4CM Issue

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cmprock

New Member
Good day all!! I am a new FX8 user. I bought it in hopes it would replace my rather sizable FX rig. I worked with the unit at home just to get familiar with it before trying to incorporate it into my set up. I did this last night for the first time with my Splawn Quick Rod.... I had purchased the humbuster cables and fully anticipated this was going to be a great success. I hope I am doing something wrong, because using the four cable method yielded unusual results. The dynamic and feel of the amp was fairly dramatically different. Lowering the volume knob on the guitar significantly affected the quality of the note coming out. In other words it got very fluttery with the guitar about him being low... Almost like they was a noise gate on and the notes were being choked, in spite of the fact there was no noise gate on. I spent several hours staring at the thing, ha ha, pushing buttons checking global settings and trying to figure out why this was happening. I eventually gave up for the evening and thought you nice Fractal users might be able to clue me in on what I might potentially be doing wrong. Thank you in advance
 
Have you got the +4db and -10db level set right in the amp ?

If it's on -10db try changing it to +4db and see if it makes a difference.
 
cmprock said:
Good day all!! I am a new FX8 user. I bought it in hopes it would replace my rather sizable FX rig. I worked with the unit at home just to get familiar with it before trying to incorporate it into my set up. I did this last night for the first time with my Splawn Quick Rod.... I had purchased the humbuster cables and fully anticipated this was going to be a great success. I hope I am doing something wrong, because using the four cable method yielded unusual results. The dynamic and feel of the amp was fairly dramatically different. Lowering the volume knob on the guitar significantly affected the quality of the note coming out. In other words it got very fluttery with the guitar about him being low... Almost like they was a noise gate on and the notes were being choked, in spite of the fact there was no noise gate on. I spent several hours staring at the thing, ha ha, pushing buttons checking global settings and trying to figure out why this was happening. I eventually gave up for the evening and thought you nice Fractal users might be able to clue me in on what I might potentially be doing wrong. Thank you in advance
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I use the FX8 with a Splawn Competition with great success. If you haven't already, try using regular instrument cables instead of the humbusters, just to rule them out as a cause. The other thing you could do is select a blank preset, no effect blocks at all, and see if you still have the issue.

EDIT: I did have some problems with some of the drives not getting along with the amp. As the notes decayed, it would spit and sputter very un-musically.
 
cmprock said:
Good day all!! I am a new FX8 user. I bought it in hopes it would replace my rather sizable FX rig. I worked with the unit at home just to get familiar with it before trying to incorporate it into my set up. I did this last night for the first time with my Splawn Quick Rod.... I had purchased the humbuster cables and fully anticipated this was going to be a great success. I hope I am doing something wrong, because using the four cable method yielded unusual results. The dynamic and feel of the amp was fairly dramatically different. Lowering the volume knob on the guitar significantly affected the quality of the note coming out. In other words it got very fluttery with the guitar about him being low... Almost like they was a noise gate on and the notes were being choked, in spite of the fact there was no noise gate on. I spent several hours staring at the thing, ha ha, pushing buttons checking global settings and trying to figure out why this was happening. I eventually gave up for the evening and thought you nice Fractal users might be able to clue me in on what I might potentially be doing wrong. Thank you in advance
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There is a global noisegate on the input.
 
Thank you gentleman! I did play with the levels in the loop... No change sadly. The cable thing I didn't try.. But I will! And I will try to set up a blank preset. What I DO know is there was no drive in the chain. I'll keep you posted.... Thanks again!
 
cmprock said:
Thank you gentleman! I did play with the levels in the loop... No change sadly. The cable thing I didn't try.. But I will! And I will try to set up a blank preset. What I DO know is there was no drive in the chain. I'll keep you posted.... Thanks again!
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Have you tried engaging TRUE BYPASS? That will tell you if it is something in your settings for sure.
 
I've been attempting to replicate the issue with my Splawn and the only way I've come close to what you've described is by using the global gate with these settings: (<Gate/Out> tab in FX8 Edit) Threshold set @ 75%; Ratio @ 7.0 and guitar volume @ 70%.

My initial thought was the global gate as well but since you mentioned checking global settings, I thought I'd try other things but the global gate is what I've found so far that causes the issue. Without seeing the preset(s) you've tried, it's difficult to narrow down and explore other possibilities.
 
Cool... I'll try that... It won't be I front of me again til tomorrow.. But I shall try all the suggestions. As I suspected... You Fractal guys are awesome! Thank you to you all!
 
Thanks again to you guys that chimed in. So here's what I've got so far. I set the rhe threshold level on the global noise gate to 45... So in essence, off. And the "choking" of the notes with guitar volume was was much improved if not elimInated on certain patches... But there's still a considerable (in my view) difference in the feel of the amp and an overall trimming of highs and almost "blanket over the speaker" type vibe. Pulling the cable right from the fx8 and going into the front of the amp gives me my amp back. I feel something isn't set right as too many guys here (and everywhere) have reported no tone loss when using this box... I have played with the levels... Messed with the loop levels in my amp... Etc. I'll continue to think on it (and stare at it some more haha) but I at least wanted to drop an update here as to the suggestions that were kindly made to help. Thanks!!!
 
Very strange, there has to be a setting somewhere we're not catching. Have you tried using a blank preset and/or compared the tone using the True Bypass footswitch? Have you tried bypassing the amp's effects loop and just run the FX8 into the front of the amp? You may just want to reset the system parameters and see if that helps at all.
 
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...use my FX8 4cm with a splawn (promod).
lose the humbuster cables and sound will improve, also auto true bypass of the pre section is helping.
A good quality cable from fx8 amp out to your amp and you're set :)
 
I made my own humbuster type cables for use with the FX8 and experienced very little tone loss or change with any of my amps. Is there a difference between running straight into an amp and using the 4CM? Yes, it's unavoidable. An amplifier's tone is going to be affected to some extent the more cables you have in the chain. The extent will be more or less depending upon the connector's quality, wire gauge and length of the cables. It would take incredibly long runs and/or very poor cables to cause the "blanket over the speakers" sound.
By slightly increasing the 2k, 4k and 8k bands @ .5-2db on the global post EQ in addition to raising the gain @ 1-2db, one would be able to nullify any difference in tone.
 
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