Why all the Metal??????

Yes I agree with Op. I enjoy metal to a degree but I really like Ola Englunds tones the best as far as metal goes. what I really love is some getting a really awesome rock sound or blues. Those dumble and trainwreks sound amazing to my ears. James Ryan did a nice youtube vid of FW10 where he went thru a lot of the kickass clean and moderatey distorted models of the axe2. I love that vid. And yes Phostenix, we need some cool funk showcases on here! Hell I'll link my fav axefx vids here:

Metal

Rock

blues rock- Even though theres a marshall sitting behind him he states hes using the axe2 and the marshall is just sitting there.
 
ventura said:
Can I lick the shoes you wore when you met Anna Vidovic?? (gasp, pant...thump thump thump, gasp... :shock :love_heart:
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You know... I actually still have those shoes.

I'm not usually so dog-like, but I will tell you a story. She performed at the Pacific North West Guitar Festival when it was hosted at Western Washington University (this was while I was attending for music composition). The guitar group showed up for her performance, as our instructor had reserved seats for us. The seats were conveniently located so that we were positioned directly in front of her footstool. Her underwear happened to match her red dress. :shock

I didn't know what blew my mind more. Seriously though, the master class with her was ridiculous. She mostly talked about performance memorization. Before she even plays through a piece, she sits with the music, memorizes it, and decides on all of her playing positions, switches, etc. She basically said if you as a performer don't do this before you tackle a piece, you aren't actually ready to even begin playing it. She sits with the music and reads through it on car rides, on planes, and sits and reads the music up until the point at which she walks out on stage to perform. She's totally hot, and dedicated to music performance. But to be frank, I kind of got a robotic vibe from her when conversing. She's basically a music machine, and cares for not much else.

The Assad brothers were also excellent, but were also total assholes. I think all the "stardom" went straight to their heads.
 
LVC said:
Regardless of the style of music, it is easier to sound good with bad technique if you play with a lot of distortion. No question about that in my mind.
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Yes and no. Overdriven compression will help in some respects but it's a beeyotch if your muting is not up to snuff.
 
I think metal guitarists are used to huge rigs of gear and rack stuff. Country, blues, jazz and other roots styles tend towards combos and some pedals (that's how I ran). I think metal folks are more into gear and the Axe has been marketed towards them more.

Personally I love how it sounds clean and slightly to moderately driven. I totally disagree that modelers did good clean before the Axe. I think the complexity of tone and response required to get a great Fender clean into driven sound took a ways into Fractal's journey to achieve. Now the cleans are great, but plug into a Super Reverb, then into any modeler (with current exception of Axe and, maybe, Kemper, I don't know) and you should hear a huge difference.

I'm unusual among my musical guitar friends in being techy, rootsy and liking electronic sounds, too. Most are into amps, guitars and the occasional pedal, but nothing like the Axe. They dig how it sounds, but they still don't want to use it. There is also the age thing. Younger dudes into rootsy stuff are probably less techy. They're into discovering older things by definition.
 
MarkShrader said:
I have often wondered this as well...
Fractal (Cliff) has designed in every amp imaginable into the AF2, so why all the metal? Of all the players I know, not one is a metal player, or even in to metal at all.
Metal rules? What are we in Jr. High? lol
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I'm afraid some Axe Fx users may be. IMO, it's mostly percussive noize with a lot of anger. To each their own, I avoid it at all cost, especially the glass gargling vocalists.
 
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The Axe-FX may have more utility for a metal player as compared to other genres - since home recording heavy distorted tube amps requires cranking them up in a way that's not practical with families in the house. That's one reason I got it.
 
axel said:
I'm afraid some Axe Fx users may be. IMO, it's mostly percussive noize with a lot of anger. To each their own, I avoid it at all cost, especially the glass gargling vocolists.
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All you Metal kids get out of my yard !!!
I guess I'm a metal Geezer and I'm just a bit younger than EVH
( Aside ) I went to Summer Slaughter a few years ago and while I was waiting for Decapitated to play and some young dudes came up to me totally amazed that an old dude was at their Metal show .
I am still a teenager in my mind .
 
