My AX8 vs Helix LT Journey

Jonathanthomas83

@clarky what’s your typical rock preset for tight rhythm and lead?

Clarky

Jonathanthomas83 said:

@clarky what’s your typical rock preset for tight rhythm and lead?

all of my presets are variations of the same preset
so the fundamentals are that same..
the variants just have differences [fx / morphing tones / settings] to address moments in specific songs that that main preset cannot..

riffing: 5150 mkIII red channel left / Diezel Herbert channel 3 right
soloing: 5150 mkIII red channel
clean: Carol Ann Tucana 3 clean channel

peteri

Clarky - you're a bad man, I'm thinking about it now!

Reality is I don't need it, but if I ever decide to ditch the amp - then it makes sense

Clarky

peteri said:

Clarky - you're a bad man, I'm thinking about it now!

Reality is I don't need it, but if I ever decide to ditch the amp - then it makes sense

when you see the hoops you can make it jump thru then you'll see exactly how much sense it makes... lol..

peteri

Decided I'd keep this going, mainly to serve as a nice summary for where I'm getting with it - and maybe it will be useful to someone

Unexpectedly had a few hours this evening so loaded a cross section of Ownhammer impulses - and set to work programming a 'PA' pedalboard (on headphones - I know not that accurate!)

First time, I've run against the CPU limit - I could and did work around it and I'm happy with the result - but really (and ideally) in this scenario - wanting clean, AC/DC, Rock guitar and Lead guitar.

The amp models are so good - that I could easily have a 'clean' sound from the Swart amp, AC/DC Plexi, Rock - JCM800 and Lead 5150.

Of course that's not possible - so ended up with something I really like:

Clean sound - Plexi 1959 Bright channel with the drive turned down, optical compressor in front to give a little 'spank' into Ownhammer 4x12 mix. Reverb

AC/DC - Same Plexi with the drive turned right up, same cab/reverb

Rock - 5150 Red Channel with the gain down. Same 4x12 cab, but with different filtering

Lead - 5150 Red Channel, gain a bit higher and a Fet drive in front to goose it a little and a PEQ to boost the mid range slightly more. and the same cab as the Rock sound.

Bottom footswitches for scene select (1/2, 3 and 4). Then drive pedal hard right - 'X' is a Fet Drive - which is pretty Klon like and 'Y' is a pretty hot TS

Top Row is : 'X' Script Phaser/'Y' Univibe, 'X' Deep Chorus/'Y' Light Chorus, Trem, 'X' Short Delay/'Y' Tape Delay with tap tempo

Ended up with a very versatile set-up, with the two drives - I've not found a use for the KoT I have before the unit, which is new.

Got great success in playing with the amp bias on the Plexi. That was amazing in terms of nailing the 'Angus' sound without having so much drive that it lost character.

Remain very, very happy - sounds amazing over headphones. The amps and drives really work how you'd expect them to.

And thanks to @Clarky for referring to the 5150 - it's amazing!

Ownhammer add a nice bit of depth to the sound too.

simonk

Have you tried the Suhr Badger 30? Best clean sound in there I think.

guitarfishbay

If you like the 5150 give the 6505 models a go (6160 block/6160+ etc). Those are my go to for gain sounds 

Clarky

the 5153Red is a beautiful silky smooth hi-gain amp..
you can jack up the 5153Blue to similar amounts of gain but it's a little more 'edge' and aggressive sounding [to my ear]

try this with a JCM800
filter block set null / Lowcut=700 / Highcut=880
amp block:
Basic page: Brit 800 / drive=6 / Bass=3 / Mid=7 / Treble=6 / Presence=6 / Boost=On / Bright Switch=On
GEQ page: left to right: 2 / 1.75 / 0 / -3 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 0
Power Amp page: MV Location=Post-PI

Cab block: 4x12 TV mix #2 / Mic=none
Pre + Drv page: Motor Drive=3

I absolutely adore this hot-rodded JCM.. it's so much fun
if you want more gain, go to the filter block and set the level to 10 or even 15 to really cook the preamp..

add a nice mono analog delay and fat reverb to taste..

Instant 1978 Van Halen

cbellanga

not sure if it helps but I got one of those Digitech FX3 very cheap on eBay and modded it .. another 3 foot-switches that can be programmed by patch... very handy for IAs

Beexter

cbellanga said:

not sure if it helps but I got one of those Digitech FX3 very cheap on eBay and modded it .. another 3 foot-switches that can be programmed by patch... very handy for IAs

@cbellanga ;  I'm intrigued and have an FX3 kicking about - could you share a bit more info on how you modded it and what you can do with it?

DavusPG

@peteri not sure if you've stumbled on scene controllers yet, but by using those to manipulate input trim, input gain, master volumr and level you can go from "clean to mean" seamlessly via scenes in a single preset.

