Drive Blocks

[JoKeR III]

Maybe, but I dont agree with you. I dont believe it does a faboulus job at both.

Totally fine. Options for tweaking the drives have been suggested from those who have had good success with them. If you choose not to try them, you'll continue to remain in the minority of those who are disappointed. If you choose to explore the options, your opinion will more than likely change and you might actually enjoy them. Entirely up to you.

 

[AJ Vargas]

I think @southbeck has a fair point in this discussion. While being beyond customizable is one of FAS greatest strengths, accuracy is one of the biggest selling points when you're looking at any FAS products and putting them against their competitors. People always wanted to set their AFX just like their 'real' counterpart so much that we now have the "Authentic" control layout option in the Axe Fx III that mirrors the exact same controls your amp has.

I used the BOSS DS-1 primarily many years ago, one plain simple pedal to set. IIRC my "Satriani" settings were Tone: 9:00, Gain: 3:00 Volume to taste, simple as that. If there was a Drive block counterpart (ATM I know the DS-1 isn't there) that requires me to adjust Hi and Lo cuts, shift Mid Freq Range, etc... just to get in the ballpark of my real DS, then that would defeat the purpose of accuracy. Many people are not tweakers, they just want to set & go, and this could be discouraging for them.

Not so long ago I saw a comparison video between the Helix, Axe FX III and a real amp. Once the real amp was set, they used the same settings on the modelers. Axe FX III was REALLY close while the Helix was just awfully lost. That's my problem with the Helix stuff, yes you can get really good tones out of it, but you have to dig and tweak things much more than you would do with real amp and pedals. Pot tolerances and differences between units of the same amp apart, I can pretty much set my AX8 amp block just like I would on the 'real' amp and that's why I choose FAS over Line 6, and even Kemper.

 

[southbeck]

Totally fine. Options for tweaking the drives have been suggested from those who have had good success with them. If you choose not to try them, you'll continue to remain in the minority of those who are disappointed. If you choose to explore the options, your opinion will more than likely change and you might actually enjoy them. Entirely up to you.

Who said I havent tweaked them?
I have used the ax8 professionally for over two years now. Both studio and live. Many, many hours tweaking.
I know this is a Fractal forum. So as soon as you think anything else then that its faboulus and perfect you are going to hear it.

I think the drives dont sound good and requires too much tweaking.

 

[geetarplayer]

What exactly are you doing with the scene controllers (esp on cab output)? I've read a little, but haven't done much with them yet. Wouldn't this be similar to the amp x/y switch?

The mix% combined with the low/high cut adjustments are definitely helping. . . but I'd like to give this a shot as well.

I'll attach a preset here. (You may have to set cabs in the Cab block yourself.) I do variations of this depending on the song.

Scene Controller #1 - is on Amp Input Drive and Amp Input Trim.Both of those, when raised, make the patch louder, so I have...
Scene Controller #2 - on the Cab Level. Range is -15db to +3 db.

Then, for each scene, I set Scene Controller 1 to the desired dirt level, and then look at the VU meter, and adjust the Scene Controller 2 to the desired output level.

For this particular preset, I added a timmy with zero drive, to boost for more saturation on one of the scenes, but I rarely need that.

 

[JoKeR III]

Who said I havent tweaked them?
I have used the ax8 professionally for over two years now. Both studio and live. Many, many hours tweaking.
I know this is a Fractal forum. So as soon as you think anything else then that its faboulus and perfect you are going to hear it.

I think the drives dont sound good and requires too much tweaking.

Again, you're entitled to your opinion. If you've given up and they simply don't work for you, fine. Not trying to argue, just trying to help.
These comments that we're all just a bunch of fanboys blindly defending a product are simply false and becoming quite tiresome. This is a forum and many others have a different experience than you and are simply attempting to suggest things to try that we've found helpful. If you don't want to spend the time and have pedals that give you what you need, great! Use them. You're starting to come across as someone who thinks that somehow the rest of us are tone-deaf lackeys and using something that really doesn't measure up.

I'm a semi-professional player and am not willing to compromise on any part of my tone. I used to need external pedals for some things but as firmware updates were released, different aspects of the modeling, both amp and effects, have been addressed to the point where no external pedals are needed for my purposes. There is no part of the AX8 or Axe III that I've needed to compromise on. Some effects required a bit more tweaking to get the right tone but it's all in there.

 

[hbucker]

Who said I havent tweaked them?
I have used the ax8 professionally for over two years now. Both studio and live. Many, many hours tweaking.
I know this is a Fractal forum. So as soon as you think anything else then that its faboulus and perfect you are going to hear it.

I think the drives dont sound good and requires too much tweaking.

I feel you. I'm a knob-turner at heart and have traditionally enjoy the simplicity of a basic pedal. It sounds the way it sounds and a couple of adjustments either make it sound better or not. I too find the as loaded drive blocks in the AX8 to be less than satisfying much of the time. But will not argue that better results can't be found with deeper editing. My instincts tell me that the basic pedal sound should be there from the beginning without deeper editing though. Those are just my instincts and probably don't apply to most digital users.

Some amps take pedals better than others. If the FAS system is as accurate as folks say, this could be one reason why some drive blocks simply don't sound good to me with some amp models.

I do hear this conversation to be about just the drive blocks though. Those of us who are - meh - on them don't seem to be critical of amp models and the (sometimes) need for deeper editing. I can say that my knob-turner instincts kick in more noticeably with all of the pedal blocks on the AX8 much more than with the amp blocks. They just seem to be less plug-and-play than the amp blocks.

 

[jon]

There's a lot going on too that will likely make the real pedal sound 'different', stuff like buffers, component tolerances (vary wildly), minor changes (year to year you'll find different components in pedals, depending on cost, availability, design changes etc), voltages and battery types, the loading on the amp, other pedals and the guitar, the temperatures and humidity (affect component values), and stuff like that.

Given the many variables involved, the axe does a great job, but you may have to tweak. A minor qualm for the convenience and consistency, but I do get the concern with the accuracy. Just like no 2 amps sound exactly the same, it's MUCH worse wth the pedals, so trying to obtain accuracy for ANY modeling device would be tough. Pretty sure he'll update the drives again soon, but we have some pretty good starting points otherwise.

If the drives are still not doing it for you, you can also always plug them into the axe as well - cliff can't model EVERY drive and fuzz and distortion on the planet, so there will ALWAYS be some pedals that aren't going to be there.

 

[geetarplayer]

This thread is inspiring me to revisit some drives this weekend and try more variations on the settings and see how good I can make them sound.

 

[Wigam2]

I'll attach a preset here. (You may have to set cabs in the Cab block yourself.) I do variations of this depending on the song.

Scene Controller #1 - is on Amp Input Drive and Amp Input Trim.Both of those, when raised, make the patch louder, so I have...
Scene Controller #2 - on the Cab Level. Range is -15db to +3 db.

Then, for each scene, I set Scene Controller 1 to the desired dirt level, and then look at the VU meter, and adjust the Scene Controller 2 to the desired output level.

For this particular preset, I added a timmy with zero drive, to boost for more saturation on one of the scenes, but I rarely need that.

Thanks so much, that helps - wasn't sure what the cab block connection was, but I see it now. Thx!