Mark Holcomb on Gain Settings with Fractal Audio Axe FXII | Reverb Interview

For a band like Periphery, the varying degrees of distortion and gain used is pivotal in achieving the intricate and concise double guitar playing they are famous for. Mark Holcomb sat down and demonstrated the different degrees of gain and tone shaping he does with his AxeFX and what their different applications are within Periphery's sound.

[HauntedShoresDC]

Thanks for having me yet again, Reverb. Say... can I just live in your offices? xoxo

[vox]

I applaud anyone who has the patience to dial through all of those settings and the programming involved. I’m also impressed that with that much gain and three guitarists everything sits so well in their mixes, I’ve no doubt that any one of them could make a career just being an engineer and producer; simply fabulous attention to detail and great “ears”.

[-salley]

Mark is seriously my favorite riff writer ever

[caseylockwood]

These guys are modern music pioneers. Their creativity knows no bounds. Love watching this dude and Misha give insight into their creative process.

[UroboricNate]

Man there are some KILLER tones in this vid, i love how dry and tight the gain tones are, yet very saturated at the same time.

[NCRE]

All new materials, sentient glow two of my favorite riffs of all time ❤🔥

[BNA_Est.]

3:25 🗣LEFT IN THE ARMS OF THE LIVING I SHAKE, LEFT IN THE 🎶🎶🎶
🎤😫 #P4

[KRayxKodessA]

I'd love it if Mark uploaded his current patches to the Fractal Axechange site. I love being able to see what someone was thinking when programming their sounds.

[jacobjung]

I've heard Mark play that riff at 3:25 in a few different videos. Hopefully it's becoming a Periphery song

[DiegoVT]

The clean part is just superb. Mark is an amazing player!

[EdSeith]

Great stuff, but this really should be classified more as "gate staging" than gain staging. I've always understood "gain staging" to be more about using gain at different stages of the signal path to a cumulative end - a distortion pedal into a dirty channel on an amp, and cranking the power amp section - that's three stages of gain that make up the overall gain in the tone proper.

Great lesson in what a Fractal can do with gates and midi control (I may implement something like that on my Fractal, albeit without the automation), but it's really not "gain" that this video was about. As always, love watching and listening to Mark discuss his music and his setup. Thanks, Mark!

[MathRTD]

3:23 Finally he played it on another video

[TheSrishanbhattarai]

2:32 All New Materials
3:03 Luck as a constant
3:23 Satellites

[scoobaseth]

He played that clean riff from his delay pedal demo again :D

[edloomingly]

Cleans from my favourite periphery song!! Frikkin awesome

[michaelsnyder]

That dissonant chord at 1:08. I must know what it is. And also is this stop c?

[CortexWorship]

I see Misha posting cab packs and presets etc.... but I am constantly waiting (dying inside!) to get my hands on Marks presets! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE

[jacques_laconic]

Surreal to see him playing the Satellites riff 4 years ago

[alex]

The riff at 4:10 - is that from a Periphery song?

[StreetsOfVancouverChannel]

Technically, the Protools session that accompanies them 'live' all the time is another member of the band from the sound of it... ;)