Real TS808 vs Axe Fx II

pauliusmm

pauliusmm

Fractal Fanatic


IMPORTANT!: Press on the link, somehow play button doesn't work.

Today i brought home a TS808 drive pedal to test
I was able to dial AXE FX II pretty close to a real thing - hear above soundcloud link.
But the thing is that controls on the pedal and axe fx don't match at all. Real TS 808 was set like this: Drive 4, Tone 6, Level 10. AXE FX is set to Drive 5.12, Tone 1.93, Level 7.18.

When you have these side by side you can match the sounds really close, but the real thing still feels smoother somehow when you play it yourself.
Would be cool if the controls would match on the Axe fx vs real thing.

Want to guess which is real thing? half of the clip is one thing and second half is another. :)
 
That is why you have to use your ears, and not your eyes, when working with the Axe. You can dial in most any tone, but they won't always translate to the knob positions on a real pedal.

On one hand, it would be nice to have the values exactly translate, but really when you think about it, its nicer having a far wider range of control than what most hardware pedals can give you. Its just that 0-10 on a pedal might only be 0-6, out of 1-10 range on the Axe, and its not always linear, so a noon knob setting a pedal might only be 1.5 or so on the Axe.

People tend to set the Axe the same as they are used to using hardware pedals and then sometimes complain it doesn't sound good, or accurate, but they aren't using their ears

Which FW are you using ? Seems FW16 improved the drive block a bit
 
I've always figured that the Axe Vs real world counterparts are off by a few. My problem is I can never seem to find a happy medium with the drive pedals, it's either too much gain, or it adds to much mids to my amp sound. When I go down the rabbit hole and try to tune the eq a little, I just say nevermind and create a different scene with the Y state of the amp having the gain cranked. I'm still new, I'll eventually get it figured out.
 
Cliff, 1/2013: The T808 model is based on a TS9. That name is trademarked though so I called it a T808.
 
I wonder why the choice was for the TS9 instead of the T808. Does the 9 sound better or have features Cliff liked better?
 
I've owned new and vintage TS9, TS808, TS10, Analogman modded TS9's to TS808 speck, and probably half a dozen "booteek" TS style drive pedals. If you blindfolded me and put a TS808, TS9, AM Silvermod, and even a TS10 at my feet, no way I'd really be able to pick which is which. They all sound so darn similar

In a way, its crazy how every booteek builder has a TS style pedal. They all sound the same, from a $500 one to a $50 Joyo vintage overdrive, same chip, same circuit etc

Its just like Muff's. Everyone and their brother has a muff clone and they all sound 99% the same and use the same circuit, aside from some stuff like Skreddy using a rare tranny, but again, they all sound about the same.
 
Nice, made me think of Jon Butcher "Wishes"

I couldn't tell the difference in your demo. Or rather to say, I could hear slight differences, but couldn't tell which was which.
 
I have a bunch of the TS derivatives....kind of a hobby of mine. They all sound similar....but different. I think that's the beauty of the Axe FX virtual version. You can 'mod it' into something it wasn't originally intended to do. Change the chip, more bass (which I think most TS types need), more treble, pull out some mids, smooth 'em out, crunch 'em up. You can create your own 'modded' dirt box.
 
The first sounds a lot better. I'd be surprised if you couldn't make the Axe sound closer (recording at least... A/B playing often makes it easier to distinguish the two). The second half sounds muffled. You may need some eq going INTO the drive block to make it sound closer.

What was High Cut set to in the drive block?
 
grape said:
The first sounds a lot better. I'd be surprised if you couldn't make the Axe sound closer (recording at least... A/B playing often makes it easier to distinguish the two). The second half sounds muffled. You may need some eq going INTO the drive block to make it sound closer.

What was High Cut set to in the drive block?
Click to expand...

Pretty much exactly what grape said. :) +1.
 
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