How to toggle between real preamp vs fractal amp models in 4 cable method with Axe FX-3

[Thomas Obester]

I think that the preamp is automatically muted because of the set up and chain used in his preset 2

It’s interesting by the way cause with this you add a clean channel to an amp that don’t have it originally . Have you tried a clean amp of the axe in the return of the head to hear the result of a clean tone through it ?

of course, it works nicely, any nice clean amp model with amp power section combined and you have nice second channel to single channel amp.

 

[My name is mud]

THat's what the multiplexer is for. It allows you to choose which line of the grid is being passed through to the rest of the chain. There are other ways of doing it involving block levels, but that isn't nearly as easy or efficient.

Léon don’t use a multiplexer in his preset 2 in the video . The way the cable are set and the setting of every blocks mute the preamp of the amp as the signal goes to the poweramp directly I think . Like going to the return of the head only

 

[My name is mud]

I think this reminds how I done it with ax8 and friedman JJ years ago

Stop buying single channel heads please . Ne-ver !

 

[Frodebro]

Léon don’t use a multiplexer in his preset 2 in the video . The way the cable are set and the setting of every blocks mute the preamp of the amp as the signal goes to the poweramp directly I think . Like going to the return of the head only

Thing is, if I'm reading this thread correctly, Leon was running two separate presets. If that's the case, we should just ignore that completely because the objective here is to switch between a loop (with the amps preamp in it) and an amp block in the same preset. In this scenario, the screenshot that Glenn posted is the most common (and easiest) way to do it.

 

[Thomas Obester]

Stop buying single channel heads please . Ne-ver !

but it’s so good that I had to

 

[sprint]

Very simplest way to my eye, is to have fx loop block into amp block with two scenes:
1. Clean, fx loop bypass'd and amp block engaged.
2. External Preamp, fx loop engaged and amp block bypassed.

That's it - see below:

Clean Scene


External Preamp Scene:


Connections:

• Guitar > Axfx In 1 front.
• Axfx Out3L > External Pre Input
• External Pre Output (ie External Amp Send) > Axfx In3L
• Axfx Out1L > External Power Amp (ie External Amp Return).

Global:
Input3 set to "Left Only".
Output3 set to "Sum L+R"

Preset attached - start with low output1 level in case of volume spike.

Refine loop level with Input3 Level knob.

 

[Thomas Obester]

Very simplest way to my eye, is to have fx loop block into amp block with two scenes:
1. Clean, fx loop bypass'd and amp block engaged.
2. External Preamp, fx loop engaged and amp block bypassed.

That's it - see below:

Clean Scene
View attachment 113091

External Preamp Scene:
View attachment 113092

Connections:

• Guitar > Axfx In 1 front.
• Axfx Out3L > External Pre Input
• External Pre Output (ie External Amp Send) > Axfx In3L
• Axfx Out1L > External Power Amp (ie External Amp Return).

Global:
Input3 set to "Left Only".
Output3 set to "Sum L+R"

I think this is how I done it years ago when I had friedman JJ and Ax8. There was no Mplexer I think and this was the solution, IIRC. Also, this looks to me a lot more simple than using Mplexer block.

 

[mr_fender]

Very simplest way to my eye, is to have fx loop block into amp block with two scenes:
1. Clean, fx loop bypass'd and amp block engaged.
2. External Preamp, fx loop engaged and amp block bypassed.

That's it - see below:

Clean Scene
View attachment 113091

External Preamp Scene:
View attachment 113092

Connections:

• Guitar > Axfx In 1 front.
• Axfx Out3L > External Pre Input
• External Pre Output (ie External Amp Send) > Axfx In3L
• Axfx Out1L > External Power Amp (ie External Amp Return).

Global:
Input3 set to "Left Only".
Output3 set to "Sum L+R"

Preset attached - start with low output1 level in case of volume spike.

Refine loop level with Input3 Level knob.

Swap your IN 3 and Amp blocks and all you need to do is bypass the In 3 block and you'll hear the amp block instead. No Mux block needed.

 

[sprint]

I think this is how I done it years ago when I had friedman JJ and Ax8. There was no Mplexer I think and this was the solution, IIRC.

There's several ways - I use the mux like Mr GlennO (or mixer) to give me the option of having a balance control on the return signal which I sometimes need in more complicated stereo external routings, but, for the absolute simplest mono 4cm, just loop into amp and mute either accordingly by scene.

 

[sprint]

Swap your IN 3 and Amp blocks and all you need to do is bypass the In 3 block and you'll hear the amp block instead. No Mux block needed.

Nice! - I never think of doing it that way - so OP, an even simpler baseline 4CM method.

 

[mr_fender]

If you use a Mixer block instead of a MUX block with the parallel method, you can also crossfade between them on the fly with an expression pedal.

 

[Thomas Obester]

There's several ways - I use the mux like Mr GlennO (or mixer) to give me the option of having a balance control on the return signal which I sometimes need, but, for the absolute simplest 4cm, just loop into amp and mute either accordingly by scene.

sure, but mplexer is bit complicated for me. I can’t walk and chew at the same time, and 1 ch. amp is complex enough for me so I’ll probably try your advice first, haha

 

[sprint]

Mr Fender's suggested basic option here. Just engage input3 to go from AxeFx Model Clean to External Pre. Cool!

 

[sprint]

Careful of the volume levels when testing 4cm - none of my real amps have master volume after fx loop so forgetting to turn down Axfx output volume when testing has practically blown my head off a couple times in the past.

 

[rhummellh]

I watched it 4 times. no explanation about how he had done it, I mean he said he set things up, but how exactly ?

Send Leon a message, I'm sure he will help you out.