Drive help

boleary2

boleary2

Inspired
Just came back to the axefx, loving the amps on 18beta!!!!
i just still cannot get the drives to work in the same way I do with my "real" setup.
I've had the axe in the past and had similar issue. I can get them to work somewhat
but I'm having to dial the mix control way back as well as other tweaks.

Anyone else have any secrets to share?

I wish I could send my favorite pedals
in to have modeled...(Timmy, retrosonic 808, nobels odr1, rockett archer)
I gladly ship for use as reference!!!
 
adjust with you ears. if I use a drive pedal I normally back of the amp gain below 12:00 and the drive level below10:00 it is really easy to have to much gain in the axe fx!
 
I'm running a Vox at low gain...just barely broken up...simulating my BadCat BlackCat 30. I have the Drive parameter on the pedal
completely off. The pedal is the FullDrive2 emulation...Ive owned a Fulldrive for 15 years and I can't seem to capture the vibe of that pedal...
 
I gave up on drive pedals. Part of it is just that hey, I can use an amp block to get what I'm after. I couldn't get the OD pedals to work very well for me, either, except for special effects like fuzz, etc. But for overdrive, the pedals are kind of trying to imitate what an amp is doing anyway.
 
Fwiw, for certain amps (especially the vox) I have to dip the mids in the drive eq and then sweep the frequency to get the drive more transparent. I have tried using the mix control but for me the drive eq works better. Also try increasing the treble and using the tone to cut back a little. Back in the ultra days I compared my tube screamer to the axe tube screamer and it was really close with the axe tone knob almost full on; completely different from the setting on the real deal. Please let me know what you think about this idea.
 
Don't expect them to be 1:1 with the real pedal, in many cases they have a far wider range.

Noon on a hardware might be actually relate to a setting of just 3 on the Axe drive pedal, etc.

Can't just match knob positions, have to tweak by ear
 
I have found that most drive pedals sound (to me) best as close to defaults as they are. I just pick one based off of what sounds best with that amp.

Another trick (for the 'transparency' issue) is to check the amp block for the freq (as I remember, many Marshall's around 600...) I just mirror that freq in the drive pedal, and boost the mid level 3DB.

YMMV.

R
 
i'm on the same boat here, i have a hard time to make the axe od's work as their reference models, axe od's alway sound a bit too squashed, as in lack of dynamic compared to real counterparts, but I recently discovered that real pedal have the same issue into the axe fx, and actually both ts808 and sd1 sounded identically "incorrect", so I came to the conclusion that the problem is not in the pedal simulations, but in the amp settings. Like you, I also use almost exclusively ac30tb with volume at 2.50/3 (which is less than breakup), i suppose the way to get away with it would be to lower the mv, but then it would not sound "correct" when od's are off..
 
Dialing in the Drive pedals has been a challenge for me as well. They sometimes just don't sound right to me, even when i think I've tweeked them to my liking at home, when I use them on a gig at times they don't sound pleasing to me. I've tried the mix, Drive EQ, Frequency range wide or narrow. Sometimes i get one i like.

In reading a previous reply here I think I would have to agree that I've had better luck with my presets with an amp at a very low clipping sounds vs more gain on the amp end. Doesn't seem to equate to real world experiences, so i've started to try an expression pedal on the amp gain parameter instead of a drive pedal.

Hopefully the FAS team will discover some more improvements in the drive pedal modeling and interaction with their amp models.
 
boleary2 said:
I'm running a Vox at low gain...just barely broken up...simulating my BadCat BlackCat 30. I have the Drive parameter on the pedal
completely off. The pedal is the FullDrive2 emulation...Ive owned a Fulldrive for 15 years and I can't seem to capture the vibe of that pedal...
Click to expand...

Just out of curiosity, why not start with the Badcat model in the Axe if that's what you're going for?
Also, I and several others have found the drives to work particularly well with the new G3'd amps. That said, it's been a while now since I've used a real tangible dirt pedal, so making a direct comparison to the few you've mentioned that I have played is kinda' moot.
Anyhow, I'd suggest playing with the high & low pass in the drive block, which is basically telling the drive block which part of your signal you want to hear driven (higher freqs for something like a treble boost, mids for TS variants, etc.).
 
Thanks for the recommendations everyone! It really is the dynamics that seem to
get lost when I use a drive pedal. The punchiness of the amp
seems to diminish and I find that dialing the mix of the pedal sim back (sometimes to 20%)
seems to help (on fulldrive and suhr sim). I plugged in my standard
pedalboard today and it sounded better than I ever remember! My analog drives into the ac30
sim really sounded nice. Looking forward to a gig next week (finally!!) and testing the setup out!
 
I've been able to make great use of the FET boost model and the TS808 depending on the amp model(s) being paired with them. I still use a few analog pedals in front of the Axe and prefer them for their particular sounds (typically fuzzes, which are always unique from one to the next anyway). I find I often prefer dialing in overdrive type tones using just the amp model and with different settings on Amp X vs. Y, although the lag during switching is a bit of a pain at times.
 
boleary2 said:
Thanks for the recommendations everyone! It really is the dynamics that seem to
get lost when I use a drive pedal. The punchiness of the amp
seems to diminish and I find that dialing the mix of the pedal sim back (sometimes to 20%)
seems to help (on fulldrive and suhr sim). I plugged in my standard
pedalboard today and it sounded better than I ever remember! My analog drives into the ac30
sim really sounded nice. Looking forward to a gig next week (finally!!) and testing the setup out!
Click to expand...
But, that happens in real pedals too...?
The idea behind boosts & drives is that they hit your preamp harder than your pups alone, causing it to clip, which is by definition a form of compression.
Try the badcat model without a drive, pull the MV back a bit, and hear that punciness come back. That model has more than enough gain on tap for what you described. Use that as your boost (x/y states). Use a pre-EQ for additional tone shaping.
 
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I too have struggled with the drive pedals (with a few exceptions specific to the pedal+amp combo). My solution has been to use scenes with X & Y amp states with different gain settings which for me is really what I'm after with a drive pedal in the first place. having said that, I'm definitely going to try some of the suggestions here, especially amp>amp!
 
im a/b'ing against my drive pedals...and the sound can be dialed in close...but the feel seems different...but I'm ok with that...this unit is just freaking amazing now...I ducked out around 13 and kept watch...18 finally got me headed back and I am super glad I did...the amp sims, the newer verbs, the killer rotary, new great great cab sims...I am finally ready to sell my amp now!!!
 
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