OmegaZero said:
Reading this thread has been very interesting. Some thoughts, in no particular order...

I think we, particularity as guitarists, are inclined to want more of what we do and sometimes don't see the bigger picture. Anyone who drops the cash on a piece of kit like the Axe is at least a bit particular about their tone, and generally speaking we don't spend much time learning the subtleties of the sounds we don't prefer. For myself, there aren't very many models in the Axe that work for the high gain sounds I'm looking for and I haven't heard many clips that sound like what I'm looking for either. I often find myself wondering why there are so many Plexi variants and how different they could really be. It's all a matter of perspective. At the end of the day though, I think there's going to be at least something in this little black box of magic for everyone & anyone.
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just as an example, I'm not that particular about my sound - I just happened to have the $2k to spend on my hobby. I don't have a ton of cash, but every couple of years I can drop some on music. The reason I went for the Axe was because I wanted so many of the amps I saw (EVH, Recto, Fender variety, etc.). I could not afford multiple amps, nor house them or play them much since I need low volume. The Axe was a way of getting all the amps I want in one box I can set on my desk AND record into my computer.

I'd venture that as folks have said, a lot of the metal players are younger and/or young-minded and technical. Thus, the axe isn't something that scares them off as being too technical.

Also, I don't know many musicians, but the guys I do are particular about their tone - thus, they have an amp and guitar they like and they're not looking to change. Add in what others have said about folks who like tube amps not believe the Axe can replicate those sounds well and I can see why guys playing metal might be more willing to give it a whirl than the non-metal guys.

I will say, I do like hearing tracks other than metal. Not against the metal ones, but it adds to the variety.
 
animal said:
Broom of Doom - YouTube
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GLOL! :lol

clap.gif
 
theo said:
I'm predominately a metal player myself. I like the axe fx 2 because it eliminates the collection of pedals and tap dancing I used to need to do.
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I think that's probably a part of it. The stereotypical pedalboard for metal/rock is substantial, but for jazz/blues they're stereotypically much simpler.

Personally, I'd still want an AxeFX because of its flexibility and there aren't any tubes to age or burn out, but maybe that's just me.
 
axecellent said:
I've noticed that there is a lot of metal guitarists on here...and I come on here every night to see whats happening and all these Metal style recordings are showing up...don't get me wrong I like some metal....but the axe can go far beyond that as we all know...I'm just surprised that other guitar such as country, blues, jazz, etc...haven't discovered Fractal Audio...I think its all the "metal" associated with the unit on youtube and alike. I think Fractal has to do more advertising for the "broader market" and reach the community as a whole. Being a blues/rock guitarist, I get so many questions about the axe fx 2 on my youtube channel from blues guitarists and country guitarists as well.... I'm just surprised they don'y know about it. The fractal website doesn't really explain how you can use the axe fx 2 very well for a new customer....as far as I'm concerned, youtube has been Axe Fx 2's main source of advertising and its endorsers.... I just think they can reach a lot more than predominately "metal guitarists". I've been doing my best to demo the product in the blues context and I've been reaching a lot of that market with my demos. Its a great product, too bad that everyone I mention it to doesn't even know what I'm talking about... :)

another thing, I think some in depth videos explaining different setups and how to tweak sounds would be very beneficial for the Fractal Audio website for beginners or advanced users. Fractal should consider paying some experienced users to do this and place them on their website. If the Axe Fx 2 was made simpler by making these videos I think the average guitarists would consider Buying one.... setting up a basic tone is easy but what about all the other stuff the fractal can do... VIDEOS? YES.

