Axe FX III - the Blog

Jonathanthomas83

The gas is strong...again!

Can anyone advise...I heard that in order to find well matched IR's for amps in the Axe FX, a good starting place is to find the corresponding factory preset for the amp you're looking for and copy and paste the amp/cab into a new preset of your own?

I just can't put myself through the IR hunt again! It's an absolute ball ache.

For reference, I find that I get solid (and quick) results with the Two Notes stuff - but IR's are a pain, IMO.

mrkb

Jonathanthomas83 said:

The gas is strong...again!

Can anyone advise...I heard that in order to find well matched IR's for amps in the Axe FX, a good starting place is to find the corresponding factory preset for the amp you're looking for and copy and paste the amp/cab into a new preset of your own?

I just can't put myself through the IR hunt again! It's an absolute ball ache.

For reference, I find that I get solid (and quick) results with the Two Notes stuff - but IR's are a pain, IMO.

All the factory cabs and what they represent in the real world are listed in the wiki.

https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Cabinet_models_list

I think there’s an amp to typical cab list somewhere as well.
Yep - found it in Yeks excellent Fractal Amp Models guide

https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Yeks_Guide_to_the_Fractal_Audio_Amp_Models

Roland

IRs of the speakers and microphones which you’d use with a real world amp are a good starting point. Recent IRs from Fractal are pretty good. The Fractal stable includes both their own captures, and selected IRs from Ownhammer, York Audio, and others. Looking any further than that is a rabbit hole which is only worth going down if you want a specific sound for a specific track in a recording. 

firepaulmusic

I’ve had good results lately copying and pasting the amp and IR from the factory presets. Also just sticking with the stock TV Mix 1 for all Marshall types seems to work…

Styxelectric

I learned so much from this. Thanks.

Gadget

I am now back in the club

Roland

One of the things I’ve missed with the AxeFX is the ability to get feedback at the end of a solo or song. With an amp it’s easy to touch the guitar headstock to the cabinet.

This morning I found a way to do it at any volume. I’m excited because it’s new to me, although other people have been doing it for years. Basically it’s a Synth block with two sine wave voices tracking the pitch. The first voice is pitch shifted up an octave, and the second an octave plus a fifth. The clever bit is that the volumes swell in, the first over 1,000ms, and the second over 2,000ms. I don’t have any spare buttons on the FC12 to devote to this. For now I’ve used a copy of my Solo scene, and switch to it by holding the Solo button.

susbemol

Very clever solution but how does that actually sound?

Beexter

Roland said:

One of the things I’ve missed with the AxeFX is the ability to get feedback at the end of a solo or song. With an amp it’s easy to touch the guitar headstock to the cabinet.

This morning I found a way to do it at any volume. I’m excited because it’s new to me, although other people have been doing it for years. Basically it’s a Synth block with two sine wave voices tracking the pitch. The first voice is pitch shifted up an octave, and the second an octave plus a fifth. The clever bit is that the volumes swell in, the first over 1,000ms, and the second over 2,000ms. I don’t have any spare buttons on the FC12 to devote to this. For now I’ve used a copy of my Solo scene, and switch to it by holding the Solo button.

Sounds like a useful trick. How long will it sustain for and is that adjustable?
There is a feedback preset from Mark Day on Axechange which uses a pitch block and compressor combo but I'd be interested to try your solution..
Where in the chain do you run the synth block?

Nerine

I’ve been able to get feedback ok, but I have my wedge quite loud. Spose if you’re on IEMs, you’re shit outta luck. 

I dicked about with the synth block yesterday actually, so this sounds like a cool thing to try. 

Jonathanthomas83

Gadget said:

I am now back in the club

Welcome back to the man who helped start my journey off in 2017! I have you to thank :-)

Roland

Beexter said:

Sounds like a useful trick. How long will it sustain for and is that adjustable?
There is a feedback preset from Mark Day on Axechange which uses a pitch block and compressor combo but I'd be interested to try your solution..
Where in the chain do you run the synth block?

The Synth block is straight after Input1, and in parallel with the main connection so that I can turn it off without losing the original note. The synth volumes rise, then follow the pitch and envelope of the input signal. It sustains for as long as the string keeps moving, which depends on stage volume, and how much vibrato you apply.

susbemol said:

Very clever solution but how does that actually sound?

Traditional acoustic feedback centres on one frequency. Usually this is first the harmonic because that’s the one with the most energy, and feeds back most easily. Once you’ve got traditional feedback running you can vary your distance from the speaker to get 2nd and 3rd harmonics. Gary Moore used to mark positions on the stage with chalk so that he knew where to stand.

Using a synth sine wave, and putting it through the Amp, Cab and FX chain, is going to give you a very similar sound to traditional feedback. However you can’t vary the frequency by moving around. It would be possible to vary the frequency using footswitches. For the moment I’m going to keep it simple.

Roland

Nerine said:

I’ve been able to get feedback ok, but I have my wedge quite loud. Spose if you’re on IEMs, you’re shit outta luck. 

I dicked about with the synth block yesterday actually, so this sounds like a cool thing to try. 

Yes, I’m on IEMs. I use a “wedge” on the floor to add some life to the guitar, but not the volume I’d need to generate feedback.

Beexter

Roland said:

Beexter said:

Sounds like a useful trick. How long will it sustain for and is that adjustable?
There is a feedback preset from Mark Day on Axechange which uses a pitch block and compressor combo but I'd be interested to try your solution..
Where in the chain do you run the synth block?

