Stacking overdrives. What's your formula?

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Home Skillet

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I've recently been using 2 overdrives to get a mild crunch and heavy grit tone. For both blocks I use the modded T808 (TS9) with the clip types set to LV Tube & hard, and in parallel. It's been working pretty good for me but I'm sure there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Just wondering what you all do IF you stack overdrives or some other technique to get 2 dirt tones within 1 preset.
 
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You could use 1 drive block and switch between X/Y instead of using 2 blocks.

I personally use 2 blocks in series to achieve a combined crunch+lead sound.
 
I get 4 dirty tones in one preset..... amp 1 drive modified with external switch. Without the modificafion Amp one is total clean....
With it, its light crunch. Amp 2, same amp with more drive...
Than drive block x (ts9) with amp one and drive block y (fuzz) with amp one...all is controlled with the mfc switsches
set as external controllers and linked to each other that pressing on one of them deactivates any other.
 
What amps are you guys using to boost with dirt? I don't have an axe, and am still trying to wrap my head around how to achieve all the sounds.

Do you guys just run a clean amp and a dirty amp, and then turn boosts on/off via scenes, or flip between the amps for your sounds? On my traditional rig, I usually have a clean, crunch, Rhythm, blues lead, and high gain lead.

Also, is the main advantage of scenes to switch between sounds without any gaps? If so, does that mean there are gaps when switching presets? Not a big deal if I can accomplish things via scenes, but I just don't quite understand everything yet. I see a lot of good individual sounds/videos/posts, but combining multiple sounds and switching between them quickly is what I'm after
 
I use a custom PEQ curve that I dig with the level output attached to an expression pedal. I like it better, for some things, than any drive block. I have my rig in the car for this morning's gig after last night's gig, but I'll revisit this later and post my settings for that. You can stack the Drive block(s) and PEQ block for even cooler stuff if you want. I just use the expression pedal to add interactivity and control that I can manipulate on the fly. (*Note, I attach an expression pedal to the level control of the Drive blocks to do the same thing).

Expression pedals are one of the most powerful tools to take advantage of the Axe-FX II IMHO. Nothing need be static or 'set' with them.
 
i only use the axe fx for the effects only in front of a tube combo amp so my findings may differ from some others who use the amp and cab modeling.

i find that stacking drive blocks is a necessity in the axe fx in order to get a halfway decent high gain sound. the high gain drive blocks are completely unuseable on their own for me BUT you can get a really nice marshall-esque sound by stacking them. i found that by stacking the rat drive into the shredmaster works pretty well. you REALLY have to mess with the mix, level, drive, high cut and low cut parameters, but after a solid hour or two of tweaking you can get some really nice tones. also, adding a PEQ block after the drives helps to further shape your sound.

for medium-gain lead tones i've found that the blues OD into the BB pre will yield some nice, smooth OD tones. again, you will have to spend a while tweaking the above mentioned parameters.

for medium gain rhythm tones i use the hard fuzz into a blues OD. just make sure that you don't have the mix on the hard fuzz up above 50% because this drive block sounds pretty bad on it's own. it sounds nice just goosing the front end of the blues OD (which, to me, is one of the best drive blocks in the axe fx).

just be patient because it will take a while but the end results will pay off big time! i think the key is chosing 2 different sounding drives that compliment each other EQ-wise.

good luck!
 
I think that you might get better results using the AxeFx into the fxloop of your tube amp rather than in front of. If you are just using it for just drives, you might not get the best out of them. As well as time-based fx which also wont sound right into the front of the amp. I think that the drives rock, my main ones are ts808od, RC and AC Boosters, BB Pre and Eternal love. And I havent stacked them because there is plenty of gain within them. Specially the shred dist and the rat.
I like to place a peq before the drive block and shape it if needed, and/or just boost the level by a couple dbs. That way I oversaturate the drive and get more out of it.
 
