After All the Amp Hunting - Ive joined the Darkside (AxeFx?)

[ob1clyde]

So, for years while I was in a band I bought and sold amp heads searching for that perfect combination of functionality and tone. It landed me at the Eng Invader. And ofcourse shortly after that I no longer played in Bands (my family grew x2). As Im mostly an at home (studio) player, I thought it was time to get the AXEFX II XL+..(its in the mail)

Im not going all digital, I still have a few amps. One Mesa F50 combo (my trusty old club amp), an Engl Artist Edition halfstack (biggest surprise amp of all time) and a Mesa Dual Rec halfstack at the JamPad where friends from bands past gather once or twice a month to let loose for a few.

Now Ive been hestitant on going digital (I mean I have an 11rack my wife bought me), but the AXE is on a whole other level. Monetarily and in sophistication. I dont plan on gigging with it or anything, I bought it primarily for recording. Im hoping to take that to the next level with the purchase!

Ive got a a couple questions for you seasoned vets..

For maximum enjoyment out of the box, Where should I start? I imagine as with most boxes they come with wild presets that need to be tamed somewhat to gear them towards practical application. Any go to favorite amps or amp combos? ANd do you think that the MFC is a must have right from the get go? I would think for quick recall of favorite patches and such it probably would be...

Im looking forward to the next phase of recording,songwriting and playing guitar.. Crossing my fingers the Box is all Ive heard it is. I did some browsing and due to its popularity, Im really digging the Patch Packs or presets or whatever that people are making and putting out there. I saw a Metallica Cover pak that sounded cool by Choptones.. Hey dont we all want to sound like metallica from time to time..lol

 

[romanianreaper]

Welcome!!! Your Fractal robe and lightsaber are in the mail!

I've had an Axe-Fx II since about 2012 and love it!! Never gets old and I play more now than I ever did. I have a blast recording and jamming on different songs, etc. Don't underestimate IRs or different settings in that box. It is amazing how an ok Van Halen tone turns into a phenomenal one by using the Variac, certain IRs, cabs, etc. The actual selected amp is just the beginning. Cliff is like a mad scientist and if he knows a certain amp had wires that were made in Holland and packed in ice before being put into an amp, he tries to emulate that in the digital world.

Just keep an open mind and don't get frustrated. I like most of the presets out of the box and just adjust to what I want. Have fun!!

 

[ob1clyde]

Welcome!!! Your Fractal robe and lightsaber are in the mail!

priceless..

I know you can get lost in these things, and in time Im sure i will. Im glad to hear you like most of the stuff out of the box! that's promising.

 

[crwnedblasphemy]

Congrats Jody!

 

[ob1clyde]

Thanks Rian, Now if I could borrow some of your chops.. haha

 

[stratjacket]

Congrats. I had the original Axe, Axe Ultra and now the Axe 2, not sure how many years but a long time. I've gone through pairing it with power amps, cabs, different combo's etc... in the end, getting a really good FRFR Speaker system was the best way for me. I currently use the mission Engineering Gimini 2 and love it, but it is expensive. I would definitely invest in one of the good ones; Friedman ASM, the Atomic stuff or Mission Eng and some others are worth the investment.

As for the presets that come with it, I never messed around with them very much at all. I always copied over them with my own. A really good place to start would be the Axe Change site where you can exchange presets with others. There are a ton of pretty good ones in there that can get you going:
http://axechange.fractalaudio.com

Also, it's not cut and dry, meaning Axe or Amps. I went through times where I unloaded all my amps and went full Axe, but missed tinkering and trying new pedals and amps/cabs. In the end, I have my Axe2 and I still kept my favorite amps; Bogner Uber and Diesel Hagen with their respective cabs and a bunch of pedals. So I can still go to old style pedals and amps and I can also just go with the Axe. The Axe takes pedals pretty good too, I love putting a dirt pedal in front and pedals in the loop. Sometimes, I still combine them in various ways. So it's more of the grey side...

