Official Axe-Fx Q&A thread!

[Shask]

The MV is really, really touchy, for high gain stuff I rarely have it above 2.5 because it introduces power amp distortion really quickly and makes things sound shitty unless it’s a Plexi, Bassman, JTM45 kind of amp.

On my Axe II I started messing with the Master a lot and got some of the best sounds in years, and sparked me buying a FM3. Somewhere along the last 5 years or so they really changed that algorithm and I also find I usually don't like it over about 2. The funny thing is I started experimenting with this because I bought a loadbox and noticed the same thing with my actual tube amps, lol.

 

[Kyle Jordan]

On my Axe II I started messing with the Master a lot and got some of the best sounds in years, and sparked me buying a FM3. Somewhere along the last 5 years or so they really changed that algorithm and I also find I usually don't like it over about 2. The funny thing is I started experimenting with this because I bought a loadbox and noticed the same thing with my actual tube amps, lol.

That’s part of the reason I wish there more high power amps in the Axe like a Triple Rectifier, Mesa Coliseum heads (or a Triaxis with the Bass 400 poweramp section), Deliverance 120/Ultra Lead, SSS 150, Marshall Major, etc.

Those have a fairly wide sweet spot where the poweramp is working, but not distorting. Still huge and clear sounding.

 

[Breeding The Spawn]

Stupid question here, on the FM3 Edit menu, the "show available devices" the "Test" and "Scan" does that erase anything? I think I might have erased all the third party IR's that I had on there...Stupid move on my part.

Edit: NVM I got it all back! I really shouldn't drink and edit presets haha

 

[NoodleFace]

Those sweet patches I made sounded like shit in the band mix.. had to EQ on the fly. I hate the Axe FX 2 front panel, although I know they did what they had to do. It makes sense once you know it, but it isn't intuitive.

 

[laxu]

Those sweet patches I made sounded like shit in the band mix.. had to EQ on the fly. I hate the Axe FX 2 front panel, although I know they did what they had to do. It makes sense once you know it, but it isn't intuitive.

Yeah I always hated having to do that with the Axe-Fx 2. The current gen Fractal is at least more user friendly from the front panel. If only a bit.

 

[NoodleFace]

Yeah I always hated having to do that with the Axe-Fx 2. The current gen Fractal is at least more user friendly from the front panel. If only a bit.

One day I may upgrade, I really like the platform.

 

[budda]

That’s part of the reason I wish there more high power amps in the Axe like a Triple Rectifier, Mesa Coliseum heads (or a Triaxis with the Bass 400 poweramp section), Deliverance 120/Ultra Lead, SSS 150, Marshall Major, etc.

Those have a fairly wide sweet spot where the poweramp is working, but not distorting. Still huge and clear sounding.

Go bump my wish thread then .

In the mean time, experiment with swapping tone stacks in the bass amps.

 

[dmlinger]

Hoping someone can give some advise on a setup question I'm having a hard time figuring out.

My daily playing rig is Axe Fx II > Matrix Power Amp > Guitar Cab
I have cab sims turned off and power amp sim on for this setup.

I finally picked up a pair of studio monitors to do some recording. I want to be able to play my setup through the Matrix and cab for daily playing, and then be able to switch to the monitors without having to do too much work turning cab sims on/off or unplugging Output 1 from the power amp and into the monitors.

Are there any solutions for this?

 

[Elric]

Go bump my wish thread then .

In the mean time, experiment with swapping tone stacks in the bass amps.

Seems like there should be some 'deep edit' that would turn an existing amp model into a higher wattage version. That seems like the type of thing where Cliff is gonna respond with something like "You don't need a Triple Rec, just select the dual rect and then do <magic deep edit stuff> and it is essentially the same"

 

[NoodleFace]

Hoping someone can give some advise on a setup question I'm having a hard time figuring out.

My daily playing rig is Axe Fx II > Matrix Power Amp > Guitar Cab
I have cab sims turned off and power amp sim on for this setup.

I finally picked up a pair of studio monitors to do some recording. I want to be able to play my setup through the Matrix and cab for daily playing, and then be able to switch to the monitors without having to do too much work turning cab sims on/off or unplugging Output 1 from the power amp and into the monitors.

Are there any solutions for this?

Leave cab sims on, have a separate signal go to output 2 bypassing the cab block?

 

[budda]

Seems like there should be some 'deep edit' that would turn an existing amp model into a higher wattage version. That seems like the type of thing where Cliff is gonna respond with something like "You don't need a Triple Rec, just select the dual rect and then do <magic deep edit stuff> and it is essentially the same"

I wonder if he’s said this already now that you mention it.

 

[Shask]

Hoping someone can give some advise on a setup question I'm having a hard time figuring out.

My daily playing rig is Axe Fx II > Matrix Power Amp > Guitar Cab
I have cab sims turned off and power amp sim on for this setup.

I finally picked up a pair of studio monitors to do some recording. I want to be able to play my setup through the Matrix and cab for daily playing, and then be able to switch to the monitors without having to do too much work turning cab sims on/off or unplugging Output 1 from the power amp and into the monitors.

Are there any solutions for this?

Output 1 to the monitors with a cab block. Split the signal before the cab block to an EQ and then to Output 2, which you plug into your Poweramp and cab.

Almost all of my presets are set up this way.

 

[dmlinger]

Output 1 to the monitors with a cab block. Split the signal before the cab block to an EQ and then to Output 2, which you plug into your Poweramp and cab.

Almost all of my presets are set up this way.

