maxdown
Fractal Fanatic
I remember Steve Fryette on YT demo'ing his 'Valvulator 1' (discontinued now I think and replaced with the Valvulator GPI/DI which is a different beast) as a buffered tube input into some modellers.
If I remember correctly (not a given by any means!) it was designed really to restore the signal of any degradation caused by a chain of FX pedals that were in front of an amp but in the case of using it with a modeller (guitar - valvulator - instrument in) it was claimed to give back the 'feel' of using the input of a normal tube amp and carried it through the A/D process.
If you use a tube preamp I'd say it would be maybe better used into the rear input rather than the 'secret sauced' front input?
Nothing to stop you trying both input types though.
I think the Axe-FX is pretty much good enough on it's own for me ..... but there's nothing wrong with a little experimentation either.
If I remember correctly (not a given by any means!) it was designed really to restore the signal of any degradation caused by a chain of FX pedals that were in front of an amp but in the case of using it with a modeller (guitar - valvulator - instrument in) it was claimed to give back the 'feel' of using the input of a normal tube amp and carried it through the A/D process.
If you use a tube preamp I'd say it would be maybe better used into the rear input rather than the 'secret sauced' front input?
Nothing to stop you trying both input types though.
I think the Axe-FX is pretty much good enough on it's own for me ..... but there's nothing wrong with a little experimentation either.