Distortion Pedal in Effects Loop with Axe-Fx III?

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phantomofalfred

Inspired
with real amps, sometimes the distortion pedal sounds way better in the effects loop of the head instead of between the guitar and the input of the head. Is there any way to do this with a real pedal and an Axe III? I have been trying to find a way but so far no luck. Has anyone tried to do this?
with my real Amps, My distortion pedals always sound better in the loop.
 
Use one amp with sag off, so its basically just a preamp, put a loop in with your real pedal, and then run that into a second amp block using a neutral preamp, like the tube pre, and have the power amp modeling active on that. You've essentially achieved the same thing as running a pedal in the post preamp, fx loop, going into the power amp section of a typical hardware head
 
Not sure I understand fully. I cant see how to put in a loop. there used to be an effects loop block in my old Axe II xl, but cant see one on the III
 
phantomofalfred said:
Not sure I understand fully. I cant see how to put in a loop. there used to be an effects loop block in my old Axe II xl, but cant see one on the III
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output3 on back of AXE3 to input of your pedal. Output of your pedal to input3. Add output3 and input3 blocks to your path on the grid layout and connect them.
 
It sounds much more clear, you take the input preamp gain out of the picture. So preamp is Pedal Drive into the power stage. It sounds killer. Ola Englund shows the difference. With a Boss Metal Zone pedal of all things.

There is a big difference, so i am trying to do the same thing virtually in the Axe III presets.
 
That's quite a different thing - that's not really putting it into the effects loop, more using the head as a valve/tube poweramp and the pedal as the preamp.

In that case - run the distortion pedal in front of the Axe III and just set the preamp to be clean and flat will get you half way there.

But honestly, I wouldn't bother ;)
 
You could also put a couple of pedals in loops 3 and 4 prior to the amp block and switch them in and out using scenes/presets.
 
I have been using a Boss Metal Pedal ever since Boss came out with it along along with a Boss Cs 3, GE 7, and DD 2 Delay, and a chromatic tuner. And I have always ran them through the input on a clean channel, I think it sounds great and will continue to use them I have not had a chance to use them with the Ax Fx III, but am curious how they will sound.:D
 
If the loop is in front of the amp block, then that would still not bypass the amp blocks preamp though. Unless Im missing something. Just trying to figure out if it's possible to duplicate what Ola is doing with the real thing.
 
No you're right it won't.

So let's think what the power amp is doing.

It's making it louder
It's adding compression
It's likely imposing some form of EQ curve because it won't be linear.

Therefore you don't need an amp block to achieve this, you need a drive block, into an eq, into a compressor into a cab block.

You might be surprised how easy it is to achieve, if you're using a pedal - then as others have said, I would put that in a loop - then you can have other effects in front of it, then the loop immediately in front of an eq, compressor and cab block (you don't need the drive block if you're using a pedal for that).

I still, personally, would rather use the amp modelling - but this would absolutely work.
 
phantomofalfred said:
If the loop is in front of the amp block, then that would still not bypass the amp blocks preamp though. Unless Im missing something. Just trying to figure out if it's possible to duplicate what Ola is doing with the real thing.
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Why do you want to bypass the pre-amp block? Are you trying to use the pedals as a preamp? If so you could just add the pedal in the loop and then a cab block right after.

Edit: from your original post, I thought you just wanted to replace the drive model with a real pedal into the front of the amp block. Similar to what you would do with a real amp.
 
Actually quite astounding. To think that the Axe FX III has the capability/flexibility to bypass almost all of itself, to promote the pure sound of a Boss pedal. I’m amazed. Seriously, I’m not being critical. I’m taken aback. Interesting post.
 
phantomofalfred said:
It sounds much more clear, you take the input preamp gain out of the picture. So preamp is Pedal Drive into the power stage. It sounds killer. Ola Englund shows the difference. With a Boss Metal Zone pedal of all things.

There is a big difference, so i am trying to do the same thing virtually in the Axe III presets.
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Ah... But this is not "putting the Drive in the loop".

It's more like "putting the Drive into FX Return".

These are similar but different in that "in the loop" sort of indicates the you are using the preamp... Where using the FX Return only uses the power amp.
 
The sound in the vid reminds me of a recto with a drive pedal in front. I don't think that the recto's preamp messes it up, as long as ypu keep it's gain low.
 
So i guess theres no way to plug a real drive into the effects return of the amp sim thus bypassing the amp sims pre ?
Maybe choosing one of the marshall power amps then using a loop would be the closest it could do?
 
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