I've recently purchased an Axe FX and can't seem to get a good sound from it. I've never had a problem dialing physical amplifiers in a LIVE situatiin, but getting solid recorded tone apparently isn't as easy. There are so many adjustable parameters and options, in addition to processing in mixing, that I'm lost. I'm going to take my approach back to square one, and ask the engineers here - what are your tips and tricks to getting a quality metal guitar tone? What advice would you share with someone with no concept of tone, effects, and general recording knowledge?
What's the tricks and tips for excellent guitar tone?
- Thread starter electricred
- Start date
use I'm positive it has, but the search function on this board is awful and brings back too many results to be useful. I Googled relentlessly before coming here (but never used this custom thing). Most information I found was dealing with stage sound, and didn't get into specifics about compression, HP/LP filters, trouble frequencies (especially with down tuned guitars), and rarely did the tips apply to extreme metal, which is a whole different ballgame compared to rock and other genres.
I'm trying to understand all variable that make a guitar sound great on record, primarily using the Axe FX for learning, but they will undoubtedly be methods that I could apply to any amplifier I record in the future. It's easy for me to walk to an amp, adjust the usual 3-band EQ/presence/gain and get a good sound when standing in front of the cabinet, but it isn't that simple with an Axe FX or recording in general. I can't find the trick that makes everything click together and sound good to me.
I'm trying to understand all variable that make a guitar sound great on record, primarily using the Axe FX for learning, but they will undoubtedly be methods that I could apply to any amplifier I record in the future. It's easy for me to walk to an amp, adjust the usual 3-band EQ/presence/gain and get a good sound when standing in front of the cabinet, but it isn't that simple with an Axe FX or recording in general. I can't find the trick that makes everything click together and sound good to me.
gabriel g.
Member
good playing, good mic, good preamp, good cab, good head, good guitar, good tubescreamer, good song
Firaxis
Member
CubanDude is right, the sneap search will bring up 100s of threads on this topic! There are also stickies with information in, Ermz poking holes in high gain guitars, Andy's interviews and tips compiled into a document etc.
A few tips
- Go easy on the gain. When you double and quad track stuff it will sound beefier and you won't need as much gain as you'd think
-Let the bass guitar do it's job. It's often said here that the secret to a killer guitar tone is a killer bass tone.
-Most of the guitar tone will come before it hits the computer. Get playing it hard and clean, make sure the guitar is good and then go from there. No amount of EQ'ing in post will make a weakly played part sound beastly.
- You don't need to use compression on a hi gain guitar, there's very little dynamics in it so a broadband compressor won't really help with anything. It's not to say you can't but if you're struggling to get a good guitar tone this is literally 99.9% not the answer.
-With something like the Axe Fx that has so many different models and stuff, you will probably be better of limiting yourself to one or two models and tweaking them till you get a good tone rather than constantly changing models and starting from scratch. Once you've got the hang of dialing in a few models with good tone I reckon you'll have the hang of it and be ablle to coax a good tone from most of what the unit has to offer.
- Go easy on the gain. When you double and quad track stuff it will sound beefier and you won't need as much gain as you'd think
-Let the bass guitar do it's job. It's often said here that the secret to a killer guitar tone is a killer bass tone.
-Most of the guitar tone will come before it hits the computer. Get playing it hard and clean, make sure the guitar is good and then go from there. No amount of EQ'ing in post will make a weakly played part sound beastly.
- You don't need to use compression on a hi gain guitar, there's very little dynamics in it so a broadband compressor won't really help with anything. It's not to say you can't but if you're struggling to get a good guitar tone this is literally 99.9% not the answer.
-With something like the Axe Fx that has so many different models and stuff, you will probably be better of limiting yourself to one or two models and tweaking them till you get a good tone rather than constantly changing models and starting from scratch. Once you've got the hang of dialing in a few models with good tone I reckon you'll have the hang of it and be ablle to coax a good tone from most of what the unit has to offer.
Skinny Viking
¯\(°_o)/¯ How do Lydian?
"the search function on this board is awful and brings back too many results to be useful."
"brings back too many results to be useful."
"too many results to be useful."
"too many results."
wait, what?
Isn't that what you WANT in a search result?
"brings back too many results to be useful."
"too many results to be useful."
"too many results."
wait, what?
Isn't that what you WANT in a search result?
