Pedals in front of the Axe = lose the "secret sauce?"

fuzzyoctaves

fuzzyoctaves

Inspired
The Axe will not handle a loop in front of amp blocks without unworkable noise unless the amps are very low gain. So now I am looking at running FreqOut and some fuzz prior to going into Input1. I know that there is some "secret sauce" in the inputs - am I losing that by going through pedals first? Particularly a pedal with a buffer like the FreqOut?
 
bradlake said:
Try it and see how it works for you, think you may be surprised
Click to expand...

Didn't work well for me as the harmonic was too "pure" sounding without going through drive+amp blocks. It emphasized how unnatural the FreqOut can sound.

I'll put it in front since I need to put my fuzz up front anyway.
 
I use loops in front of the amps all the time. The key is to get the gain staging right. Increase the commensurate boost/pad as high as possible without clipping the output. Make sure the associated output level knob on the front is turned all the way. Adjust the Input Trim for the associated input as high as possible without clipping the input.

That said, you won't lose the "secret sauce" by putting a pedal in front.
 
FractalAudio said:
I use loops in front of the amps all the time. The key is to get the gain staging right. Increase the commensurate boost/pad as high as possible without clipping the output. Make sure the associated output level knob on the front is turned all the way. Adjust the Input Trim for the associated input as high as possible without clipping the input.

That said, you won't lose the "secret sauce" by putting a pedal in front.
Click to expand...

Ah Ha!
The boost/pad from 0dB to 12dB made a noticeable difference without effecting the tone/gain. I had read the manual entry, but misunderstood it - user error on my part.

I didn't really understand the Input Trim adjustment suggestion. From 0-10, there is no impact on the Input3 meter (which tickles the red a bit less than Input1). I noticed that lowering Input Trim below the 1.0 default does lower the noise quite a bit - lowering it to .2 made the noise manageable on a very loud preset, but there is a noticeable gain drop from the default of 1.0. Were you suggesting that I set a commensurate drive increase in the amp or drive pedal?
 
Here's a live video of Joy to the World from a couple Sunday's ago at our church. I'm running a full pedalboard into the Axe III - and this was prior to the 15.xx FW update - it sounds even better now!
 
And here's one from this past weekend. The song is an original written by our keys player and Jenny Lee Riddle (she wrote Revelation Song, if you do any church gigs - it's in D Mixolydian, ;) ). I'm running 15.01 FW here. This is actually the first time using 15.01 live and it's SOOOO GOOOOOODDDD! Great job, @FractalAudio and team! Really appreciate your dedication to perfecting your craft!

Merry Christmas, everyone!
 
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