I am so frustrated....

windsongstudios

windsongstudios

Member
I have had my Axe FX 2 for over a month now and no matter what I do I cannot use any of my overdrive pedals in front of the Axe and achieve any usable sounds. I bought the Axe to record direct like I did with my Eleven Rack while still using my pedals to push the front end, just like you would do with an amp. I have read threads on here about clipping, I have made adjustments to the input based on what guitars and pedals I am using and still just end up with a mushy over saturated fuzzy mess. My pedals and cables are top shelf and sound great with my real amps as well as other modelers. I bought the Axe knowing it had the best amp like characteristics of any unit on the market and now I feel like I am going to be forced to use only the internal overdrives that come built into the unit, which oddly enough sound good. I would just like to use some of the pedals that are my favs that the Axe does not have models of (Rockbox, Klon, Timmy etc.) Any advice would mean the world to me.

Thanks.
 
I should mention I am already using the FX loop to run my Strymon Timeline and El Cap delays. I would think that I should be able to use an overdrive pedal right into the front of the Axe. I mean if it works on the Eleven Rack the Axe should support it even better since it is a superior unit. Someone please weigh in on this. I really dont want to spend more hours tonight trying to find a solution...it is getting very very old.
 
What guitar? What are your input settings? What is your amp trim at? Have you tried it in the loop (I have read your post above) to hear that?
 
I think a lot of folks will weigh in on this over the next few days (not too many on a Friday night, though :) ). Yours is the first post I've seen from someone who wasn't happy with the results he got feeding a real overdrive pedal into the Axe's input. I've never tried it myself, because the drive models in the Axe are at least as good as anything I've got, so a "real" pedal would just be extra complexity for me.

If all you're getting is a mushy mess, you may have too much gain dialed in, or you may have another effect (compressor?) between your drive pedal and the amp block that's causing you problems.
 
Posting your patch probably will be a good idea. How does it sound with your pedals if your patch only has the amp? Start there because maybe other effects are causing you problems.
 
dsl said:
I get the best results using drive pedals into the clean (low gain) amps.
Click to expand...

What he said :)

Try setting your pedals up with the shiver clean amp and they may translate to other amps. Try not to clip the input too much and use the front jack on the Axe. Any high gain amp will sound like doo doo if overdriven so keep the gain low on your pedals and use the pedal level to set the input to just clip the axe. I set my axe input level to 69%. My Hartman SFZ fuzz only sounds good with the gain cranked in front of a clean amp. I have to lower the gain and raise it's level to use it as an overdrive for that woolly sound on high gain amps ... hope that helps.

Oh and you can try different input impedances to see if that helps.
 
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There was a way to have two loops on the Ultra, not sure if it's possible on the II.
 
4 days later.... OP hasn't been back or answered any questions.

Hard to help those that don't make it a two (or more) way conversation.
 
I cannot understand with the wealth of drive block options in the Axe, why would you want to stick an actual pedal in the mix? Isn't that why you bought the Axe to begin with?
 
hussamd said:
I cannot understand with the wealth of drive block options in the Axe, why would you want to stick an actual pedal in the mix? Isn't that why you bought the Axe to begin with?
Click to expand...

He already said it's because he wants to use his favorite pedals and the Axe doesn't model them. I'd love to see a faithfully modeled Tim, Timmy or Klon, and compared to the number of amps, I wouldn't quite call it a "wealth" of drive pedals. :geek
 
Before I got a midi switch I was using overdrive pedals in front of the Axe just like a regular amp and it sounded great. I was using the pedals to add dirt to clean amps (not squeaky clean but lightly dirty amps). I used the Fulltone OCD, Analogman King of Tone and various Tubescreamer clones. I got great results. Now that I can do switching within the Axe (trivial to do but I'm slow with technology) I've sold the pedals.
 
FWIW... I've got an old MIJ TS10 in my rack (as far as the Overdrive department goes) that I can switch in and out in front of the Axe (main front guitar input 1) and I just compared it to the stock Axe TS808 sim. apart from some slight differences at the same settings (as to be expected) it sounds and acts pretty much the same as the Axe sim does. no weird behaviour or anything.
I hate to say that your problem lies somewhere else, but I believe it does. ever checked out Dweezil Zappa's rig ? plenty of drive pedals in front of the Axe...
 
windsongstudios said:
...using my pedals to push the front end, just like you would do with an amp...
Click to expand...

I don't think that this is possible with external drives (Distortion/OD/Boost) because the input of the Axe-FX is set up
for "unity-gain" (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

The best way to use pedals is to keep the output of the pedal low & use the pedal for "flavor" rather than "push".
 
dsl said:
I don't think that this is possible with external drives (Distortion/OD/Boost) because the input of the Axe-FX is set up
for "unity-gain" (someone correct me if I'm wrong).

The best way to use pedals is to keep the output of the pedal low & use the pedal for "flavor" rather than "push".
Click to expand...

My understanding of unity gain is like that:
Let's say you would use your guitar without any boosters and turn the input volume at 50% to hit the converters at 100%.
Lets say 50% input would mean an amplification about 20db before the converters. Unity gain means that once the converters are passed the gain gets reduced again by the same amount, here 20db (at that point it's already a datastream and not an analogue signal, no matter, it get's lowered there).
When you set input at 25% instead the amplification before the converters is only 10db and after the converters it's -10 db.
The input knob just says how big the converters see the signal, but the amplitude of the signal doesn't get changed at all. What comes in cones in. A loud signal at the input is 'loud' in the digital path, a weak signal is 'weak'.
When you use a booster you might set the input to 0, wich means that you hit the converters at 100% and the loud signal had no extra amplification from the axe-fx before it's converters and doesn't need to get lowered after the converters, so you have a loud signal inside.
Boosting the signal works, as long as you are not too loud for the converters.

At the other side, to simulate a louder signal at the amp blocks input, you could just turn up amp trim, it's there for that.
 
my tube screamer sounds fine on a bogner hi gain patch, although it doesn't boost level like it does going into an amp as much as it would normally....adds a little sizzle.....haven't tried it on any other patches and the only reason i am using is no mfc yet for switching sounds, so i am using that, a bad horsie, and whammy dt in front for now
 
On a high gain sound a booster in front should not affect volume usually, only clean or low gain sounds should get louder when boostet before the input.
 
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