Fine Tuning Tones - Axe-Fx III Tutorial

[@geetargeek79]

2:05 "Try to apply the underlying ideas rather than copy the values." That's what my math teacher used to say. Never learned from him then, but I'm learning from Leon now.

[@TheLastVigil]

Thank you for your awesome tutorial. It has allowed me to learn how to focus on the frequencies that I DONT like in my tones. Never thought about the input EQ settings either. I have a ton of different types of guitars (Les Paul 60s, PRS, Ibanez M80M, Schecter Hellraiser C-VI Baritone & a Hell Cat, Ibanez RG7620RB, Gretsch baritone & a bass) and each and every one I plug in has extremely different results. The ones with passives (IE RG7620 and the Gretsch) are super boomy, which I love, then you go to the Gibson & PRS; completely different. This guide basically allowed me to learn how to look for what I want to remove each time I plug in something different. The Multiband compression; never even thought about that & how it applies to improving palm mutes, especially at these low tunings on the baritones, which rumble a ton when you're basically playing an octave lower than what you have here. 10/10 video. Straight to the point. No bullshit. Easy to understand & learn. One question; in the MB EQ block, you fiddled around with the Freq Range option. For whatever reason, I don't seem to be able to find it. Did they remove it with the firmware updates since you did this video? Was interested in seeing how that would work.

[@ThePicturesofyou]

Great video for a too lazy to play sunday afternoon. Learnt a good bunch of tricks !!! Thanks a lot again, Leon !!!

[@ronnieparfait]

@16:06 Pinch harmonic squeal = cheesy 😁.. gotta love LT. 🤘🏼

[@dogcatcherish]

Love all these tips, I’m hopefully buying an Axe Fx 3 soon.

[@andyv4926]

Extremely useful stuff. Reminds me on finding the low res. freq. of the cabinet. Great. Thank you Leon

[@gathda]

Some of the plugins I've used have an "auto-listen/solo" feature that lets you hear just the band you are sweeping in the EQ. It has really helped me isolate those nasty frequencies. Fractal should add that feature since it would make that process even easier (and should be fairly easy to implement). I'm super-impressed with what I'm seeing in the Axe-Fx units. You can tell the people working on it have experience with non-guitar related digital audio. Some of the other companies focus too much on making it just like a guitar amp/pedal chain and ignore all the other cool stuff that plugins/digital processing can do.

[@LeonTodd]

That's a feature I'd absolutely love in the PEQ!

[@gathda]

@@LeonTodd Plugin Alliance's bx_digital is where I first saw this feature. When you turn the frequency up and down it changes that filter type to a notch with the gain maxed out (and Auto-Solo and Auto-Listen enabled, which is the default). That way you hear an (almost) exact frequency notch filter turned up and you can find the bad frequencies pretty easily. Other plugins have a variation of this (like FabFilter), but they don't adjust the filter type and gain temporarily while sweeping like bx_digital does. I usually use bx_digital to find the frequencies and then move them over to other plugins like DMG Audio's Equilibrium or FabFilter Pro-Q 3 for further fine-tuning (although it looks like DMG Equilibrium can do it to - I need to spend some quality time with the manuals).

[@LeonTodd]

I put a wishlist request on the fractal forum, hopefully it gets added someday!

[@gathda]

@@LeonTodd I hope they do it!

[@satch4u3]

A lot of useful tips to apply here! Well done.

[@MarkPritchardGuitar]

Great tips Leon. Thank you very much, will try these tricks later!

[@allaboutracing3615]

Excellent

[@AgileJazz]

The speaker compression trick can really add a warm fuzzy feeling/sound to distorted tones. Just don't take it to far!

[@NudnikShpilkus]

Ah, the old high Q sweep to find the ugly. :) learned that from Andy Seagle back when dirt was rocks, in a Studio Music Recording class he taught locally at Mesa CC....

[@Cerebrum358]

Coolest Aussie along with The Berzerker. Love the hair as well. Smooches, bruh.

[@AnthonyMeyer]

These tips are incredible. +1 for the MB compressor

[@LeonTodd]

the MBC is a hidden weapon, so good

[@AnthonyMeyer]

I've been spending like 2 hours each night the past few nights dialing in heavy tones and I'm haunted by build up 3-5k. Everytime I eq them all, then my tone is crippled. And I go back to scratch and the 3-5k problems flood in. A viscous cycle.

[@berndkiltz]

your Videos are quite excellent!

[@jimmynorris]

OMG, the multi band comp trick!

[@LeonTodd]

Can't live without it now

[@sammytheman8994]

Thank you for these axe 3 videos. I plan on buying one! Do you think in a mixing scenario, that having a multiband compressor on the axe and then adding on while mixing would be overkill? Or do you think it could kind of be used like serial compression?

[@RyanAmplification]

If I found an axe fx 1 or 2 for a good price is it worth it or should I get a 3?

[@CamiloVelandia]

Awesome video dude!

[@LeonTodd]

Thanks man. I'd love to see what you do when you get your presets live ready ;)

[@6Stringers]

Is there anything the AxeFX CAN'T do? damn.... thx again Leon. great stuff :)

[@LeonTodd]

It doesn't smell like tubes...yet

[@miserychannel69]

it can't switch from clean to high gain without a lag :(

[@claudetoybox]

Great vid Leon as usual. One thing I'm confused about though if you can clarify please. Are you saying that all your dirty presets that you use live, are made by adding a PEQ block after the cab and never touching the amp eq or cab low and hi cut controls at all so that the amp and cab remain at stock settings? Thx.

[@LeonTodd]

No, I use the amp controls to dial in the amp. This EQ trick replaces the cab block high/low cut and acts as a final "polish" on the raw amp/cab tone

[@FenderSchonJPX]

Dang, can't believe how good that sounded totally stock

[@LeonTodd]

yeah it's pretty easy to get it sounding awesome

[@Counterpunchrock]

Actually kinda surprised you didn't explain the air control as "How much Powerage you require in your AC/DC."

[@LeonTodd]

Hahaha this is the best comment ever!

[@JoesGuitarCafe]

nice tricks!

[@LeonTodd]

Glad you like them!

[@jackmeginniss6327]

More very useful info. Thanks! I installed one of your Axe FX-III atomica presets today and it sounds great, but with my guitar the Axe Edit output block meters are indicating that the output is a little too hot. The compressor and PEQ come after the cab. Should I reduce the level of the cab or.the PEQ or perhaps the compressor? The FAS rule of thumb would be to reduce the cab level, but that is not carved in stone. I would like to preserve the sound that you intended. Thanks in advance for any advice that you could provide.

[@LeonTodd]

Turn the level down of whatever the last thing in the chain is - from memory that's the comp

[@jackmeginniss6327]

Leon Todd Thanks again, Leon. Really like your presets!

[@Peter_Stoops]

Yep - I roll off at 80hz and at 7khz, preset in parametric block in ax8, then tweak it for each amp.

[@FenderSchonJPX]

Ola: But will it chug? LT - HELLZ YA!

[@jch5150]

I wonder if the FM3 will ever get the cab smoothing knob?

[@shatteredsquare]

the world needs more value judgments