the low end in. I sometimes add a touch of Cab preamp and its EQ to sweeten things up especially with cleaner tones. Otherwise I usually try to make the most out of selecting the right amp and cab and mic position to start with. Although recently I'm finding out how you can squeeze out a lot more range out of an amp such as the JTM45 by handsomely applying the Amp Input / Output Eq to help it along in the low regions while still having it produce the elusive "edge of a square wave" doom sound that can barely be tamed even with guitar volume knob at zero.

When playing through a power amp with a band I just let the actual cab to do its thing and sweeten or desugar things with power amp eq.

 

[TG3K]

The vast majority of the time it's just amp + cab for me. I'll occasionally add a bit of low cut in the Cab block depending on how the preset sits in the mix with the rest of the band, but more often than not if that's the case I just find another cab to use.

 

[vector]

I like my tones to sound "pseudo mastered" thus the cuts and additional eq. I also have some multiband compression after the cab block.

Amp>Cab (with cut at 80 and 7500>Multiband Comp (reduction at something like 100hz mainly for the palm mutes and chugs) >EQ (for room correction depending on the venue)

 

[Thenewexhibit]

I like my tones to sound "pseudo mastered" thus the cuts and additional eq. I also have some multiband compression after the cab block.

Amp>Cab (with cut at 80 and 7500>Multiband Comp (reduction at something like 100hz mainly for the palm mutes and chugs) >EQ (for room correction depending on the venue)

So, I’m curious here. To my understanding, and what I’ve heard most say and kind of experienced most, is getting the source to sound correct right at the source. Does your tone depend on a high cut at 7500hz? Like, if you were to turn that off, would the top end be unbearable where adjusting amp controls (treble, presence) would not get you there?

In my case, I’ve found this to be a must (extreme high cuts, or what I would consider extreme) with almost every stock IR or Dyna Cab which makes me wonder, were all of these captured this way intentionally with the thought of needing extreme high cuts?

 

[SteveW]

It really depends on your guitar as well... Some pickups are way darker than others and don't reflect extreme high-end. I have over three dozen guitars and I can tell you that from one to the other I either have to boost or cut.

 

[vector]

So, I’m curious here. To my understanding, and what I’ve heard most say and kind of experienced most, is getting the source to sound correct right at the source. Does your tone depend on a high cut at 7500hz? Like, if you were to turn that off, would the top end be unbearable where adjusting amp controls (treble, presence) would not get you there?

In my case, I’ve found this to be a must (extreme high cuts, or what I would consider extreme) with almost every stock IR or Dyna Cab which makes me wonder, were all of these captured this way intentionally with the thought of needing extreme high cuts?

This is a quote from Cliff in a previous thread.

People often talk about applying low cuts and high cuts. This is because the cabinet models used in modelers are almost always (with a couple exceptions) based on near-field samples of guitar cabinets. IOW, the mic is pushed up against the grill cloth. This just happens to be the way that record producers/engineers mic a cabinet in the studio and the way guitar cabs are mic'd on stage. This is done primarily for isolation reasons.

The downside of this approach is that the resulting tone will have a lot more lows and highs than when listening to the amp+cab "in the room". What the mic "hears" when pushed up against the grill cloth is not the same thing that we hear standing 10 feet away.

The most common technique to deal with this is to simply cut out the lows and highs using blocking filters, e.g. highpass and lowpass filters. Producers routinely do this when mixing as excessive amounts of lows and highs will cause the guitar tracks to get "lost in the mix". Live sound engineers often do the same thing.

The Cabinet block has blocking filters built in for just this very reason. You can also use a couple dedicated filter blocks or a parametric EQ block. For now let's use the Cabinet block. My personal settings are Low Cut around 80 Hz and High Cut around 7500 Hz and Filter Slope set to 12 dB/octave but these are just a starting point.

