# AC-30s do rock too, eh?



## Guest (Sep 8, 2015)

Playing around with the new "Quantum" beta from Fractal today. AC-30s are cool amps. They do a lot more than chimey clean stuff. Bob Rock is famous for using them as beds for rock sounds throughout the 90s. The AC-30 model in the Axe-Fx breaks up in this creamy good way when you push it.

[soundcloud]https://soundcloud.com/iaresee/quantum-creamy-ac-30[/soundcloud]

I should have done some OLP, Naveed or something, but you go with what you know best some times.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

That sounded really really good. I think it was close but doesn't quite NAIL good AC30 tones I like - yours was creamier, to use a version of your description, a little less cut than I would prefer to hear if it were trying to model it bang on.

Rock - I have read that the first Foo Fighters album is entirely AC30 (with pedals, specifically a RAT), and that several subsequent FF albums have featured AC30s to one extent or another. Rock enough for me


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## Stratin2traynor (Sep 27, 2006)

Great tone. That sounded awesome.

I've heard the same about the Foo Fighters. AC30s for cleans and Mesa Boogies for dirt.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

I'm asking this question to try and improve my understanding of stuff...so please be kind...

Here is my question ..... how does the AC30 amp effect the tone in this recording that is different then any other decent amp.?

My theory is...if you desire an overdrive tone then the same effects chain and the same guitar playing thru 
any decent amp will sound exactly the same...

Can you explain why you don't think that's correct?

G.


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## keto (May 23, 2006)

GTmaker said:


> I'm asking this question to try and improve my understanding of stuff...so please be kind...
> 
> Here is my question ..... how does the AC30 amp effect the tone in this recording that is different then any other decent amp.?
> 
> ...


When you listen to the clip, you hear that almost octave-ish sound up in the top end? That, or something close to it, is what an AC30 does when overdriven. It's a unique sound.


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## Guest (Sep 8, 2015)

GTmaker said:


> Here is my question ..... how does the AC30 amp effect the tone in this recording that is different then any other decent amp.?
> 
> My theory is...if you desire an overdrive tone then the same effects chain and the same guitar playing thru
> any decent amp will sound exactly the same...
> ...


It's a good question and one worth asking!

The short answer is: shades of grey. You can (and because of personal biases likely will) dial in different amps to have similar frequency content. But clipping (and therefore harmonic content) is a function of circuit topology and this will always give you different overtone responses and compression curves.

It's not as noticeable until you have two amps side by side. I wish I'd captured a re-amp track for this take. I could have shown you the differences.

The AC-30, for example, clips a lot softer than a modern amp. There's a lot less preamp clipping, more transformer saturation and power tube clipping, in a tone like this. It also gets extremely tubby when you send up the input gain like this. The bass dial on this clip was cranked hard counter-clockwise.

But yea, we all have our biases and when we sit down at amps we tend to dial in similar amounts of bass, middle and treble content because we have a bias towards what we think sounds good. You've really got to consciously work to remember that; so you explore the outer reaches of different amp's capabilities.

Clearly I have a bias for darker sounds. Keto, as mentioned above, likes more high frequency content. We like what we like.


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

Ian: that sounded great. Problem is to get that tone with a live AC-30, your ears begin to hemorrhage.


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## Guest (Sep 8, 2015)

Swervin55 said:


> Ian: that sounded great. Problem is to get that tone with a live AC-30, your ears begin to hemorrhage.


Ha! Yup! Ear bleed levels here in the analog equivalent.


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

iaresee said:


> It's a good question and one worth asking!
> The short answer is: shades of grey. You can (and because of personal biases likely will) dial in different amps to have similar frequency content. But clipping (and therefore harmonic content) is a function of circuit topology and this will always give you different overtone responses and compression curves.
> It's not as noticeable until you have two amps side by side. I wish I'd captured a re-amp track for this take. I could have shown you the differences.
> The AC-30, for example, clips a lot softer than a modern amp. There's a lot less preamp clipping, more transformer saturation and power tube clipping, in a tone like this. It also gets extremely tubby when you send up the input gain like this. The bass dial on this clip was cranked hard counter-clockwise.
> ...


