Studio Diary #49: The 65 Clean Speaker Toolkit

‘Studio Diary’ is an occasional series where I talk about building a home recording setup for hobbyists and enthusiasts like us. I share my personal experiences, and the thinking behind some of the decisions that I’ve made along the way.

Fractal Audio have recently overhauled their amp modelling in the Axe-FX 3 / FM-9 / FM-3. And my recent dive into the Orange Getaway Driver has shown me that I need to revoice my signal chain. I’m taking this as an opportunity to re-evaluate everything about the pedal preset I’ve built for the Axe-FX 3.

In the last blog post, I went through the amp & cab settings for my 65 Clean pedal platform preset. We’re not quite done with that preset yet though. You see, while testing it, I realised that I needed even more speaker choices …

Continue reading “Studio Diary #49: The 65 Clean Speaker Toolkit”

Studio Diary #44: Key Decisions About Cab IRs

‘Studio Diary’ is an occasional series where I talk about building a home recording setup for hobbyists and enthusiasts like us. I share my personal experiences, and the thinking behind some of the decisions that I’ve made along the way.

Fractal Audio have recently overhauled their amp modelling in the Axe-FX 3 / FM-9 / FM-3. And my recent dive into the Orange Getaway Driver has shown me that I need to revoice my signal chain. I’m taking this as an opportunity to re-evaluate everything about the pedal preset I’ve built for the Axe-FX 3.

Before I get into detail about dialling in each amp and cab, I want to first discuss some more general things I’ve learned about impulse responses (IRs for short), and how that’s led me to some key decisions (or, if you prefer, design constraints) that I’m going to use to guide me as I dial in the amps and cabs.

Continue reading “Studio Diary #44: Key Decisions About Cab IRs”

#TweedTone: Can I Dial In A Better Speaker Emulation For My Tweed Deluxe Amp?

I’m lucky enough to own a physical Tweed Deluxe amp. I also think that a Tweed Deluxe amp rig for home use has become so expensive in 2023, it’s difficult to justify. So I’ve started looking at alternatives, to see how they compare to the real thing.

Last time out, I sat down and built a preset for my Axe-FX 3 that gets pretty close to the speaker emulation in the UAFX Woodrow amp+cab sim pedal. My real Tweed Deluxe amp sounded really good through that.

Today, I want to continue tweaking the preset, to see if I can get my real amp sounding even better.

Continue reading “#TweedTone: Can I Dial In A Better Speaker Emulation For My Tweed Deluxe Amp?”

#TweedTone: Can The Axe-FX 3 Reproduce The Speaker Emulation Of The UAFX Woodrow?

I’m lucky enough to own a physical Tweed Deluxe amp. I also think that a Tweed Deluxe amp rig for home use has become so expensive in 2023, it’s difficult to justify. So I’ve started looking at alternatives, to see how they compare to the real thing.

This time around, I’ve got a different kind of question that I want to explore. Can I recreate the UAFX Woodrow’s speaker emulation in my Axe-FX 3, using only the stock cabs?

And why would I want to?

Continue reading “#TweedTone: Can The Axe-FX 3 Reproduce The Speaker Emulation Of The UAFX Woodrow?”

New Arrivals: February 2022

This month is a tale of two eras: before land war in Europe, and after the war started.

My plan was to get Hedgehog back in action, and (if they came into stock) pick up a couple of things I felt I needed for some planned recording. And that’s how the month started.

Then Putin launched his invasion of a democratic European nation, while willy-waving his nuclear arsenal at the rest of the world. While we’re almost certainly safe from major consequences ourselves, I decided to bring forward my major planned purchase of the year anyway.

Continue reading “New Arrivals: February 2022”

Studio Diary #18: Recreating The Sound Of My Speaker Cabs Using Celestion Impulse Responses

Now that I’ve added the Two Notes Torpedo CAB M to my setup, the next challenge is to set it up to sound like my actual speaker cabs do.

One day, I want to make my own impulse responses of my speaker cabs. I want to be able to share them with you, so that you can recreate the signal chain I use for yourself. That’s something I can’t do with any impulse responses that I buy.

I’m going to be using Celestion’s official impulse responses on the CAB M, until I can replace them with my own impulse responses.

Continue reading “Studio Diary #18: Recreating The Sound Of My Speaker Cabs Using Celestion Impulse Responses”