Axe FX III - the Blog

ToneControl

maybe it's late at night, and I'm not thinking straight, but if you want to reduce sustain on an electric guitar input, wouldn't you use an expander?

Roland

Typically with a compressor pedal you increase sustain by limiting the volume of the initial peak, and increasing the overall volume to compensate. It operates across the whole range of frequencies. 

What I’m doing is treating the three frequency bands differently. Above 3kHz there’s a long attack phase, letting through the initial peak before the compressor kicks in to lower the volume, but the overall volume is set to zero so the sustain is not enhanced. The long release time holds the volume down. Between 227Hz and 3kHz it’s even more marked. The attack phase corresponds to plectrum noise, then the volume is clamped down, so effectively it’s a mid cut after the plectrum noise. Below 227Hz the compressor is used the other way around. The attack is short, preventing the E string from booming when struck, and the release is quick. If the chord is held you can hear the bass come back during the sustain phase. 

Roland

Rehearsal feedback. 

You can sit at home for hours adjusting sounds, but it’s only when playing with the rest of the band that you find out whether something works. The big news is that the long IRs worked well. The guitar sound was more flexible. Normally I flit between several presents, changing between songs to get a different sound. This time I stayed on one patch the whole afternoon. The long IR also made my IEMs sound more natural. So having said that I didn’t think I’d use long IRs live I’m now thinking that I will.

On one song I though that my acoustic simulation was booming between low D and E, that’s 290 to 330Hz. No one else heard it, but it irritated me, particularly when I was using thumb and fingers to alternate between bass string and chord on a Dm. For the other acoustic guitar songs, which are all strummed, the sound was OK if a little warm. I think it just needs a small change to the PEQ around 300Hz.

Roland

Idiot! The notes might be 290 and 330 Hz, but the guitar delivers a lot of the first harmonic, so my problem is around 580 to 660 Hz. I’ve changed the PEQ.

I’ve propagated CAB and Reverb changes through a couple of other presets.

Roland

mrkb said:

Would love to hear a quick recording of the acoustic sim straight into a DAW. Alot of the Acoustic Sim presets Ive heard dont sound that good - think the way you have done it should be the best way to do it.

After playing around with Reaper I’ve managed to generate an mp3 for you. It’s two bars long, with a few seconds silence at beginning and end. Played back through my Matrix Q12 it sounds as it should. Played through an iPad it sounds thin and nasty. See what you think.

https://soundcloud.com/user303984572/acoustic-05-211113_1714-mp3

Often I add a bit of Chorus. This makes it sound less like an acoustic guitar, and more like the acoustic guitar tracks in many songs.

mrkb

Roland said:

mrkb said:

Would love to hear a quick recording of the acoustic sim straight into a DAW. Alot of the Acoustic Sim presets Ive heard dont sound that good - think the way you have done it should be the best way to do it.

After playing around with Reaper I’ve managed to generate an mp3 for you. It’s two bars long, with a few seconds silence at beginning and end. Played back through my Matrix Q12 it sounds as it should. Played through an iPad it sounds thin and nasty. See what you think.

https://soundcloud.com/user303984572/acoustic-05-211113_1714-mp3

Often I add a bit of Chorus. This makes it sound less like an acoustic guitar, and more like the acoustic guitar tracks in many songs.

Thanks, will listen through good quality headphones when I crank the PC up later.

FarleyUK

Had a reunion gig on Saturday with my old band; the other guitarist's amp was shit, and he hadn't bothered getting it fixed - so I used the AFX3 for both guitars. Worked surprisingly well - just two ins to two outputs, and the sound engineer just panned us accordingly.

Quite shocked at how straightforward it all was!

Roland

It’s like a lot of powerful tools. Once you get over the learning curve there’s a lot you can do with it.

