I'm using my rig to make tons of money and attract all the hot babes. 👍 Meh, who am I kidding? Both of those ships sailed long ago. These days I'm happy just using my Fractal rig to play pub gigs once or twice a month. At my age that's about all the fun I can handle, lol. But I'd hate to try it without my Axe-Fx III.
Recording Axe-Fx directly into a pair of Avedis MA5's or EMI Abbey Road TG preamps > CL-1B or 2xUrei LA-4 > Curve Bender EQ last in the chain for fairy dust! I use the XLR outputs of the Axe-Fx and hit the mic preamp inputs using a custom made impedance conversion box. Then I get all the goodness of both input transformers and the output transformer in the Aveids and TG preamps. If you hit the line input only, you miss one of the transformer stages and the tone isn't as harmonically rich or musical. This is why you always want to come into a Neve transformer-coupled design at the mic input stage and not at the line input when recording a signal through one of these channels. The transformer-coupled input design that Neve UK came up with in the 1970's is the magic everyone talks about. It's also part of the reason why many of the Neve clones don't have the magic. Most of the cloners use a single transformer. That and they use the wrong transformers and the wrong capacitor values on the transformer pins because they are all looking at incorrect schematics shared online by some ex-Neve employee who worked in admin, instead of getting a virgin vintage Neve module and taking a look under the hood to see what's actually in there, which Avedis has done hundreds of times as the main Neve console repair tech in the US for the past two decades. I encourage you to get your hands on a pair of vintage Neve modules or Avedis MA5's this year and track through them and compare it to anything else. I think you'll find that extra 10 - 20% of sound quality beyond anything you've known in your life that you've always wondered about!
9:16 - tonnes of fun. For my "MOD XNT" switch, I use the LFO set to 1/2 dot for the sweep and panning, set the flanger width to near zero, turn on the sweep trigger thingie, and poke at the bypass and LFO sweep to get a nice, swirly flange that starts at a reliable spot and sweeps at a tempo-related speed around the room. A little bit of release time on the LFO switch keeps it from audibly going "dzwippp" back to its starting point when lifting off of it, and having the switch also sweep the mix up from 0% to 50% with a little bit of attack and release time helps ease the transition into and out of the flange.... I have a "DLY XNT" switch as well that pokes at delay feedback and input level to start a runaway delay effect that can get rather loud if you hold it on too long....
Fractal gets better and easier to use with each iteration. The "Gift Of Tone" series from Fractal was a great idea and I think that it could also be great to include these and more pro artist's patches within the factory presets of the next version of the Axe-Fx. These presets give new users an accelerated education on dialing in sounds using the Axe-Fx just by taking an under the hood peek at those artist presets and observing some of the concepts that professionals employ in addition to looking for patterns of things that more than one artist might incorporate into programming their sounds. It always helps to have good references! This was also the concept that Lexicon had from day one with their reverb units. Give the users amazing but useful factory presets so they don't have to start from the ground up monkeying with the raw algorithms. Most engineers loved using units like the Lexicon 224 and PCM70 because the methodology was to just pick a preset as a starting point that you like and then tweak it to suit the application. Most of the reverbs I've personally used out of Lexicon units were a factory preset with the decay times adjusted. Sometimes, I would do some adjustment to the overall EQ or the high frequency decay and I might adjust the modulation of the reverb tail to be a little deeper on some instruments that sound good with a bit of that liquid movement. After that, I might adjust the diffusion and the onset of the early reflections part of the algorithm. The deepest area to go into with the Lexicon reverbs was adjusting the level of individual early reflection echo taps, their panning, EQ, time and spread/pattern. I think if you have to get into that level of tweaking individual early reflections in a Lexicon unit, you probably started out with the wrong factory preset as a starting point, but there are times when you might end up somewhere unexpectedly awesome and that's when you better know now to save your work into one of the available user slots because you ain't gonna be able to repeat all those parameter moves again! Fractal should hire you to help design the next UI. You're a total power user and I like the way you work super fast and I think some of your mindset of workflow and methods could influence how the next Axe-Fx UI works in highly effective ways. Especially for newbies and pros who work on tight time schedules. Curiously, is that 224 reverb patch you have in your reverb list something you programmed yourself by ear and if so, which algorithm did you start with? I'd love to see a video on how you achieve the 224 sound using the Fractal's built in facilities!
