Need new strategy for light dirt in front of clean amps

D

dk_ace

Experienced
This is one of the things I've been perpetually unhappy with concerning my patches. This is the one and only thing that seems much easier with my amp and pedal rigs. I often see complaints about how the drive pedals in the Axe-FX are hard to dial in, so I'm looking to see what you guys are currently using to add light OD to clean amps.

I spent hours with this yesterday again, and I never found what I wanted. The closest I got was the tape drive with the drive maxed, but I would like a little more range than that if possible. I'm looking for a drive sound that doesn't color things much if at all, I just want to add some drive to the sound basically as it is.

In the real world rigs, I could get what I wanted easily from a Barber Direct Drive with the drive below 9 o'clock or from a Hotcake (depending on the amp).

Here's what has sort of worked for me so far in the Axe-FX:

1. Tape drive with drive maxed (need a little more drive range though)
2. Tube drive with drive at 0 (still couldn't quite dial it in - the treble or bass side of the eq spectrum was always a little funky)
3. Fulldrive - When I get close to the balance of drive and tonality that I want from this one, it has no sustain or juice.

The only idea I have left at this point is to slam the clean amp with a huge boost to push it into OD, and then have a null filter block after the amp that comes on with the boost to negate the increase in volume.

I'm more of a Vox/Matchless/Plexi guy, so TS pedals don't do what I'm looking for.

D
 
Rethink your strategy.

Here's my favorite way to drive (any) amp. Not just clean ones, ALL of them.

Drop a filter block in front of your amp block. Adjust the output to +6db. (Adjust output db level to taste, but honestly - try +6db first).

Done.

This works for high gain, low gain, no gain, chimey... anything.

And it works WELL.
 
Scott Peterson said:
Rethink your strategy.

Here's my favorite way to drive (any) amp. Not just clean ones, ALL of them.

Drop a filter block in front of your amp block. Adjust the output to +6db. (Adjust output db level to taste, but honestly - try +6db first).

Done.

This works for high gain, low gain, no gain, chimey... anything.

And it works WELL.
Click to expand...

+1 I've been using this since Scott posted the tip about it a week or so ago. Works perfectly, and uses almost no processing power!
 
I do the same thing Scott does and it does work well but I still wish the drive blocks were better. The only one I really like is the BB Pre, man I would love it if the TS was usable.
 
Well, that's good news Scott! I don't know if 6 db will be enough on a clean amp, but that is definately where I'll start. I wish I would have thought about it last night before my ears were fatigued....

I didn't like to do that with real amps because often the resulting volume change when you used a clean boost for drive was too much to deal with live for me. I used ODs because I wanted to add drive without adding lots of volume. I often forget that I can bust through those prior limitations now that I have the Axe-FX. I'm still re-learning how to do things it seems.

Marshall, what problem do you have with the TS? By raising the low cut slightly on the basic 808 model I can easily clone the response of my Keeley TS. It sounds great IMO, just not with Vox amps and the like (I don't like the real pedals for those applications either though). Besides that, the TS is far from a neutral overdrive. It has a fairly strong voicing, so it isn't well suited to what I'm trying to achieve here.

D
 
Oh, and I have tried reducing the mix, but that didn't do it for me either with the drives. I never had to do that with my real pedals, so I shouldn't have to do it in the Axe-FX either as I see it. I like mixing drives for certain things (Sparkle Drive), but it shouldn't be necessary typically IMO.

D
 
dk_ace said:
3. Fulldrive - When I get close to the balance of drive and tonality that I want from this one, it has no sustain or juice.
Click to expand...

I think you're right about the FD. It doesn't seem to behave quite the same as the real one I have. If I have the real one's drive at noon I get a "transparent overdrive" - it has a little grit but has some good sustain. In the Axe-FX at there is more distortion, but if you lower it you lose the sustain. I think the TS model lacks some of the sustain of the analog pedal, too. You can try adding a compressor before or after the drive block to get some of that back.
 
dk_ace said:
Marshall, what problem do you have with the TS? By raising the low cut slightly on the basic 808 model I can easily clone the response of my Keeley TS.
Click to expand...

Well, I honestly hadn't played around with the TS in quite a while since being really frustrated with it when I first got my Ultra. I sat down with it tonight and had no problems dialing in some really good tones with it and the Brownface model. I don't know what changed; firmware update, my ears, or my tweaking skills but I stand corrected. :oops:
 
Scott Peterson said:
Rethink your strategy.

Here's my favorite way to drive (any) amp. Not just clean ones, ALL of them.

Drop a filter block in front of your amp block. Adjust the output to +6db. (Adjust output db level to taste, but honestly - try +6db first).

Done.

This works for high gain, low gain, no gain, chimey... anything.

And it works WELL.
Click to expand...

+1
 
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