# Axe-Fx Tone Tips & Patch Exchange



## JohnIce (Jan 3, 2011)

As most of you know by now we already have the Q&A sticky, but I figured we should have a thread for all the happy Axe-Fx users who _don't_ have any issues or doubts, where we can all just bask in the fun we're all having 

Use this thread to discuss your favourite amp sims, cab sims, tricks you've found helpful, ask for help in creating tones you want, anything of that nature.

One of my current favs is this patch, based on the Marsha BE with Boost on and a slight raise on the mid and treb knobs, with some extra master. That goes into the 4x12 JM2000 cab with R121, and that's it. My Input Level is around noon, I'm using an all-mahogany guitar for this.



Another one that I'm pretty happy with is this CA3+ Lead patch. Here is the full list of settings:

Filter: Lo Pass, (Gain: 0) - (Freq: 111) - (Q: 1)
Amp: CA3+ LD - (Drive: 5.9) - (Boost ON) - (EQ: Noon) - (Bright ON) - (Pres: 0.8) - (Mstr Vol: 7.13) - (Sag: 5.3)
Delay: Mono Delay, stock
Cab: 2x12 BRIT w/ R121 Cond
Reverb: MD Room, stock



The rhythm is doubletracked with the Recto Orange, I'll see if I can dig up the settings for that as it's quite a solid and versatile high-gain tone.

So, start posting, all of you!


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## ROAR (Jan 3, 2011)

I've been wanting this thread for a while.
WIN.
Can't wait to see what pops up on here.


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## gunshow86de (Jan 4, 2011)

I haven't had mine long enough to be handing out tips, but I'm going to bump this in hopes of receiving some.


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## CFB (Jan 5, 2011)

The recording section of the fractal forums have loads of great stuff.
Recordings


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## biggness (Jan 6, 2011)

Awesome idea. 

Here is my offering. It is for some serious high gain riffing. I made this patch with an EMG 81'd mahogany guitar, tuned to C#, so you may need to adjust the gain and treble to your tastes. Any feed back is appreciated. 

Engl twnage for your riffening pleasure.


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## JohnIce (Jan 6, 2011)

biggness said:


> Awesome idea.
> 
> Here is my offering. It is for some serious high gain riffing. I made this patch with an EMG 81'd mahogany guitar, tuned to C#, so you may need to adjust the gain and treble to your tastes. Any feed back is appreciated.
> 
> Engl twnage for your riffening pleasure.


 
I remember hearing that (I think) before getting my Axe and thinking it was the heaviest guitar recording I'd ever heard. Will have to try it  Btw, I've looked around for your long post on settings when making a high gain patch, would you mind posting it here?


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## gunshow86de (Jan 6, 2011)

I found this quote on the Fractal forums that's supposedly attributed to Tosin Abasi (don't quote me on that );



> "I&#8217;m into blending tones, so for my clean I blend two amps, and then for the distortion I blend two, as well. I&#8217;ve been using the Diezel VH4 [Das Metall] setting, which is very mid-rangey, but still has that modern rapid bass response, that tight, focused low-end. I&#8217;ll blend that with a more organic amp, like the Fractal model called Crunch. It&#8217;s like a very driven tube preamp, so I&#8217;ll just crank the mids on that and create a balance between the two. It sounds pretty good."



I just tried it, and it does sound pretty good. Can have that "d-word we shan't mention" type of metal tone, with some extra crunch on the mids to make it less sterile. I'm gonna try it with a few other dissimilar amp combinations.


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## JohnIce (Jan 7, 2011)

^I've never got along with the Diezel, but the FAS Crunch is an incredible amp. It's one of the most dynamic and "organic" amps in the Axe-Fx, the prescence on it is so natural.


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## Metalus (Jan 7, 2011)

Thanks a bunch for this thread dude. I ordered my Axe-Fx a few days ago so this thread came in just in time!


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## mattofvengeance (Jan 7, 2011)

Here's my first contribution, and it's directed at players just getting their axe fx's. 

Alright, here's what you need to do when it arrives. First, thank the sweet Lord above for allowing such an amazing creation to be invented. Once you've gotten that out of the way, plug it up in whichever fashion you deem necessary. For me, it was into a solid state power amp into my Mesa OS 4x12. When you get her plugged up and such, you wanna turn your input volume up so that when your hardest strums will tickle the red light. Then you can turn the output volume to taste. Pick and noodle around to determine that you have noise. If you do, SUCCESS! 