What you said about the lexicon factory presets is so true - NO ONE had the time to fiddle with that advanced stuff, they wanted to hit a few buttons and get their mix happening. The 224 verb I matched by ear to my favourite setting on the UA Golden funnily enough - it's a "close enough for rock'n'roll" style thing where I just tweaked the EQ and high decay time multiplier. The Rich Hall type does it's own thing pretty well anyway.
This is great, it can be overwhelming tackling modelers, but the advice of "pre-thinking out your blocks" is great, with my pod go, the block sizes are limited so Im positively forced to think about my signal chain.
Hey Leon, I have the Axefx 3 with the 12 & 6 FC controllers + external switches...! I notice that knowone has done a tutorial video on the capabilities & possibilities on daisy chaining 2 or more FC controllers with the axefx 3... Oh! Thanks for the blocks library. Cheers...!!!
This video has prompted me to endeavor to start using the Blocks Library more. Going to also try doing the same with the per-preset Performance controls when creating new presets.
Nice video!! I have an Axe fx standard, but I like this videos and learn new tricks. Btw could you please reupload your ultra presets? Thanks a lot Leon!
Very cool video , simple to follow but very helpful to new owners One thing I would love to see is some more special effects stuff with the momentary control switch Like a patter trem slicer that you can step on and off. Or a dual harmony That you can just at to certain leads lines or section Finally something like the exp pedal control the rate of the trem and rev mix so you could almost emulate that Hellicopter taking off sound That would be cool to see As you said in the other video The cool thing about FAS is the ability to create all these different things On another note will there be another Ragdoll track coming out soon ?
Hello Leon from Spain and happy new year. Your blocks library is for FM3 too?- I installed your blocks with before firmware 5.3 and fm3 said error in library but i don't know why. THANKS
Leon I imported the blocks library into my FM3 running FW 6.01-beta. Some of the blocks give me Not a valid block file (bad checksum) in the block library log. Is this normal or are they blocks that won’t work on FM3? Regardless Thank You for sharing your blocks
Leon how do you deal with what you hear in the dev phase vs what you get when you play live. This is my biggest complaint about modelers/ FM3. Consistency!!!
I've been gigging Fractal stuff since 2016 and i still ask for feedback from the FOH engineer after shows so I can improve and streamline things so it's pretty dialed in now. Basically running the high cut around 5khz in the cab block, sticking to the same amp/cab and having the effects a little on the wet side works for me.
Happy new year Fractalites! How are you using your Fractal rig?
By playing guitar and watching you all day! hahaha
I'm using my rig to make tons of money and attract all the hot babes. 👍 Meh, who am I kidding? Both of those ships sailed long ago. These days I'm happy just using my Fractal rig to play pub gigs once or twice a month. At my age that's about all the fun I can handle, lol. But I'd hate to try it without my Axe-Fx III.
Leon I actually loaded a cab ir into mine from on hammer wow …. Took my sound from great to absolutely stunning !
