DI Box to get better tones from the Axe-Fx

Ive been scouring this forum and reading as much as possible. So im new to the Axe Fx 3, and i have been tweaking, starting simple, sorting through amps and cabs, usually with a compressor at the beginning of my signal chain.
and a looper at the end with amp1 and cab1 between them.
Theres still many amps and cabs i have not tried, i think i will commit to going through them one by one through time slow and steady crossing them off the list.

so far my favourite cab is "totally flat" and ive been tweaking a "wrecker liverpool" amp. (ill check firmware version.)

Ive seen other people on this forum who have had a problem relating the tones they were getting to free amp sims and saying they sound thin, and too fuzzy. I relate to that.

I find that when i play a big chord, even with 4 notes, i hear some notes lose resonance and disappear in the sound im getting, thats my worst problem, i like to hear some resonant balance between each individual note in a chord.
My riffs usually contain chords lol.

I like a tone that sounds really clean and punchy with a sort of clean breakup on the edges.
tough to describe but thats what im searching for.
Ill figure out how to post sound clips somehow to compare.

I find myself struggling allot with shrill & screechy high pitch responses, and when i try using an eq on it i hear some of the nice harmonics disappear too.

Ill keep tweaking and troubleshooting, i hope this is a newb problem.
Reassurance and ideas are welcome, basic and advanced it all helps.

Thanks for you help fractal community!
 
Can you post some links to the type of tones you are after?

You mentioned breakup earlier but now say the Totally Flat IR is your favorite. That's essentially NO IR... It's there so you can use the Preamp section of the Cab block so you're kind of simulating a "direct to mixing console" setup.

Those things feel a bit counter to each other.

No saying you can't or shouldn't use that IR, as there are definitely use cases where it makes sense.

You might use it (without Amp block) for a funk sound ala Nile Rodgers or (maybe) with an Amp block for that '80s "pristine clean".
 
Rex said:
If your favorite IR is “Totally Flat,” it’s no surprise that you’re finding your tones shrill and screechy.
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The more I think about this, the more puzzling it becomes. Out of 2000+ IRs, "Totally Flat" is by far the shrillest, screechiest one of the bunch. And we know you don't like shrill, screechy tones. How did that one become your favorite?
 
FractalAudio said:
Passive DI boxes load down your pickups and shift and reduce the resonance. The Axe-Fx input is high impedance and preserves the true sound of your pickups.
Click to expand...
I'm gonna have to bump this up because I too was wondering what. Was going on before even dropping the cash on a DI box. But I don't know if during the time of this thread, the axe 3 was out or if it was still on the. 2. But, from what I'm understanding, should I be safe to assume that the axe fx 3 clean unprocessed out on whichever of the outputs is more like an active and boosted DI?

I was told though that no matter anything, I absolutely have to have a dedicated di box so not sure what to do.
 
FractalAudio said:
You can use the Input Impedance control to lower the input impedance and flatten the response. Try 220K, that will be close to your passive DI.

The Axe-Fx is more ACCURATELY capturing the sound of your pickups. If you don't like the sound then you have a couple choices:
1. Change your pickups.
2. Reduce the load on your pickups. You can do this using the Input Impedance control or with an external device like a Radial Dragster.
Click to expand...
Or, use an active DI?
 
RackAddict said:
...should I be safe to assume that the axe fx 3 clean unprocessed out on whichever of the outputs is more like an active and boosted DI?
Click to expand...
More like an active and boosted DI than what?

The unprocessed output from an Axe-Fx is the sound that it starts with. When your Axe-Fx works its magic, it's using that unprocessed sound. Anything (DI box or otherwise) that changes that unprocessed sound in any way will result in inaccuracies. And if your DI box doesn't change the sound, why use it at all?


RackAddict said:
I was told though that no matter anything, I absolutely have to have a dedicated di box so not sure what to do.
Click to expand...
Told by whom? And for what purpose?
 
Rex said:
More like an active and boosted DI than what?
Click to expand...
Than a passive one. The signal that passes through is converted from analog to digital and what comes out would have to either be a model of some sort of unbuffered passive DI or an active one with buffer. It all depends on the modeling.

Rex said:
The unprocessed output from an Axe-Fx is the sound that it starts with. When your Axe-Fx works its magic, it's using that unprocessed sound. Anything (DI box or otherwise) that changes that unprocessed sound in any way will result in inaccuracies. And if your DI box doesn't change the sound, why use it at all?
Click to expand...

If it's a digital box thats impossible to be unprocessed. It will impart some characteristic on the input being converted to a digital signal.. And I'm assuming it models more an active DI box than a passive DI box but that's just an assumption.
 
RackAddict said:
Than a passive one. The signal that passes through is converted from analog to digital and what comes out would have to either be a model of some sort of unbuffered passive DI or an active one with buffer. It all depends on the modeling.
Click to expand...
The DI coming out of the Axe-Fx isn't a model of anything. It's just the straight conversion of your guitar's signal from analog to digital. There's no other processing going on. No EQ. No modeled transformer. It sounds identical to the signal the Axe is receiving from your guitar. Any deviation from that is so small that it's inaudible.
 
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