From there, scroll through the bank of presets and screw about with them. I had a lot of fun with the German duel (VH4/Powerball), Eric Johnson lead, and For the Love of God in particular. When you have had all of your fun with the presets, pick one that you want to transform into "your" tone. Hit Layout to view the signal chain of said preset. You can keep whatever you'd like, obviously, but if you wanna change it, hit edit. It will take you to the menu of that block. From there, you can scroll through the pages of what makes each block and change values to shape your tone. For example, if you edit the amp block, you can shift over to (I think) the second value on the first page. That is where you choose which amp sim you want to rock with. Scroll through those and have even more fun examining what the Axe Fx is capable of. When you find which one you wanna go with, hit enter, and it will take you back to the previous page where you can adjust the EQ, drive, and other things. When you have gone through and explored the various pages, hit recall to take you back to the layout. If you hit the page button to the right a couple times while in the layout menu, it will take you to the noise gate settings. For us metal players, this is a vital piece of the puzzle. Adjust your threshold, attack, etc to taste, hit recall, and keep rocking! I don't expect you to find something you fall in love with immediately, but it will certainly get you in the neighborhood. The more you play with it and learn from other users, particularly on the fractal forum, the more you will understand the unit and get the best out of it. Don't make it harder than it needs to be, and you'll do just fine. I still don't have all the parameters down myself, and I'm always learning, so definitely don't be afraid to ask questions. I'm super stoked that you're joining the family


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## JohnIce (Jan 11, 2011)

Although the Hi Freq Resonance is often said to be pretty much useless since 10.3, I find that it still does a very good job giving the whole patch a more natural sound. I usually bring it down a bit and compensate with the treble and prescence controls, usually gives a sweeter tone than leaving it on 5.


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## JohnIce (Jan 15, 2011)

Might aswell post this here too, it's a somewhat Van Halen-style 5150 setting. Besides the stuff shown in the video I also use a delay before the cab (short, quiet an one repeat for the rhytm sound, more on the lead sound) aswell as an LG Hall reverb with a bit extra pre-delay.


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## JohnIce (Jan 18, 2011)

And here's an Andy Timmons patch I just made:


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## getaway_fromme (Jan 18, 2011)

JohnIce said:


> ^I've never got along with the Diezel, but the FAS Crunch is an incredible amp. It's one of the most dynamic and "organic" amps in the Axe-Fx, the prescence on it is so natural.



I HATE the Diezel model. Every time I bring it up, I try to like it....but it just doesn't work. The Mk sims blended with the Recto orange are just so f*in awesome. And "Buttery"......my god, once you boost the shit out of it it's AMAZING! to me anyway...


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## JohnIce (Jan 19, 2011)

getaway_fromme said:


> I HATE the Diezel model. Every time I bring it up, I try to like it....but it just doesn't work. The Mk sims blended with the Recto orange are just so f*in awesome. And "Buttery"......my god, once you boost the shit out of it it's AMAZING! to me anyway...



Interesting... will have to try that! What cabs do you use them with?


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## JohnIce (Jan 20, 2011)

So dudes... what are your opinions on the input volume? Ever since getting the Axe I've had it about halfway up, I must at some point have made it clip there or something, but yesterday I pretty much cranked it and it didn't clip. So where do you set yours, and do you experience any pros/cons of having it just below clipping or further below that? The theoretical person inside me figures the more signal into the Axe the better, but I've found that stock settings for amps and gates seem way off when cranking the input volume... granted my presets don't sound as they used to, but that's for obvious reasons.


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## -Oracle- (Jan 20, 2011)

JohnIce said:


>




This clearly shows how much dynamics and warmth the Axe Fx retains. I'm blown away every day by mine, definitely the best piece of gear I've ever owned. 

My favourite amps for heavy stuff are definitely Das Metal (Diezel) and Recto New (Mesa), they're huge sounding while still being uber-tight. Don't like the powerball sim, though.


