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1 INTRODUCTION
Imagine a rack system like those used by many guitar players over the past decades. In this system, various
amps, pedals, and rack units are connected through a central switching system, which places components in or
out of the signal path at will. Some componenets in a rig like this have their own settings that the switcher can
control remotely—like the channels on an amp, or the different settings of a delay. Using the switcher, you set up
different combinations gear and settings and then save a preset: Clean, Rhythm, Lead, etc. (Yes, this old rig does
all this and weighs just a few hundred pounds!)
A single Axe-Fx III preset is comparable to an entire rig. Axe-Fx Scenes, are an innovation something like a
switching system. A Scene stores whether each block is engaged or bypassed, and which of up to four “channels”
it should be on. A Channel is like a preset within a block; each block has up to four channels, and every channel
its own fully independent settings. For example, Channel A of a Drive block might be a “clean boost”, B could be a
“screamer” , C a distortion, and D a fuzz. So, with channels, you get four different sounds from just one block! By
switching blocks and channels for you, Scenes offer a way to select different sounds without changing presets.
Scenes offer many advantages. First, they eliminate “tap dancing” and make complex sound changes easy. Also,
scene changes are fast and can even be perfectly seamless. Scenes also make it easy to set up delay and reverb
for “spillover” so tails can ring out across changes. Scenes even have their own names, which is especially helpful
as you step through them.
INTRO TO SCENES AND CHANNELS
IN 1
CMP
1
A
DRV
1
A
AMP
1
A
CAB
1
A
CHO
1
A
DLY
1
A
OUT 1
Here is our preset. The Input 1 block feeds a Compressor followed by a Drive, then into an Amp and Cab,
followed by Chorus and a little Delay, ending up at the Output 1 block.
SCENE 1 – “Clean”: For scene 1, the Drive and Delay blocks are bypassed. We dial in the Compressor, Amp,
Cab, and Chorus for a classic clean tone. Notice that the amp says “1A”. This means we are using Amp 1, set
to channel A. Let’s imagine it as the “ODS-100 Clean” model. We name the scene “Clean”.
SCENE 2 – “Crunch”: To create scene 2, we bypass the Compressor, Chorus and Delay and engage the Drive.
The Amp block is changed from channel A to channel B, which we dial in as a “Euro Blue” crunch model.
Remember, each channel has a totally independent set of settings, so every amp parameter exactly as we wish
for this scene: Drive, Treble, Mid, Bass, and many, many more. We then dial in Channel “A” of the drive block
with a good “screamer” sound by selecting the “TS808 OD” type. Let’s name this scene “Crunch”.
SCENE 3 – “Lead”: Here’s our soaring lead. The Chorus is bypassed. We’ve changed the compressor to
Channel “B” and dialed it in for sustain. The amp is the same as the “Crunch” scene but Drive changes to “B”,
which we’ll make a “Fat Rat”. The Delay is on channel “B” dialed in with higher mix and feedback. We name the
scene “Lead”.
Learn more in
DRV
1
A
DLY
1
A
CMP
1
A
CHO
1
A
DLY
1
A
CHO
1
A
SCENES AND CHANNELS: A VISUAL EXAMPLE