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TakaraGold said:
I think that you might get better results using the AxeFx into the fxloop of your tube amp rather than in front of. If you are just using it for just drives, you might not get the best out of them. As well as time-based fx which also wont sound right into the front of the amp.
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you definitely don't want to run any kind of drives in an effects loop. it sounds horrible. if anything, you should run the drives in the front of an amp and have the time based effects in the effects loop. i've run the time based effects both in front of my amp and in the effects loop and don't hear any difference whatsoever. i used to have a fully loaded pedaltrain pro that i run in front of my tube amp and it sounded great running it like that as well. ymmv though
 
jb70 said:
you definitely don't want to run any kind of drives in an effects loop. it sounds horrible. if anything, you should run the drives in the front of an amp and have the time based effects in the effects loop. i've run the time based effects both in front of my amp and in the effects loop and don't hear any difference whatsoever. i used to have a fully loaded pedaltrain pro that i run in front of my tube amp and it sounded great running it like that as well. ymmv though
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Agreed. DRIVES in front of amp. I use all time based effects in front my amps out of forced reality. They are all tube Fenders W/O loops. You don't get the wideness or clarity of some effects, but the sound is a proven classic sound.
As for stacking drives with the AXE FX, do as you would in any pedalboard. Stacking drives can be practically magical when done right. I use 4 drives on my board at once, stacking 2-3 regularly. I personally find ODs stack better than distortions but I play with mild gain or mid gain at best. You may find different.

Bottom line, try it! There are no rules for great sound and the AXE tends to break the rules anyway!
 
Personally, I've never stacked 2 drive blocks together. I have no clue how to use the X and Y states in the blocks, so I keep it simple. I do make use of scenes as it cuts the delay between clean to dirty to a micro second. I would have thought that people use a drive in front of the amp block. Is there any benefit to using two drive pedals at once?
 
Fabio KTG said:
Is there any benefit to using two drive pedals at once?
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Yes, yes yes! Tone! Just give it a go. Its not like just cranking the gain a little more one drive, it actually changes the dynamic of both drives. It can add sparkle and sweetness and depth and a bigness or all of the above. Pedals like the RC boost from Xotic effects were made for this. As I said, practically magical when done right.
 
Mixing the tubescreamer in series with other drive pedals is a common practice as well. It really smooths out the gain, making anything sing.
 
I haven't really gotten great results stacking distortions, but using combinations of distortion x/y and filter blocks for gain boosting works great.

I run my amp settings with the drive down (Hiwatt, Triptik, and Corncob are my usuals) and master volume up. I dial it in so that I can get some grit if I really dig in, but it's generally pretty clean. I also keep a very clean model on the "Y" side of the amp block for super clean stuff with no grit.

I then run a filter block for a boost right in front of the amp, I dial the amount of gain to get a nice crunch, but not something that's going to give a ton of feedback and sustain. It's more a good classic rock sound but not so great for palm muting and leads.

I don't really play metal, but I do need another notch where I can get some more balls. So, in front of the filter, I put a Rat or TS808 distortion. I set it so that with the filter and drive engaged I get a really good high gain crunch. I generally get my distortion from the output level of the drive block, as opposed to cranking the drive setting. This way I basically have a transparent boost in the filter block, and a very slightly colored distortion from the drive block. But in both cases, I'm pretty much using the amp's distortion.

On the "Y" side of the drive block, I have a Tube Driver with the drive pretty high and the highs cut, so I can get a really thick, sustainey lead tone. It's a little dark for rhythm, but sounds great for solos with a ton of delay. I have another filter block after everything for a pure volume boost for solos.

With this setup, I can do the following in one preset:

Scene 1: Heavy rhythm (Amp X + drive block + filter boost)
Scene 2: Dirty rhythm (Amp X + filter boost)
Scene 3: Sorta clean (Amp X only)
Scene 4: Super clean (Amp Y only)
Scene 5: Leads (Amp X + alternate drive block + filter boost)

Every one of these scenes has a slightly different flavor of distortion. I pretty much play an entire gig on one preset, unless I need a different setting on a harmonizer or a specific effect for a cover song. Dave Gilmour did something similar, running a Big Muff into a Colorsound boost into his Hiwatts.
 
