Zendrive into a Princeton

m4ssi

m4ssi

Member
Hi Guys,
i have a real zendrive oldschool by Lovepedal and a real Princeton 68 reissue, and i really love the tone that i get from this combination.

When i try to replicate this on my FM9, the princeton silverface suonds great, but the zendrive on fractal sounds really different from my real pedal. It has a lot of volume and gain, and it sounds always fuzzy with a lot of highs. My zendrive sounds really smooth, the volume and the gain are not heavy like in the fractal.

I know that the zendrive on fractal is based on the real one by Hermida, i never tried it, but i don't thing is really like this....any experience on that?

Thanks
 
Maybe dumb suggestions you already tried, but if it's too loud and too gainy, try turning volume and gain down? The control taper may not be the same on Fractal as it is in any particular real world pedal.
 
Yes I tried, but the character of the model is completely different from my zen by lovepedal. Maybe the lovepedal version is different from the first one by Hermida…don’t know
 
I owned both the Lovepedal build as well as and original Zendrrive. The original was designed and (hand built). made by Alf Hermida. I actually still have one. I think the Alf's hand built version has a little more on the bottom end and less gain. Not much -- but just enough (for my tastes).

 
I'm really not sure what it is with the drive pedals...but they seem to take more tweaking than a lot of other effects (or amps). It might be that Fractal is missing some impedance/loss/cable interactions or something. But, every drive pedal I've tried to compare has been a lot hotter in the fractal than in real life...typically brighter too. They might just be more wide-band than the originals, but it's the brightness that bugs me...it's excessive to my ears.

I've been using one of my real tube screamers in front of my FM3 for a while for that reason. I think I own 4 different TS-based drive pedals IRL...and I liked all of them better than all of the TS-based models in the Fractal.

I finally decided that doing that was dumb, since there are ~10 TS-based pedals in the Fractal and I like basically everything else the Fractal does the same or better than the ones I've owned IRL. It took a while to find one that didn't piss me off, and the settings are a good bit different on the model than on the pedal. It's almost like "10" on the pedal is at about 6 on the models. Plus, I had to turn down the high-cut on the Tone page.

I still wonder if it might not be better to just use "real" drive pedals in front of the Fractal.
 
marsonic said:
I'm really not sure what it is with the drive pedals...but they seem to take more tweaking than a lot of other effects (or amps). It might be that Fractal is missing some impedance/loss/cable interactions or something. But, every drive pedal I've tried to compare has been a lot hotter in the fractal than in real life...typically brighter too. They might just be more wide-band than the originals, but it's the brightness that bugs me...it's excessive to my ears.

I've been using one of my real tube screamers in front of my FM3 for a while for that reason. I think I own 4 different TS-based drive pedals IRL...and I liked all of them better than all of the TS-based models in the Fractal.

I finally decided that doing that was dumb, since there are ~10 TS-based pedals in the Fractal and I like basically everything else the Fractal does the same or better than the ones I've owned IRL. It took a while to find one that didn't piss me off, and the settings are a good bit different on the model than on the pedal. It's almost like "10" on the pedal is at about 6 on the models. Plus, I had to turn down the high-cut on the Tone page.

I still wonder if it might not be better to just use "real" drive pedals in front of the Fractal.
Click to expand...
So which Fractal drive(s) did you end up using?


FWIW, I too often turn Fractal drive tone controls down, but I thought it was just me :)
 
Dave Merrill said:
So which Fractal drive(s) did you end up using?


FWIW, I too often turn Fractal drive tone controls down, but I thought it was just me :)
Click to expand...
The normal 808. It's just different settings than my real one, plus the high cut on the Tone page. Mostly, I think it's just a brighter and a good bit louder.
 
Dave Merrill said:
So which Fractal drive(s) did you end up using?


FWIW, I too often turn Fractal drive tone controls down, but I thought it was just me :)
Click to expand...
My two favorite FAS drives are the BB Pre and the Tube Screamer. Tube screamer in front of the tweed deluxe with a little compression as a base -- and you can dial in anything from Dobbie Brothers to Steely Dan.
 
Chances are that the added drive is revealing something in your IR that you aren't used to. The Cab block is a good place to cut highs, with its variable slope high cut filter. I like to set this quite steep so I can really hear the affected range, then maybe back down the steepness to make it a little more natural.
 
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Actually i am trying to lower the mix at 50% and apply the cut in the tone page of the overdrive....it's much smooth now....but there still is something in the high frequencies....
 
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