What is your style of play? How did you adapt the AFII to your style?

jetspeed747

jetspeed747

Inspired
I've never asked but often ponder what kinds of styles people here on the forum play and how you have adapted the Axe Fx to your style.
 
I play many styles from jazz standards to soul/neo soul to classic rock to modern metal. The Axe-Fx II has just helped me get more out of my guitars and more out of my head(the stuff I hear on the inside). Many times Ive had an idea, recorded the idea so I dont forget it, then created a patch to match it. This is not something I was able to do with my last rig, an original 2 channel triple recto half stack. So tone wise, other than the ability to dial in almost anything I want, not much has changed with my "style of play", but as far as writing, things have changed a LOT! When Im home, my AFII is constantly hooked up to the pc and I always have a new project up with an armed track, so when I play something that I like, its instantly recorded and saved to an "idea" folder. This is the biggest style change for me. :)

Other things I tend to do now are usually entertainment based(at least for me). I have spent many hours now learning new tunes because a patch will remind me of a song from my youth or in pop culture. So I just go from one random tune to another and in the process learn all about the gear they used and how I can translate that to the tools I/we have in the AFII. Good fun. This happens usually when Im trying to do something completely different and I just decide to turn a knob and *bam!*, reminded of a tone from some obscure place in time and my unconscious. The same thing happens with certain riffs. I start thinking, "what would that sound like with....?", and Im off again.

Basically Im a gear nerd and the AFII has allowed me to satisfy and scratch that itch. Because of Fractal and their products plus the FAS community, I have learned more about gear and how to use it in the past year, then I have in my whole experience as a musician. Good times ahead. :)
 
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Same. I like to dabble in most styles. AxeFx, of course, is really good for that. A little jazz, blues, rock, and all the way to metal.
 
I play a lot of experimental music, from 'avant-rock' like Godspeed You Black Emperor type stuff to very abstract, very sparse and quiet. I play in several bands with all sorts of instrumentalists including tabla, sitar, merdungam, djembe, drum kit, guitar, bass, tone drums, home-made instruments etc. We get real quiet, we get real loud.

My setup is certainly not a common one for the Axe-FX. I plug a small mackie mixer into my Ultra. Into that mixer go my guitar, my viola, and an old Sennheiser 441 dynamic mike through which I sing tones, play singing bowls, penny whistles, nose flute, and other things like my 'zefalator', which is a slide whistle made from a bike pump and an alto recording mouthpiece. I rarely use more than one instrument at once, but occasionally I'll play viola and sing at the same time through the same FX. I may eventually have the Ultra and my new II in one rack so I can have to separate units ith two separate paths. I can't do that with my Ultra becuase I also use the FX Loop to go out to my mono-in-stereo-out PCM-70. Truthfully, I use ONE effect in the PCM-70 95% of the time, but until someone can create a patch in the AXE that mimics it, that old classic will stay in my rack.

My patches in the ultra that are most used are: a clean, 'fender' sound, with the FX loop in it so I can always call up my 'Psycho Echoes' patch on the PCM-70. A lot of patches based on that that have different delay characteristics - some are slappy, one is around 1650 ms with a lot of feedback, and the longest is almost a 5 second loop, also with high feedback. I definitely use a lot of delay. I also have some big, overdriven amp patches, some old Mesa, some old marshall - but not the super-gainey hype-o-matic sounds, much more organic to me, like an old amp just about to melt down. Also some flange (still not entirely happy with the Ultra's flange), chorus etc. I also use the looper, but I hate it. I may go back to a boss looper - they are just so superior in features and usability to the Ultra's looper. The looper is, to my mind, the one real disappointment in my Ultra. haven't messed with it on the II yet (still trying to reproduce my basic patches), but it sounds like it's pretty much the same thing. A pity.

The patches range a lot, because the music I do encompasses both Rock instruments, and all of these delicate things (Equadorean Nose Flute, Revere Ware pot lids, etc.

BTW, the 'patch I can't live without' in the PCM-70, 'Psycho Echoes' is like a flanged 8-tap multi-delay. I once put some samples of it up on this board in 2008, but no one was able to recreate it. If anyone wants a crack at it, I would pay SEVERAL HUNDRED DOLLARS for a convincing clone.

Cheers
 
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I've often been told my playing style is a mixture of Dire Straits and Chris Rea

Well at least thats what I think they meant when they said 'You sound like dire rea' ??
 
In a band, I play variety covers for the most part with occasional originals. So that's rock through country, blues, through r&b/soul/Motown. At home I am working on expanding my playing by looking for better ways to express those dome tones... what I hear in my head when I improvise a piece. I am using some of David Wallimann's modal backing tracks to play away from my go-to places. Recently I have been pretty bored with my own playing, and this has been getting me excited again about learning new concepts. I think this will translate as much more interesting improvisation, even in the covers.

The Axe Fx units allow so much more flexibility than my old amp-speaker-mic setup. I can play much more in the same way as I listen. What I mean is that I formally played like the musicians I heard, one good amp tone and played everything in those few sounds. That's got value, and I am not knocking it. But when I listen to music, it's normally with the CD player or iPod on shuffle with lots of players. So I hear a lot of soloists and supporting players on a lot of instruments with a lot of textures. I like that.

I don't really care for my sounds going all over the place in a band format, and I know my band mates have a hard time playing to that. The Axe Fx has allowed me to build up a set of footswitchable presets that reflect a really wide range of sounds and feels that work together to the ear. So I have guitar tones that capture the essence of the original and my own spin at the same time. I have never been able to accomplish that, even with the best of single amplifiers. Combined with my 513, it is downright inspirational to play now.

I really can't imagine going back.
 
My band is sorta like an arena rock meets new pop punk sort of style. My playing has always been shred influenced but I could never find a good guitarist to keep up with me, or anyone who could write music so I had to teach myself cool chords and junk. Ive got a real low gain but thick distorted sound and utilize a lot of open chords. Ive been through practically every amp; DSL, TSL, JCM 900, 5150, Bugera XXL, JSX and in that order. Nothing has sounded as good as the Axe in just a single amp setting. With the flexibility and the ability to use a MIDI switching device, its unstoppable.
 
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