Axe-Fx II: ordered!

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spirit7

spirit7

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Right...in a moment of madness earlier I ordered an Axe II. I got my first noise complaint from playing the Herbert from a , so thought the Axe II might be a good compromise for bedroom playing / recording. A couple of queries:

1. How close am I going to get to really good, brutal modern metal tone with the Axe + headphones?

2. Is there ANYTHING I can do (sound isolation, attenuation with headphones, etc) to tame the Herbert for bedroom playing? I don't even know if I'm even going to be able to play it at the very lowest volume in the evenings without her hearing.

In any case, the VH4 is going to have to be sold because there's no way to get a great tone out of it unless it's cranked :(

A sad day.

Cheers,

-C
 
Could try a Two-Notes Torpedo. Does the attenuation and has speaker cab ir's. Use it for recording also. I have thought about it…..
 
FW 5 stepped it up in the high gain category. I'm very happy with it and I've been using headphones exclusively.

Takes some serious tweaking to get it there though. I enjoy the tweaking so it doesn't bother me. I highly recommend purchasing the redwirez cab IRs. The difference is night and day. I usually run two cab blocks. One 0in cone and one 1in cone. Then I use the "room space" dial and set it between 15-20%. This makes for a tight, articulate, and focused tone with some breathing room. This among many other tweaks, signal paths, etc, etc. (basically figuring out what works for you).

If you're willing to do the tweaking which comes down to trial and error (as well as reading the manual/tips on the FAS forum-which consists of sifting through lots of bs), you'll get some more than passable modern metal tones.

I found this clip yesterday. Probably not exactly what you're going for but I thought it sounded good. It seems that most examples of the axe II sound too digital, harsh, and poppy, not like the tones I've been able to get. This is much closer to what I've been able to dial in:
 
I've had an Axe II for about two months, maybe I should buy some after market IRs, but I'm very frustrated by the headphone tones I get. And it's not even that it doesn't sound "real," it just sounds like an amp aimed directly at my head, which isn't too pleasant with high gain stuff IMHO.

That said, if I plug into a cab it sounds incredible at whisper volumes. And I don't do the tweaking thing: I just adjust the typical tone stack.
 
I never liked how the Axe sounded through monitors or phones. But into a SS amp and cab, it sounded great at the lowest volumes as well.
 
My opinion only...

One shouldn't need an attenuator for the VH4 or the Herbert...that's why there's channels and a master volume.

The Axe-II sounds great through cans so long as you're prepared to spend a wee bit of time tweaking it, the quality and range of the cans makes a hooooge difference.

Getting 'brootz' out of the Axe-II is a piece of piss. Easy. And I love some of the tones I've been conjuring out of this lil' black box :yes:

Good Luck, shame about the VH4, that's such an awesome amp... :confused:
Mo
 
Ventura":2jtj840v said:
My opinion only...

One shouldn't need an attenuator for the VH4 or the Herbert...that's why there's channels and a master volume.

The Axe-II sounds great through cans so long as you're prepared to spend a wee bit of time tweaking it, the quality and range of the cans makes a hooooge difference.

Getting 'brootz' out of the Axe-II is a piece of piss. Easy. And I love some of the tones I've been conjuring out of this lil' black box :yes:

Good Luck, shame about the VH4, that's such an awesome amp... :confused:
Mo
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info all. Yeah I know V, but my problem is whether I can get usable, bedroom level tones that this woman below can't hear. I think I can with the Herbert (we did a test today and she said "I can't really hear"), but not sure about the VH4. To be honest, I don't have to pay for the Axe II until it's delivered (at least 4 months from now) so there's no danger of me flogging the VH4 until then. Perhaps I'll have changed my mind by that point :) Alternatively, I could take it to my band's studio, where I currently have a Powerball, and sell the ENGL instead. That said, I love the insane level of saturated gain you can get out of the ENGL.

Good to hear that it's easy to get great heavy tones out of the Axe. I'll be using really good headphones, for sure, so that's not going to be an issue.

I feel a bit better about it now guys, thanks :) I just hope this woman isn't going to stir up a fuss every time I play my Herbert (even at reasonable volumes). I gave her my number so she can text me if there's any issues, but *sigh*, it's just annoying, y'know?

-C
 
Definitely check out RedWirez IRs, they make a HUGE difference in headphone/monitoring. :thumbsup:
 
spirit7":1lpaxyjj said:
Right...in a moment of madness earlier I ordered an Axe II. I got my first noise complaint from playing the Herbert from a , so thought the Axe II might be a good compromise for bedroom playing / recording. A couple of queries:

1. How close am I going to get to really good, brutal modern metal tone with the Axe + headphones?

2. Is there ANYTHING I can do (sound isolation, attenuation with headphones, etc) to tame the Herbert for bedroom playing? I don't even know if I'm even going to be able to play it at the very lowest volume in the evenings without her hearing.

In any case, the VH4 is going to have to be sold because there's no way to get a great tone out of it unless it's cranked :(

A sad day.

Cheers,

-C
Click to expand...

Pretty sure this is all Axe-Fx Ultra, to answer your brewtal question.



 
danyeo":3rnc0h05 said:
Pretty sure this is all Axe-Fx Ultra, to answer your brewtal question.
Click to expand...


Yeah, Deconstruction is all Axe-FX (Ghost too for that matter).
 
Shask":cgrgxb5d said:
shredi knight":cgrgxb5d said:
danyeo":cgrgxb5d said:
Pretty sure this is all Axe-Fx Ultra, to answer your brewtal question.
Click to expand...


Yeah, Deconstruction is all Axe-FX (Ghost too for that matter).
Click to expand...

Yep, It is an Ultra.... its making me wonder if the II is worth the cash over the originals :) (For a person that has no Axe-FX and limited funds...)

http://www.metalsucks.net/2011/10/07/ri ... more-73989
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There's no way in hell I'd spend more the 2k on a modeler but for around $1,100 used the Axe Standard is a good buy. Pair it up with a good poweramp and it sounds good. For direct recordings the II is probably better but with a poweramp and through a real cabinet I highly doubt you'll get that much more from the 2. All IMHO.
 
I'm extremely happy with the headphone tones I am getting from the II. The patches sound like crap. I started from scratch and put together my own patches. They sound 90-95% "real" and feels really good (and this is exclusively through my headphones). I am considering the Atomica powered wedges. That way I can still use the cab modelers. I couldn't be much happier (except for that 5%, but that's what I have real amps for :lol: :LOL:)
 
Hoff - can you the Cameron model to sound anywhere close to the real thing?
I find that I need to couple it with DasMetal to get it to sound anything near what I hear on people's videos of the CCV. By itself - I think it sounds majorly weak.
 
Drkorey":p04j21bw said:
Hoff - can you the Cameron model to sound anywhere close to the real thing?
I find that I need to couple it with DasMetal to get it to sound anything near what I hear on people's videos of the CCV. By itself - I think it sounds majorly weak.
Click to expand...
You know, I haven't tried for a CCV sound yet. Funny you mention putting two amps together, I couple almost all my amp models with something or another. Get the high end from one and the low end from another. That kind of thing. I try and dial out the tone of the other (in your case the DasMetal) so the only factor it has is the one I want-so not to flavor the overall tone too much. Didn't do it prior to FW 5.0 but it seems like panning them just a tad helps the tone be more pure and articulate.
 
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