Brucegregori
Experienced
No, not necessarily for a few reasons. If we take a Deluxe or a Twin for example they really don't break up too well - at least for higher gain applications. You really need a lot of horse power to make them into a SLO100. And even then, they sound brittley.
This is why you might see a touring player have a pedal board that has multiple drives on it because if they show up and the back line is a Twin (usually not ideal) then you really have to work to get your higher gain tones.
However, with something actually has two channels usually the clean channel is not as "headroomy" (if that is a word) and you get different results. This is why someone like Paul Gilbert asks for "some kind" of Marshall as his back line. Why? Well lots of times if you run a mxr d+ into the clean channel of a JCM2000 it can almost mimic the gain channel. I don't know all the grown up words to say why...it just happens. I think it has to do with the poweramp and associated gains and all that stuff the techs like to know and discuss.
So for my application using a Jack - We can think of this amp as a hot rodded Marshall/Orange of some sort. The Clean channel actually has a gain on it and a boost function as well. So with this one channel I can get Clean, Crunch, and Lead with using only some sort of boost pedal from the axe in front of the amp to get the Lead sound. In fact, I could also get a number of other gain sounds by stacking drive pedals on the Clean and Crunch settings as well.
So there I have a big number of channels without worrying too much are my levels consistent from setting to setting.
Now I can then add in the mix my actual Gain Channel - Channel 2 in this case. Usually amps that switch like this have much different characteristics because of the amount of compression etc. So on Channel 2 I could use it straight up to get one kind of sound, or I could treat it like I did Channel 2 approximate a Clean(ish) Crunch and Lead set up from the previous channel. Why? Well - options and huge amount and range of sounds just by using two channels of a conventional amp and the power of the Axe Fx.
I could THEN have a preset that uses the Axe Fx Amp pre amps instead of the Drive blocks!
So you really could come up with a lot of combinations. The switching is really straight forward and the presets are as well. You don't need a lot of midi confusion to get a large range of sounds.
By far this is my most favorite set up because I am using a real amp and the power of the AF at the same time. I personally like the sound of my amp and really don't need another just because it is there. But see below.
Having said that, your needs could be less than what I described so there is that as well. Or, as in my case, I am told FRFR only for a gig. But that is ok too. I actually do a similar thing going direct. So then I have to use different amps but it is close enough.
The last thing I will say is that one of the cool things I like about my "main set up" is I feel good about the sound and I can also go direct if I need to so the band and sound gods are happy.
Until I am told FRFR only lol.