cheers!
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Idk, I went to Axe Fest west last year and I have to say I was probably one of 2 that seemed like they were into metal. There were maybe 2-3 dudes that got excited that Tosin Abasi and Wes Hauch were playing cause most of those guys weren't there to discuss/hear metal. (Not to say they didn't enjoy those performances though, I know M@ did :)) Most of the guys were in their 40's and got way more excited for the Dweezil performance. I'm just reaching out to the demographic of people who personally showed up and represented this product to prove a point. Not only that, but I'm a huge metal fan and I also listen and (badly attempt to) play jazz, blues, fusion, and some country (I'm talking brent mason type guys here). I'm one of those guys that spends hours a day trying to make EVERY AMP sound good haha. So not all the "metal" guys using the axe fx are only playing metal. There's a ton of dudes that are into non-metal genres using the axe fx out there but not all of them are gonna sit on the forum and tell you about it. Too busy playing I suppose. :) Plus the older crowd that aren't using an axe fx are too attached to their tube amps (i'm talking your 50-60+ year olds here) because it's something that already works well for them (if it ain't broke don't fix it) and something they've known throughout their lifetime as reliable. These guys see an ad in a magazine or on youtube for an axe fx and are probably thinking "no way does this sound better than my vintage _insert badass relic amplifier here_". There are also a ton of audio clips on the fractal site that are non-metal that will show potential customers what this thing can do.
 
dwg115 said:
And yes Phostenix, we need some cool funk showcases on here!
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I just thought it was funny that "funkstation777" was exclaiming that metal was awesome.

I am literally eating popcorn while reading this thread. Cheesy popcorn. That leaves my fingers looking like I just ate some Cheetos....
 
I'm a home hobbyist who is not nearly good/fast enough to play with the "Metal" crowd.

I posted some stuff that isn't metal and got barely any responses on these forums, but it doesn't sway me at all.

The tones I can get for my own style which is more blues/rock are ridiculously amazing.

When i pick up my Strat, I almost always end up playing the "British Blues" preset from v9.02 and it still sounds AMAZING.

Axe Fx II - British Blues - YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfI19xlvlrE
 
I think we may be missing the big key part here. Metal usually goes with a younger crowd and a younger crowd is going to be much more tech-savvy / have much more free time on their hands. That said, they're going to be cranking out recordings/videos quite a bit faster than older guys who may not be as familiar with the latest trends.. ie youtube,sound cloud etc.
 
Speculum Speculorum said:
You know... I actually still have those shoes.

I'm not usually so dog-like, but I will tell you a story. She performed at the Pacific North West Guitar Festival when it was hosted at Western Washington University (this was while I was attending for music composition). The guitar group showed up for her performance, as our instructor had reserved seats for us. The seats were conveniently located so that we were positioned directly in front of her footstool. Her underwear happened to match her red dress. :shock

I didn't know what blew my mind more. Seriously though, the master class with her was ridiculous. She mostly talked about performance memorization. Before she even plays through a piece, she sits with the music, memorizes it, and decides on all of her playing positions, switches, etc. She basically said if you as a performer don't do this before you tackle a piece, you aren't actually ready to even begin playing it. She sits with the music and reads through it on car rides, on planes, and sits and reads the music up until the point at which she walks out on stage to perform. She's totally hot, and dedicated to music performance. But to be frank, I kind of got a robotic vibe from her when conversing. She's basically a music machine, and cares for not much else.

The Assad brothers were also excellent, but were also total assholes. I think all the "stardom" went straight to their heads.
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I'm not a dog either, but when I think or visualize the embodiment of "music beautiful", it's Anna that appears in my mind's eye. Graceful, fiercely technical, perfect attack, and incredibly stunning. Furthermore my love for classical only adds to this "awe". Ya, lemme at least have a go at them shoes if you don't mind...

It's funny, I've had the opportunity to meet a number of high profile musicians (aka: rockstars) and I've never once been "star struck" where I get jittery or weird or quiet or nervous. Never once. I just go about my business of talking shop, and being a chillaxed cat. If given the opportunity to meet Anna? I'd probably be a bit tongue tied... I really think I would. And it's probably less to do with her "looks" than it is knowing, technically, she could slay any one of the aforementioned "rockstars" and do so with poise and grace, never once making a "rock guitar solo face" LOL.
 
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