Who else never really uses the drive block(s)?

Tremonti said:
So many amps and have 2 amp blocks with 4 channels means 8 amps available in one patch. With an unreal amount of amps that Cliff has blessed us with, I typically have to try and place a drive block in, just to do it sometimes. Just for the hell of it. So many parameters to goose anything with amps, that drives just don't make it to the table for me personally. Not saying to rid the unit of them, just my perspective and opinion. Great for many things and people.
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Right. Mostly never. Only if I’m covering somebody who used a FF, Big Muff, or Foxx Tone. Otherwise, it’s all in the amp block. Does pushing the input parameter count in the amp block? I do that, when I want the amp to to have that characteristic.
 
Boosts and fuzz mostly. It is easier for me to use the drives to match a couple of pedals I really love. 1000 way to skin a parakeet.
 
As others have mentioned, I’ll use the SDD preamp for the U2 sounds but in general I just use the amp gain on Boogie and Marshall sounds to save CPU on the FM3. I do have a Strymon Sunset in front of the FM3 but I don’t really find myself using it that much.
 
When I first bought my Dual Rectifier, I almost returned it because it was all loose and farty. Then I put a TS9 in front of it and my jaw dropped, it gave me THE sound. Same with the Recto models in the Fractal, adding a TS9 really tightens them up and fuzzes the gain a bit in all the right places.
 
GreatGreen said:
I don't really use the Drive Block with the amp models because the models give you so much control over the input stage with all kinds of filtering and leveling options that drive pedals aren't really needed, but I use the Drive Block a lot when I put real amps into reactive loads through the Axe 3's loops. The SD-1 and RATs are particularly great.

Here's two clips, one with and one without Fractal's RAT pedal running into a Bogner Helios 100. I really dig the sound and feel of the pedal and what it does for pretty much any high gain amp I put it through.

Bogner Helios 100 -> Suhr RL (no boost):


FAS RAT + real Bogner Helios 100 -> Suhr RL:
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Nuno Bettencourt fan, huh?!:D
 
Matthew Shoquist said:
Nuno Bettencourt fan, huh?!:D
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You know, I could take or leave Extreme but I've always loved Nuno's sound and playing. Years after I first heard the guy, a buddy who toured with him told me "dude his sound is nothing but a JCM 2000 and a RAT pedal" and I didn't believe him at the time. Well now he's done a bunch of interviews confirming exactly that and it's become common knowledge and boy do I feel like a horse's patoot. So I tried a RAT as a boost pedal, mostly the same way he uses it, which honestly is basically the same way all the best overdrive -> distortion tones are achieved: barely any drive, tone to taste, level in the middle, and its become one of my favorite boosts.

I picked up a real one because they're about the cheapest pedal around, and turns out the one in the Axe-Fx is very, very close to the real thing.

Seems like the RAT is a pretty great boost pretty much no matter what you put it through. Here's Fractal's RAT drive model running out into a real Peavey 5150 -> Surh RL, and back into the Axe-Fx for the Cab block and some delay. Sounds good to me!:
 
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I’m on the FM3 so don’t usually use a comp block due to cpu constraints. But I was trying stuff out and landed on the optical sustainer. It doesn’t seem to use a lot of cpu. I have found it’s great for a boost like feel. It’s only been a few days but I’m using this where I’d typically use a boost or a drive. I’m not liking it into a drive block but it’s good with amp boost. Running it at the input.
 
skolacki said:
But I was trying stuff out and landed on the optical sustainer. It doesn’t seem to use a lot of cpu
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I stopped using it cause it collapses transients too hard for my taste
Pedal and Dynacomp seem to also use little CPU but allow to configure everything I need
 
I never used drive pedals even when I was using amps. At one point I was using a Dunlop GT-OD, but that didn’t last long.

My 2nd professional amp was a TriAxis/2:90 combo which allowed me so many amp/channel options that I never needed drive pedals.
 
I often feel that the amp block only within the Fractal are just fine. This is a habit from the time when I used a real tube amp, and my main preset has an exceptionally boosted sdd preamp for high gain riffs/solos, which is a legacy from my AX8 days. I tried other drives and the sdd was exceptionally transparent and gave me the pleasant feeling I was looking for (on wrecker Express).

Recently, I've been using Leon Todd's Soldano HR50+ tone match preset rather than my main preset. The sound is really powerful and has plenty of gain. I even turn the gain knob down to 1 or 2 (output compression type set to feedback).

sometimes just for fun
Following Cliff's advice, I pull out another row from behind the amp block, use FILTER+PEQ to apply an old-style cabsim, and mix it with the original cab block in a ratio of 6:4 or 5:5 for output. It's really fun to play:D and it feels amazing. I don't feel the need to boost at all.
 
GreatGreen said:
You know, I could take or leave Extreme but I've always loved Nuno's sound and playing. Years after I first heard the guy, a buddy who toured with him told me "dude his sound is nothing but a JCM 2000 and a RAT pedal" and I didn't believe him at the time. Well now he's done a bunch of interviews confirming exactly that and it's become common knowledge and boy do I feel like a horse's patoot. So I tried a RAT as a boost pedal, mostly the same way he uses it, which honestly is basically the same way all the best overdrive -> distortion tones are achieved: barely any drive, tone to taste, level in the middle, and its become one of my favorite boosts.

I picked up a real one because they're about the cheapest pedal around, and turns out the one in the Axe-Fx is very, very close to the real thing.

Seems like the RAT is a pretty great boost pretty much no matter what you put it through. Here's Fractal's RAT drive model running out into a real Peavey 5150 -> Surh RL, and back into the Axe-Fx for the Cab block and some delay. Sounds good to me!:
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Yes, Nuno was basically a Rat into a JCM800 setup for the early days. He mostly uses the Rat as an EQ, to cut the low end off of the tone so that he can get his snappy muting to really pop. He wouldn't add much/any drive from the Rat. You can probably do the same thing w/o the Rat just using EQ. Or check out what @2112 and others do w/ multi-band compression to tighten up the woofy-nees of palm mutes. Nuno rules!
 
Oh Geez, there are so many basically clean voiced amps that just come alive for other purposes when you overdrive their front ends! It isn't always magic but more often than not it is. If you have never tried this then you are really missing out on another dimension of many classic tube amp designs!
 
I'll have to give this a try. Never really used amp channel switching as a means of doing what I've always used boost/OF/Dist pedals (and guitar volume knob) for.
 
CodePoet said:
Yes, Nuno was basically a Rat into a JCM800 setup for the early days. He mostly uses the Rat as an EQ, to cut the low end off of the tone so that he can get his snappy muting to really pop. He wouldn't add much/any drive from the Rat. You can probably do the same thing w/o the Rat just using EQ. Or check out what @2112 and others do w/ multi-band compression to tighten up the woofy-nees of palm mutes. Nuno rules!
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Yep that's pretty much what I found to be the case as well. The Rat pedal happens to roll off just the right amount of low end for snappy, percussive playing.

You could probably achieve the exact same thing with a simple GEQ for that, but there's also a cool thing that happens with that pedal when you add just a hair's worth of drive that you can't quite do with an EQ. Whatever it is, it sounds and feels great to me.
 
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