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Leveling Scenes with MFC Demo

Lesson 7 from: Using the Axe-Fx

Cooper Carter

Leveling Scenes with MFC Demo

Lesson 7 from: Using the Axe-Fx

Cooper Carter

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Lesson Info

7. Leveling Scenes with MFC Demo

Lesson Info

Leveling Scenes with MFC Demo

You can level between presets in much the same way that you can level between scenes and because we've got all these scenes set up I want teo make sure they're all the same kind of volume so what I'm going to dio is I'm going to go through and just to make sure that we're starting from a good starting point I'm gonna lower to make sure whatever we turn on in these scenes is not gonna clip at any point so if we turned everything on we would be good I'm gonna lower these all by default five dvds down turn that trouble off so and then remember we already uh lowered number six a little bit so it's already it minus fourteen so we're gonna look for it and what do we say five down so all right, so everything is now down five d b so what you want to do and this is the part if weaken go over one slide all right, all right back to slides rather one todo eso with leveling there a lot of different ways to do it one you can increase the level in the amplifier block uh here we had a wonderful mean o...

f ah a certain beer spokesman who's very interesting uh I don't always level my axe fix presets, but when I do my neighbors know when I get them right uh and leveling present leveling has to be done it volume shoutout to scott peterson, who has a wonderful video on doing this with an spl meter, which is a very exact way to do it. You need to do this at gig volume your ears really play tricks on you when you're listening to things quietly, not only does volumes sound different, but some people have actually done studies about how you here pitch different at low volumes were sighted high volume so that's not as important, but you're going to hear because of things called fletcher months and curves, which are the bane of every bedroom guitarist who would then goes out to play live your tone's air going to sound like crap if you dial them in and levelled them quietly, I like to dial in and very loud volumes. Um, I'm lucky to live somewhere where I could do that if you don't, uh, pick a saturday, I don't know email your neighbors or something you need to do this it's like ninety d b sounds pretty loud, but that's the way you need to do it so what we're gonna do? We just cut five tv from every scene we want to crank up and either in the amp lock or with a null filter and I'll show you what that is right now you just go to filter and you add one we're out of cpu so we can't do is let me just uh save this real quick I'm gonna hop up tio uh uh that one that's my rig yeah, I just got those blank thing at a filter block here and you see it's set to know it's not changing any tone at all he just bumped the level. This is great for a solo boost. Maybe you put the filter block on your mfc need you put in a busta like four d be there thats going transparently boost any sound so you can level them out via that um I prefer it to do it through the ant block if we switch back to the slide there for a second, you can also see some of the other options. One cool trick I like to do is on scenes that have a solo on them. I usually don't put the lei on my rhythm tones but I'll have delayed on my lead so I'll actually go into the delay block and just bumped the level on the delay a little bit uh so like you go to the solo and the delay itself is the block that's actually transparently raising the level of the whole thing um but the way that we're going to do it if you switch back to the editor is you just go to the output here and we're going toe adjust these main sliders a little bit so the best way to do it is just kind of I'm gonna have the volume on your guitar to do it but just chunk as loud as you can on the guitar is that supposed to sound good it's not supposed be musical and just kind of go like this all right that's the level for that one it was a little quieter we're gonna turn it up a little bit say like two three ish a little closer trying on this one ah was a little quieter too bump that up and uh let's try this one is that tremolo keep saving with trouble I was a little louder but here's the thing that ones are a rock tone I kind of want that one to be a little louder because when I hit that for rock song I want to pop a little harder than a blues song maybe uh you're welcome to adjust it down I would want it to be a little bit louder so now let's try the meat high game again. We're running into the cpu thing because the usb is plugged in and if you employ your usb you're not you get that so that was a little quieter high gain tends to trick you into thinking it's quieter even if it's actually not which is why scott peterson's method of using a actual decibel meter is good because high gain by virtue of all the distortion hits your ear in a more compressed fashion the transience aren't as high as they would be in a blue z clean tone so clean is going to sound louder even if it's actually not so if you are want to be you know really exact get a sound meter crank it up I'm a big fan of using your ears for everything I don't really worry about the numbers there was a comment on the fractal forum earlier uh saying that I wasn't calling out the numbers I was adjusting things too I don't really I don't care what the numbers say I just care if it sounds good that's kind of my whole philosophy um and I guess I could just say this kind of is ah blanket statement you know a lot of people are mixing in tones and trying to get things and I get questions all the time on youtube and on my website you know what do you have your drive set too what do you have your base set to uh I haven't said to what sounds good for me and it's going to be different for you I think a lot of people run into problems like you know I said I saw a picture of john petrucci is mark four and I set the mark for the expected after those settings and I don't sound like john petrucci it's like okay one you're not john petrucci, so you're not going to sound like jobs anyway, but number two he's set the amplifier to be where it needs to be to sound good for him and ironically enough, you might sound more like him changing the settings from where he has them because you have to compensate for the fact that your fingers are different from his, you know, numbers aren't everything really? What sounds good is what matters here, so, um so yeah, again with the with leveling so this sounds right to me, it doesn't really you no matter what the numbers are so it's very much just kind of I would even close your eyes, you know, and just rock this slide up and down until it sounds about the same volume and because we're plugged into the editor there's a gap between when we jump between these scenes there's not gonna be any gap when you unplug and so you can literally justus fast as you want, go stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp on the m f c and jump around wanted through if I want to do for five until they all sound the same while you're just going through the scenes uh and that will be how you levelled out so that's pretty much the leveling thing I want to show you guys on dh for those few who saw me play, it acts fast I played through a song using scenes and this is my one of my gig presets here used for playing with the wesley cook band and it's basically got five scenes and I'll just walk through the mall quick scene one eye's a fender twin sound why that's on let me uh actually we can switch off in a second here off the editor scream it so seen one is a fender twin sound seem to use a fender twin sound are based on a hundred wins with a trump rotary rather block leslie three is a uh based on a c thirty I it mean pop that up here that's why yeah let's do that do some tweaking on the fly here? Uh scene four? Well, that was an ugly note, but it's a cool tone. This is my kind of lead tone with a lot of delay on it in here. All the multi delay going on their multi delays when my favorite blocks it's kind of like river been delay in one and then seen five is just the without the so I'm going to just play through the song real quick and I'm actually just gonna close the editor so you guys can see we'll focus on the the m, f, c and you can see what all is changing if you look at the msc I'm gonna have to close the editor so there's no gap when I'm switching the scenes but um I was just gonna close it I'll come back that is true you just go like that to um but oh, so I guess we're on the yeah so there you go that's actually a good idea I never do that it's close it but because yeah um all right so now we've got a scene one scene to scene three scene four so I'm just gonna play through the song real quick and you guys can see um how this is working we've got enough time, right? Yeah, we're good all right, so this is ahh one of the bands like plan and basically this is a perfect illustration of why seems it so good? Because I had four separate presets that I built during the studio sessions and over the course of those sessions I developed these four very distinct sounds one actually is ah tone match of a c thirty that was in the studio and then I just kind of adjusted them and did what we just did copy and paste them all in one preset started adjusting levels um and uh so I could play through the song life so I'll just play this real quick here hopefully this won't be too loud I don't play for a couple bars in this song so I'm goingto like make sure the levels are good with people and world pools of time and a place crash shot out the wesley cook if you're watching the oceans get lonely she finds her way to me on I feel my life again thanks wait way awesome and chat rooms they're saying turn it up cooper yeah sorry it was just like a lot of um that's actually kind of quiet in here so I was kind of like rock and you know down yeah and sitting down to the next one will do standing up so yeah that's kind of ah just an illustration of how I use scenes live and really briefly but kind of out of time but just so you guys get a sense of just really how much is going on with those just five button presses there I'm going between two different amplifiers I'm going between four different cabinets I'm using an entire leslie cabinet routed in parallel with a guitar cabinet I'm using two different kinds of delay two different river bs to different from alos ah compressor and a drive pedal on and what else three cabs on in one or two cabs on in one scene one cab on and the other on dh then two cabs and a leslie on and a third so really a ton of stuff going on and with scenes I just super simple all right there at my feet and if it any time I want to add anything, anything that's in the scene are in the preset rather is accessible at any time, even if it's not on in that scene, you can kick it on. So, like, this is my rhythm, but if I want to turn the multi delay on, turn it on right there, even though it's not even on in that scene and, you know, in the scene that it is in on this is the based on the fender twin it's the double way, but if I'm in the scene with the one based on the c thirty still turn on the multi delay that I've added to that solo on the one that's the double first. So yeah, and, uh, one other thing I mentioned quickly is that we'll talk about this later during the modifier section. Um, this is my wife pedal, and if I step on it, it turns a while on but when it's not being used for what's actually adjusting the rate of the tremolo and the rate of the leslie independently, so a lot of power and scenes, and I hope you guys have kind of gotten a sense of how to access them.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Cooper Carter - Axe-Fx II Presets.zip
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Ratings and Reviews