1)Playing direct foh 2) in loop of soldano slo both sound great
Recording Axe-Fx directly into a pair of Avedis MA5's or EMI Abbey Road TG preamps > CL-1B or 2xUrei LA-4 > Curve Bender EQ last in the chain for fairy dust! I use the XLR outputs of the Axe-Fx and hit the mic preamp inputs using a custom made impedance conversion box. Then I get all the goodness of both input transformers and the output transformer in the Aveids and TG preamps. If you hit the line input only, you miss one of the transformer stages and the tone isn't as harmonically rich or musical. This is why you always want to come into a Neve transformer-coupled design at the mic input stage and not at the line input when recording a signal through one of these channels. The transformer-coupled input design that Neve UK came up with in the 1970's is the magic everyone talks about. It's also part of the reason why many of the Neve clones don't have the magic. Most of the cloners use a single transformer. That and they use the wrong transformers and the wrong capacitor values on the transformer pins because they are all looking at incorrect schematics shared online by some ex-Neve employee who worked in admin, instead of getting a virgin vintage Neve module and taking a look under the hood to see what's actually in there, which Avedis has done hundreds of times as the main Neve console repair tech in the US for the past two decades. I encourage you to get your hands on a pair of vintage Neve modules or Avedis MA5's this year and track through them and compare it to anything else. I think you'll find that extra 10 - 20% of sound quality beyond anything you've known in your life that you've always wondered about!
Thanks again I’ve had my unit for a year and I’m just now learning all these other things I can do. Appreciate you man!!
Glad I could help!
9:16 - tonnes of fun.
For my "MOD XNT" switch, I use the LFO set to 1/2 dot for the sweep and panning, set the flanger width to near zero, turn on the sweep trigger thingie, and poke at the bypass and LFO sweep to get a nice, swirly flange that starts at a reliable spot and sweeps at a tempo-related speed around the room. A little bit of release time on the LFO switch keeps it from audibly going "dzwippp" back to its starting point when lifting off of it, and having the switch also sweep the mix up from 0% to 50% with a little bit of attack and release time helps ease the transition into and out of the flange....
I have a "DLY XNT" switch as well that pokes at delay feedback and input level to start a runaway delay effect that can get rather loud if you hold it on too long....
Amazing Video Leon! Thanks a lot!
Nice!!!!!
Loved the "Animals" improvisation 😉
Fractal gets better and easier to use with each iteration. The "Gift Of Tone" series from Fractal was a great idea and I think that it could also be great to include these and more pro artist's patches within the factory presets of the next version of the Axe-Fx. These presets give new users an accelerated education on dialing in sounds using the Axe-Fx just by taking an under the hood peek at those artist presets and observing some of the concepts that professionals employ in addition to looking for patterns of things that more than one artist might incorporate into programming their sounds.
It always helps to have good references!
This was also the concept that Lexicon had from day one with their reverb units. Give the users amazing but useful factory presets so they don't have to start from the ground up monkeying with the raw algorithms. Most engineers loved using units like the Lexicon 224 and PCM70 because the methodology was to just pick a preset as a starting point that you like and then tweak it to suit the application. Most of the reverbs I've personally used out of Lexicon units were a factory preset with the decay times adjusted. Sometimes, I would do some adjustment to the overall EQ or the high frequency decay and I might adjust the modulation of the reverb tail to be a little deeper on some instruments that sound good with a bit of that liquid movement. After that, I might adjust the diffusion and the onset of the early reflections part of the algorithm. The deepest area to go into with the Lexicon reverbs was adjusting the level of individual early reflection echo taps, their panning, EQ, time and spread/pattern. I think if you have to get into that level of tweaking individual early reflections in a Lexicon unit, you probably started out with the wrong factory preset as a starting point, but there are times when you might end up somewhere unexpectedly awesome and that's when you better know now to save your work into one of the available user slots because you ain't gonna be able to repeat all those parameter moves again!
Fractal should hire you to help design the next UI. You're a total power user and I like the way you work super fast and I think some of your mindset of workflow and methods could influence how the next Axe-Fx UI works in highly effective ways. Especially for newbies and pros who work on tight time schedules.
Curiously, is that 224 reverb patch you have in your reverb list something you programmed yourself by ear and if so, which algorithm did you start with? I'd love to see a video on how you achieve the 224 sound using the Fractal's built in facilities!
What you said about the lexicon factory presets is so true - NO ONE had the time to fiddle with that advanced stuff, they wanted to hit a few buttons and get their mix happening.
