I think I hate the AXE FX III.

romanianreaper said:
I loved my Axefx but when I got a tube amp again it was like the sky opened up. The IRs are the key in my opinion but there is definitely a difference between modeling and a nice tube amp. Like vinyl and an mp3. Just is different.
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Nailed it. I have not played or heard a modeler with IR's sound as good as a tube amp with IR's. I just have not. I was a very later adopter of IR's too, I am stubborn and old.
 
[ Donnie B. ] said:
What are you using for hardware?
I've never tried it.
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I recorded into that Two Notes thing with a cranked up Bassman. The producer was showing me IR's. I'm gonna tell you what I think. It is really easy to get a badass metal tone these days. But what I am not hearing are really good crunchy Fender sounds and good midgained rolled back tones.
 
japetus said:
I recorded into that Two Notes thing with a cranked up Bassman. The producer was showing me IR's. I'm gonna tell you what I think. It is really easy to get a badass metal tone these days. But what I am not hearing are really good crunchy Fender sounds and good midgained rolled back tones.
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So no cabinet at all? I think I've done similar.

head > Ironman II at full attn > DI out > Two Notes IR pedal > DAW

Also made Kemper DI profiles this way with a Friedman and Bogner and they both came out ridiculously good.
But it was all really heavy tones.
 
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[ Donnie B. ] said:
So no cabinet at all? I think I've done similar.

head > Ironman II at full attn > line out > Two Notes IR pedal > DAW
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I think onstage I do want to rely on my cab. I am old school as shit. Can you get real feedback and feel with monitors the same? I am asking this in honesty as I just cant imagine it. Its like the teetering on the edge thing
 
japetus said:
I think onstage I do want to rely on my cab. I am old school as shit. Can you get real feedback and feel with monitors the same? I am asking this in honesty as I just cant imagine it. Its like the teetering on the edge thing
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I use mine with 2 real 412 cabinets and a Boss TAE powering them. I also have 2 Friedman FRFR powered wedges running IR's so I get the best of both worlds. The FRFR's fill in the frequencies that the real 412 cabinets are missing.
 
As much as they're supposed to respond and sound like traditional amps, it's still a different paradigm to learn. Some of us have spent a few decades with tube amps, pedals, and cabs. What we think we know about setting things up and dialing things in may not apply, and in some cases, our pre-conceptions handicap us. FRFR isn't going to sound like a cranked amp in the room, because it's not suppose to. I prefer a flat amp into a traditional guitar cab.

10 years ago I would have said the technology just wasn't there yet. Now I think it's more a matter of having the capacity and willingness to learn it. For younger people, it'll be as second nature as amps and pedals are to us. People think they have golden ears when it comes to the preference for tube amps, but sometimes it just sounds like they want to justify their choices. It's the guitar version of your grandpa not wanting to learn a smart phone or computer. Sure gramps, your flip phone is the real deal. There are plenty of guys playing real tube amps who sound like shit. It's not the technology, it's having the ability to dial it in.

Use what you like. I use some of both. I guess I've never felt like I needed to validate my choices by manufacturing fault with the alternatives. It starts sounding like truck owners who aren't secure enough about what they chose without trashing the competition.
 
japetus said:
I think onstage I do want to rely on my cab. I am old school as shit. Can you get real feedback and feel with monitors the same? I am asking this in honesty as I just cant imagine it. Its like the teetering on the edge thing
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I'm not recording or anything anymore - just jamming when the mood hits.
Same cab as I was using with heads for the past 1.5 years so it was nicely broken
in with straight analog tones first, which I think??? helps.

I don't like stereo when I want to feel like I'm playing an amp. Everything on the
Quad is in mono, which cuts down on processing juice too.

QC > Duncan Powerstage > 10dB attn > cab

rig.jpg
 
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I think Def Leppard's live tone now with AxeIII is fine...but they have that processed tone anyways. It's not like they try and mimic Pyromania tones
 
I've been gently tweaking the 4 knobs on my SLP for 40 years.

I got my Axe-fx in the mail when I got home from work. I sent it back before the wife could get the foil off the hot dogs dinner.
 
I can get my Axe FX III to sound exactly like my amps, if I load down the amps and run through the same IR. I'm waiting to hear more from the QC, but most clips so far haven't been inspiring. There's been a couple great ones, a lot of bad ones. I guess the same could be said for any modeler, the QC hasn't had time to get enough coverage to form an opinion.
 
I have 2 paths I play through:
1 - straight into the AxeFxIII -> Studio Monitors
2 - straight into pedals (EQ, OD) -> amp -> Suhr RL -> AxeFxIII (only for Cab IR's and time based effects) -> Studio Monitors
NOTE: I do have some Eventide H9's hanging off the AxeFx, so in both cases it's AxeFx -> H9's -> AxeFx -> Studio Monitors.

I have patches setup for each. Works great, don't think one is better, but just why we have so much gear, it's different sounds depending on what I want to do. Love em both.
 
Yeah, I think for nut cases like us, it's a mistake to try to "replace" our tube amps with any of these modelers.

