Your take on AxeFx?

[brownbeartle]

This is known for d'jent in the metal community because we mostly associate it with bulb/periphery. Yes, this will give you that sound but thats if you use a fas modern and tube screamer with plenty of upper mids. For the "damp" parameter, if you go past 2 o clock on most high gain emulators it gives a greater negative feedback value for upper frequencies. BAM! slap on a super fast gate and now you sound like bulb.

I have changed every parameter in each high game amp sim and i'm impressed by the different tones you can make. Messing with tone stack, tone stack frequency, and even location will give you plenty of tones in itself just in one amp sim. Its really about experimentation, and not someone thinking to themselves "hey i'll buy an axe fx to sound like volumes or animals as leaders!". Using too much damp gives an axe fx clip away, but right amounts can convince even the biggest gear head in my opinion.

But do yourself a favor, scrap the cab ir's and run it through a power amp into a real cab. The stock cab irs have a lower resolution than redwirez impulses (which are half decent for jamming, getting ideas, or adding to your axe) , but either way please agree with me that if you use a real amp or an amp sim, a real cab is still the way to go.

BTW i play indie too, these cleans are completely amazing and a soft breakup amp sim warms my heart

The audio clips from fractal audio, and youtube metal tone clips aren't very convincing (either bad audio quality or someone going for that d'jent tone) but try one out and get to know it before you judge. I can't judge a pod because i've never tried it

 

[brownbeartle]

And i own a 5150, a mesa dual rec, and played a 6505+ for awhile.

Its not going to make me sell all of my equipment like people have said it will.
This is not made to model the exact amp, but to give you a ballpark estimation on where to start. We all know what a 5150 sounds like, so if you want that low mid tone you switch to that amp sim to get closer to your desired tone. Of course its not going to sound the same as its an emulation, built on specs of the amp and not the exact sound.

Its all on your ears and how you dial in your tone. That makes the difference between good sounds or terrible sounds coming from a line-6, an axe fx, 5150, engl, diezel, or whatever. Being a good guitar player also helps too haha

 

[Lon]

Everybody should just compare this : http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149356/26 - Insomnia.mp3 (uploaded because it was free on his soundclick)
to this
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1149356/01 Insomnia.m4a (uploaded for comparison's sake, I hope you guys don't mind).

edit : Holy shit I forgot how much I dig the old demos, if some of you wanna hear the OLD songs with Jake Veredika on them (best Periphery era IMO) please ask.

I think Mr. Mocca Imperium had to rethink his approach to guitartone because he couldn't make the bity-agressive tone work WITH vocals. I agree the demo sounds more "fun" and "alive" because the guitars are really noticeable, on the S/T they tend to get overshadowed by the vocals.

 

[Seizure.]

I don't know why people bitch about POD. I just recently mixed a major act and the guitars where POD. Brutal tone, killer playing. Sounded great

Same. I love pod! just set it right and play to the tone and your cool

 

[Axonic Rot]

Here is the best high gain tone I've heard from the Axefx:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/2183128/Vik_SL8_Clip1_July9.mp3

From this thread:
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/equipment/698755-belated-ngd-vik-8-string-w-fretless-w-clips.html

I don't often hear a tone I like that much at all. To me that shows significance of these units in the hands of the right person.

When modeling isn't 100% accurate I tend to like it. Less sag and unrealistic clarity mixed with the good characteristics of a tube amp achieved through the meticulous attempt to model it sounds just fine to me.

People comparing the sound in a room isn't fair either. To me that doesn't count for anything. You can have your dream tone coming from your amp and it might sound like it's coming through a telephone coming through the FOH system. The axe plugs in and it's close to the best your tube amp could ever do carefully captured in a studio coming out of the sound system where the audience can hear it.

 

[Cyanide_Anima]

^ That sounds fucking awesome.

 

[Fandus]

i owned the axefx 2 for about a month before selling it. its a cool toy, but thats about it. it lacks what a real amp gives. even tracking a 5150 speaker output into impulses was better than the axefx.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I think with all the axe 2 clips I have heard I would rather have an ultra seriously...

But I would rather have another real amp over the ultra.

 

[sdhncabc]

I purchased the Axe Fx Standard last year and was very disappointed.

I own a Diezel Herbert and Diezel VH4. I have extensive experience with the Mesa Mark IV, Mesa Mark V, Mesa Mark III, Mesa Triple Rectifier (2 channel), and Mesa Dual Rectifier (3 channel).

Diezel sounds way better than anything the Axe does. The "Diezel" amp models in the Axe aren't even close.
All of the Mesa Mark series amps sound better than the Axe. The "Mark" amp models in the Axe do not sound like the real thing.
The "Rectifier" amp model in the Axe does a pretty good job capturing the sound of the Mesa Rectifier. But the Axe sounds darker than a real Rectifier amp.

The Axe Fx Standard SUCKS TONE. It makes your pickups sound darker. The Axe Fx is not horrible in this area, but it can be noticed. I have tried the following effects processors. I have rated them in order of least "tone suck" to most.
Best = Eventide TimeFactor, Eventide PitchFactor (no tone suck in these units!)
2nd = Axe Fx Standard (makes everything sound a bit darker)
3rd = TC G System (individual notes in chords sound undefined; not good enough for me)
4th = TC G Major II (noticeable tone suck; unacceptable)

 

[MG-Chris]

I have an Axe-Fx II, and a 6505+. I run the Fractal unit through a FRFR setup (a pair of HD1221s), and the 6505+ into a slant Recto 4x12 with v30s.

