T
Interestingly, there’s no easy way to do exactly what the Axe-Fx is doing using real gear either.
This! (Except there is, kind of...)
Back in the day, a lot of people wanted to duplicate with their live amp what was being done in the recording studio, which was to put studio quality time-based and modulation effects on a guitar, and to have them within their own control rather than that of a front of house engineer. The problems with running any of these effects between the guitar and the amp were twofold. It meant the effects sound was massively distorted and compressed by high gain preamps, and the levels and impedance were all wrong for most of the nicest rack gear, as low impedance line level studio effects units didn't often play nicely with high impedance instrument level signals. Not sure what the first commercial guitar amp with a line level effects loop was, definitely out of my price bracket at the time, but it worked and lots of people wanted it.
When I finally got myself into a position to try and do this properly I ended up with a Marshall JMP-1 feeding a 50 watt per channel Marshall stereo tube power amp into 2 JCM800 4x12s, a Boss ME-5 to provide "up front" stomp effects and midi control for channel switching (to me this seemed mind blowingly state-of-the-art for the mid-90s), and I got as far as borrowing a Yamaha SPX90 before realising I didn't particularly like the guitar sounds I was getting, so aborted on an expensive project. Within a couple of months I was back out of debt, and using an old Marshall JMP Mk II 50 watt head into a Simms-Watts 4x12, some stomp boxes (inc. first TS-10, yay!) and a WEM Copicat, all up front of the amp.
It took me a while to get my head around the Fractal way of doing things, but it's doing the near impossible. It mimics what was being done in the studio in the 80s without the compromise of any power amp distortion colouring or compressing those time based effects. The way to do exactly what the Axe FX is doing with real gear would be to take stomp boxes, a real amp and cab, a quality microphone or 2, an isolation chamber for the amp, a studio desk with some nice outboard rack units, and a good FRFR cab for monitoring out to the rehearsal room or gig.
To me, the power of the Axe FX is completely mind blowing. I am guessing that some of the things Fractal doesn't achieve as perfect imitations of real life are because the real life examples are massively compromised. There are times when I want a chorus or delay to sound like it has been completely brutalised by preamp distortion, and there are others where I want it to sound like a studio effect that has been laid on after. History sent us through a period where the best we could do was to insert the effects we want to sound "natural" somewhere in the middle of all that mess, but I think we have only done it because it's the best we can achieve. Fractal achieves the two things I really need, pretty much perfectly. Bitterest pill was that Fender spring reverb sounds work perfectly
after the cab block. Who'd have thunk it? I'm so used to them being between the preamp and the power amp.
Now I know mileage of many other will vary, and I write all this with no disrespect to 4CM users. I know many achieve great results and tones with something that feels right and works for them (and the Axe FX is well set up to be part of such a rig). We all have to do what works for us.
Short answer for your son: Effects loops are a compromise that we accepted because the power amp colours the "effected" signal so much less than the preamp. Laying the effects on after the cab isn't possible in a conventional amp setup (without taking a recording studio on the road with you), but it is in the Axe FX, and for many of us that is a much, much better way of doing things.
Liam