Anyone find they don’t “need” drive blocks in most cases since getting the AxeII?

I only use drives as an EQ, drive at 0 mix around 40-50. I tried to ditch all my presets drive blocks but then it sounded like crap so I put back lol
 
I mostly base my patches on amp tone, and then will use a drive for solo boosts and crunchier rhythms (I also use the Input Trim and Boost/Sat switches). The amount of control we have in the amp block makes drives unnecessary for most of my uses when creating the base tone.

Although I do love a touch of FET boost if I'm running pretty clean. Like Eric said it just adds a touch of 'more' - and then if I want it cleaner I just turn the drive off.
 
I only use them for eq, changing the distortion character, or to take edge of break-up amp in one scene into total mayhem in the next.
 
IRL you don't have - i think - TONS of different amps. You have ONE amp or - if you are lucky - TWO amps and drive pedals can add some colours to those basic tones.
But even with the AxeFx, if your basic amp tone is, say, an HIWATT or another clean/hard-to-clip amp, a drive block can help you to hit the front of the amp for a more dirty tone.
That for the drive block and the overall amp tone.
Another thing is when we talk about FXs (modulations, reverbs, delays).
 
IRL you don't have - i think - TONS of different amps. You have ONE amp or - if you are lucky - TWO amps and drive pedals can add some colours to those basic tones.
But even with the AxeFx, if your basic amp tone is, say, an HIWATT or another clean/hard-to-clip amp, a drive block can help you to hit the front of the amp for a more dirty tone.
That for the drive block and the overall amp tone.
Another thing is when we talk about FXs (modulations, reverbs, delays).

This was my first thought when I read the original post. Depending on how long you've been playing (and unless you were willing, and had the resources to buy and drag multiple amps/cabs to gigs), you were pretty much saddled with 2, maybe 4 amp channels to work with live. Drive pedals were an easy and reasonably inexpensive way to make a 2-channel setup a "quasi" 4-5 channel setup. When you've got a two-unit rack space that has hundreds (???-How many amp models are in the Axe now?) of amps at your fingertips, fully programmable, X/Y options, scenes, etc...The need for external drive options kinda takes a back seat. That being said, I fit into a bunch of the previously mentioned categories as far as front end drive goes. I primarily use drive pedals for tone shaping and to add a little crunch or solo-boost to a clean amp. For the most part, I try to get as much of my base tone out of the amp/cab combination as I can.
 
I still use drives. I like amp distortion, but I still like a very clean sound. Adding an overdrive with 50% mix gives a different texture. Panning between a dirty and clean amp and adding drive to all combinations gives me a huge palette of sounds inside of one preset.
 
In AxeFx the drive pedals can be good to shape and add some hair on top of the amp overdrive, even for hard rock or metal. For a fine example of this, check out Leon Todd’s application of drive in his C++ gig patch for his band Ragdoll. Superb. On the Ax8 forum.

For real amps, drive pedals can really change the character, more so than with the AxeFx imo. I recently dusted off an old Ibanez MSL Metal Screamer I bought in the 80s. Sounds great with my Blankenship Fatboy Jr. lol
 
A lot of people use drive pedals to do many jobs. They act as EQ filters, volume boosters, etc. Adding actual drive texture to guitar tones is only like 8% of what they're used for.

The Amp block in the Axe-Fx gives you enough control over the guitar's signal as it enters the Amp that most "unique" utility of Drive pedals in general are effectively lessened quite a bit. I still use them as there are a few that are perfect for really touch sensitive stuff like muted legato runs and that kind of thing, but yeah they definitely see a lot less use in my Axe-Fx.

Most of the time, just cranking the input drive and activating the Cut parameter does exactly what I'd dial in a drive pedal to do anyway.

This is a good thing though. Now I'm free to use drive pedals in the fun mad scientist way, to blend them with clean or barely-broken-up amps to create new sounds. It's fun.
 
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One thing I've found tough to get a grip on with the Axe is stacking drive pedals. It can certainly work, and I've made some cool fuzz tones with dual drive blocks, however, I also find things don't always behave in the expected way. Something like a mild OD, TS9 style pedal etc, after a fuzz pedal usually tames a bit of the fizziness and/or excessive wooly low-end with hardware pedals, but I haven't really be able to figure out how to stack pedals with regular results in the Axe, always feels a bit more trial and error. I see some guys mention using 0 drive so I'll be curious to try that. I'm used to a lot of pedals passing no sound with the drive down, so I might be having more drive/gain than I need with stacked pedals.