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## -Oracle- (Jan 20, 2011)

JohnIce said:


> So dudes... what are your opinions on the input volume? Ever since getting the Axe I've had it about halfway up, I must at some point have made it clip there or something, but yesterday I pretty much cranked it and it didn't clip. So where do you set yours, and do you experience any pros/cons of having it just below clipping or further below that? The theoretical person inside me figures the more signal into the Axe the better, but I've found that stock settings for amps and gates seem way off when cranking the input volume... granted my presets don't sound as they used to, but that's for obvious reasons.



as the manual suggests, you should start with your knob at 12 and then strum with your higher output pickup...a little clipping on the input led isn't that bad, the input knob has not that much difference when cranked or when at 12...I usually put it at 1 o'clock. However, output clipping must be avoided (I usually mess with the output volume on the amp block or with a post-eq block as master volume), and the output knob is VERY sensible.


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## Andromalia (Jan 20, 2011)

My input is currently at 2 o clock to use with EMGs in E standard tuning. I blindly followed the advice I read here and there and it seems to be working ok. I'm not really keen on sharing patches as I'd endup as the laughingstock of the forum most likely. ^^ Besides I don"t wanna pollute the axe exchange with sub par presets.


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## Vigil87420 (Jan 20, 2011)

Is the axe exchange still up? i tried to go to it a few times and it never worked.


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## Andromalia (Jan 20, 2011)

Yup, got two of Mark Day's Marsha patches a week ago or so there.
Did a small recording with it, was looking for a good rythm sound, just had to tweak a bit as this is a patch designed for leads at the beginning.
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=10161234


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## JohnIce (Jan 20, 2011)

-Oracle- said:


> as the manual suggests, you should start with your knob at 12 and then strum with your higher output pickup...a little clipping on the input led isn't that bad, the input knob has not that much difference when cranked or when at 12...I usually put it at 1 o'clock. However, output clipping must be avoided (I usually mess with the output volume on the amp block or with a post-eq block as master volume), and the output knob is VERY sensible.



I've found that a PEQ after the cab, with a notch filter somewhere in the low mids can radically clean up the patch and keep it from clipping. The "surgery" is usually barely audible but it gets rid of the problem frequencies without losing bottom end or volume. It's usually much more efficient (and sounds better) than dialing down bass/depth/thump or whatever on the amp, as much of that low-frequency clutter seems to come from the cabinet sims anyway. In fact I sometimes even boost the subs to give some extra feeling of a cabinet in a room, like on the 5150 patch. It's the low mids that are stirring shit


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## -Oracle- (Jan 20, 2011)

JohnIce said:


> I've found that a PEQ after the cab, with a notch filter somewhere in the low mids can radically clean up the patch and keep it from clipping. The "surgery" is usually barely audible but it gets rid of the problem frequencies without losing bottom end or volume. It's usually much more efficient (and sounds better) than dialing down bass/depth/thump or whatever on the amp, as much of that low-frequency clutter seems to come from the cabinet sims anyway. In fact I sometimes even boost the subs to give some extra feeling of a cabinet in a room, like on the 5150 patch. It's the low mids that are stirring shit



I really don't need to dial the low-mids when I have a vht 2/90/2 and a 480w vader  it's too much even for me, I think I'll swap this setup for something warmer like an atomic monoblock with a zilla cab, for example.


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## moshwitz (Jan 21, 2011)

Sup?

I like branching off after the amp but before the cab and putting a PEQ on row one. set the High pass and low pass ( Bands 1 and 5) to only allow from around 2-300 ish to 3500-4500 ish(( or to taste, it varies with different amp+cab combos, but usually in that range) then bring that back in to taste After the cab. helps it come alive and give it some chunk. 

I did this clip blending a 5150+ german cab and an Uber+ metal cab and using that trick on the 5150. 

SoundClick artist: MOSHWITZ - page with MP3 music downloads 

MOSHON 
DAVE


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## getaway_fromme (Jan 21, 2011)

JohnIce said:


> Interesting... will have to try that! What cabs do you use them with?



I have never been happier when anything other than 4x12 V30's and the R121 mic. Some say the R121 is just louder than the rest, but I'm not sure that's the only reason.....The other mics just seem really muffled. I'll only change a mic AFTER starting on this one. There's my tip 

Oh, and while we're at it, I'll say it again. Thus far, I HATE Das Metall....It might just be my tuning but...Anyone who loves Das Metall have anything similar to my guitar setup?


7 string drop F#
26-1/5 scale neck
Emg Blackouts

I wonder if y'all out there who love it are playing in way higher tunings?


