Official Axe-Fx Q&A thread!

[RevDrucifer]

Yes - I was mainly wondering if there was other stuff people did besides that

Usually just changing the EQ of a drive in front of an amp. In the Drive block the 2nd menu is the EQ page of the drive block, I‘ll just use the same drive but crank the mids up a bit in the drive block.

Or I’ll use a different amp altogether. I like boosted Marshalls for leads but prefer Mesa/Peavey for metal rhythms and it’s pretty hard to get a Marshall to NOT stand out over either of those amps.

 

[fremen]

I recorded a death metal band from here, Mauritius, using my Axe-Fx III for all the guitar and bass tracks. This video is a medley of some my favorite riffs, using stems from the album. I muted the vocals for the purpose of this demo.

Rhythm guitars : Herbie CH3 for the left channel and 5153 100W Red for the right channel. These are two amps that Cryptic Carnage's guitarist is familiar with - he owns a Diezel Herbert, I have a EVH 5150 III.

Lead guitars : "FAS Modern III" amp model. Initially, that preset was made just for tracking, and as we were recording DI tracks, the goal was to reamp them with whatever preset/amp model we would find better during the reamping/mixing stage. But we kept the original track, as we didn't find necessary to change anything there.

Bass : we recorded two tracks, one clean, one with the Darkglass drive model, based on Cryptic Carnage's bass player settings, as he owns the pedal.

More details on the presets in the video description on YouTube.

Cryptic Carnage is a death metal band from Mauritius. The band's 1st album, "Scriptures Of Torment", was released in December 2022. You can order it here : https://www.crypticcarnage.com/
(*) The album was mastered at Tower Studio by Brett Caldas-Lima ; I used the pre-master stems for this video

 

[NoodleFace]

Usually just changing the EQ of a drive in front of an amp. In the Drive block the 2nd menu is the EQ page of the drive block, I‘ll just use the same drive but crank the mids up a bit in the drive block.

Or I’ll use a different amp altogether. I like boosted Marshalls for leads but prefer Mesa/Peavey for metal rhythms and it’s pretty hard to get a Marshall to NOT stand out over either of those amps.

Not a bad idea. I was considering one of the hotrodded Marshalls for leads.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Not a bad idea. I was considering one of the hotrodded Marshalls for leads.

I LOVE the FAS Hot Rod. I was playing around with the 800, 800 Mod, #34 and adding boosts and doing some tweaking, then tried the FAS Hot Rod and it was exactly what I was trying to get from the others. The 800 Mod is also a really, really great one. Not really getting modern metal tones from them, I’m using those with Strats and Les Pauls doing more of the bluesy/boomery stuff up to hard rock/early Zakk Wylde tones.

 

[NoodleFace]

I LOVE the FAS Hot Rod. I was playing around with the 800, 800 Mod, #34 and adding boosts and doing some tweaking, then tried the FAS Hot Rod and it was exactly what I was trying to get from the others. The 800 Mod is also a really, really great one. Not really getting modern metal tones from them, I’m using those with Strats and Les Pauls doing more of the bluesy/boomery stuff up to hard rock/early Zakk Wylde tones.

I'll check that one out. I really like the FAS stuff. My rhythm tone is the FAS Brootalz without a boost and was trying that for leads but think I'll try out the hot rod this week at practice

 

[RevDrucifer]

I'll check that one out. I really like the FAS stuff. My rhythm tone is the FAS Brootalz without a boost and was trying that for leads but think I'll try out the hot rod this week at practice

It doesn’t get anywhere close to the brootalz type of distortion, but it’s like the perfect boosted Marshall that doesn’t just sound like a Friedman.

 

[NoodleFace]

It doesn’t get anywhere close to the brootalz type of distortion, but it’s like the perfect boosted Marshall that doesn’t just sound like a Friedman.

That's ok. For solo sound I'm looking for something different and I think a boosted marshall might work. Gonna try out a bunch of stuff

 

[Shask]

I LOVE the FAS Hot Rod. I was playing around with the 800, 800 Mod, #34 and adding boosts and doing some tweaking, then tried the FAS Hot Rod and it was exactly what I was trying to get from the others. The 800 Mod is also a really, really great one. Not really getting modern metal tones from them, I’m using those with Strats and Les Pauls doing more of the bluesy/boomery stuff up to hard rock/early Zakk Wylde tones.

Thats funny because I have a "Pantera" preset that uses a Recto, but a lot of pre-EQ like the settings Dime used. Last night I decided to mess with the FAS Modern I, and I was surprised how much it sounded like that tweaked preset.