I will mention one hardware pedal that I often have out, at least when I'm at home, is my EQD Speaker Cranker. Its kind of a light OD/boost, with a single knob. Adds a bit of gain, maybe a little grit as you turn it up, and a touch of volume. When trying different amp models or presets, sometimes my guitar will sound really quiet with a given setting, especially with a low output guitar, and instead of going into the menu and editing the input, drive etc, I'll often just turn up the knob on the Speaker Cranker pedal a bit, making the guitar a bit louder and fuller sounding. Knob is big enough I can adjust it with my foot enough

Gotten similar tones with the Mid-boost drive model with lower drive settings, though I'm sure FET boost etc would also sound similar. I've though about routing the drive and/or output parameter of that to an external control knob to get the same effect, but then I'd have to go through all my presets and add the block and settings, which is kind of a pain, but then again, if I did that, I could just set a knob for the input trim, and maybe use that to the same affect.

What is everyones "go to" option for getting a bit more output on quieter presets ? input trim, turn on a drive block, just raise the output level of the block ? Likely a ton of different ways to do it, but I'm sure they all have slightly different sounds, as I know doing things like lowering the input trim for a guitar with hotter pickups end up sounding different than dialing the input drive back
 
I use the TS808 or Metal Zone most of the time. For me, they get a better tone than just straight amp OD...and it's an easy way to get the low cut I like.
 
Just depends on application and taste.

Personally I’m running a clean boost of some sort, typically a T808MOD or BB Pre these days, on 9/10 tones I use from low to high gain levels.

I also always carry around a physical Tubescreamer-style pedal in my guitar case for any time I’m jamming on an analog rig, for that matter.

It’s a voicing/EQ thing, not a gain level thing; I like being able to run preamp gain as low as possible, especially on amps with bright caps where I can get more cut and openness out of having the drive lower. I also really prefer the snappiness in the bass that a TS lends, regardless of how high gain an amp may be I dig having that pre-EQ going on to shape things.
 
Also, honorable mention to how well the Fractal does distortion-pedal-to-clean-amp tones too, I’ve gotten some 80s style tones using the Ruckus and a clean Marshall that I absolutely love. Same goes for stacking lower gain drives and the like.

Despite the myriad amp model options available in the unit, I find it equally rewarding to scale back sometimes and build a preset more like I would with a pedal-platform rig.
 
I put a TS808 in front of the amp, low drive, and use it in certain circumstances where I need to “hit the amp harder” as others have said — adds sustain and color to tap harmonics and touch sensitive stuff. There are lots of ways to achieve same effect given flexibility (eg, just use a preset with higher gain amp settings), but I like access to the broader tone palette; and, all else equal prefer as low an amp drive setting as needed to extract the tone I’m trying to get...
 
So many ways to go about it. It so depends on the amp model and what you want from it.

With a Twin or Hiwatt, it seems to me like pedals provide a consistent and predictable wide tonal palette from a clean amp platform.

Something without much headroom like a Deluxe Tweed: I personally don't care for how pedals overdrive it at all: Its all in using the volume knob on the guitar to get these amps to sing.

Most amps populate the vast soundscape in between: So the game is finding the magic combinations of pedal drive and tone and preamp gain to get various tones and textures.

I do like the way moderate use of OD and distortion pedals can add a variety of tones and textures while maintaining a core amp tone throughout.

My lazy man's approach is to not expect a pedal to do too much: In my little pond: The amp's tone is king: so I go for getting a satisfying clean tone plus whatever distortion sound the amp really excels at, and use a pedal or two to fill in the blanks:

If I like the amps lead tone: the pedal may amount to just adding a little EQ'd clean boost - or an FET or RAT set low - to the cleaner channel to get some crunch and grind.

Or: if the amp excels at clean and breaking up tones; then the pedal can supply the heavy distortion.

Whatever color you like from the Fractal jumbo crayon box.
 
I'm torn on this. Keep in mind that many classic distortion pedals were supposed to emulate "real tube amp overdrive", at least according to the advertising. In truth, most are about $5.00 worth of components that don't capture any of the nuances of a real tube amp doing it's thing.

So in the AxeFX, you have so much ability to really capture the sound of a classic amp cranked up loud, why would you bother with the stompbox emulation?

Of course, there's lots of classic recordings that used stompbox distortion, so if you want to play early Black Sabbath, you're probably going to need some BMP in there. So that's one use for them.

Some of the drive pedals, like the TS, have some interesting side effects that make it easier to dial in a sound you like. So I can see a use for that, too. Some of the pedals just have distortion sound that you just don't get from an amp (or the amp that you want to use for other reasons), so I can see using them then. For instance, I like the wooly sound of the Budda amp distortion, but I could see a place were you might want something tighter for some particular purpose, so put a TS with silicon diodes in front of it.
 
With most amps in the Axe-Fx I find I can get more gain than I need out of that amp so for me the drive blocks are more used as tone shapers, kind of like you might do with a real pedal. Of course, you could do all kinds of things with parametric EQ blocks and so on but working with something like a classic TS type pedal is easier and more familiar.
 
I do use them in some cases but I'm not using the drive pedal blocks for gain / more drive. I use them to achieve certain characteristics in the tone.
 
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