The modelers are useful tools. If I only have a few minutes to play (often the case), I hate to fire up an old and valuable tube amp. But I don't mind flipping on the AFXIII, which has all these FX integrated into it, and sounds good enough to have fun with. And if I need to haul something out, the modeler is easier to work with a lot of the time too.
 
cardinal said:
If I only have a few minutes to play (often the case), I hate to fire up an old and valuable tube amp.
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This was probably the main reason I switched. I can't play for long stretches of time
any more. It's more like 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there all throughout the day.

I turn the digital setup on in the morning and then shut it off at night.
 
squealie said:
I've been gently tweaking the 4 knobs on my SLP for 40 years.

I got my Axe-fx in the mail when I got home from work. I sent it back before the wife could get the foil off the hot dogs dinner.
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This I just don’t understand.. like what exactly were your expectations buying the thing? You had to know before ordering they take some time dial in, was it just too complicated or something?? Even if I’m sure there are endless tutorials on YouTube to point you in the right direction.
 
I’ve seen Metallica before and after the switch to Fractal (Def Leppard as well), didn’t care for the tone either of them were getting. Metallica sounded fine on cleans, and some of the slower leads from Kirk (Fade to Black) sounded solid. But I really disliked the heavier rhythm tones. It was a world apart from the earlier (tube) rack gear. Def Leppard was a little better, maybe because the tone was suited more to the music they play, but still preferred the older JMP-1 rigs.

Very few times have I heard a band live using modeling gear and thought “That sounds really good.” Probably the best was a band we played with at the Rock N’ Roll hotel in DC way back in the day. The guitarist was using (of all things) the really old gen PodXT Pro, and he legitimately sounded good for the music they were playing.

That said, I would suspect that the only people who care at all about the difference (digital vs tube) are people like us nitpicking every tone, whereas most in an audience wouldn’t know the difference if you A/B’d the two right in front of them. We’re not the typical, casual concert attendee, haha.
 
romanianreaper said:
I loved my Axefx but when I got a tube amp again it was like the sky opened up. The IRs are the key in my opinion but there is definitely a difference between modeling and a nice tube amp. Like vinyl and an mp3. Just is different.
Click to expand...

Another human with a fine ear! What happened to the species? Extinction?
 
blacknoizemachine said:
As much as they're supposed to respond and sound like traditional amps, it's still a different paradigm to learn. Some of us have spent a few decades with tube amps, pedals, and cabs. What we think we know about setting things up and dialing things in may not apply, and in some cases, our pre-conceptions handicap us. FRFR isn't going to sound like a cranked amp in the room, because it's not suppose to. I prefer a flat amp into a traditional guitar cab.

10 years ago I would have said the technology just wasn't there yet. Now I think it's more a matter of having the capacity and willingness to learn it. For younger people, it'll be as second nature as amps and pedals are to us. People think they have golden ears when it comes to the preference for tube amps, but sometimes it just sounds like they want to justify their choices. It's the guitar version of your grandpa not wanting to learn a smart phone or computer. Sure gramps, your flip phone is the real deal. There are plenty of guys playing real tube amps who sound like shit. It's not the technology, it's having the ability to dial it in.

Use what you like. I use some of both. I guess I've never felt like I needed to validate my choices by manufacturing fault with the alternatives. It starts sounding like truck owners who aren't secure enough about what they chose without trashing the competition.
Click to expand...

Up until the Cygnus update, I’d say you’re 100% dead on in regards to that paradigm and there’s still some truth to it, but Cygnus has closed some of that gap, IMO. I played through tube amps for 26 years and switched to an AxeFX last year, for the first year, I was spending a lot of time needing to utilize the deeper parameters to get where I wanted to go. After Cygnus, I literally didn’t even have to touch a knob on the Friedman’s or the 5150 models. Literally, not a single adjustment. Of course, I still tweak them, but that’s because I enjoy tweaking.

I don’t get into the whole “realer” thing because it just seems silly to me. I’ve been listening to a guitar through studio monitors more than anything else for the last 10 years and the tones have been authentic enough for quite some time on that end, I always chuckle when I see the dreaded “It’s more real now” when there are updates. That said, Cygnus was definitely a move in the right direction and giving people a closer approximation of plugging into an amp and not needing to send it to adjust the negative feedback run it at a hotter bias. It certainly removed a bit of the polish that’s often complained about that makes a track sound like a mastered guitar track and even has some of the more negative traits of the amps they’re modeling like noise and more unflattering tonal characteristics that most would think are better left out of the algorithm. So I’m not going to say it’s “more real”, but it’s certainly a better experience at the start and takes away the need for extra EQ’s or deep menu dives to get where you want to go.
 
I just finished playing my 5150 and the Fractal version (Cygnus) though the same cab and they are just not the same.

The 5150 sounds like a beast. The Fractal sounds... good enough. Maybe there's some deep editing parameters to make them indistinguishable, I dunno.

I do like the Fractal and enjoy what it offers, but it has limitations and short comings, like everything else. I mean, the reverb and delay and IRs built into my 5150 sound like shit! Cant even figure out how to switch them on!
 
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