AH! Sorry good point: Axe FX 2 Mk 2.
Here's a clip showing the crackling:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/11181535/scratchy_sound.mp3
I know it's not the cleanest amp, and it's on MV of 10, but I get this on some clean amps and other dirty-ish ones too (can't tell if it's there or not on the super high gain amps).
NB:
I've got my input level so it's well short of clipping (about 90% of max at full strum).
The clip demonstrates it on all pickup combinations (neck/bridge/hum/split) on my guitar, whereas my cube or Carvin V3M are clean using the same settings
I've got the Axe's output about half way up (can hear the crackle at 1/3 vol just as much as max)
I've checked the dB output in the parameters tab and the VU levels on my hardest strum are around 4dB (positive).
And it sounds the same through my headphones and speakers (neither of which whose amplification are cranked anywhere near enough to create this sound)
I see (from looking up the amp this model is based on) that it has no master volume, just Treble/Bass/Volume (this volume is gain AND volume, so treated as 'no master gain' I guess, since the model defaults to 10/10. So I know 10/10 is gonna be dirty (as my patch is!), but this over-riding scratchy sound really doesn't seem right to me. I'm the first to assume it's a config error, but I'm out of ideas... any suggestions?
At first I thought it was the 'spit and crackle' that I've read Cliff refer to, but the more I hear it between multiple amp models, the more I reckon it's not meant to sound like that, as there's already that 'clang and grind' in the guitar sound itself... just with this gritty annoying stuff over the top. :\
Any ideas?