Have not explored stacking in the Axe yet but in the tube world that is another story.

Rule of thumb (for me) in stacking (with my "real" pedalboard and tube amps) was to put the pedal/tone I wanted flavored last.

Some combos I like
RC > BB
Timmy > Zendrive
Timmy > BB

Pre-stacks that will make anything sound good :lol
Klon > anything
KOT > anything
RC > anything

Tone I use to go for was greater saturation with a smooth OD/distortion for lead tones and crunchy tones.

Definitely on my to do list with the axe.






TexasHeartRush said:
Yes, yes yes! Tone! Just give it a go. Its not like just cranking the gain a little more one drive, it actually changes the dynamic of both drives. It can add sparkle and sweetness and depth and a bigness or all of the above. Pedals like the RC boost from Xotic effects were made for this. As I said, practically magical when done right.
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Yek mentioned this in another thread, but try using an amp block as a drive pedal. I run FRFR, but concept is the same. Turn Sag control off to turn off Power Amp sim, and let her rip. Running a Dumble with Sag off into the front end of a clean Vibroking block worked fantastic! The Bogner amp blocks give you all the Bogner pedals as well. Tons of Gain and EQ control, and surprisingly easy to dial in.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk - now Free
 
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Scott Peterson said:
Expression pedals are one of the most powerful tools to take advantage of the Axe-FX II IMHO. Nothing need be static or 'set' with them.
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I just wish you could setup different settings for X/Y with the expression pedal (ex. X - drive goes from 4-6 and Y - drive goes from 3-7). You can use different drive pedals for X/Y, but you have to use same expression pedal curves/settings.
 
Home Skillet said:
I've recently been using 2 overdrives to get a mild crunch and heavy grit tone. For both blocks I use the modded T808 (TS9) with the clip types set to LV Tube & hard, and in parallel. It's been working pretty good for me but I'm sure there is more than one way to skin a cat.

Just wondering what you all do IF you stack overdrives or some other technique to get 2 dirt tones within 1 preset.
Click to expand...

I just started running two BB Pre's in series - the tone changes depending which one is on (first BB in the chain or second). Then it gets a little hotter if you have them both on. But, I also started to blend in very subtle shades of chorus and flanger (like 5%) to fatten things up without really being able to hear the effect dominate the tone (e.g., without say to yourself "yikes - that certainly is an excessively flanged/chorused tone ...)"

The Axe is such a powerful and versatile tool - it might be worthwhile modeling even more of the subtle gain effects (like the BB Pre) and running them in series (or in parallel chains) to see what the user community can come up with.
 
Scott Peterson said:
I use a custom PEQ curve that I dig with the level output attached to an expression pedal. I like it better, for some things, than any drive block. I have my rig in the car for this morning's gig after last night's gig, but I'll revisit this later and post my settings for that. You can stack the Drive block(s) and PEQ block for even cooler stuff if you want. I just use the expression pedal to add interactivity and control that I can manipulate on the fly. (*Note, I attach an expression pedal to the level control of the Drive blocks to do the same thing).

Expression pedals are one of the most powerful tools to take advantage of the Axe-FX II IMHO. Nothing need be static or 'set' with them.
Click to expand...

Oh man - Scott - that is what I am after ... I think ... I am a newbie ... so take everything I say with a grain of skepticism. ;)

I (think I) want to be able to tweak internal amp and effects parameters with expression pedals.

Is it possible to assign expression pedals to control parameters within the Axe effects and amp blocks?
 
Bill Piersall said:
Yek mentioned this in another thread, but try using an amp block as a drive pedal. I run FRFR, but concept is the same. Turn Sag control off to turn of Power Amp sim, and let her rip. Running a Dumble into the front end of a clean Vibroking worked fantastic! The Bogner amps give you all the Bogner pedals as well. Tons of Gain and EQ control, and surprisingly easy to dial in.
Click to expand...

i tried this in front of my 1x12 redplate combo and i vastly prefer the sound of the drive blocks. ymmv
 
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