Levels
Input trim, output level and preset level do three different jobs on the Axe-Fx II. Using one for another's job is where rigs get confusing.
Fractal give you more level controls than any other modeller, and put meters on all of them. That is a good thing once you know which control does what, and bewildering before. There are really only three jobs: get the guitar into the converter cleanly, get the output to match what you plugged into, and make your presets the same loudness as each other. They are separate jobs, and doing one with the other's control is where rigs go wrong.
Fractal Audio: Axe-Fx II product and support pagesInput trim is not a gain control
The single most misunderstood control on the platform. Input trim is not a gain control and does not change your tone. As you lower the trim into the converter, the output of the converter is raised by the same amount — so what reaches the amp models, and what you hear, stays exactly the same. It is there to optimise signal-to-noise, not to push the front end. If you want more gain, that is the Amp block's Drive.
- Step 1
Set the input trim once and forget it
Input levels are set with the soft-knobs on the INPUT page of the I/O menu. Play hard and adjust until your hot signals tickle the red LEDs on the front-panel INPUT meters — the red LED lights at −6 dB, which is below clipping. Some sources will never get there, and that is fine. The front instrument jack parallels the rear inputs for a better noise floor.
- Step 2
Then match the outputs to what you plugged into
The two front-panel knobs control the two rear-panel output pairs independently. The OUT 1 knob moves the XLR jacks, the 1/4" jacks and the headphone jack together. If what you are plugged into is clipping, turn these down — but note that at minimum they reduce volume without necessarily reaching silence.
- Step 3
Unity gain is the knobs at maximum
Set the Output Level knobs to maximum and route shunts from input to output and you get out exactly what you put in. This matters when the unit lives in a tube amp's loop; if it does not, unity is probably not something you need to think about.
If the clip LEDs light, the trim is not the problem — the clipping is happening in the digital domain, and it is usually a preset whose effects have added a lot of gain. Bring down one or more block outputs, starting with the Amp block's Output Level, or the main GAIN slider on the preset's output mixer. To pull every preset down at once, use the GAIN slider on the OUT1 or OUT2 graphic equaliser. A BOOST/PAD setting pushed away from 0 dB can also cause it.
Making your presets the same loudness
This is the third job, and the one that decides whether a set is playable. It has nothing to do with the two controls above — those are set once and left alone.
Use the Amp block's Output Level first
When a preset is louder or quieter than its neighbours, the Amp block's Output Level is where the manual points you first. It is also the control it names when a preset is hot enough to clip.
Then the preset's output mixer
Each preset has an output mixer with a main GAIN slider. That moves the whole preset at once, which is the right tool when the balance inside the preset is already correct and the preset as a whole simply sits too high or too low.
And there is a global fallback
If a lot of presets clip and you do not want to edit them one at a time, the GAIN slider on the OUT1 or OUT2 graphic equaliser pulls everything down at once. It is a blunt instrument, but it is the only control here that reaches every preset.
Level on the system you will play through
Our ears hear tonal balance differently at different volumes, and different speakers change the picture again. Two sounds that match in a quiet room can be badly mismatched at gig volume or in a mix. Set levels loud, on the rig you will actually use, and expect to adjust on someone else's.
Levels are half of it. The other half is the cab block — on into anything full-range, off into anything that ends in a real guitar speaker.