Using real amp + load box with Axe FX (problem?)

jaycal6

jaycal6

Inspired
Quick question about using a real tube amp and a Fryette Powerstation with Axe Fx. My chain is guitar > Axe front input > Axe output 4 humbuster > real amp input > speaker out > Powerstation amp in > Powerstation line out > Axe input 4 regular TS cable > Axe Output 1.

I have the output 4 knob on the front of the Axe turned all the way up, but I'm not getting enough gain hitting the front of the real amp. It's a night and day difference when I switch my guitar cable from Axe input 1 to the real amp input. When I go direct into the amp, there's much more gain and high end.

If I turn up the Axe Ouput 4 block to about +14db, they seem pretty close. But I haven't seen any tutorials that mention having to do this. Am I setting this up incorrectly?

Thanks!
 
It sounds like you are using a hybrid of pages 33-34 in the manual, using Out 4 instead of Out 3. Did you review those pages?
 
Here's the preset and the setup page
 

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  • Real Amp Loop.syx
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  • setup.jpg
    setup.jpg
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hmm - preset works fine for me in 4cm with a load boxed amp (preset to amp input = same level/tone as direct in to amp). Disconnect anything that's in the Tube amp's fx loop in case that's causing an issue somehow (can't see how tho). At this point I'd be checking connections and cables.
 
To quickly check loop4 + cables, connect the cable directly from out4 to in4 (no amp in line) and confirm no signal loss in your preset with the loop on vs off.
 
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Thanks for checking the preset! There’s nothing in the real amp loop. And I tried two cables in the Axe loop and it’s the same for both. The amp is a Diezel - maybe there’s something about the amp input that wants to see a direct guitar signal rather than the signal routed from the Axe?
 
jaycal6 said:
Thanks for checking the preset! There’s nothing in the real amp loop. And I tried two cables in the Axe loop and it’s the same for both. The amp is a Diezel - maybe there’s something about the amp input that wants to see a direct guitar signal rather than the signal routed from the Axe?
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maybe - would be odd though - never had that on any of my lower endy amps.

Shot it in the dark: Is your humbuster the right way round (trs end out from Axefx)?
 
Covered something very similar here: https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/fryette-powerstation-as-a-loadbox-help.192729/post-2397970

...I have a similar outcome of volume cut going into the power section of the tube amp. My guess is this has to do with the pad (or possibly return signal for amps with a variable send/return loop). Just increasing the appropriate output going to the power section seems to handle it just fine, even if it seems like a hot signal (because it is, sort of, although may or may not be clipping... your ears should tell you the difference there).
 
sprint said:
To quickly check loop4 + cables, connect the cable directly from out4 to in4 (no amp in line) and confirm no signal loss in your preset with the loop on vs off.
Click to expand...

I just tried this with in/out 4 and there's no signal loss with the loop engaged. So I guess it's something about the signal hitting the input of the amp.
 
Try substituting Ouput/Input 3 for Output/Input 4 to rule out a hardware fault.

Your preset is fine except for the 14 dB of gain which you should not need. I do this all the time with real amps and a load box.
 
FractalAudio said:
Try substituting Ouput/Input 3 for Output/Input 4 to rule out a hardware fault.

Your preset is fine except for the 14 dB of gain which you should not need. I do this all the time with real amps and a load box.
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Thanks for taking a look at it. I tried out/in 3 and that actually didn't pass signal at all. And that's without anything even in the loop - just a single cable from out 3 to in 3. Tried a Fractal humbuster cable and also a regular cable.

EDIT: scratch that. Loop 3 passes signal, but it's the same issue as loop 4. Less gain and high end than plugging directly into the amp.
 
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jaycal6 said:
Quick question about using a real tube amp and a Fryette Powerstation with Axe Fx. My chain is guitar > Axe front input > Axe output 4 humbuster > real amp input > speaker out > Powerstation amp in > Powerstation line out > Axe input 4 regular TS cable > Axe Output 1.

I have the output 4 knob on the front of the Axe turned all the way up, but I'm not getting enough gain hitting the front of the real amp. It's a night and day difference when I switch my guitar cable from Axe input 1 to the real amp input. When I go direct into the amp, there's much more gain and high end.

If I turn up the Axe Ouput 4 block to about +14db, they seem pretty close. But I haven't seen any tutorials that mention having to do this. Am I setting this up incorrectly?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
I have recently been trying to set up the 4CM with an amp and I tried different outputs to see if there are any tonal differences.

I had noticed the output volume for outputs 3 and 4 is much lower than the output volume for outputs 1 and 2.

Even when I had turned up the output volumes for 3 and 4 from the front panel all the way up, they were still much lower than the output volumes for 1 and 2 where they were set at 12 o'clock.

Have you compared each of the volume output levels yourself?

Was there any difference in volume?
 
You can create a unity gain test preset with a patch cable as follows:

1. Set up blocks as shown here and patch Out 4L to IN4L with a good patch cable.

1681431374053.png

2. Set the synth block as a tone generator (Track: OFF).

3. Set the front panel Out 4 knob fully clockwise.

4. Look at the Out 1 block meters:

1681431455284.png
 
Admin M@ said:
You can create a unity gain test preset with a patch cable as follows:

1. Set up blocks as shown here and patch Out 4L to IN4L with a good patch cable.

View attachment 119381

2. Set the synth block as a tone generator (Track: OFF).

3. Set the front panel Out 4 knob fully clockwise.

4. Look at the Out 1 block meters:

View attachment 119382
Click to expand...

Nice, thanks for that! Loop 3 and 4 both work fine with this test. The return signal is within .1db.
 
This issue is quite interesting. I'm wondering what happens if you just go as far as to the front of the amp (amp input) from Axfx loop4-out and let the amp go into a real cab with no load box + no cabling back to Axfx - then comparing to direct into amp (with real cab connected / no load box)
 
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