Editing. Fractal Axe-Fx

Editing

Eventually you’ll probably want to build your own presets. With the Axe-Fx this is easy and straightforward. There are three basic steps: placement, routing and effect editing.

Placing Effects

Press the

LAYOUT

button. Use the

PAGE

buttons to get to the

EDIT

page. This page shows you a portion of the routing grid. The complete grid is 4 rows by 12 columns.

Effects can be placed at any position in the grid. Move the cursor using the navigation buttons until the desired block is highlighted.

To change the effect at this grid position use the value dial. As you turn the dial the effect type is displayed in an overlay box. When you reach the desired effect press

ENTER

to place the effect. For this example let's place a compressor. Turn the value dial until

COMPRESSOR 1

is displayed. Then press

ENTER

to place the effect.

The block should now display

CMP

indicating that a compressor is in this position

You may be asking what those blocks with the lines through them are. These are called shunts and allow routing through grid positions. Additionally, shunts sum up to four inputs allowing hybrid serial/parallel routings. When no effect (or shunt) is present the grid block is represented by a dotted outline with an empty interior.

Let's place another effect in the block to the right of the compressor. Move to that position using the navigation buttons and the using the dial wheel select

CHORUS 1

.

Press

ENTER

to place the effect.

Routing

The lines between blocks are routing indicators. Any effect in a column can be connected to any other effect in the adjacent columns. To create or delete a route, highlight the source effect using the navigation buttons and then press

ENTER

.

The adjacent block in the next column will blink. Move the blinking cursor to the desired destination block and press enter. If no route was present a route will be added. If a route was present then it will be deleted. Movement is only allowed vertically in routing mode. To cancel routing press

EXIT

. Note that effects in the first column are automatically connected to the input and effects in the last column are automatically connected to the output. An effect can have multiple inputs and outputs. Inputs are summed prior to processing. An empty block can not be routed from/to. Removing an effect and replacing it with an empty block will delete all routes to that block.

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Auto Routing

Instead of having to manually set empty blocks to shunts to complete an effects chain the Axe-Fx contains an auto routing feature. By pressing and holding

ENTER

the Axe-Fx will automatically change an empty block to a shunt and place a route.

Simply hold

ENTER

down until the chain completes routing to the output.

Moving Effects

Effects can be moved once placed. To do this select the

MOVE

page using the

PAGE

buttons. Highlight the desired block (or row or column) to be moved and then select the appropriate move function using the value dial. Press

ENTER

to execute the function. When moving a block in a complex routing the routing to that block may be destroyed. In this case you will need to restore the routing. Simply use the

ENTER

button as usual to reroute the block.

Editing Effects

To edit the effect press the

EDIT

button. This brings up the edit display for that effect. If more than one effect is present in a preset successive presses of the

EDIT

button will bring up the next effect's edit display. Try it.

Bring up the Chorus edit display. There are three pages in this display. The first page is the

BASIC

page. Most effects have a basic editing page allowing quick access to the most frequently used parameters. Use the navigation buttons to move around in the page. Change the parameter values using the value dial. To access the other pages in the display use the

PAGE

buttons. The chorus also has an

ADV

(advanced) page. This offers in-depth editing of all the parameters available in the chorus effect.

NOTE: To reset an effect to its default parameters double-click the

BYPASS

button.

Effect Mixer

Each effect has an output mixer. Its controls are usually on the

MIX

page. Use the

PAGE

buttons to access the

MIX

page. Most effects have a

MIX

page like this. The

MIX

page allows you to control the mix, level, panning and bypass mode of the effect. On some effects these controls may be duplicated on other pages as they are frequently used. Not all effects have a

MIX

or

GLBL MIX

control. These are effects that don’t mix wet and dry but just output processed (100% wet) signals. Examples are the equalizers and the Amp Simulator.

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The

MIX

control controls the ratio of wet and dry signals. With the control fully clockwise the output signal of the effect is 100% wet meaning that only the effected signal is present. For effects like chorus, reverb, delay etc. adjust the

MIX

control to achieve the desired effect amount. When routing effects in parallel you'll often want to set the mix to 100% and use the

LEVEL

control to control the mix of that effect.

The

LEVEL

control controls the output level of the block. The mixed signal is increased or decreased according to this control. The proper way to set the level is to bypass the effect using the

EFF BYP

button and compare the levels. Adjust the level until the volume is the same with the effect active. You may desire some boost with a particular effect active (distortion for example) so you can also increase the level to achieve this.

The

PAN

control controls the output panning of the mixed signal. Every effect in the

Axe-Fx has stereo outputs. With the control at 12:00 the signal is equal in both the left and right channels. Turning the control left or right pans the signal accordingly.

