Have you found a digital drive you like more than your pedal?

[Shredder777]

Interesting things...

My old standby pedal, the SD-1 has been upstaged by the "Sweet Drive" in my G11 processor. The Sweet Drive is supposed to be a Mad Professor Sweet Honey Overdrive, but it has an extra tone control. So it has turned out to be really versatile.

I started out by trying to clone the SD-1 which I was able to do, virtually indistinguishably. But because of the focus/tone controls, I'm able to dial in even more of what I like from the SD-1 without it getting harsh. I can have the treble boost and chopped top and bottom that the SD1 is known for, but I can also open up the top.

I was always wondering why there was no SD1 model, and now I realize its probably because there are better drives. So now there is a conundrum. The real Sweet Honey OD doesn't have a tone control, so its probably not worth tracking a real one down.

Has anyone else come to rely upon a drive in their multiFX? Are you able to A/B with a real pedal and get the same result? I would think its easier to model an overdrive, so I would expect most mfx have some good ones in there.

 

[JasonE]

Drives is one effect that I am not a fan of in the digital realm. I prefer getting my drive sounds from a real amp or an analog pedal. The digital stuff I have tried just have not worked for me. It could be that I like that edge of breakup and light breakup type of drive. That seems to be what I can't get to work well for me with digital drives.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I really like the helix drives when used with amp models and studio monitors or for digitally recording. I don't really like them into the front of my amp though, my analogue pedals work better for me.

 

[Shredder777]

I really like the helix drives when used with amp models and studio monitors or for digitally recording. I don't really like them into the front of my amp though, my analogue pedals work better for me.

I am using the drives in front of a real amp and getting surprisingly good result. I'm using it to push mid-gain into high gain, so maybe if I was using it to boost a clean it would sound inauthentic.

 

[jellodog]

Paging Dr. @laxu!

Not MultiFX, but I'm pretty sure he enjoys using his Strymon Riverside which uses DSP.

 

[mercifulfuzziness]

I like to get the break up from the amps in Helix. That would never be possible to do in real life with those amps in house :)

I have not found a tone out of a drive that I liked more than the amp sound self

 

[jellodog]

I like the Klon, Nobels ODR-1, SDD Preamp and a few others in the Axe-Fx.

Not all of them are pleasing and some are better than others, that's for sure. I feel like that about real analog drives though

 

[SillyOctpuss]

I am using the drives in front of a real amp and getting surprisingly good result. I'm using it to push mid-gain into high gain, so maybe if I was using it to boost a clean it would sound inauthentic.

I've tried them into my jvm and an ac15 and they were fine but my own Klone, Odr1, ts808, red lama, rat etc just work better for me. This is whether the amp is clean or dirty.

 

[DrewJD82]

After the night of stacking Fractal drives in front of my Electra Dyne I know I could happily gig with them and not think about it once during the gig. I don't have any hard preferences with this stuff one way or the other, outside of wanting a tube power section pushing a real cabinet in a live situation. Everything else surrounding that could be digital or analog and I'll be content.

 

[laxu]

Paging Dr. @laxu!

Not MultiFX, but I'm pretty sure he enjoys using his Strymon Riverside which uses DSP.

I do. It sounds like a tube preamp to me, but it can be dialed in to sound similar to a lot of drive pedals thanks to the active EQ and various switches. As an example I could make the Riverside do everything a Browne Protein does, so the Browne got moved to a secondary board.

There are so many drive pedals out there that anything you find on a multifx unit usually has a real-world counterpart that is just as good or better. I don't see ever relying on a multifx unit drive.

 

[Sedaxel]

Meny years ago, a friend of mine, who always used pedals, bought a Boss GT-100. He told me that he A/Bed all his drive pedals against the GT-100 with a Mesa Boogie he had, and didn't find significative differences. Also told me that he wouldn't pick each other in a blind test.

He then sold ALL his pedals. He has a Helix LT for several years now, and he feels there's absolutely no need to have any other gear.

Of course, many of us here still want new units, and maybe most of us differentiate those nuances. I wonder if I could feel them in a blind test... As I'm afraid of the answer, I prefer not to do that blind test!

 

[Jarick]

Honestly, the HX pedals sound pretty close to the real ones that I've tried. QC not that far off either. Enough that I don't bother hooking up the analog pedals I've collected all that often.

 

[newpedals]

Kindly try a Boss OD-1X

It is not a multi effect. But I enjoyed hearing it's sounds. Couldn't afford it because even a used one was kinda pricey for me.

 

[Frankencat]

There are some decent ones in the FM3 and also the Kemper has a couple that I liked but NOTHING beats my analog dirt pedals.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

sometimes I’ll use digital overdrive pedals but only out of laziness/convenience. real pedals are pretty fucking easy to use in most rigs without the size/cost/maintenance/volume issues presented by using a real amp+cab, so the benefits are minimal.

I’m not quite at the point where I want to eradicate using any analog gear at all

 

[dronerstone]

1) The Helix drives (including Legacy models) are pretty good, some real gems among those.

2) Source Audio's LA Lady is stellar.

 

[Tito83]

That I like? Sure. That I like more than analog ones? No.

 

[Stone]

I would not know since all I use are Fractal Drives which for me get me the results i want/need

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

A few years back when after a decade of AxeFxs as my main set up without any analog pedals I had switched back to amps.

I did a tour with the FX8 into clean loaner amps, a week in I stopped using the drives in itin favor or a Bogner Red pedal.

Haven't used any Digi drives since.
Also with Kemper or Tonex I used analog drives.

 

[Cirrus]

I love digital basic "pedal" style drives. Never had a problem with them, they're not doing anything mega complicated and things aren't happening in lots of interactive stages like a full amp model. Plus there's nothing inherently magical about what a TS-9 or a Rat does. That's not to say we can't find magic in the right TS-9, but it's to say that there's no reason there can't be a magical sounding TS-9 or Rat digital simulation that is awesome to play through. I also think that since digital pedal models usually have extra EQ options they can be tailored more precisely to your particular rig, but that's also extra rope...

The digital overdrive and distortion models on my Korg A3 rack unit from the '80s are so cool, unique effects that have harmonics in interesting places. Love them. The Pedal models on the Line 6 DM-4 did what I needed on many a gig. I did a bunch of A/B comparisons between the DM-4 and two Rats, TS-9, Big Muff and DS-1 and I reckoned they'd nailed it - where there were differences, they just sounded like normal component variation differences. I never felt that the digital models sounded...

...well, digital. And I guess that's brought me on to a broader point. I don't hear "digital" as a tonal characteristic. Things sound like they sound, you make art with them and either love them or plot their replacement.