Need a more natural growl

andyp13

Power User
I have been using an FRFR with my soul band and am happy with the sound - I just use two settings 1.Clean for the rhythm work
2. Overdrive (using same settings but with the (Xotic) AC drive block on.

Lastnight I rehearsed with my blues trio and for this I need a bit of growl in my sound - when I used a normal Guitar cab I got this by adding a 808 drive block in the chain with the 'drive' setting barely on - this gave me a slight SRV overdrive. Using this setting lastnight but with the Q12 FRFR sounded dreadful - I had a sound of a guitar with a cheap overdrive pedal on it? No dynamics and didn't sound natural at all.
Is this the nature of the FRFR goose foe Clean or full on distortion but not good in between ( that natural overdrive valve sound) -
 
Lately with all the improvements in the FW, I get the best “growl” from the amp itself. I usually have a modifier (either scene or continuous controller) on the Input (and a corresponding mod on level to compensate for volume changes).

I also will place a drive block before the amp, and often use a low drive value, with perhaps a kick in volume for sustaining/feedback/pinch harmonics on leads.

But again, the best meaty distortion often is in the amp (tubes vs silicon, fet, germanium etc.) Clean to mean in the amp block.
 
What's your IR? What's your HP and LP set to? Also pay attention to the Speaker resonance, etc. You may need to boost the mids even more somewhere. You could also do a studio comp at the end of the chain and balance everything there.
 
Lately with all the improvements in the FW, I get the best “growl” from the amp itself. I usually have a modifier (either scene or continuous controller) on the Input (and a corresponding mod on level to compensate for volume changes).

I also will place a drive block before the amp, and often use a low drive value, with perhaps a kick in volume for sustaining/feedback/pinch harmonics on leads.

But again, the best meaty distortion often is in the amp (tubes vs silicon, fet, germanium etc.) Clean to mean in the amp block.

I agree - one of the reasons I still like to use a real cabinet instead of FRFR ( for live use) is so that I can still use my actual OD pedals. Nothing against the drive blocks in the axe, they are great - but theres still something to my ears and the feel about a real OD pedal.
If people have perceived "issues" about the axe not feeling like a "real" amp - my first suggestion is to put an OD pedal in front...
 
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Sometimes it is best to use the X/Y of the drive block and dial in the OD pedal specifically for FRFR. If you have the OD dialed in to sound good in the real cab there is a good chance that it might sound a little wonky coming out of the wedge seeing as how they are different animals
 
I agree - one of the reasons I still like to use a real cabinet instead of FRFR ( for live use) is so that I can still use my actual OD pedals. Nothing against the drive blocks in the axe, they are great - but theres still something to my ears and the feel about a real OD pedal.
If people have perceived "issues" about the axe not feeling like a "real" amp - my first suggestion is to put an OD pedal in front...
What does using a real cab have to do with using external drive pedals?
 
Because to me, in my opinion, drive pedals don't sound/feel the same through FRFR...
Weird, since that shouldn't make any difference and doesn't make any (that I can detect anyway) with either my guitar cab setup or any of my FRFR devices.... :cool: It's all about the front end input with ODs for me. If you have an IR selected that is not filtering the frequency response in the wrong band, FRFR should not affect it, IMHO.
 
drive pedals sound great and work great for me FRFR, maybe dial with your ears and not your eyes. just because it worked one way with one piece of gear doesn't mean it translates to another.
 
I have tried pushing the amp input more from the drive block...it's better but just doesn't seem to have that natural 'break-up' sound.....

Loving the clean and dirty setup with my Soul band, but I guess with a blues band I require that more natural valve sound - which I'm not getting withFRFR unfortunately- will keep trying for now though....
 
A while ago I had an Angry Charlie pedal that was sitting around gathering dust, there was a certain sound I liked from it to push Marshall amps on my AxeFx, I took some time and matched it pretty much spot on using the BB pre on the AxeFx, it was so close I sold the pedal. Ive tested a TS9 and a Maxon 808OD against the built in drive pedals and they almost sound the same, when I say almost to me anyway its just not worth the extra cables and power to use external pedals anymore.
 
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