Fractal Audio Axe-Fx

[Dr Git]

Hey Gregg, my AXE Ultra arrives this Friday...i'll give ya a update later on. Can't wait to check it out

[Scattershot]

That's awesome Pete!  I'm sure you'll like the sounds you get after you play with it for a while.  I saw in your other post that you got a lot of cool stuff (midi controller, the Redwirez IR's, and speakers) so it sounds like you've got a pretty complete set up.  If you're looking for a good expression pedal, I'm really fond of the Mission control pedals http://www.mission-engineering.com/Mission-Engineering/Products.html .   They do the job and the best thing is that they look and feel like a nice solid Crybaby wah rather than something that should be sitting under a synthesizer.

If you have a computer/midi interface, I'd recommend downloading the Axe-Edit patch editor when you're ready to start tweaking your sounds - it's much slicker than scrolling through the menus and it makes loading those custom IR's you got much easier.  Let me know if you have any questions. I'm not an Axe-Fx guru (yet) but sometimes asking questions on the official Fractal forum gets you a mixed bag of friendly help mingled with stuff like 'sigh...that question should be totally obvious to anyone with three advanced degrees in computer science like myself....'. 

We'll have to trade some patches down the road too - my 'what if Eric Johnson played for Megadeth' patch is almost done.

[Dr Git]

Thanks Greg. I'll check them out. BTW can't wait to hear the EJ/Megadeth patch...are you doing this with one amp sim or combining amp sims???

Darrell, you crack me up..

Well, by Friday this week, i'll have 2 El;even Racks and an Ultra Axe FX....Hopefully I will be happy with the Axe FX and sell the rest to help recoup the funds...we'll see...

[Scattershot]

Thanks Greg. I'll check them out. BTW can't wait to hear the EJ/Megadeth patch...are you doing this with one amp sim or combining amp sims???

Hey Pete - the EJ/Megadeth patch is still a work in progress but right now it's just a single amp through a stock Axe-Fx IR so the blocks look like this:

-->Tube Screamer-->Engl Powerball-->German 4x12 Cab IR-->Sennheiser Mic-->Rack (Tape) Delay-->Rack (Plate) Reverb

It has a ton of gain but it's still really smooth and sustains forever. I really love that you can do post-cab effects just by dragging and dropping.  I still have some more dialing in before I'm really happy with it, but I have a 4-5 min prog metal epic mostly recorded and just waiting for the lead tracks that I'll be unleashing sometime in May.

[Dr Git]

Thanks Greg...Looks like a cool patch. I'm not familiar with the German 4x12 (is it a cab built in the Axe-FX..I have the big bundle 4x12 from RedWirez but don't recall that one.  Anyway, very cool. I'm a novice at all these effects and what goes where, especially when you get into everything..Like i'm aware that Compression and Fuzz goes first in a chain, and that MOD FX, echo and Reverb go in the loop. But i don't know where to put Wah, boost, eq, volume pedal etc, as I rarely used them...Hey being a guitar player since the 70's, you guys would laugh...Marty knows, as ghe has played 10 more years then myself. Back in the day, there was no FX loop. Everything was in front...Echo sounded like shit playing live, unless you let the sound guy use his rack stuff.  My chain back then was a lates 70's Cry Baby-BOSS Super Overdrive-EH Electric Mistress=EH Memory Man

Also you mention after the cab FX, and even on my Eleven Rack, one of my patches talks about this...I have no idea what it does or means though...Feel like i'm in Med school instead of playing guitar - between this and learning Pro Tools, this is harder then my nursing school i went to...lol

[Scattershot]

The German 4x12 is a stock Axe IR that was added a few patches ago I think.  It sounds like the guy you bought your Axe from was pretty into it so hopefully yours will come with the newest firmware (9.03) but if not I would recommend updating when you can they keep adding cool stuff and the updates are free.

I wouldn't stress too much about the effects chain at first - you won't open a hole in the fabric of the universe if you put a drive block in the wrong place.  When I first got mine I went through all 3 banks and made notes on sounds I liked and ones that were totally useless.  That way you can use the good ones as starter patches and you can write over the ones you didn't like. 

Another thing that I've done is just typing stuff like 'Eric Johnson Cliffs of Dover Guitar Tone' into google or YouTube.  That's where I found out about putting the reverb and delay after the speaker.  Even if the article mentions real world amps and pedals, you can usually build a good model in the editor through trial and error.

[Dr Git]

Thanks Greg. Yeah, its up to date with the firmware according to him.  Any other advise tyou can give me would be greatly appreciated...I'm excited it comes tomorrow. I'm laughing cause when it arrives, i won't even know how to hook it up to my powered monitors...lol

[Scattershot]

Feel free to send any questions my way - like I said I'm far from being an expert but I'll be happy to help you get started.  It sounds like you're getting some powered monitors so the best way to hook it up starting out is probably using the XLR connection if you have any spare mic cables floating around.  You can also use standard 1/4" cables too - the only thing it really doesn't have is a headphone jack.

It depends on when your unit was purchased, but the printed manual may or may not be out of date.  There is a nice wiki site at http://axefxwiki.guitarlogic.org/index.php?title=Main_Page that has the most current manual plus a bunch of user-generated help topics - I've gotten a lot of help from that site.  Best of luck with your new toy, and if we don't hear from you for a few days, we'll know you're having fun.   

[Dr Git]

Having a ball Greg....Really dig this setup. I really am learning slowly, but i'm not in a hurry, as I'm not even in a band..lol  So far basically all I did was play all the presets. Trying to figure out the Ground Control Pro. Not sure if the guy programmed it correctly. It only recalls the first 4 presets names and after that it reads then i hit the bank up and it says 11. INIT instead of saying Clean Maz38 preset. I am a slow learner by nature. Aside from that, i'm trying to figure out that my presets from 108 to 111 aren't that good so what i'd like to do is take 4 presets from after 128 (which is what midi i assume goes up to on my GC Pro) and switch them to 108-111 ........ Tone wise this unit is really impressive and i don't blame guys gigging who use this....

[Scattershot]

Glad to hear that the Axe is treating you well so far - the real fun comes when you dig in and start making your own presets.  Not sure about the Ground Control since I don't have one of those yet but the Fractal forums have a lot of info if you feel like searching through them - if the set up isn't working quite right, you can bet someone else has posted a similar problem at least once.  When you're assigning preset spots, you might want to check to see if your foot controller goes from 0-127 rather than 1-128 just to make sure you've got everything where you want it.

Have fun and will look forward to some clips once you get comfortable with it. 

[Scattershot]

Well, by Friday this week, i'll have 2 Eleven Racks and an Ultra Axe FX....Hopefully I will be happy with the Axe FX and sell the rest to help recoup the funds...we'll see...

If you decide to sell one of your Eleven Racks, let me know - I'm thinking about putting together a ProTools laptop PC for portable recording and the 11R looks like it's pretty solid for PT and has a built-in reamping feature which could be fun.

[Dr Git]

I'll Let you know as soon as I know, Greg

[Scattershot]

Thanks Pete - in the meantime, I hope the Axe-Fx is still treating you well  .

I just read today that some dude named John Petrucci just started using the Axe as well - anyone know if this guy is any good?    .