In the room, the 6505 beats it all day long at "the 6505 tone", but with my setup that's almost expected. That said, the Axe is super flexible, has a fuckload of great sounding models, and I can record it at 3 in the morning in a library if I want to with no worries. I live in a condo, so I can't mic a roaring cabinet every time I want to record. The Axe-II 5150 model using my 6505 as a PA and through my 4x12 sounds pretty damn good though. It's juuust a little off from the real tube sparkle, but again considering that I can do that direct if I had to choose between the two it would be the Axe-Fx hands down.

I also had an Ultra and a Standard before the II, and I didn't have the same experience that the poster above me did. At the time I had a Roadster that I A/B'd it against quite a bit, and I never noticed either unit making my pickups sound darker. (Though to be fair, the Roadster is a pretty dark amp anyway, at least mine was..)

I play thrash and shred. I know the FAS unit gets a lot of hate because it's regarded as a djent-box in many circles, but the Ultra, and especially the II, is seriously leagues beyond anything else I've owned, and comparing it to a POD is nonsense. You really have to dig into one to appreciate it, and judging one by various Youtube clips isn't really a good way to go about it. It's just a shame that they aren't really accessible otherwise for people to screw with in stores the way the less-boutiquey stuff is, because I think a lot of people's opinions of it would change if they had a chance to lay hands on one.

.2c

 

[Empathy]

I wouldn't hesitate to use an AxeFx on stage; I'm not as picky about digital tones live than I am in the studio. The way I see it, is if you have the time and resources to get the best possible sound you can for something that is going to become the definitive 'sound' of an album to be played back to however many people buy the record, you'd use real amps, not imitations of those amps. On stage, who gives a fuck, the Axe is definitely close enough there.

 

[halcyonwayband@aol.com]

Im on another delema. I got a home studio for personal band's purposes. I'm between Axe FX II and a real amp. I dont care about FXs i only want a pure huge metal sound. But the only thing that restricting me from goin on an analog amp is that i cant have a cab in house (cause of noise) so i will plugin directly the amp to mixer. What is your opinion about that? The amp im considering buying is ENGL LE 670 EL34. Will the amp sound good with the appropriate impulses as it was on a real cab?Or its better to go on Axefx?

Definitely get the Axe.....it's going to provide you with 95% of the high gain tone of any amp you would buy, get really great at mic'ing up, and track at a huge volume, but the added benefit of all the other amp models, efx, etc. Plus you can do it direct, not worry about kicking over the mic and moving it if you come back to a track later on to work on it, etc. Great tool, I use mine every single day. The Axe II has the USB out and that is a VERY cool feature that I wish my Standard had, but I can live without it as I have my signal chain dialed in like so:

Guitar > Avalon U5 > Axe > Digi 003
but I split off a DI signal from the U5 and run it into another input on the Digi 003. So that's how I get the DI and distorted tones at the same time.....

 

[MG-Chris]

The USB is definitely awesome. For one, not having to disconnect my foot controller (MFC) to use Axe-Edit, but two, it gives you the ability to go modeled stereo pair + stereo pair for DI over USB, with the two "real" outputs still left open.

If I could mic my 6505 and get even half the incredible results that some of you guys do on here I'd go that route, but for a novice like me, direct is just so much easier.

 

[Josh Burgess]

I think the free X50 amp sim into a mesa 4x12 IR sounds better than the axe-fx ultra I used to have for high gain tones. Seriously. That's my main problem with it. The cleans and effects are great and highly tweakable... but all those tweaking options still don't change the fact that many people can get better high gain tones out of PODs and free/cheap amp sims. For costing $2200-$2600, the Axe-FX II should be using some kind of more advanced, more realistic sounding cab simulation...

 

[phisk]

The Axe 2 as a kemper profile:

http://soundcloud.com/mdaniel/profiling-an-axe-fx-ii

 

[pifos_2]

I love it. I get great tones and never have to crank up an amp in my small home studio. i have no booth so i couldn't do it anyway.
it's super practical for me and I can concentrate on the playing, the arrangement and less on the amp, the mike, the volume...

BUTT...
when I got it I was not amazed nor very impressed by the sounds. it just sounded a bit more fresh than most of the plugins or hardware simulations i tried. after working on it for a while I could get the tones I wanted and squeeze the juice out of it. i don't share the opinion of those you say that the Axe-FX will replace all the amps you will ever need.

all the recent stuff on my cloud are 100% Axe-FX : http://soundcloud.com/brainworksstudios

it worked great for pop and rock. i got lately a guy playing a american strat through tasty overdrive pedals. we plugged then in the clean channel of Axe-FX Twin Reverb. Sounded great. 95% of the tone was in the hands, the guitar and the pedal anyway. it was a delight to work direct in the interface and at low volumes.

i can't wait to get enough room to learn the art of micking amps the right way. in the meanwhile the Axe-FX is my weapon of choice. I don't plan spending more than 2K for the II.

 

[Danny Drama]

I've had a II for a couple months now. I like it a lot but I hate the stock impulses, once I'd converted some I'd made of my own cabs I was much happier. I've not used the impulse capture mode that came with the latest firmware yet, but I'm gonna give that a try later in the month.

I play in an 80's metal style band and make music everywhere from blues to death metal under various names, for me the II is a great solution.

 

[Clark Kent]

Periphery are using Axe-Fx II through a 5150 power amp and a Recto cab on their next record. End of thread.

 

[kev]

^^ This is what I think the way forward is- at least it is the route i've picked to go down for now.

 

[Josh Burgess]

Interesting. I thought Misha has always said he hates Mesa cabs?