AFIII Axe-Fx III "Zen Master" vs Real Zendrive

Virtually indistinguishable. Slight more high end extension on the model which is expected because you're using one of those coiled guitar cables. The Zendrive has a fairly high output impedance since the output is unbuffered. The capacitance of the cable causes a lowpass response. A coiled guitar cable has a lot of capacitance which lowers the lowpass frequency. You can simulate this by reducing the High Cut value on the Tone page.
 
Awesome video! What blows me away is how close they are, I really struggled to hear any big difference. When I do think I hear something, I think it is more a perceived difference because I know you are swapping the pedals over. If I was blind folded and you weren't saying which pedal you were on I would definitely not be able to say which is which.
 
FractalAudio said:
Virtually indistinguishable. Slight more high end extension on the model which is expected because you're using one of those coiled guitar cables. The Zendrive has a fairly high output impedance since the output is unbuffered. The capacitance of the cable causes a lowpass response. A coiled guitar cable has a lot of capacitance which lowers the lowpass frequency. You can simulate this by reducing the High Cut value on the Tone page.
Click to expand...
I gotta be honest, I expected it to be more different than it was, and the biggest difference I felt was on the Tone knob, but I am sure they can be matched with what you said. In a blind test, no one would ever know the difference.
 
good to hear you here man....you still doing the Bodega gig on occasion? I will be down on SoBe a bit this summer...🤘...
 
I never really got along with the Zen Drive model for some reason, but lately I have revisited it and I think it sounds great. I'm thinking reworking of the drives a few firmware versions ago might have something to do with that.
 
unix-guy said:
I never really got along with the Zen Drive model for some reason, but lately I have revisited it and I think it sounds great. I'm thinking reworking of the drives a few firmware versions ago might have something to do with that.
Click to expand...
yeah the dumble style gain is its own thing. it doesn't sound good doing the marshall thing, or the voxish thing. but for the robben ford/larry carlton/steely dan thing, it's perfect
 
FractalAudio said:
Virtually indistinguishable. Slight more high end extension on the model which is expected because you're using one of those coiled guitar cables. The Zendrive has a fairly high output impedance since the output is unbuffered. The capacitance of the cable causes a lowpass response. A coiled guitar cable has a lot of capacitance which lowers the lowpass frequency. You can simulate this by reducing the High Cut value on the Tone page.
Click to expand...

I find this statement somewhat confusing, this difference in the high end would be feasible if Camilo were playing with the guitar directly plugged into the Axe III ergo avoiding the tone-sucker coiled cable, but watching the video gives me the impression that the coiled cable is present in both cases (he simply turns off the zendrive and turns on the drive block in the axe without cable changes).

Is sassy to think that if you use the same cables the capacitance and the lowpass response will be the same?
 
ETOLKIEN said:
I find this statement somewhat confusing, this difference in the high end would be feasible if Camilo were playing with the guitar directly plugged into the Axe III ergo avoiding the tone-sucker coiled cable, but watching the video gives me the impression that the coiled cable is present in both cases (he simply turns off the zendrive and turns on the drive block in the axe without cable changes).

Is sassy to think that if you use the same cables the capacitance and the lowpass response will be the same?
Click to expand...
The output impedance of a guitar is lower than the output impedance of the Zendrive. The Zendrive has a 100K potentiometer on the output. If we assume it's set to halfway that creates a 25K output impedance. A typical guitar is 10K. Therefore the guitar will have 2.5 times higher lowpass frequency.
 
All is clear now, you have the same cable and therefore the same filter curve, but when the pedal is active its high output impedance moves the filter to a lower frequency point and it becomes more evident, in a graph we would see the same curve shape but displaced toward the left.

When the pedal is off the coiled cable affects, but not so much.

Thanks for your time Cliff!
 
FractalAudio said:
Virtually indistinguishable. Slight more high end extension on the model which is expected because you're using one of those coiled guitar cables. The Zendrive has a fairly high output impedance since the output is unbuffered. The capacitance of the cable causes a lowpass response. A coiled guitar cable has a lot of capacitance which lowers the lowpass frequency. You can simulate this by reducing the High Cut value on the Tone page.
Click to expand...
My buddy sent this to Alfonso Hermida And he replied "that is correct"
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom