The drive block is finally "there"

lqdsnddist

Axe-Master
many users have stated that the effects on the axe-Fx are great, save for the drives, which aren't quite there. We have world class reverbs, every delay option one could thing of, fantastic wah pedals, etc.

Last remaining hardware pedal for many, myself included, was some drive pedals. Well I can say that after that last updates, I have/need zero hardware pedals.

At least for my subjective needs, we are "there". My entire rig is now "in the box".

I've got a few options for tube screamer type OD that sounds fantastic now. Works great over the full range of the pedal.

With the FAS Boost I've got an awesome clean boost

The update PI fuzz really nails the tone, and with mids tweaks, I can match all the versions of my Muffaletta. Not a perfect op-amp fuzz but still darn good tones can be dialed in.

Last but not least, I've even been able to take my fuzz pedals off my board. Finally can dial in a Si fuzz tone that matches the hardware pedals I a/b'd it with.

Not that the axe wasn't great before, but it's now truly all the more equipment I need to produce any tone I'm after.

More exciting is that it's still a work in progress, and things will still be added, such as I've heard, a Timmy drive pedal....
 
I hear ya, i still cant dial in a Zen Master tone like i had in Q3.02. Guess i just need more time but there is way more drive and saturation it seems like in 6.00 then before and i have the drive at like 2.oo and the mix at like 60%.
 
Yeah, it was surprising to me how backing off the mix settings really helped. On my Si fuzz settings (shared preset in the preset sub forum) I think I'm running it at about 60% mix as well. Just a touch of bit reduction also helped give that extra bit of spitting Velcro tone of a hardware fuzz with the bias backed off a bit

I think the improvement to the si diode certainly helped, but in some cases the mix knob seems to be the key.

Don't know if it's behavior wasn't changed in q6, or maybe I just never tried it at anything other than 100%
 
For me ....

Overdrives are almost stupid simple ....
Clean Boosts, etc; are as well ....

But ..., I'm still struggling w/ the combination of a Drive block ( for Distortion ) into a completely Clean Amp .... The Ruckus, Rat, etc; either sound super 'harsh & spitty' ( almost like a fuzz ) or boxed in and 'honky' .... I know that the 1's and 0's aren't the problem, most likely I am .... But it's frustrating none the less ....
 
I was just thinking of trying out the TS-808 as i have heard it sounds really good.

I use it to tighten up the Recto 2 Red model. I run it with 0 gain (maybe .5-1 depending on my mood), tone at 5, level at 5 and it sounds glorious. Most people turn the level all the way up but that kinda ruins it for me.
 
I use it to tighten up the Recto 2 Red model. I run it with 0 gain (maybe .5-1 depending on my mood), tone at 5, level at 5 and it sounds glorious. Most people turn the level all the way up but that kinda ruins it for me.


What's a good alternative to tighten up but not to have that mid/honky hump?
 
What's a good alternative to tighten up but not to have that mid/honky hump?

Using the Cut switch on the amp block and lowering the Low Freq Resonance on the...i forget what tab it is. But those 2 will seriously tighten up response for things like palm mutes and such. Maybe even lower the bass to something like 3 or 4.
 
I have a rams head muff and a black finger compressor (not tube type) from the same era wired up comp into fuzz. The comp has a low cut tone control. I put a foot switch to be able to select all pass or full low cut on the compressor, giving me two pre eq's for the muff'. By cutting the pre lows to the muff, it gave me me a cleaner overdrive type tone and with all pass selected, a very fat sound. This along with a pre dist parked crybaby, I had three tonal presets with my old setup.
Now that the dist pedals and Wa's have been tweeked, I'm looking forward to revisiting this setup.
 
I have a rams head muff and a black finger compressor (not tube type) from the same era wired up comp into fuzz. The comp has a low cut tone control. I put a foot switch to be able to select all pass or full low cut on the compressor, giving me two pre eq's for the muff'. By cutting the pre lows to the muff, it gave me me a cleaner overdrive type tone and with all pass selected, a very fat sound. This along with a pre dist parked crybaby, I had three tonal presets with my old setup.
Now that the dist pedals and Wa's have been tweeked, I'm looking forward to revisiting this setup.
I've got a tube Black Finger, I got it to go with a Line 6 Pod X3 Pro (sorry for the profanity) to give it a more tube "feel". I gave up on it and haven't touched it in about 8 years, I may dig it out to try with my backup rig.
 
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I bought the Rams Head Muff and the Black Finger compressor, both new, around 1970. Still own them, but there both in storage.
The original Black Finger compressor was transistor only, no tubes.
 
I only use the TS-808 but it was majorly improved in Quantum 5 to the point of sounding identical to the real thing, a TS9 in this case. Sounds just like my friend's TS9 now.

I was just thinking of trying out the TS-808 as i have heard it sounds really good.

It was super simple to match my Analogman TS-9 Silver Mod. See: http://forum.fractalaudio.com/threa...i-diode-clipping-in-q5-xx-drive-block.120955/ -- block file in there.
 
I thought a handful of the drive blocks where "there" ages ago. They've just gotten more refined over time; easier to use. The BB Pre in FW19 was a shining example of a "there" drive we had ages ago:

 
If I'd have to hazard a guess I'd say @FractalAudio is getting a angle on what happens to the harmonic series when a signal is clipping and were seeing that in the driver's right now.
I mean if youre some time super bored run a 100 Hz sine wave through any block whether drive or amp with it without cab IR and see what happens to the overtones by way of a frequency analyzer.
I've done it and it's hilarious that what some guys think the harmonic content of a single ended Class A amp is (IK Multimedia) especially when compared to say TH3 or UAD.

Also insanely interesting to see which amps have their overtones in phase... And I mean you can see this.
All the online it sounds the same, tone is in hands, amp in the room and what all argument's you see will end when someone puts the ability to have a graphic eq type handle on the first 30 overtones.
Kinda like a very advanced version of what owr amp bias does.
Cause that is what the one difference is between amps, analog, digital, tube or diodes etc... Then we can just stop with the "dies it sounds as good as..." And get on with going and finding new sounds. But then who am I kidding, not like guitar players will cease to be super conservative.
 
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Im loving that the default diode in the fuzz face was changed to ge, switching between that and si really nails a bunch of tones I've been chasing at this point. Between that and the tone bender in the box I'm very happy with where things are at

For me, it was a bit of a diode "mismatch", as I'm using the Si diode for my slightly woolier Ge tones, though its actually matched to a BC183 silicon fuzz. Gives me that nice early Jimi, speakers aren't going to take much more of this, neck pup rhythm sound. True Ge fuzz always has come across a bit too muddy on my rigs. For a more typical Si fuzz tone then, which I matched with a BC108 fuzz, I started with the ToneBender, and the Hard setting, with a bit of unbias and a little bit reduction. Really gives that brighter, harder fuzz tone, with just a touch of spitting/square wave overtones, but certainly not like a 'velcro' fuzz. Has just the right amount of fuzziness to really make leads sing, and stand apart tonally from an OD/Dist pedal.

Mileage may vary of course depending on the guitar, amps, preference for tones etc. There are a lot of BC108 fuzzes that sound fairly different. I based mine on my If 6 was 9 fuzzes and darn if I can't tell the pedal from the drive block setting. Kind of excited about that too, because it means I'm throwing two pedals on TGP or Ebay and can recoup some much needed cash this time of year, knowing that I'm not going to be missing them at all.
 
I threw a RAT in front of an AC30 in the new firmware and it was instant Jonny Greenwood Radiohead, no tweaking, nothing. It was just instantly that tone.
 
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