Far-field IRs are available but they are rare due to the difficulty in obtaining them. They require a large facility and special techniques making the process impractical in most cases. So, until an abundant source of far-field IRs are available we need to think like a producer/engineer who is dealing with the mic pushed up against the grill cloth. This means shaping the tone with EQ to remove unwanted frequencies.

 

[Thenewexhibit]

This is a quote from Cliff in a previous thread.

I’ve seen this, and I don’t deny that to be the case because it’s my experience with almost all of the stock IRs and Dyna Cabs, but in real life with my experiences of micing cabs, they don’t usually sound that extreme on the lows and highs when close mic’d, at least in my experiences, which makes me wonder if it’s a specific specimen of speaker that has those characters that Fractal looks for, unless most people who do the same with real world counterparts either just happen to get super broken in and smooth sounding speakers as an exception to the rule just by chance or actually look for that specifically when buying a cab, or post processing is truly done that isn’t being spoken about, but most people are usually transparent about that stuff.

 

[Thenewexhibit]

This is a quote from Cliff in a previous thread.

Also, you mentioned a 7500hz cut. Does your tone absolutely depend on that to sound balanced? If you took that off, would it be way too much to where the amp controls couldn’t get you there?

 

[vector]

Also, you mentioned a 7500hz cut. Does your tone absolutely depend on that to sound balanced? If you took that off, would it be way too much to where the amp controls couldn’t get you there?

If I took that off it wouldn't sound horrible per se but it won't sit in a band mix as well. The amp controls get you there but the high and low cuts just give it a more polished sound. In a live setting anything above and below those cuts do not need to exist.

 

[Thenewexhibit]

If I took that off it wouldn't sound horrible per se but it won't sit in a band mix as well. The amp controls get you there but the high and low cuts just give it a more polished sound. In a live setting anything above and below those cuts do not need to exist.

Got ya! It’s interesting to me how (at least I find) the majority of fractal IRs and Dyna Cab are kind of dependent on high and low cuts, I’d say especially high cuts. I hear close mic examples plenty of times where extreme cuts aren’t at all necessary, but with the factory IRs and or Dyna Cabs, it’s almost a necessity. I wonder if that comes down to capture method or maybe preference in specific specimens of the speakers that were captured.

 

[nomoretubes]

Not sure where stuff like mic preamp fits into the poll.

I marked amp cab and final EQ for room because I’m not using additional blocks for the shaping it’s part of them.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Amp and cab, smidge of delay and a verb pretty much always. Compressor on clean sometimes. Drive sometimes on higher gain scenes, but less often lately.

Phaser, flanger, chorus, rotary, plex delay, and a (probably flat) PEQ for solo boost at the ready, my standard kit.

Pretty much never a separate EQ as part of the base tone; as said above, there's so much EQ available in the amp and cab.

If i can't get where I'm heading with the Mark EQ in the amp, I use dynacab mic position more than cab EQ for post amp tone shaping, but I use both.

 

[Rumbletone]

I don’t disagree at all with your assessment (and my approach is similar) but for me it begs the question of why we feel compelled to cut when using a modeller whereas when we were using mic’d amps we deferred entirely to FoH to make the warranted cuts, assuming a close mic’d cab? Is it just because we CAN do it easily now, so might as well do so and save FoH the trouble (and/or risk FoH not getting it right)?

Now I’m curious to ask my soundguy friends whether they approach modellers differently in this regard or, for example, whether they still tend to HPF and LPF even if it’s (mostly) redundant?

So, I’m curious here. To my understanding, and what I’ve heard most say and kind of experienced most, is getting the source to sound correct right at the source. Does your tone depend on a high cut at 7500hz? Like, if you were to turn that off, would the top end be unbearable where adjusting amp controls (treble, presence) would not get you there?

In my case, I’ve found this to be a must (extreme high cuts, or what I would consider extreme) with almost every stock IR or Dyna Cab which makes me wonder, were all of these captured this way intentionally with the thought of needing extreme high cuts?