CubanDude
not really cuban
- Nov 17, 2010
- 1,051
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Last edited by a moderator:
Skinny Viking
¯\(°_o)/¯ How do Lydian?
azistenostora
Member
I own a axe fx, and it was one of the hardest things to tweak. Finally after a year i have this thing sounding amazing (to my standards at least)
Look at the axe wiki for tightening up bass, that step one
Add an amp four blocks in. Now i use the 5150 model as it works best for me. Turn the gain around 8 to start, on the treble knob, hit enter to engage the bright switch. Now you'll notice plenty of gain has been added. Set the eq to taste. Onto the next page, set presence to roughly noon to start. The damp control affects the tone drastically. too much and it sounds like static, but not enough and you won't have any highs (turning it off gives it a scooped feel). Set to taste. Play around with the presence and damp to get a nice high end, but don't add to much as you'll get static. The master should never go about 3, any higher and its use a muddy mess. Now here is the trickiest part, the last page. Go to town stack, select 5150, the change it to post. I found that around 500 the tone stack is the best starting position. Ok so you've gotten this far, and when you chug it the strings sound like shit, its too bright! Now i believe its the b+ value you want to change, set it to a very low value and you'll notice the brightness go away. Turn it up to a value thats bright, but not giving you that string slapping off of the board sound.
Alright, so add a cab to the right, and a cab underneath the cab you just added. set the cab and mic to your taste, and set the levels to taste also. If you still have a low ridden muddy mess, add a tube screamer before the filter, that is before the amp. Don't add any drive, Turn the tone knob to taste, and set the level so that it won't drive the amp to an insane amount of gain. Gain staging! On the eq portion of the drive pedal, turn down some bass, and add some mids around 1400.
last but not least, you still have some crappy low mids, add an eq and filter out the low end and high end, and take a notch out of 250 to 300 hertz.
Here you go, this is from personal experience from wanting to throw my axe fx out of the window. I hope this helps
Look at the axe wiki for tightening up bass, that step one
Add an amp four blocks in. Now i use the 5150 model as it works best for me. Turn the gain around 8 to start, on the treble knob, hit enter to engage the bright switch. Now you'll notice plenty of gain has been added. Set the eq to taste. Onto the next page, set presence to roughly noon to start. The damp control affects the tone drastically. too much and it sounds like static, but not enough and you won't have any highs (turning it off gives it a scooped feel). Set to taste. Play around with the presence and damp to get a nice high end, but don't add to much as you'll get static. The master should never go about 3, any higher and its use a muddy mess. Now here is the trickiest part, the last page. Go to town stack, select 5150, the change it to post. I found that around 500 the tone stack is the best starting position. Ok so you've gotten this far, and when you chug it the strings sound like shit, its too bright! Now i believe its the b+ value you want to change, set it to a very low value and you'll notice the brightness go away. Turn it up to a value thats bright, but not giving you that string slapping off of the board sound.
Alright, so add a cab to the right, and a cab underneath the cab you just added. set the cab and mic to your taste, and set the levels to taste also. If you still have a low ridden muddy mess, add a tube screamer before the filter, that is before the amp. Don't add any drive, Turn the tone knob to taste, and set the level so that it won't drive the amp to an insane amount of gain. Gain staging! On the eq portion of the drive pedal, turn down some bass, and add some mids around 1400.
last but not least, you still have some crappy low mids, add an eq and filter out the low end and high end, and take a notch out of 250 to 300 hertz.
Here you go, this is from personal experience from wanting to throw my axe fx out of the window. I hope this helps
Trevoire520
Member
That sounds like an immense amount of fucking about to get a good tone. Does the Axe really sound that bad without doing all that?
No it sounds great, the clean tones are AMAZING and easy to set up. Really i just had a problem setting it up for a rhythm metal tone that i really loved, until i stumbled on some tricks after tweaking around. Its quite easy to set up a tone you'd want after getting to know how everything works.
Its like going to a new operating system, once you learn how to work it everything becomes second nature. Sorry for the bad analogy.
Its like going to a new operating system, once you learn how to work it everything becomes second nature. Sorry for the bad analogy.
Harley Barley
Member
Fox Mulder
The Truth Is Out There
kronk_1985
Member
- Oct 15, 2008
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kronk_1985
Member
- Oct 15, 2008
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So many cliched sneap forum replies.. He's not asking how to play guitar. He's asking how to get a better tone with the axefx..
"strings, guitar, right hand" is not the answer he's looking for. Lol
Try the AxeFx wiki. Do some reading.
"strings, guitar, right hand" is not the answer he's looking for. Lol
Try the AxeFx wiki. Do some reading.
