Better distortion. Amp vs Drive pedal?

Drive pedals will always change your tone - that's the point of them!

Exactly. This is why the TS style pedals are popular for pushing amps into solo territory, because of their midrange hump. You want your solo tone to have a bit more mids than your rhythm tone, so that you can cut through the mix.
 
The beauty of the Axe FX is that we can get that great amp OD and dist without blowing out our ear drums or having treated studio rooms, etc. Still, it's good to have the drive block for playing live.
 
There are about a hundred ways to do this with AFX (change level transparently or via a level boost with little frequency response coloration). Assign a controller to input trim is the easiest one, IMHO. This will add grit because it hits the preamp harder. If you want a truly pure level boost that will not add distortion; the filter suggestion earlier is a good one.
 
Crude as it was, it was easy to dial in and use as volume boost. I've tried all boosts but still can't belive people like Tony Iommi and Brian May only used a treble boost as everyone describes, I've tried those and they do exactly what is on the tin. Boost treble! I'm sure it's in this magic box of tricks but can't nail it.

As the another poster said, Brian May used the treble booster in front of the normal channel. In an AC30 when everything is turned up full they can get quite bassy, so the TB cancels this out as well as giving some gain.
 
I put an expression pedal on the input and have it go from 50% to about 80% which allows me to dial in how much I want to dial in. I also use the volume on my guitar to dial in to taste as well. A null filter block on the end of my chain adds a programmable boost.
 
I had a similar problem with my real tube amp. Boosting in front of the amp didn't result in increased volume - just more gain. I solved this by using my boost (Xotic RC Booster) in the FX loop, effectively placing it between the pre amp and power amp (correct me if I'm wrong here).

This pedal is very transparent anyway, but I set it with increased volume and minimal gain to maintain the tone. I could get huge increases in volume this way, so it worked perfectly. I've sold my amp and am now going to be using an Axe FX II only setup, so this is something I'll be looking to address.

There are so many options, but ideally, I'll find something I can use like the above real world example. Then I can just incorporate it into a scene.

Hellbat - you mentioned "a clean boost available at the output as well" - can you please elaborate on this? Is this something that isn't available when not using scenes? Or do you mean that scenes give you the ability to configure different output volumes?

Each scene allows you to set the final output level independent of the other scenes. Therefore, your "lead" scene can be set to a higher level than your other scenes.
 
One option is to increase the Input Trim parameter in the amp block which pushes the amp harder at input.

I do something similar.. but rather than use the input-trim, I use a null filter block placed in front of the amp
the block's level parameter provides the boost..
the reason I do this is so that I can switch it on and off on a per scene basis..
I go a stage further too.. I have several of these filter blocks in parallel.. this means I can have varying degrees of boost per scene as each scene activates a different filter block… and if I want no boost at all, one of the filter blocks is a "no boost" as it's level is set to 0dB..
I now have choice… I know I can achieve this via a scene-controller… but.. I prefer to save something as smart as a scene-controller for things other than simple level controls..

here's a layout example.. note the stack of filter blocks..

 
What's cost got to do with it?.

It's the combination of the two that brings the magic.

+1 (not that using the amp strictly for higher gains is wrong) but additional devices... It's worked for thousands of players with different means, whether it be a pedal(s), tape machines or a variac to achieve your, "holy grail" goal. It's all still very much relevant. Whatever blows your hair back. I use a pedal at times... and at times, not. :)
 
I like to use the drive pedal to affect tone (and sometimes feel as a byproduct) but not as a pure volume boost. For that I prefer the filter after the amp block idea previously mentioned.

However, I also like to use a pair of EQ's (GEQ or PEQ) in parallel before the amp, one for rhythm, the other with more pronounced mids for lead work. Sometimes I do this with a drive block before or after the EQs (or before one, after the other), and sometimes the EQs act in place of a drive block. It works very well for not drastically changing your sound while still giving each tone (rhythm/lead) its own space. This is particularly useful when looping.
 
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