Bernie a5cffc
 

A winning combination (Axe-FX II with Cooper Carter)... Just started using the Axe-FX II and this class just gave me the best startup for this amazing magic box. Cooper Carter did an amazing job at getting the basic covered and I feel this course is worth every penny. Now, I'm hoping for an advanced course hat will cover the more advanced topic for both the Axe-FX II and MFC-101. There is so much to learn here and an advanced course is the next step. i.e. expression pedals config in various setup, using Mission SP-1, Sp-2, EP-1, re-amping setup, creating IR. This course is at the top of the best training I had recently. CC is an excellent musician and he knows the Axe-FX II inside/out, the end result is having a high level musical training of this magical box. Love the interaction of web/live audiences and real time explanation with demo, tips/tricks. Thank you Cooper Carter and Creative Lab for making this course, I will view this one again for sure. Don't stop here, time to start working on the follow-up, more advanced course. It will be a hit for sure...

a Creativelive Student
 

Great class! Cooper is a great inspiration, a great guitarist and a great teacher! Never heard of him before this class, but he really nailed some tips and tricks in the Axe FX! I want more classes with him or/and other with same skills regarding the axe fx! Again; really inspiring! Also liked the guy next to him asking web questions! The production was great to! Good quality! I wish there were more camera angels the viewer should be able to choose from, like the screen, the MFC and the display of the Axe… not very important, but could be useful in some sequences… anyway… Thank you!

a Creativelive Student
 

I just finished session #1 on setting up clean tone. I built the same preset while following along with the tutorial and was extremely pleased with the end result. I got sidetracked a few times because I was enjoying playing with the new preset and ended up taking an hour and a half to get through the lesson. Previously, I always seemed to find an existing preset and tweaked it until I got close to what I was looking for. I never seemed to develop the ability to scratch build my presets and as a result, my progress in learning the Axe FX was a bit stagnant. These tutorials have rekindled my interest in taking this box to the next level. I'm confident now that I'll be able to become much more proficient at squeezing out the sounds I'm looking for. Like many others, I've been hoping someone with Cooper's expertise would take the time and effort to offer up these types of tutorials online. Cooper is an excellent instructor. The training is well paced and perfectly suited for my level of ability. Well worth the price of admission! Thank you.

Student Work

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