Thank you! I’ll give it a go

 

[Kyle Jordan]

Seems like there should be some 'deep edit' that would turn an existing amp model into a higher wattage version. That seems like the type of thing where Cliff is gonna respond with something like "You don't need a Triple Rec, just select the dual rect and then do <magic deep edit stuff> and it is essentially the same"

You can do a fair amount to mimic higher power amps using the Power Tube Hardness, Xformer Match & Drive, and some of the other advanced power amp and speaker controls.

I'm not sure it's quite the same, but those are generally what I play around with.

 

[profwoot]

Is Austin Buddy the best set of highly-tweaked usable presets? I'm still in early stages with my FM3 but so far it seems the early factory presets are very basic demos of each amp and the later ones are extremely specific drenched recreations of that one ambient interlude at x:xx time of that one 70s song.

 

[Elric]

Is Austin Buddy the best set of highly-tweaked usable presets? I'm still in early stages with my FM3 but so far it seems the early factory presets are very basic demos of each amp and the later ones are extremely specific drenched recreations of that one ambient interlude at x:xx time of that one 70s song.

I think Austin Buddy’s presets absolutely suck. TBH. Complete waste for me; people were talking them up so hard on the forum… I ended up springing for them, they felt like just more factory presets… Absolutely uninspiring... Presets are like that, though. A lot of people would tell you the polar opposite.

My advice would be don’t buy a bunch of presets to start. Dial your own stuff. It’s hardly difficult. There are bunch of free ones on the forum to check out too.

Also immediately, go check out the Fractal gift of tone series where they are giving away a bunch of presets from Artists and well known Preset authors and see if anything agrees with your tastes.

Some folks stuff will be more agreeable to you than others. For example, Fremen’s stuff has always agreed highly with my tastes and rig… But most others, I just end up tearing out individual blocks and building my own or picking up ideas from their layouts, use of controllers, etc…

In general, the ones you do yourself are gonna be best. Examples are cool… in general dialing FX etc takes some time to learn.

 

[ExMachina]

This is apparently the latest rendition of his rig. Axe FX III.

No Presets but he says HBE model, with york audio IR's. Which are currently on sale. Mesa Oversize with V30's. Tons of chorus.

Seems like there should be some 'deep edit' that would turn an existing amp model into a higher wattage version. That seems like the type of thing where Cliff is gonna respond with something like "You don't need a Triple Rec, just select the dual rect and then do <magic deep edit stuff> and it is essentially the same"

I'm not sure this buys you anything in the axe tbh. Unless the circuits are changing significantly I'd guess a higher wattage version would just mean more head room, but since we always have a master volume it's not really relevant.

 

[Deadpool_25]

Is Austin Buddy the best set of highly-tweaked usable presets? I'm still in early stages with my FM3 but so far it seems the early factory presets are very basic demos of each amp and the later ones are extremely specific drenched recreations of that one ambient interlude at x:xx time of that one 70s song.

The early presets are definitely designed to showcase different amp models. However, don't forget to switch scenes in each preset and also try going into the effects pages and turning on various effects.

I find that a huge help is to find some block I really like in a preset and save it to the block library. Then, touching on what @Elric said, build your own presets using those blocks.

 

[Sumsar]

So, I picked up an Axe fx II XL+ in 2023 to my own surprise. Got it as a trade for a LTD JH600 S & Key, including the pedalboard thingy for it, which seemed like a pretty good deal to me, considering what I paid for the guitar when I brought it 12 years ago.

This is my first Axe FX, but been using it for a couple of days now and really like the platform.
So for someone that is 5 - 10 years late to the game, what is the obvious does and donts to get great tones out of this thing? Is there better IRs to be had than the one it ships with? How do people share presets for this thing etc.

My first tones is the TS808 mod -> evh5153 50 watt blue with gain at 4 into two marshall 4x12, a v30 and a k100 with an sm57 on one and a condensor on the other + some delay and reverb for leads.
What is the deal with the mic selector on the cabinets? What is the 'none' sound? Some of the cabs also include a microphone in the name, others say (rw) etc, so obviously going for what sounds good, just wondering if there is a reason to the chaos?

 

[Shask]

So, I picked up an Axe fx II XL+ in 2023 to my own surprise. Got it as a trade for a LTD JH600 S & Key, including the pedalboard thingy for it, which seemed like a pretty good deal to me, considering what I paid for the guitar when I brought it 12 years ago.

This is my first Axe FX, but been using it for a couple of days now and really like the platform.
So for someone that is 5 - 10 years late to the game, what is the obvious does and donts to get great tones out of this thing? Is there better IRs to be had than the one it ships with? How do people share presets for this thing etc.

My first tones is the TS808 mod -> evh5153 50 watt blue with gain at 4 into two marshall 4x12, a v30 and a k100 with an sm57 on one and a condensor on the other + some delay and reverb for leads.
What is the deal with the mic selector on the cabinets? What is the 'none' sound? Some of the cabs also include a microphone in the name, others say (rw) etc, so obviously going for what sounds good, just wondering if there is a reason to the chaos?

That is funny because that is the basic patch I use also, lol.

One thing I found last year that probably caused me bad tones for years, is to make sure you input settings are correct. Your input gains should be about 50%, and your mode should be L only if you are using the front input. I found some weird settings in mine which probably caused weak tones for years.

Another thing is it usually helps heavy tones to keep the master volume low... like 2. That was another big thing I found after years of bad tones with it higher.

The mic select was orirginally there with the impulses, just like Line 6 does, or other units. However, over the years many IRs came with the mic sound baked in, so they added a "none" option so you could use the other features of the block without double mic coloring. When I got the FM3 I was surprised to see they completely removed the mic selection.