You make great points. Same boat here with amps. Have a Leslie 950. Can’t really say I don’t like the numerous rotary cab sims out there. However. Have you ever seen a Leslie 950? Or toasted marshmallows next to one? i think where I need to get over it is the following. 1) The feel. You say requires less fight. I just sense latency. I’m told I’m nuts you can’t detect it in Afx3. Am I nuts? 2) I like the Friedman ASC-12 but for in the room feel it doesn’t hit the 4×12 Do you ever turn off power amp and cab sims and output to a power amp and cab for in ear feel while tracking digitally out of the AFX3? Here’s a other curveball. Given the choice I’d rather record an actual BE-50 into an Ox or Reload, using the cab and mic sim. I’ve compared this to the modeling in the Afx3 and I’m telling myself this is pure head and power signal captured with merely a cab sim, it solves your point about micing a love room but with minimal digital creation of actual amp tone. Since a cab sim is effectively nothing more than a frequency filter, this sounds the least fake to me and preserves 100% of the amp’s feel if I took this approach I’d keep the AxeFX as a secondary digital FX box would I take it and the H9000 and connect them via SPDIF, then place them in the FX loop of the Friedman? Does the Friedman output the proper level +4d? I see it has a volume knob for the loop but not sure how to adjust to get the right level for the H9000 and not sure which input on AFX takes line level.
Maybe you have latency somewhere else in your signal chain? Could really be anywhere from monitors DSP to the interface buffer or something. Could be a cumulation of things. 3ms latency is nothing but x by 7 adds up. With the FAS, the ONLY time I sense any kind of latency is when using the virtual capo. I rarely use it and learned to work with it. I have never turned off power amp or cab sims, no. I’ve been happy (enough) with what I’ve heard out of a wedge or in my monitors or headphones. You have to determine your goals. My goals are 2fold. Live performance and recorded results, of course depending on the situation. For live performance, I need monitoring that inspires me to play my best and consistent FOH sound every gig. That does NOT mean “the best” sound, it just means a sound good enough I can work with to get my job done as a guitarist. For recording, I need my end result to sound great. That usually does not mean the pinnacle of sound when tracking, either. Again , its a sound designed to give me the best performance I can get. If I were playing for solely my own enjoyment to tracks or something, my goal would be different and maybe my approach would be more like yours, I don’t know. But for me, in the room feel and a blaring 4×12 is counter productive for what I currently do musically. I’m certain I have spiderwebs in my 4x12s. As far as the Friedmans output level, I think its instrument level but you should ask Dave. I’m sure you must be on their social media, he’s super accessible. He usually personally answers support questions thru their site as well. Get this right, though. Both the AxeFX and the Eventide can be set to -10/+4 levels so no matter what, you should be able to make this work. I see no issue with making them work spdif and it would be one less conversion. I’d probably want to slave the FAS to the Eventide in this case. Either keep a laptop handy for both editors or get REALLY familiar with both units screens. I don’t want to be a downer but you really aren’t getting much out of the FAS you won’t get from the H9000 if you’re only using FX. If you’re playing live, the FAS would be an excellent built in backup if your amp ever goes down (and it will sooner or later). Hope this helps.