The 224 verb I matched by ear to my favourite setting on the UA Golden funnily enough - it's a "close enough for rock'n'roll" style thing where I just tweaked the EQ and high decay time multiplier. The Rich Hall type does it's own thing pretty well anyway.
@@LeonTodd Fantastic! You know what my next question is!
This is great, it can be overwhelming tackling modelers, but the advice of "pre-thinking out your blocks" is great, with my pod go, the block sizes are limited so Im positively forced to think about my signal chain.
Thank you so much for sharing this.
My pleasure!
Thanks so much. This was very helpful. I learned at least 3 important things I didn’t know. One of those is I should get an FC6 for my FM3.😉👍
The FC controllers are so easy to get going!
Great video Leon thanks Buddy - Happy New Year
Happy new year!
Thanks Leon :) just getting over kidney stone surgery so hopefully be a better Year, most painful thing ever :(
Leon knows! Cheers, mates! D
Hey Leon, I have the Axefx 3 with the 12 & 6 FC controllers + external switches...!
I notice that knowone has done a tutorial video on the capabilities & possibilities on daisy chaining 2 or more FC controllers with the axefx 3... Oh! Thanks for the blocks library. Cheers...!!!
FC-6 on looper mode while the 12 does the test is pretty rad!
This video has prompted me to endeavor to start using the Blocks Library more. Going to also try doing the same with the per-preset Performance controls when creating new presets.
The gift of tone series has some great blocks!
@@LeonTodd agreed!
Nice video!! I have an Axe fx standard, but I like this videos and learn new tricks. Btw could you please reupload your ultra presets? Thanks a lot Leon!
Very cool video , simple to follow but very helpful to new owners
One thing I would love to see is some more special effects stuff with the momentary control switch
Like a patter trem slicer that you can step on and off. Or a dual harmony
That you can just at to certain leads lines or section
Finally something like the exp pedal control the rate of the trem and rev mix so you could almost emulate that Hellicopter taking off sound
That would be cool to see
As you said in the other video
The cool thing about FAS is the ability to create all these different things
On another note will there be another Ragdoll track coming out soon ?
Check out some of the G66 "Tuesday Tone Tips" videos I make. We've got a bunch of new stuff that just needs to be mixed and released.
Quick question regarding sitting position, I assume the guitar body is resting on your right leg, do you have to sit funny to avoid the hand rests?
Left leg actually! My chair has no arm rests either so I can do the full dork sitting position
Hello Leon from Spain and happy new year. Your blocks library is for FM3 too?- I installed your blocks with before firmware 5.3 and fm3 said error in library but i don't know why. THANKS
You'll need the latest firmware for these blocks to use them on the FM3
Leon, do you double track or quad track on these videos. The tone sounds so thick.
The track right at the very end is quad tracked, but all the tones in the video are just as you see them.
Link to free Cab IR's in description seems to be dead :(
Try this tinyurl.com/2p9k53h9
Idea for a riffs and sounds like. Pantera🤘
Listening to isolated tracks for I'm Broken atm !
@@LeonTodd I keep going back and listening to Domination. Just a riff heavy song with a killer solo
Leon I imported the blocks library into my FM3 running FW 6.01-beta. Some of the blocks give me Not a valid block file (bad checksum) in the block library log. Is this normal or are they blocks that won’t work on FM3? Regardless Thank You for sharing your blocks
Probably some of the delays - the FM3 doesn't have delay block diffusion
Leon how do you deal with what you hear in the dev phase vs what you get when you play live. This is my biggest complaint about modelers/ FM3. Consistency!!!
I've been gigging Fractal stuff since 2016 and i still ask for feedback from the FOH engineer after shows so I can improve and streamline things so it's pretty dialed in now. Basically running the high cut around 5khz in the cab block, sticking to the same amp/cab and having the effects a little on the wet side works for me.
You’re a talented fella…But sorry give me 6 knobs and some valves simple 🤷🏻
It's all about finding your goldilocks zone :)