Difficulty Re-Amping in Ableton Live

I missed that you meant guitar to 6i6 input 1, not the returning reamped signal.

If you're adjusting to be near peaking the 6i6 input, you might need to reduce level somewhere to match what the Axe would see directly from the guitar. For example turn Input 1 block's level parameter down a bit, or a lot.
 
I missed that you meant guitar to 6i6 input 1, not the returning reamped signal.

If you're adjusting to be near peaking the 6i6 input, you might need to reduce level somewhere to match what the Axe would see directly from the guitar. For example turn Input 1 block's level parameter down a bit, or a lot.

Good tip. I am still learning the Axe and didn't realize that the Input block had it's own level setting...will experiment this evening when I get home from this distracting work! I also see that in the I/O settings, I can set the input level of SPDIF/AES. That is at unity.
 
My guitar sounds much different with this configuration than when I plug directly into the Axe FX III and use the headphone out form the Axe as well. When plugging directly into the Axe, it sounds so much more fuller, clear, louder, and direct. Using SPDIF, it sounds like it's more saturated and lower volume, and even with my Scarlet input 1 level set to almost peak. Shouldn't the quality of the signal be just as good?

I would NOT assume this to be the case. The Axe-Fx III has an extremely high-quality signal path, not to mention an input that is specifically designed and optimized for electric guitars. The input on your 3rd party product is probably nothing special.

"Cliff's original statement to me is captured on our web site: "The audiophile-grade signal path components and converters [of the Axe-Fx III] provide better audio performance than most dedicated ... audio interfaces."
 
I would NOT assume this to be the case. The Axe-Fx III has an extremely high-quality signal path, not to mention an input that is specifically designed and optimized for electric guitars. The input on your 3rd party product is probably nothing special.

"Cliff's original statement to me is captured on our web site: "The audiophile-grade signal path components and converters [of the Axe-Fx III] provide better audio performance than most dedicated ... audio interfaces."

Good to hear! Well, I may have to come up with an alternative method to record and re-amp with my DAW that allows me to bi-pass the Focusrite 6i6 as my guitar entry point and only use it to monitor my main output mix for mastering, mixing, producing, etc. I think I should be able to plug directly into the Axe FX III, and then have my DAW (Live) pull the output digitally via USB or SPDIF. I might have to experiment again with aggregating the Axe FX and Focusrite into a single audio device that I select in Live.
 
Thank you everyone for all the support on this! I’m going to wrap up my end of the thread by posting my “final” solution (routing, settings, and screenshots) for the search engines, in case others have similar issues. To recall, my main end was to be able to use the Axe FX III with Ableton Live and my Focusrite Scarlett 6i6, preferably with SPDIF, where my guitar was one of many other sound sources and with the ability to re-amp my guitar sound.

I ended up with two configurations, the first for recording my reference tracks, and the second for re-amping.

Routing:

Guitar —> Axe FX III front panel instrument input —> Axe FX III SPDIF Out —> Focusrite SPDIF IN (I have the reverse plugged in as well)

Inside the DAW

Reference Track with Ext. In from Axe FX III Output 5/6 (SPDIF output)

DAW DI Track with input from the Axe FX III Output 5 (dry, DI signal) and inside the track is the External Effect Unit plugin input/output from/to the Axe FX III 5/6 (SPIDIF). The External Audio Effect plugin is only turned on during re-amping.

Aggregate Device Config

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Axe FX III Config for Recording and Creating DI Tracks


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Axe FX III Config for Re-Amping (changing the Input 1 Source to SPDIF/AES is the only change)
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Scarlett Control Config (no custom config required)

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Ableton Live Track Setup — See Reference Track (7) and DI Track (8)
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AXE FX III Preset


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Ableton Live Audio Preferences

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