BIAS FX 2 sound compared to Bias FX
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Having upgraded to FX 2, I tried using some of my favourite high gain presets I had downloaded to FX. Somehow they didn't sound as satisfying as in Bias FX.
So, I went on with Adobe Audition to record some riffs using the exact same preset on both versions (FX and FX2) and each version assigned to a track of its own. And there was it: presets like Marty's Lead or LC Country Tone (low gain) sound more 'muddy', less edgy, less crisp.
I made sure that both versions had the same signal chain, same settings in each component and same EQ. FX2 sounded with lower output but most importantly for me, it has lost this 'in your face' feeling, sounding more distant, less vibrant.
It's an easy experiment for everyone to conduct. So here's the question: is this by design? Did I miss something regarding FX2 settings? Has anyone else noticed it?
Best regards
Manos -
I believe there will always be differences in new versions, because of all that has changed under the hood. I think one should look at it as another (although similar) software. I wouldn't expect not to have to modify presets.
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@john said in BIAS FX 2 sound compared to Bias FX:
I wouldn't expect not to have to modify presets.
If it's just a matter of tweaking the old presets, I'm good with that. Thing is I'm not that experienced so I prefer to use existing good sounding presets rather than spending hours trying to create a decent high gain or clean preset. I've limited time and I'd rather allocate it to guitar studying and playing rather messing with any software endless hours trying to make it sound good. Before posting my original questions, I'd tried changing the cab and mic placement but it only got worse.
Probably I'm a noob for saying this but some tips or a tutorial on how to add certain attributes to clean or high gains sounds would be handy.
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According to PGs announcement for BFX2 it features a new sound engine, which means, by design, it is not going to sound the same. Hopefully, once you redial your presets they should sound even better and behave more like a real amp. I assume that is the goal anyway. ;)
For the most part, I have found that my personal presets have translated very well. Only a couple of my go to presets required major work. Some of those were built with Bias Amp 2 amps and have been updated with the most recent rev of FX at the time of uploading.
Tone cloud is always a crap shoot and given that many old presets use Bias 1 amps or were created with versions of Bias FX 1 that are many patches/releases old; there is going to be a lot of junk on there. I would like to see some way to limit the age of the stuff I see in some way on TC, TBH (@Joe-Kuo @Felix @mike) maybe that would help.
The top presets are pretty much written in stone because they are based on popularity and people only look at stuff with a high hit count to try to avoid the junk. Ironically, this makes much of the very highly rated and most visibile presets very old.
I also find volume/levels, as always, is a huge problem for Bias FX presets on TC. I wish there was some sane way to control levels... was disappointed there was no solution for that in 2.
Anyway, FWIW, I consider this ongoing development and improvement to be a good thing and the cost of maintaining my presets is not too big a price to pay. FWIW, I have been a long time Fractal user too and the AxeFx units are constantly changing in such a way that the presets constantly need updating. I like the fact that PG does regularly do updated releases but they are usually not so wild they require you to redo every preset.
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@elric said in BIAS FX 2 sound compared to Bias FX:
based on popularity and people only look at stuff with a high hit count to try to avoid the junk
Yes, that's what I did when I was digging for good high gain presets. Trying to make the old presets (dated back to 2016) sound at least as good as in FX, will be (I'm afraid) more tiresome than going for new preset hunting but disregarding this time their popularity.
Off topic but I think relates to what was mentioned about cleaning up TC, many users used Tonecloud as their personal preset backup and now each might appear more than 10+ times. I'd like to see how admins are going to clean up the mess - or if they'll attempt to.
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@manosg80 said in BIAS FX 2 sound compared to Bias FX:
@elric said in BIAS FX 2 sound compared to Bias FX:
based on popularity and people only look at stuff with a high hit count to try to avoid the junk
Yes, that's what I did when I was digging for good high gain presets. Trying to make the old presets (dated back to 2016) sound at least as good as in FX, will be (I'm afraid) more tiresome than going for new preset hunting but disregarding this time their popularity.
Off topic but I think relates to what was mentioned about cleaning up TC, many users used Tonecloud as their personal preset backup and now each might appear more than 10+ times. I'd like to see how admins are going to clean up the mess - or if they'll attempt to.
Yes, this is how I ‘converted’ my old presets, they were on Tone cloud and you are totally right, a good number of them were just the same or very slightly adjusted versions of stuff others had posted.
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I have been using for years Bias FX and its modeling and DSP engine is a top good. For a comparison I tried Helix a couple of years ago but Helix’s 'downstairs' is very muddy which bothers many modelers.
I just upgraded from Bias FX to Bias FX2 and I don't get good sound at all.
The 'downstairs' is muddy like so many other modeling softwares. This is just my personal opinion but the direction is wrong. Muddy is not part of the guitar sound.Expectations were really high because BiasFX is excellent.