I would of thought that the tone of the clip came mostly from the "Quantum" beta and that the AC30 was just reproducing that sound.
If that's the case, then any decent amp could reproduce the same sound.

Now I need to ask....could the AC30 produce the same tone as in the clip without the "Quantum" beta preamp.?

G.


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## Guest (Sep 8, 2015)

GTmaker said:


> I would of thought that the tone of the clip came mostly from the "Quantum" beta and that the AC30 was just reproducing that sound.
> If that's the case, then any decent amp could reproduce the same sound.


All of this noise came from the Axe-Fx II -- the AC-30 is the modeled version of it in the firmware. Everything was recorded direct in to GarageBand and then exported to disk with no post-processing. What you're hearing is 100% the Axe-Fx II's latest beta firmware release (see this for more details).


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

Ian, these demos of yours always make me GAS pretty hard for a Fractal unit. 

I'm seriously debating the FX8. I'd like to go whole-hog and grab a II, but I just don't have the coin handy unless I liquidate my gear, and I'm leery to do that until I've determined whether digital is how I wanna go. The FX8 seems like a reasonable way for me to start, at least.


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## Guest (Sep 8, 2015)

hollowbody said:


> Ian, these demos of yours always make me GAS pretty hard for a Fractal unit.
> 
> I'm seriously debating the FX8. I'd like to go whole-hog and grab a II, but I just don't have the coin handy unless I liquidate my gear, and I'm leery to do that until I've determined whether digital is how I wanna go. The FX8 seems like a reasonable way for me to start, at least.


My advice if you're thinking of an FX8? Wait. The AX8 is coming and it's essentially an FX8 crossed with an AxeFx II. Best of both worlds. I can't say anything else.

And yea, never sell gear.


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## hollowbody (Jan 15, 2008)

iaresee said:


> My advice if you're thinking of an FX8? Wait. The AX8 is coming and it's essentially an FX8 crossed with an AxeFx II. Best of both worlds. I can't say anything else.
> 
> And yea, never sell gear.


Ooooooh! Now that's something that could be massively interesting to me!


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## GTmaker (Apr 24, 2006)

iaresee said:


> All of this noise came from the Axe-Fx II -- the AC-30 is the modeled version of it in the firmware. Everything was recorded direct in to GarageBand and then exported to disk with no post-processing. What you're hearing is 100% the Axe-Fx II's latest beta firmware release (see this for more details).


From your opening post I actualy thought you where talking about a real AC30 amplifier...thats my fault..sorry about that.

G.


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## blam (Feb 18, 2011)

that sounds pretty good, especially for a modeler. I have to agree with keto, its close but not quite a full on AC30 tone.

Grohl ran an AC30 and Mesas for a while, somewhat recently he switched to fender tone master for cleans and a PT-100 for dirt. the lead guitarist chris shiflet ran AC30HWs as well. I think he runs friedman now.


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2015)

blam said:


> that sounds pretty good, especially for a modeler. I have to agree with keto, its close but not quite a full on AC30 tone.


A matter of where the dials are set. Personal preference.


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## exhausted (Feb 10, 2006)

General impressions of the firmware?

I'm still on 18. I didn't like what 19 did to my presets.


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## Guest (Sep 10, 2015)

exhausted said:


> General impressions of the firmware?
> 
> I'm still on 18. I didn't like what 19 did to my presets.


Hmm. You might not like it then. Here's what I said on the TGP thread about it:



> So I re-amped a few recent clips when I first got my hands on the firmware. On busy passages, things that were full volume, there was little to no difference that I could perceive and measurements showed changes to be minute for the amps and tones I was using. On passages where there were less notes, things held longer, and my guitar volume rolled back -- passages with a greater dynamic range -- the signal spikes and long tails on the signals showed a marked difference, both measured and heard.
> 
> Took it out to rehearsal the next night and, loud with the band, something felt very different. Much more different than the re-amping had me expecting. I'm trying to work out why the reamps weren't as startling as it was in the room and my theory is that, live, I was feeling the dynamic response changes and adjusting my playing to them in real time. Something a re-amp can't do, of course. Will explore more in the coming days and nights.
> 
> I'm enjoying it. That's, really, all that matters to me.


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