I remember FAS Modern was pretty popular back in the Ultra days, but you don't hear about them much these days. I remember liking Hot Rod, but I will have to try it again. I used to like FAS Modern III on my Axe II.

 

[cmpxchg]

any suggestions for input sensitivity? I've been using a guitar with Fishmans in it, and I've lowered the input sensitivity down to ~6% to avoid hitting red on just about every note. does that seem reasonable, or am I missing something?

 

[broangiel]

any suggestions for input sensitivity? I've been using a guitar with Fishmans in it, and I've lowered the input sensitivity down to ~6% to avoid hitting red on just about every note. does that seem reasonable, or am I missing something?

I'm in the same boat due to my JP15 and Majesty having pretty hot pickups. I set mine to 8% IIRC. As long as it's not set below 5%, you're fine.

 

[budda]

any suggestions for input sensitivity? I've been using a guitar with Fishmans in it, and I've lowered the input sensitivity down to ~6% to avoid hitting red on just about every note. does that seem reasonable, or am I missing something?

It can hit the red you just dont want it to stay there. I think mine is 10% even though my hottest pickups are T-tops.

 

[Crungy]

@cmpxchg is it happening on anything you play or just palm mutes? Any extra boosted low end that could be reduced?

 

[RevDrucifer]

Yeah, my red light goes from extreme tickling to non-existent. The 707 nearly pegs the thing, but the vintage-voiced single coils in my Strat doesn’t even register. No issues with either one, audibly. As long as it’s not pegged the whole time you’re good.

 

[laxu]

any suggestions for input sensitivity? I've been using a guitar with Fishmans in it, and I've lowered the input sensitivity down to ~6% to avoid hitting red on just about every note. does that seem reasonable, or am I missing something?

Hitting red occasionally is fine. Red does not mean it's clipping, it's just that there's not a whole lot of headroom left.

Output clipping is where you don't want to light the LED.

For Axe-Fx 3/FMx users, remember you can adjust things in the Input blocks too.

 

[cmpxchg]

It was hitting the red on roughly every attack on that guitar. Seemed high compared to other guitars, and despite the wiki saying it doesn't impact tone... I kinda feel like it impacts tone? It feels a little lower gain and that the attack isn't as immediate (maybe slightly different attack profile and more of a difference between attack and sustain tone). Probably all in my head.

 

[MFB]

Dumb question, I'm finally getting around to installing Axe Edit; on the Fractal website, the version is Axe Edit III, which corresponds to Axe FX 3 etc, but what if you have a II? Is it just, not available anymore? I tried changing the URL but that brought me back to the homepage, so I assume it's either a "yes, no longer available" or it's just that the name is updated as newer platforms roll out and the older ones still comply with the program.

 

[Decapitated]

Dumb question, I'm finally getting around to installing Axe Edit; on the Fractal website, the version is Axe Edit III, which corresponds to Axe FX 3 etc, but what if you have a II? Is it just, not available anymore? I tried changing the URL but that brought me back to the homepage, so I assume it's either a "yes, no longer available" or it's just that the name is updated as newer platforms roll out and the older ones still comply with the program.

Axe-Edit (Axe-Fx II) – Fractal Audio Systems

www.fractalaudio.com

This work?

 

[MFB]

Axe-Edit (Axe-Fx II) – Fractal Audio Systems

www.fractalaudio.com

This work?

That did it, thanks bro!

Not sure why they changed the verbage between the releases, for Edit II it's (Axe-Edit-II) and then on the Edit III it's (Axe-Fx-III-Edit); which is why it broke the URL and took me back to the home page

 

[NoodleFace]

Stupid question - I'm kind of bad at making my own amps. I mean I have good ones now but it took forever.

In talks on trading a Kemper profiler for the Axe FX. Is this dumb?

For someone who is much better at getting "an amp" and mucking with EQ a bit to get a good song is the Kemper actually better? I've never used a Kemper, but obviously have heard them live.

I find I have option paralysis with the Axe FX.

 

[Decapitated]

Stupid question - I'm kind of bad at making my own amps. I mean I have good ones now but it took forever.

In talks on trading a Kemper profiler for the Axe FX. Is this dumb?

For someone who is much better at getting "an amp" and mucking with EQ a bit to get a good song is the Kemper actually better? I've never used a Kemper, but obviously have heard them live.

I find I have option paralysis with the Axe FX.

Having owned both, I think the Kemper is great. I went from Kemper to Axe III. I think you can get into option paralysis with Kemper profiles too.