I’ve reached a simplification stage. Once I’d got my kitchen sink preset working I started investigating other Amp types. I’ve now got six versions of the kitchen sink. For performance I want that reduced. I can play most of our set with one preset which has five scenes, plus the ability to turn some key effects on and off: Chorus, Flange, Drive, Delay, and Mid Boost. 

The scenes run Warm Clean, Edge, Crunch, Solo, and Acoustic. I want at least three more: Bright Clean, Dumble Solo, and Eb Detune. This could be done by adding three more scenes to a patch. Last time I tried to use the hold function for more scenes it went wrong because, under gig conditions, I tend to press a button very firmly and trigger the hold by mistake. It’s not as simple as increasing the hold time. Some scene changes happen between beats, for example coming in and out of a solo, and I don’t have time for a long hold. 

There’s also the likelihood that it won’t be long before I want a ninth scene. One idea I’ve already been toying with is to make scene 1 a quiet scene. Our lights are triggered by my AxeFX, using a midi clock sent by the keyboard player. Currently the lights are always pulsing, even during breaks between songs, and they can jump when the keys change their patch to a different tempo. One answer is to have scene 1 with the lighting turned down. This will happen as soon as I change preset, and the lights will restart once I select a new scene. 

Thinking ...

DavusPG

As you say it definitely gets easier the more you use it. I'm not deep diving with settings anywhere near as much as you, but now we're back to regular gigging I'm finding that I'm using the same preset for more and more songs. Only exceptions are those with something unique like the organ effect for Town Called Malice or songs where I use other specific settings.

I'd say 80% of the set is one preset now, which is the culmination of years of tweaking and covers most bases I ever usually need. It's great to be at a point where I plug in, make a few minor output EQ adjustments for the venue and then just play.

For me the III is still the best piece of guitar gear I've ever bought and a total GAS killer. I'm on the waitlist for the FM9 but that's purely to streamline my gear to everything on one board

John_A

@Roland the big question, does it sound better than the II?

Roland

John_A said:,

@Roland the big question, does it sound better than the II?

Undoubtedly! The Amps are clearer, and respond much better. @WiresDreamDisasters says the Delays are better. The new long IRs have allowed me to reduce the Reverb level. I’ve removed Reverb completely from my Acoustic and Lead scenes, bringing the guitar front and centre of the band mix.

ToneControl

John_A said:

@Roland the big question, does it sound better than the II?

I had a mk2 for years
it was a big step up to the mk3:

• Amp sims
• Delays
• Amp Feel

Roland

DavusPG said:

... I'm finding that I'm using the same preset for more and more songs...

For yesterday’s rehearsal I used the same preset for all but two songs. On the AxeFX II I was using five presets to give the range of sounds I need. With the III the Amps are more flexible, and I can get more sounds by changing pickups and tone. 

WiresDreamDisasters

I'm still waiting to start my thread. But yes, it is better than the axe 2

DefaultM

Does the price from G66 include tax etc like if you buy something from Thomann they sort it for you up front?

Roland

DefaultM said:

Does the price from G66 include tax etc like if you buy something from Thomann they sort it for you up front?

G66’s chosen courier handles the import charges.

Jonathanthomas83

Roland said:

DefaultM said:

Does the price from G66 include tax etc like if you buy something from Thomann they sort it for you up front?

G66’s chosen courier handles the import charges.

As in that it's not passed on to you, the customer?

Roland

No, the customer pays. G66 can’t pay it for you because they don’t know your tax status. You might, for example, be importing into a Freeport area. Even if they could I wouldn’t want to pay the additional costs of them handling my tax for me.

paulmapp8306

DefaultM said:

Does the price from G66 include tax etc like if you buy something from Thomann they sort it for you up front?

As roland says, you pay it BUT G66 reduce their price for UK customers accordingly.   What you end up paying inc tax, is the same p[rice the rest of the EU pay with theres, pretty much.

ToneControl

your concern would be getting repairs done

do G66 know how to handle the customs declarations for that, to avoid double Vat and duty?