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## WickedSymphony (Jan 21, 2011)

I've decided that I'm going to pass on a new guitar and go for the axe-fx first. This and the Q&A thread will come in very handy soon 

Thanks a bunch, guys!


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## jdpogan (Jan 23, 2011)

I'm not sure how to upload patches yet but here's one I've been screwing with for a while.
I'm using an Agile 8-string w/stock pups.
layout:
-CPR-DRV-AMP-CAB-PEQ-VOL-
---------\AMP-CAB/
DRV: T808 MOD
drive: 1.89
tone: 7.64
level: 9.17
mix: 100%
EQ page: 5.5db mid boost @1417hz

AMP 1: PVH 5105
drive: 7.68
bass: 5.08
mid: 0.67
treb (brt): 7.05
pres: 4.09
depth: 3.66
damp: 10
sag: 0.55
mstr: 7.01
level: -8.75db

AMP 2: RECTO NEW
drive: 4.80
bass: 4.84
mid: 10
treb(brt): 5.87
pres: 8.58
depth: 4.96
damp: 10
sag: 1.10
mstr: 7.01
level: -8.75

CAB 1: stereo
cab l: 4x12 cali w/ 421 dyn
cab r: 4x12 metal w/ 57 dyn
*this cab block is panned hard left

CAB 2: stereo
cab l: 4x12 T75 w/ R121
cab r: 4x12 V30 w/ R121
*this cab block is hard right

PEQ:
-2.27 [email protected] hz
[email protected]
+4.06 [email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected] 2000hz

VOL:
turn it down to around 2.5-3.5 depending on how hot your pups are

ALSO: noise gate the shit out of this, or to your liking.
CPR block is also completely subjective.


This tone so far is pretty brute, but mess around with some of the amps if you wish.


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## Metalus (Jan 24, 2011)

getaway_fromme said:


> I have never been happier when anything other than 4x12 V30's and the R121 mic. Some say the R121 is just louder than the rest, but I'm not sure that's the only reason.....The other mics just seem really muffled. I'll only change a mic AFTER starting on this one. There's my tip
> 
> Oh, and while we're at it, I'll say it again. Thus far, I HATE Das Metall....It might just be my tuning but...Anyone who loves Das Metall have anything similar to my guitar setup?
> 
> ...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acqVkGkdHnk

He's using the Das Metall in that clip


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## getaway_fromme (Jan 31, 2011)

Metalus said:


> He's using the Das Metall in that clip




That actually sounds pretty good. But I can hear a great deal of Gojira's tone there too...Also, thats drop C.....So I guess that somewhat answers that. Thanks man


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## 6Christ6Denied6 (Feb 4, 2011)

that gojira patch is dead on their studio tone... i want that patch !!


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## themike (Feb 5, 2011)

6Christ6Denied6 said:


> that gojira patch is dead on their studio tone... i want that patch !!



He explained it in the comments on that youtube video - its just the Das Metal amp into the Recto 1 cabinet.


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## Sepultorture (Feb 5, 2011)

FUCK i need this piece of gear in my life


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## bcolville (Aug 24, 2014)

I got an ultra yesterday. So far I've spent 14 hours tweaking tones. They sound so good through my montiors but my recordings aren't spectacular. I'm not worried though because it took me over 2 years to get a pretty damn good tone with my pod. Hopefully it won't take that long though


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## Kullerbytta (Aug 25, 2014)

I was just noodling around, trying new amps and cab/mic-combos when I stumbled upon a fairly good Djent-patch.
I'm not really into djent, but all I could hear in that patch was 'dj-dj-dj djent' 

Anyway, here's the signal chain for it, for those interested 

DRV (OD808) - Gate - Amp (Wrecker on 'Boost') - CAB (Stereo Recto 1 and a 4x12 V30, no mics) 

That's it! It doesn't sound super-mega-awesome but It's definitely usable for recording (which is all I do since I'm not in a band) 
Drive block is pretty standard = low/almost no gain, high tone and Level, Amp settings are pretty neutral, but I emphasize the treble on this particular patch.
Stereo-cab-combo is my new favorite. Recto 1 and the 4x12 V30 made many of my patches sound better when recording high-gain stuff. 

I've had mine for... 6-7 months? And I'm still learning. Actually... I've not learned very much since getting it  but I sometimes discover new things that improve my sound.


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