The

PAN

control can be used to achieve complex stereo routings with different effects on the left and right.

The

BYPASS

mode controls the operation of the effect when the block is bypassed.

There are three modes of operation for most effects:

•

MIX = 0% :

In this mode the

MIX

control is effectively turned to 0 and the

LEVEL

control to 0 dB. The block is effectively the same as a shunt in this case.

•

MUTE FX OUT :

In this mode the wet signal is muted and the dry signal is preserved at the level set by the

MIX

and

LEVEL

controls.

•

MUTE OUT :

In this mode the output of the block is shut off (both wet and dry muted).

•

MUTE FX IN :

In this mode the effects input of the block is muted and the dry signal is preserved at the level set by the

MIX

and

LEVEL

controls. Only the

Reverb, Delay and Pitch blocks have this mode. This allows the effect to continue after the effect has been bypassed. This mode can be used, for example, to allow a delay to continue after the block is bypassed without abruptly cutting off.

For effects like Chorus, Flanger, etc.

MIX = 0%

is the most effective mode when used in a series configuration. Use the Level control to balance the effect volume between normal and bypassed states.

For effects like Delay and Reverb, the

MUTE EFF

or

MUTE IN

modes are usually the most effective as the dry level is unaltered allowing the effect to be turned on or off without changing the direct signal level.

For non-mixable effects such as equalization (Graphic EQ, Wah), distortion

(Amplifier) and Cabinet Emulation the bypass mode is one of two states:

•

THRU :

In this mode bypassing the effect effectively turns the effect into a shunt.

•

MUTE :

Mutes the output of the effect.

To bypass an effect press the

EFF BYP

button. Press it again to activate the effect.

Effects can also be bypassed remotely using external controllers (i.e. MIDI continuous controllers). If an effect doesn't seem to be doing anything make sure it hasn't been bypassed accidentally. A bypassed effect will have a dotted outline in the layout

EDIT

page and in the effect page the effect name will alternate with the word “BYPASSED”

The rightmost switch on the

MIX

page is labeled

GLBL MIX

. This is the global mix control enable for the block. When on, the mix for this block will be altered by the

Global Mix control. This is used to allow overall mixing of effects to compensate for venue differences. For example, you've tweaked your patch "MY MONSTER

SOUND" in your rehearsal studio and everyone thinks it sounds great. You then get out to the gig and the effects are too prominent because the room has hard floors and tin ceilings. What do you do? One solution is to frantically edit the patch going through each block and adjusting the mixes. OR… since you previously turned on

GLBL MIX

on the desired effects blocks you have a "master" effects control at your disposal. We'll talk more about the Global Parameters later.

Output Mixer

The main output has a four channel mixer for fine-tuning a preset’s mix. It is accessed from the

LAYOUT

menu on the

MIX

page. Each row in the layout has it’s own individual level and pan control. The overall level of the preset can be controlled using the

MAIN

slider.

Attaching Controllers

To attach a controller select the knob that you would like to control and press

ENTER

. If that parameter is capable of being controlled (indicated by the

-[ ]-

icon below the knob) you will be taken to the

MODIFIER

menu to select the control parameters. See the Controllers and Modifiers chapter for more details.

Saving Presets

All editing in the Axe-Fx modifies data in what’s known as the “edit buffer”. Upon saving, the contents of the edit buffer are written to a memory location. If a new preset is recalled prior to saving all the edits are lost. Recalling a preset loads the data from that preset into the edit buffer.

To save a preset press the

STORE

button. This brings up the

STORE

menu. The

LOCATION

box contains the preset location at which the edit buffer will be stored.

Next to that is the name of the preset currently at that location (if any). If the preset is empty the name will say “

EMPTY

”. To save at a different location turn the value daily to modify the location number. To save your changes press the

ENTER

button.

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The

NAME

box contains the name of the preset as stored in the edit buffer. To change the name select the character you wish to change with the navigation buttons and turn the value dial to alter the character.

Recalling Presets

Recalling a preset on the Axe-Fx is done simply by pressing the

RECALL

button and turning the dial until the desired preset is selected.

The Axe-Fx features and “Effects Recall” function. This allows the parameters of an effect in a preset to copied into the edit buffer. To use this feature simply navigate to the

EFFECT

tab under the

RECALL

menu. Select the preset that you wish to load from and the effect in that preset that you wish to load, and then press

ENTER

. The parameters of that effect will be loaded into the same effect in the edit buffer.

This is useful when you have an effect set up just the way you like it and only want to copy that effect into a preset you are building. Also note that any modifiers that are connected to the effect will be copied as well greatly simplifying preset construction.

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