Impossible to get decent sound with BIASFX/BiasAMP2
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So I have been using BiasAMP for about half a year, and I seriously can not get a any decent tone, no matter what I try. I have upgraded my studio monitors, to a pair of very good ones, but still it sounds terrible. It sounds as if I am playing through a tiny pocket radio, full volume.
- The volume is way low
- The quality of the sound is terrible.
- No matter what overdrive pedal I test, it just becomes full satanic gain. I want to use a tube screamer for a tube screamer sound, not for sounding like I am the son of satan.
To me, it sounds like the people who made the software, never actually played guitar through a good tube amplifier. I mean, isn't the hole point of using BiasFX, with a pair of good studio monitors, to replicate that sound? It's nowhere near!
AND yes, my monitors sound great with everything else.
Sorry for sounding like I have given up, but it is the truth.. Help?
I use GarageBand VST, but have tried standalone before. Audio interface Scarlett 2i2 2nd gen. I can upgrade, if the audio interface is to blame. However, from what I have read, it should be 100% possible to get a good sound of a Scarlett.
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Weird, I can't quite get enough gain out of this and much of the stuff sounds cleaner than it should. For mixing though, I get sounds that I absolutely love
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@pipelineaudio I mostly use BiasFX, as I like the pedals. Do you use BiasAMP or biasfx?
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Sometimes it's just a plug, a cable or an empty battery that can cause problems like these!
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At work I mostly use BiasFX. But I use amp to bake impulses into the amps then load them in bias FX
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I used Bias fx this morning to great effect. Full range of tones from clean to crunch to brutal. All with the same amp model someone loaded into Bias amp 2 tone cloud inside Bias fx using just the tube screamer and the digital reverb. I was actually impressed with how well the app performed in volume knob rolloff and picking dynamics. I would keep playing around with it if I were you. Sure some of the amp models might not sound perfect to what you’re used to but there are definitely great tones to be had with some slight fiddling
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This is with the factory clean preset. Sounds terrible if you ask me
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@arntzn said in Impossible to get decent sound with BIASFX/BiasAMP2:
This is with the factory clean preset. Sounds terrible if you ask me
You're basing this on the sounds of "factory" presets? you realize there is a way too many factors involved in getting close to a sound you are used to with this stuff and that in no way can one expect factory presets to sound the way you want out of the box (I've never found any apps factory presets to be spot on for me).
Like what guitar, pickups, interface, speakers, using the Global Settings EQ Compensation or not etc. and more
It took me months to start finding ways to tweak it to my taste and I have to say that Bias out of a mix sounds funny a lot of the times especially with the crunchier tones. The app tends to play more like an actual "instrument" for me then an amp sim app. Even now there are days I like it and days I'm just not sure (I find that with anything in audio gear and apps though)
That clean sound you sampled was too harsh and driven for me (guessing maybe you felt the same) and I have no Idea if it was only Bias or in Bias FX - I find that I can dial in what I want most times inside Bias and work there first before considering Bias FX - in BFX things can change quite a bit since there is a whole new set of variables going on. I do also find that the clean sounds especially on the Low End are very difficult at times to get just right. I do not use the Global EQ Comp (but have tried)
Maybe you could tell us about your whole setup and also more importantly what kind of tones you are after then we might be able to help you in that direction. Right now I would not know what to help you with.
I've built a few tube amps in my time and I tend to be pretty demanding when it comes to this stuff so I will say that Bias is not 100% but it does offer something that other apps don't and gets me closer than most others. It's a tool I had to learn to use and it took a long time, but what else is there to do with our time?
cheers
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What I might add to this for instance is - my guitar is unique in a lot of ways, the neck woods I chose specifically for certain tone, stainless steel jumbos for a certain feel, a not typical tone capacitor from my stash on a fender TBX tone control wired as a master - a Jeff Beck Neck PU in the bridge position to make it more even with my Kinman PU's a Soapbar in center and '62 strat neck position. I also play with the tone rolled all the way down and up a tad from there for a darker tone that I can use the tone as a boost to cut through a mix. so if I share my presets with people and they know none of this and since I don't use the global eq comp they would need to know that too in order to hear what I hear in my room. (I also use the megasitch that does not have the center PU by itself - 1=B 2=B+C 3=B+N 4=C+N 5=N - Bridge/Center/Neck)
It's really not so easy to share "decent" sounding presets when there is so many variables and let's face it this is all subjective.
That tone sample you uploaded may have sounded harsh to me for a clean'ish tone out of a mix but in the mix it could lay perfectly. So much to consider but you have valid questions in this area.
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@arntzn Sounds over modulated to me. Did you try reducing gain? Which factory preset did you post?
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@arntzn Sometimes it just depends the signal chain going in.. Hardware used to finally get to the BIAS Amp 2, and then will take a little bit of tweaking to get a tone you like by itself and then a tone decent tone within a Mix.
Sometimes the input on the interfaces can be a little hot, sometimes a little low, play with the pads and hear the difference. In my case, I accidentally hit one of the pads on the interface, and it sounded horrible, was wondering what happened.
Check the input gain, the pads, and whatever preamp you may or may not be using, makes a huge difference. If you cannot get a decent tone with a downloaded patch that sounds good to others or yourself, then there is certainly an issue somewhere along the signal chain.
Also the EQ section plays a big factor when you run into a real cab verses running into a simulated cab. Need to dial out some of the harshness, cause in reality, all the amount of configurations going on, it is easy to get a crappy tone, but equally to get a really great tone.
Seems like the hardware you are using is good, just need to start with the source and dial in a decent spot where there is not to much gain or not enough. When you get a decent spot on the interface then move onto the software, and use an EQ to cut highs and unwanted lows.
Cheers
Mike