Drive Recipes?

[NeoSound]

With all the drives and advanced parameters we have with fw 3.02, does anyone have some interesting settings or ways to stack drives for different tones/effects?

 

[unix-guy]

For most of the last year or more, my "base" tone in my presets has been a clean-ish amp set to sound a little "plain" on its own.

In front of that, I stick a boost type Drive block that is used to bring the amp to life by pushing the input, as well as using the boost as a pre EQ.

So that gets me a slight edge of breakup base.

For lead tones, I feed another Drive block into the boost. I like the ACB and TS808 for this, but others work nicely depending on my mood.

Another stacking approach I have used in the past for Octavia sounds is to use the Octavia style drive, but turn the drive way down... So you are just getting the octave effect. Then use it in combination with another Drive block. This can allow for a different flavor.

In both cases, you should experiment with the order of the drives to see how that effects the overall sound.

 

[NeoSound]

Another stacking approach I have used in the past for Octavia sounds is to use the Octavia style drive, but turn the drive way down... So you are just getting the octave effect. Then use it in combination with another Drive block. This can allow for a different flavor.

Going to try this one!

 

[DLC86]

Cornish SS2:
-Select distortion plus model
-Change diode type to 1N34A (if those are modeled in the Axe III, don't know)
-Turn down low cut
Done

PS: there are a couple more (minor) differences in the circuit but they can't be emulated with the available parameters. Those settings should get you pretty close though.

EDIT: diodes are 1N270 actually, see my post below

 

[NeoSound]

Cornish SS2:
-Select distortion plus model
-Change diode type to 1N34A (if those are modeled in the Axe III, don't know)
-Turn down low cut
Done

PS: there are a couple more (minor) differences in the circuit but they can't be emulated with the available parameters. Those settings should get you pretty close though.

Yes we have that one. Here's a screenshot of the available options.

 

[bradlake]

Another stacking approach I have used in the past for Octavia sounds is to use the Octavia style drive, but turn the drive way down... So you are just getting the octave effect. Then use it in combination with another Drive block. This can allow for a different flavor.

this is an especially tasty suggestion!

 

[unix-guy]

this is an especially tasty suggestion!

I actually used to have that on a scene in all my presets, but lately I haven't as the one song I was using it for hasn't been getting played.

The reason I tried it in the past (early Axe Fx II) was that I didn't really like the fuzz character of the model... So I just picked one I liked and tried it out, and the results were very nice. Pretty sure I ran octave -> drive, but I'm not sure.

 

[yek]

this is an especially tasty suggestion!

Yep, I mentioned this in the guide too. It's the way people often used Octavias back in the day. The various Octavia versions didn't always have a lot of built-in drive, and amps couldn't always be turned up, so people put them in front of fuzzes.

 

[yek]

Cornish SS2:
-Select distortion plus model
-Change diode type to 1N34A (if those are modeled in the Axe III, don't know)
-Turn down low cut
Done

Gotta try this. Curious.

 

[trancegodz]

For lead tones, I feed another Drive block into the boost. I like the ACB and TS808 for this, but others work nicely depending on my mood.

I do the same thing.

 

[Piing]

Cornish SS2:
-Select distortion plus model
-Change diode type to 1N34A (if those are modeled in the Axe III, don't know)
-Turn down low cut
Done

PS: there are a couple more (minor) differences in the circuit but they can't be emulated with the available parameters. Those settings should get you pretty close though.

Thank you for the suggestion.
Changing the diodes to 1N34A and setting Lo-Cut to zero, the difference is very subtle.
I like the result of increasing the diodes to 3. The tone is less aggressive on the highs, but I don't know if that gets closer to the SS2.

 

[DLC86]

Thank you for the suggestion.
Changing the diodes to 1N34A and setting Lo-Cut to zero, the difference is very subtle.
I like the result of increasing the diodes to 3. The tone is less aggressive on the highs, but I don't know if that gets closer to the SS2.


Sorry, I actually wrote a wrong info previously, diodes in the SS2 are 1N270, 1N34A should already be the default diodes for the distortion plus, at least according to this schematic.

The other differences in the circuit are around the gain knob (ss2 probably has less gain), the caps on the input (those let more bass and treble into the circuit), the tone circuit (which the mxr doesn't have but we do in the axe) and the output buffer.