The Synth block is straight after Input1, and in parallel with the main connection so that I can turn it off without losing the original note. The synth volumes rise, then follow the pitch and envelope of the input signal. It sustains for as long as the string keeps moving, which depends on stage volume, and how much vibrato you apply.

susbemol said:

Very clever solution but how does that actually sound?

Traditional acoustic feedback centres on one frequency. Usually this is first the harmonic because that’s the one with the most energy, and feeds back most easily. Once you’ve got traditional feedback running you can vary your distance from the speaker to get 2nd and 3rd harmonics. Gary Moore used to mark positions on the stage with chalk so that he knew where to stand.

Using a synth sine wave, and putting it through the Amp, Cab and FX chain, is going to give you a very similar sound to traditional feedback. However you can’t vary the frequency by moving around. It would be possible to vary the frequency using footswitches. For the moment I’m going to keep it simple.

Thanks for the response @Roland. I have an FM3 and the voices in the Synth block have a maximum attack time of 1000ms so I'm going to see if I can use modifiers to extend this...

Roland

Currently I’m using modifiers. The first raises the volume of the Synth block over 1,000ms, which brings in voice 1. The second raises voice 2 over 2,000ms. For modifiers I’m using CS1 and CS2, and switching them on as I change to the copy of my Solo screen.

Beexter

Roland said:

Currently I’m using modifiers. The first raises the volume of the Synth block over 1,000ms, which brings in voice 1. The second raises voice 2 over 2,000ms. For modifiers I’m using CS1 and CS2, and switching them on as I change to the copy of my Solo screen.

Thanks for the response Roland 

Gadget

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Gadget said:

I am now back in the club

Welcome back to the man who helped start my journey off in 2017! I have you to thank :-)

Not sure you would thank me for pushing you into that rabbit hole lol

Nerine

I’ve probably said something similar in the FM9 thread, but owning it has made me feel a bit silly for previously dismissing modelling as a completely viable alternative to a valve amp. 

I actually really enjoy that I can turn on a piece of digital gear and be completely satisfied with my sound, both out front and what I hear on stage.

It’s quite liberating in a lot of ways. 

I used to troll and berate the Axe Fx fanbois back in the earlier days of the internet and the Harmony Central forums. Perhaps then it was slightly more justified, but nowadays, nah.

The Fractal platform is so fucking good. What I’ve been getting back through my rig this week has been sublime. Chewy, dynamic, greasy, toneful, inspiring, thick, fat, present, etc etc. y’know… the classic buzzwords and tone word cliches. 

I really wish people could hear what I’m hearing through my rig because as a prior high end, boutique valve amp snob, I’m feeling quite foolish. It’s the real deal, provided you’re willing to approach it as a new way of doing things. A scary prospect for some, perhaps. It was for me, too. Now I’m getting familiar with it, though. Wow. Epic stuff. The hype is more than justified, IMO. 

Gas for amps has completely disappeared. I can just clone my preset and select a new one confident that the modelling is as accurate as it gets based on the A/B testing I’ve done. It’s so impressive. 

susbemol

Nerine said:

I’ve probably said something similar in the FM9 thread, but owning it has made me feel a bit silly for previously dismissing modelling as a completely viable alternative to a valve amp. 

I actually really enjoy that I can turn on a piece of digital gear and be completely satisfied with my sound, both out front and what I hear on stage.

It’s quite liberating in a lot of ways. 

I used to troll and berate the Axe Fx fanbois back in the earlier days of the internet and the Harmony Central forums. Perhaps then it was slightly more justified, but nowadays, nah.

The Fractal platform is so fucking good. What I’ve been getting back through my rig this week has been sublime. Chewy, dynamic, greasy, toneful, inspiring, thick, fat, present, etc etc. y’know… the classic buzzwords and tone word cliches. 

I really wish people could hear what I’m hearing through my rig because as a prior high end, boutique valve amp snob, I’m feeling quite foolish. It’s the real deal, provided you’re willing to approach it as a new way of doing things. A scary prospect for some, perhaps. It was for me, too. Now I’m getting familiar with it, though. Wow. Epic stuff. The hype is more than justified, IMO. 

Gas for amps has completely disappeared. I can just clone my preset and select a new one confident that the modelling is as accurate as it gets based on the A/B testing I’ve done. It’s so impressive. 

Maybe you could post a sound or video clip with the audio properly recorded.

firepaulmusic

susbemol said:

Nerine said:

I’ve probably said something similar in the FM9 thread, but owning it has made me feel a bit silly for previously dismissing modelling as a completely viable alternative to a valve amp. 

I actually really enjoy that I can turn on a piece of digital gear and be completely satisfied with my sound, both out front and what I hear on stage.

It’s quite liberating in a lot of ways. 

I used to troll and berate the Axe Fx fanbois back in the earlier days of the internet and the Harmony Central forums. Perhaps then it was slightly more justified, but nowadays, nah.

The Fractal platform is so fucking good. What I’ve been getting back through my rig this week has been sublime. Chewy, dynamic, greasy, toneful, inspiring, thick, fat, present, etc etc. y’know… the classic buzzwords and tone word cliches. 

I really wish people could hear what I’m hearing through my rig because as a prior high end, boutique valve amp snob, I’m feeling quite foolish. It’s the real deal, provided you’re willing to approach it as a new way of doing things. A scary prospect for some, perhaps. It was for me, too. Now I’m getting familiar with it, though. Wow. Epic stuff. The hype is more than justified, IMO. 

Gas for amps has completely disappeared. I can just clone my preset and select a new one confident that the modelling is as accurate as it gets based on the A/B testing I’ve done. It’s so impressive. 

Maybe you could post a sound or video clip with the audio properly recorded.

.....or even post your patches on Axe Exchange for us to try?