You are bending the technology to YOUR preference; not the other way around. That's a good thing. And one of the major points that I find so much fun in the Axe-FX; you make it your own.
very well said... cos THAT is the KILLER point.. you bend IT to YOU and your needs..
funny you mention this cos this came up in a chat I had with someone not so long ago regarding my early experiences with the Axe-II
all fx units have various and different strengths and weaknesses..
when I first got the Axe-II I was of cos a noob to the Axe-II, but I was not a noob to using fx units..
initially [and well armed with preconceived views as to how things can and should be done] I kept running into config brick walls
but it turns out that they were not brick walls at all
the Axe-II actually could do everything I needed.. I just needed to figure out a different approach..
IMHO, the Grid is one of the single most powerful tools within the Axe-II that seriously sets it apart from the rest that are fx 'chain' centric
All you guys...
when you're thinking about series vs parallel you have more considerations open to you than tone alone
because as Scott pointed out, many individual fx do not sound that different [unless of course you start chaining them]
you can also use parallel fx to shorten the fx chain and save on Grid real-estate [on my preset you can see this with the phaser and wah, and the placement of the pitch block]
so you can shorten the chain
you can also create multiple parallel chains - just like when you have two or more chains of stomps and a X-Y box so you can switch between them..
you can also use parallel fx to solve problems
in my preset above, the PEQ in parallel with the shunt is used to boost the extreme lows and highs as my dirty tone is 'cleaned' to prevent the tone from thinning out too much
the mixer cross-fades between them.. so when the XP is half cocked, you hear half of the PEQ and half of the shunt that is parallel to it..
the Grid, parallel and series routing are a big deal for sooooooo many reasons...
I seriously suggest taking note of Scott's vid and then go have a major play around with all this..
the possibilities that all this opens up have no limits..