Fractal Axe fx and AX8 users
- Thread starter derrick mcgill
- Start date
Man those things are amazing! I recently invested in the Axe FX II..it definitely is an investment but so damn worth it! It’s fairly new still but I’m digging the 5150 III..Although everything on there sounds brilliant! As far as tips and tricks go, after I’ve dialed in the main amp settings and found a nice cab (the cab is one of the most important elements of getting an amazing tone) to go with whatever amp I’m using and I’m still not getting the tone I’m looking for..I usually mess with the hi cut/low cut settings in the amp block and motor drive in the cab block
I’ve had my AxeFX2+ for about a year now. I’ve found that the best starting point for working on ANY kind of tone is to start, of course, with the Amp and Cab models, and the VERY FIRST thing to do is “fix” the cabinet model with high and low pass filtering. This can all be done within the cab block. The low-pass filter is not as important as the high-pass filter.
To explain: a high-pass filter will ALLOW all frequencies ABOVE the threshold you set, and BLOCK all frequencies below it.
When an engineer records guitars for an album or demo, they use frequency ranges for each instrument. A VERY solid rule is that your guitar tone should start between 100 and 120 Hz. Everything below that belongs to bass instruments (bass guitar, kick drum, left-hand keys). That said, set that high-pass filter to 100 Hz with a hard cut, and start building tone from there, including the rest of the cab stuff, like Mic selection, etc.
Get the tone from the amp before you move on to any effects. Like all situations, unless you have a specific need (or style) keep effect levels low. Leave more organic tone intact.
To explain: a high-pass filter will ALLOW all frequencies ABOVE the threshold you set, and BLOCK all frequencies below it.
When an engineer records guitars for an album or demo, they use frequency ranges for each instrument. A VERY solid rule is that your guitar tone should start between 100 and 120 Hz. Everything below that belongs to bass instruments (bass guitar, kick drum, left-hand keys). That said, set that high-pass filter to 100 Hz with a hard cut, and start building tone from there, including the rest of the cab stuff, like Mic selection, etc.
Get the tone from the amp before you move on to any effects. Like all situations, unless you have a specific need (or style) keep effect levels low. Leave more organic tone intact.
As Ed said – 90% of what you want to spend your time on is amp & cab. Then Low & High pass filters. After that, it’s just dressing it up. I would also suggest you don’t overdo the effects. In a recording, most effects (reverb, etc.) are added after the fact. If you add too much up front, your sound gets lost in “a wash”. ESPECIALLY if you’re playing live. Play as dry as you can stand it. You can always “wet” the sound up a bit if you need it. Or better still – a sound man can add in some verb.
When you get your unit, I’d be happy to email you my tones. I ain’t Syn, but they’re solid tones I get a lot of compliments on, though I do use aftermarket cabinets (I can recommend built in ones to taste). Use them as a foundation of building your own, or learn from them. A lot of the “built-in” tones are more about showcasing the product’s features than being good tones – there are a lot of really good ones, but definitely some “look at what it can do!” stuff, too.
ML Labs and Ownhammer seem to be the biggies.
http://shop.fractalaudio.com/Software_Downloads_s/54.htm
I’ve gotten the Misha Mansoor ML Zilla pack, not because I want to djent, but because I know ML and Misha have specific quality requirements, and I wasn’t diasappointed. Honestly, though, the built-in cabs, as long as they’re the Ultra-Res ones, are really good.
Pulling together my files and will email you shortly.
http://shop.fractalaudio.com/Software_Downloads_s/54.htm
I’ve gotten the Misha Mansoor ML Zilla pack, not because I want to djent, but because I know ML and Misha have specific quality requirements, and I wasn’t diasappointed. Honestly, though, the built-in cabs, as long as they’re the Ultra-Res ones, are really good.
Pulling together my files and will email you shortly.
Revisiting this thread thanks to a like, this was before the Syn Cab Packs came out. I can honestly say that Syn's cab models are EXECUTED significantly better than any others I've heard. Whether you LIKE the cabinets or not is a matter of taste, but my biggest problem with every single cab pack I've used before Syn's is that they had little artifacts that would creep in during the more unorthodox elements of my style of playing. I hated it, and those always took me out of the Zen space.
Syn's cab packs DON'T artifact like that, and I use them exclusively now. The pack was comparatively expensive, but Syn IRs are now attached to every single tone I have that uses a cabinet. Click the STORE button above - couldn't be easier!
Syn's cab packs DON'T artifact like that, and I use them exclusively now. The pack was comparatively expensive, but Syn IRs are now attached to every single tone I have that uses a cabinet. Click the STORE button above - couldn't be easier!
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