[NickCormier]

Originally Posted by JJ Rodriguez

Those are heavier than the new Carvin DCM ones. The new Carvin DCM1540L I ordered is 1500W bridged into 8 ohm, and weighs 14 lbs. Even the 3500W ones weigh 14 lbs. I imagine they sound probably about the same, they're both supposed to be flat response. Someone also made the point to me in an MSN conversation (Tom I think) that you could also power a bass cab with one of these amps, and use the SVT model on the Axe, so you'd have a bass rig in addition to your guitar rig, all in one.

I think that was meee. cause I play more bass than guitar lately, and I am slightly interested in the Axe FX.

[vontetzianos]

Originally Posted by mikernaut

You guys got any tips for making good hi gain/heavy distortion patches? I just got my Axe Fx and am struggling so far. I've been trying to throw a drive infront and it starts to get nice and hotter sounding but then theres alot of hiss. Been spending all my time tweaking and not playing.

I suck at tweaking and theres soo many options that I can mess up. hah
It took me forever to dial in good patches with my Vetta II now I'm back at the start again with the Axe FX.

For my hi gain patches so far I use the FAS Modern amp and the 5150 sim. I try and keep it basic with just the amp, a bypassed cab sim (because I run mine through a combo), and a TS808 sim with the gain turned down and level notched up.

I've turned off all cab sims and all power amp sims because those really muddy up the tone with my combo. I try and keep the mids between 6 and 7, with bass at about half way or lower, and treble at about 5.5. That's pretty much it and I've had awesome results so far.

What have you used for your patches?

[mikernaut]

Well I'm currently just running it thru the FX loop on my Vetta II until I get some new goodies from Zimbloth to hook it up differently.

I've just been trying various dual amp head set ups into different cabs too. Das metal, USA IIc + 2, Euro Uber , Recto New, PVH 5105 (amps) then for cabs 4x12 recto2 and 4X12 german's. Then abit of delay, reverb at the end of the chain. But like I said before when throwing a drive infront I could start to get the hotter distortion I was liking but with crazy excess hiss if the level and drive was up to high.

Occassionally a GEQ and Noise gate. But admittedly I have minimal experience/knowledge about tweaking those much.

[JJ Rodriguez]

Try just a single amp first. I haven't had any luck dual amping yet. I'm going to try again here soon, but I've been using the Uberschall model and it sounds great.

[starsnuffer]

Originally Posted by Crucified

in my opinion, it just needs more tweaking. the transformer frequencies in the deep editing make a very big difference. I have mine going through a very powerful mesa power amp, (strategy 400) and with the tweaking i've done and the power on hand, i think you'd have a problem telling me which amp is "the real thing".


that being said, i've approached making my patches not so much as "this is my mesa mark 4 patch, this is my diezel vh4 patch" as "this is my dirty patch" "this is my clean patch". I think that makes a big difference in using the axe. I mean, you can certainly try to emulate different amps but most of the time it's not going to work out the way you want it. If you're using it just for a good tone, you'll find it. Direct recorded or through a cab.

That's exactly how I approach it these days. I actually prefer making my own amps/tones then I do trying to emulate something else.

I'll often combine two amps in my patches, and mix them in different ways. For instance, my main dirty rhythm tone uses about 80% SLO and 20% Cornford. I don't like either of those models much alone, but when mixed it's a very sweet effect. The slo provides the grind and cut while retaining tightness and with low gain the cornford provides that low end sag and saturation similar to what you'd hear on an uber or recto. Keep in mind though, that my tone is a lot closer to AIC or Tool and not what I'd consider an "extreme metal" tone.

All I can suggest is that you take a few days off, lock yourself in a room, and just play with it for a while.

-W

[Richardscuro]

Thanks for all of your opinions guys. I am going to think it over a little more before I decide. For now I think that I'm just going to midi up my XT Live and Pitchfactor to my live midi footcontroller and duplicate the pach numbers and switching so I'm used to it live.