You just need to learn how to use it. It's a lot to take in. Try examining the built-in tones and see how they do some stuff. Go to Axechange and download some presets that interest you - there's a ton of shit there, but there's some good stuff too. If all else fails, send me a DM and I'll shoot you some of my presets so you can at least see what I did and build your own from there. Also, I have videos that might be worth watching. They were from the release of Syn's cab packs, but I covered a decent amount of ground for AxeFX beginners. Plus, Syn showed up for the live chat, too.
Thanks for the vids, I'll check them out! Right now I found a decent tone running through a 5150 preset. Problem is, if presets were made on different firmwares, then it'll mess with the tone. Also the fact that someone making a preset is usually specific to their gear. Their guitar, pickups, etc.. Might not work as well with another setup. That said, I've tried different Cabs and some sound alright, but I still can't get what I'm looking for. I've played around with the Amp settings and if I turn the Highs, Mids, or Brightness up, it just gets scratchy instead of adding any sort of clairty. Keep in mind, I'm not cranking them either. I like my Mids around 5 or 5.5 to cut through a mix. My Lows and Highs depend on the Amp. I've had Amps that I had my Highs at like 7 and my Bass around 6, and other amps where they're lower like both around 5.5. I tried rolling my Lows back to around 4 to see if that'd help, but then I lost some of my chunk, so I put it back to around 5ish, just over maybe. My Gain on the Amp itself I usually would have around 4 or 5 on a real amp, but the Amps on the Axe FX have been really weird. Some amps I've had to crank the Gain to like 7-8, while others sounded fine around 4-5. I tried cutting some lows around 240ish, but that didn't really help me with clarity. I'll be honest, I'm still learning about properly EQing something (in the sense of an 5 or 8 band EQ, I'm VERY familiar with dialing in Lows, Mids, and Highs on an Amp, just not familiar with using an actual EQ for cuts and boosts).
All that said, I'm at the point where I don't know if I just haven't learnt enough about the Axe FX (which I'm sure I've barely began to scratch the surface, but I would think I would know enough to get a lot closer to a tone I'm looking for), or if maybe my ear just doesn't like the sound of a Guitar Sim. Maybe I'm too used to a physical amp that pushes air. But hearing the tones so many other people get from their Axe FX, I'm convinced I'm just doing something wrong haha There's a lot of Guitarist YouTubers I recently found out that use Axe FX's (examples: FamilyJules, Cole Rolland, etc..) and they get insane tones. Then of course touring artists like Syn, John Petrucci, etc..