It comes with a ton of cabs and mic's that are really good. But I had a lot of fun and got great sounds buying some cab packs. Ohnhammer are great and also I bought a few here: http://www.fractalaudio.com/cab-packs.php
They are relatively cheap and I love the Dizzy pack which are Diezel FL cabs with V30's and K100's mic'd with about 6 or 7 different mic's. Really sounds great.

Edit: one more note to your questions: Any midi controller will work with it. Never tried the MFC, but if you want to have a floor unit to tap and change presets or push effects in/out, then it's the way to go. I use a Voodoo Labs Ground Control and it works great. In reality I never use it too much. I usually have the Axe Edit software editor up and I switch patches there. Just depends on how you want to function. I would recommend investing in a good FRFR speaker instead of the MFC and just use the Axe Edit software for a while and see if you really want/need the floor unit. In a home studio, it isn't really necessary to me.

 

[ob1clyde]

Thanks Stratjacket.. As you can tell I'm not off loading all my amps just yet. Just the Big Dog Invader, which allowed me the funds for the AxeFx. I feel gear is a time and place kinda thing. Im not to sentimental about alot of it aside from a guitar or two..

Im not sure ill go with an frfr setup. The Axe is going straight to the studio desk where ill output thru interface to Monitors..

Do you have and Presets on the Exchange you can recommend as personal favorites? I do like your cab selection, as right now I blend a Marshall Mf400 with K100's and A traditional Mesa with V 30's.. when i fire up the amps.

 

[stratjacket]

I have not loaded up any to the exchange, I guess I'm too shy, ha. But I'd be happy to send you a few of mine to try out. I think the ones from Bulb and Nolly are pretty good and they are downloaded a lot and listed right at the top. There were a couple with Archon in the name that were ok, you can filter and search. I'll say that none of them were like "wow, this is it, perfect", but with a few edits, eq and volume adjustments they sounded really good. It's a good starting point to see how some people may be doing their patches. Some creative routing in there that people did that I never would have thought of.

My favorite amp in the Axe is the SLO. I use that a good bit and it's made me really really want a real SLO. So I guess that is one benefit to amp companies of people using the Axe. It's happened a few times with some of the models where I went out and bought the real equipment. Like I had to find a real, early days Lovepedal Eternity because I loved that drive pedal in the Axe.

 

[Steinmetzify]

Find and grab the Fremen patches...I think they're like $20 or something, but totally worth it for the tones and also to see how a master builds patches.

There are a lot of different sounds in there from great cleans to all out metal, and some of them incorporate both in different scenes.

I remember when I got my AxeII, I sat and played for almost 12 hours straight only breaking for food and the occasional cigarette. Prepare to be pretty amazed. It's shocking how much fun that thing is.

 

[Bishop5150]

Welcome to the digital dark side! Highly recommend Freemens presets as a starting point. They are fantastic. He has two versions. One using the stock cab IR's in the Axe and another using third party IR's that sound even better but is expensive to purchase all the required additional IR's. Ownhammer and the new Celestion IR's are fantastic. Can't stress enough the importance of the right IR. Keep it simple at first. Find an amp to use then audition different IR's till you find the tone you like. Good trick in the cab block is to use the high and low cut in the cab block. Set the low cut to 80hz and the high cut to 8khz.

 

[ob1clyde]

Thanks for the advice guys.. Ill definitely look at the fremen stuff. I remember after messing with my 11rack for awhile i went and downloaded all of the user made presets i could find and then went through all of them systematically listening for useful tones and saving them to my 100 user presets.. Now my 11rack is much more useful, and is one of the reasons ive held off on buying the AxeFx up to this point.

The 11rack will now reside in my bedroom with the laptop and computer speakers for when I want to noodle around while watching football as the wifey hangs in the livingroom..

 

[Ventura]

Congratz.... I'm toying with the idea of picking another one up having been a former owner (and re-seller) of every iteration these things have come out in

Fact, it'll never be amp-in-the-room material, but for simplicity and ease-of-recording, it's pretty hard to beat. Not to mention, volume control and so forth. Hey, if it makes you play more, have fun playing more, and get better playing more, it's worth the price of admission IMHO.

Enjoy