Official Axe-Fx Q&A thread!

[Crungy]

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.

I've found starting with a "matching" cab, not immediately putting extra blocks for drive/boosts/eq and sticking to the main controls and switches (boost/low cut/bright switch) for the amp gives me the best idea if that's the sound I'm looking for.

I will generally roll IR's if I'm looking for more or less of something that the main amp eq isn't doing for me. I'll save the built in graphic eq or parametric eq blocks for later tweaking if needed.

 

[budda]

I've found starting with a "matching" cab, not immediately putting extra blocks for drive/boosts/eq and sticking to the main controls and switches (boost/low cut/bright switch) for the amp gives me the best idea if that's the sound I'm looking for.

I will generally roll IR's if I'm looking for more or less of something that the main amp eq isn't doing for me. I'll save the built in graphic eq or parametric eq blocks for later tweaking if needed.

Probably dont need to roll IRs with dyna-cab in public beta

 

[Crungy]

I forgot to mention I'm in the stone age on a 2 XL+

 

[Decapitated]

New Dyna Cabs effing rock. Wow.

 

[Masoo2]

Finally got around to recording another short clip with my FM3.



The virtual capo works fine for playing along to tracks but you can hear some of the artifacts emerge when recorded like this. For reference, the rhythm is pitch-shifted from Bb down to F with "fast" tracking set to 10.

Also pitch-shifted guitar as a pseudo-bass lmao. It worked fine for the purposes of a quick recording.

patch up as "straws" on axechange if anyone wants it.

please ignore the sloppy playing

 

[budda]

@Masoo2 how does it handle it if you leave tracking at 5?

 

[Masoo2]

@Masoo2 how does it handle it if you leave tracking at 5?

You know - I have no idea why I set it to 10 I always leave tracking at 5.



Check comments for timestamps.

Not hearing much of a difference at all. The first note of each section is a slide which I feel is throwing off the tracking regardless of setting.

Playing/feel difference is noticeable when set to smooth and 10 though, those little chugs at the end were a pain.

 

[AboutBlank]

For anyone who is also out of the loop, there is a new firmware (22) with a Revv model and the new Dyna Cabs.

At the moment I'm hardly playing at all, but I've just tested it briefly and I'm quite excited by the Cabs (not checked the Revv).

The necessity for third-party variants will become even smaller (apart from the personal "want to have" of course), because the workflow is wonderful with the new possibilities.

It took me pretty much exactly ten seconds to come to a result that totally satisfies me.

 

[budda]

I will update eventually but im not after dialling in new sounds at the moment and about to have even less energy to play

 

[Decapitated]

REVV Red is the shiznit.

 

[laxu]

For anyone who is also out of the loop, there is a new firmware (22) with a Revv model and the new Dyna Cabs.

At the moment I'm hardly playing at all, but I've just tested it briefly and I'm quite excited by the Cabs (not checked the Revv).

The necessity for third-party variants will become even smaller (apart from the personal "want to have" of course), because the workflow is wonderful with the new possibilities.

It took me pretty much exactly ten seconds to come to a result that totally satisfies me.

The Revv stuff is nice, but there is absolutely nothing in them that could not have been achieved with other models well enough.

The Dyna-Cabs for me are a far more exciting feature. They make getting cabs sound to your liking so much easier than trying to find the perfect factory IRs or perfect 3rd party IR mixes. They are the biggest workflow improvement on Fractal since the Authentic tabs on amp blocks.

 

[thetourist]

Bit of a noob question: Would an expression pedal into an AX8 be a suitable replacement for a tremolo, mainly for subtle bends and the like? Nothing Vai-esque.

I've heard that whammy pedals can't really match the expression of a whammy bar, but I'm wondering if I can get by with just an exp pedal into my AX8 for the time being.

 

[budda]

Bit of a noob question: Would an expression pedal into an AX8 be a suitable replacement for a tremolo, mainly for subtle bends and the like? Nothing Vai-esque.

I've heard that whammy pedals can't really match the expression of a whammy bar, but I'm wondering if I can get by with just an exp pedal into my AX8 for the time being.

Roland ev-5 is cheap, give it a try.

 

[thetourist]

Roland ev-5 is cheap, give it a try.

It is! Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Shask]

Bit of a noob question: Would an expression pedal into an AX8 be a suitable replacement for a tremolo, mainly for subtle bends and the like? Nothing Vai-esque.

I've heard that whammy pedals can't really match the expression of a whammy bar, but I'm wondering if I can get by with just an exp pedal into my AX8 for the time being.

Should work as well as a Whammy pedal.

 

[MFB]

Two very basic questions for my Axe that I should've gotten around to asking earlier, but I'm lazy:

Can I back up my Axe-FX presets library, and sort of drag stuff back in as needed? Right now, I've got about 5 patches I alternate between, and want to finally consolidate my tones for functionality, but I don't want to wipe it until I know those are backed up somewhere and I can put them back.

Is there no just basic preset forward/back footswitch for the Axe? Right now I'm using my Axe-FX II on my desktop and just manually switching presets on the fly if a song has clean/dirty tones as needed which isn't super conducive given how they're arranged (see point #1); but if I arranged them so they were within a patch or two of each other, I could just tap the button a couple times and voila! Fractal has the FC-6/12, but I'm not sure if others are compatible with it and it's just a matter of it not being a Fractal product vs. something that doesn't exist.

 

[Shask]

Two very basic questions for my Axe that I should've gotten around to asking earlier, but I'm lazy:

Can I back up my Axe-FX presets library, and sort of drag stuff back in as needed? Right now, I've got about 5 patches I alternate between, and want to finally consolidate my tones for functionality, but I don't want to wipe it until I know those are backed up somewhere and I can put them back.

Is there no just basic preset forward/back footswitch for the Axe? Right now I'm using my Axe-FX II on my desktop and just manually switching presets on the fly if a song has clean/dirty tones as needed which isn't super conducive given how they're arranged (see point #1); but if I arranged them so they were within a patch or two of each other, I could just tap the button a couple times and voila! Fractal has the FC-6/12, but I'm not sure if others are compatible with it and it's just a matter of it not being a Fractal product vs. something that doesn't exist.

1. Yes, you can use Axe Edit and/or Fractal Bot to backup and rearrange your presets.

2. On the Axe FX II, depending on which version you have, has a pedal jack or two on the back. You can plug in a basic switch into that and then tell it to either increment presets, or cycle in a range.

You could also buy a simple MIDI controller, like the Tech 21 Midi Mouse, and that will give up basic up/down MIDI capability.