Hey guys, so I've been having an issue with upper mids when it comes to live, DI sounds great with cab Sims and whatnot. I'm not running FRFR full time yet because I need the live Mesa 412 weight behind me for certain projects. Now, I've done extensive tests by using the ax8 as a preamp into the fx loops of the real-world counterparts, ss power amps with the power amp modeling on and basically every possible combination of set-up possible. I should also add that I've had a few international album, toured the world, recording in some of the world's most gorgeous studios and have owned plenty of lovely amps and run my own studio. Unless I'm missing something; I have found that for whatever reason the ax8 has an overabundance of 1.7k-3k, 200-300hz and is devold of around 60hz compared to all of the real world versions of the models. Thus ranges from anow ac15 to a rectifier. To a mark 4 to a 5150 block letter and 6505+ when not going FRFR. I've even A/B'd just the preamp of every amp I could to the preamps of the ax8 and found the same "issue." If anyone has any insight on how to correct this without using additional eq, please chime in. Also, it's not a matter of the unit not sounding good, because it's amazing and the feel is dead on, if not more responsive than the actual amps and with enough eq trickery I can get it to sound basically dead-on.. it's mainly just a matter of dialing in something from scratch and not being able to trust that the ax8 model is truly sounding like what it is modeling out of the box. Thanks again.