It can take a bit to get your head around but was a gamechanger for me with the AX8.

In case you're interested here's a video tutorial so you can explore it for yourself. 

Beexter

Tonight was the first time I swore at my AX8, and I used the "F" word....i was re-arranging my patch order to match our set list using the Patch manager doodah in AX8 Edit. Didn't bother backing up beforehand as last time I did it, there was no problem. Of course this time, I lost half a dozen patches. The majority moved to their new locations but sod's law saw to it that the ones that didn't were the ones that I hadn't backed up. 
Lesson learned. 
Still love it though.

cbellanga

Beexter said:

cbellanga said:

not sure if it helps but I got one of those Digitech FX3 very cheap on eBay and modded it .. another 3 foot-switches that can be programmed by patch... very handy for IAs

@cbellanga ;  I'm intrigued and have an FX3 kicking about - could you share a bit more info on how you modded it and what you can do with it?

Pretty easy.. 3 carling momentary foot-switches soldered to one of these trrs and one of those audio / video RCA cables (red, white and yellow). Just replaced the RCA plugs with mono 1/4” ones and job done! Will take a pic from inside the pedal later today.

Jonathanthomas83

DavusPG said:

@peteri not sure if you've stumbled on scene controllers yet, but by using those to manipulate input trim, input gain, master volumr and level you can go from "clean to mean" seamlessly via scenes in a single preset.

It can take a bit to get your head around but was a gamechanger for me with the AX8.

In case you're interested here's a video tutorial so you can explore it for yourself. 

It's stuff like that which makes this an absolute no brainer, for me. Great piece of gear.

I didn't know scene controllers could do that. Got me thinking about some really cool stuff now. Amazing.

peteri

Clarky said:

the 5153Red is a beautiful silky smooth hi-gain amp..
you can jack up the 5153Blue to similar amounts of gain but it's a little more 'edge' and aggressive sounding [to my ear]

try this with a JCM800
filter block set null / Lowcut=700 / Highcut=880
amp block:
Basic page: Brit 800 / drive=6 / Bass=3 / Mid=7 / Treble=6 / Presence=6 / Boost=On / Bright Switch=On
GEQ page: left to right: 2 / 1.75 / 0 / -3 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 0
Power Amp page: MV Location=Post-PI

Cab block: 4x12 TV mix #2 / Mic=none
Pre + Drv page: Motor Drive=3

I absolutely adore this hot-rodded JCM.. it's so much fun
if you want more gain, go to the filter block and set the level to 10 or even 15 to really cook the preamp..

add a nice mono analog delay and fat reverb to taste..

Instant 1978 Van Halen

Got chance to try this today.

Wow! You're right absolutely spot on - and has made the basis for changing my headphones patch. Made it a little less VH by increasing the bottom end a little.

Thank you so much - wow!

peteri

simonk said:

Have you tried the Suhr Badger 30? Best clean sound in there I think.

Thank you - I have and along with the Clarky JCM idea, has given me a great new patch.

Clean is the Suhr Badger into a 4x12 - just wonderful and clean but not too clean. Then gain up to 85% and the master cranked and it's a better AC/DC sound than the plexi.

Then over to the JCM800 for rock and lead.

Suhr is so dynamic, it's a joy

peteri

@DavusPG thanks for that - I've been using those, but always something to learn!

gearaddict

Clarky said:

Cab block: 4x12 TV mix #2 / Mic=none

Mic=none? Interesting...I'd have thought you would need a mic for this to make sense...why no mic? I don't think you can do that on the Helix, can you?

John_A

gearaddict said:

Clarky said:

Cab block: 4x12 TV mix #2 / Mic=none

Mic=none? Interesting...I'd have thought you would need a mic for this to make sense...why no mic? I don't think you can do that on the Helix, can you?

Reminds me of a sound engineer we used to work with who told the story of a club singer that came in to do a demo.  When he was setting the mic up the singer said "I don't need a microphone, I've sang for 30 years without one"

Beexter

cbellanga said:

Beexter said:

cbellanga said:

not sure if it helps but I got one of those Digitech FX3 very cheap on eBay and modded it .. another 3 foot-switches that can be programmed by patch... very handy for IAs

@cbellanga ;  I'm intrigued and have an FX3 kicking about - could you share a bit more info on how you modded it and what you can do with it?

Pretty easy.. 3 carling momentary foot-switches soldered to one of these trrs and one of those audio / video RCA cables (red, white and yellow). Just replaced the RCA plugs with mono 1/4” ones and job done! Will take a pic from inside the pedal later today.

I getcha, so you're effectively using it as 3 momentary switches with your expression pedal into the remaining switch input on the back of the AX8?