First show with AX8

JamieS

JamieS

Member
Played my first show with the AX8 last night. Also my first show using FRFR monitoring instead of a traditional cab. 4-piece band in a cozy little venue. Random thoughts:

1.) Load-in was awesome and easy. I had a little dolly with two guitar cases on it, my monitor (Xitone wedge), and a bag with the AX8 and some cables in it. I have never had an easier load-in. Hell, I've played acoustic shows where load-in was a bigger pain in the ass than this.

2.) Setup was also super easy. Drop the AX8 on the floor, plug into the monitor, and go.

3.) The sound was great! And getting the sound, sensitivity, and dynamics of my favorite amp (a Komet 60) at a volume that was tolerable for the venue was a thing of beauty.

4.) Maybe most importantly, the PA was small and the sound guy pressed for time, so this turned out to be one of those venues where I ended up having to manage front-of-house sound from my stage amp. That has not typically been a good situation for me in the past (and I still hated it last night), but using a wide-dispersion FRFR monitor instead of a beamy cab made a huge difference. I just put the Xitone up on a little stand behind me, and it worked great.

I had all the usual anxiety I get when getting onstage with a different rig for the first time, but this was as painless as it is possible to be, and by the chorus of the first song, all the rig anxiety was gone and I could just focus on playing. Just fantastic.
 
Awesome! That first gig with a new rig is both exciting and terrifying at the same time. I love the XiTone's. I ended up buying another so I can run them in stereo. I keep one behind me and the other on the other side of the drums. Sounds fantastic. If you have the funds highly recommend getting another.
 
bishop5150 said:
Awesome! That first gig with a new rig is both exciting and terrifying at the same time.
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Yes, yes it is. :)

I really like the Xitones, too. I have a wedge and a regular rectangular cab, but it turns out that the wedge is more practical for me. Anything I'd use the rectangular one for, I can just tip the wedge on its side. They sound pretty similar, though, so I might try running the wedge and the cab in some kind of stereo configuration like that and see if I like it and it would be worth getting a second wedge or something.
 
Had my first gig with the Ax8 last Wednesday. Worked flawless (I didn't miss my old AxeII Mk1 for only one second) The guitarrist from the headliner played a Boss GT8. We deactivated its cab sim and used a Preset on my Ax8 (only the cab-block) to get a better sound. Worked quite well. Now he's on the Ax8-waiting list. ;-)
 
I too had my first show with my AX8 today. It was an outside, afternoon gig in 90+ sunny weather. The stage had a sun screen but not shade. Was wearing flip flops and I got a sunburn on my feet so. . . . We were getting some sunlight and heat on us.

The unit did fine. I could see the display and lights pretty well. I run the unit to FOH and use a Loop out for a direct to a Mackie SRM550 monitor in full-range/PA eq mode. I use the same monitor to monitor keys too (I play both) and run acoustic and electric guitars through the AX8. It worked very well for the gig. I do have some more tweaking to do to the eq on some of the patches, but overall I really like it.

Regarding EQ/frequency range, what are others doing with their cabs high and low frequency cutoffs? I saw a tutorial on building a sound from scratch and the guy doing the video suggested trimming the lows at around 80hz and the highs at around 7.5k. The defaults for the cabs in the AX8 I've looked at seem to run the full 20-20k. Are others trimming the high and lows to keep the sound realistic out front (without too much below or above the range of a typical guitar cabinet)? Maybe otherthinking it, but I'm obsessed with getting the eq right from the unit. How do I know that what I'm hearing through my monitor is good for FOH? Am I sending something that is typical-ish like an SM-57 on a 2x12 Vox combo or, am I sending too much highs, lows, etc. ?

Then there's the whole acoustic guitar patches where I've painstakingly hunted down and notched out as many of the feedback frequencies (i.e. 125 hz) as I could find, but am not sure I haven't wonked the tone up so that the FOH is weird. . . Ugg.... Suggestions?
 
Nozkcb said:
Then there's the whole acoustic guitar patches where I've painstakingly hunted down and notched out as many of the feedback frequencies (i.e. 125 hz) as I could find, but am not sure I haven't wonked the tone up so that the FOH is weird. . . Ugg.... Suggestions?
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When those nasty feedback frequencies cause feedback, they show up in FOH, too. Don't encourage them by adding them back in. :)
 
Nozkcb said:
I too had my first show with my AX8 today. It was an outside, afternoon gig in 90+ sunny weather. The stage had a sun screen but not shade. Was wearing flip flops and I got a sunburn on my feet so. . . . We were getting some sunlight and heat on us.

The unit did fine. I could see the display and lights pretty well. ...

Regarding EQ/frequency range, what are others doing with their cabs high and low frequency cutoffs? I saw a tutorial on building a sound from scratch and the guy doing the video suggested trimming the lows at around 80hz and the highs at around 7.5k. The defaults for the cabs in the AX8 I've looked at seem to run the full 20-20k. Are others trimming the high and lows to keep the sound realistic out front (without too much below or above the range of a typical guitar cabinet)? Maybe otherthinking it, but I'm obsessed with getting the eq right from the unit. How do I know that what I'm hearing through my monitor is good for FOH? Am I sending something that is typical-ish like an SM-57 on a 2x12 Vox combo or, am I sending too much highs, lows, etc. ?

Then there's the whole acoustic guitar patches where I've painstakingly hunted down and notched out as many of the feedback frequencies (i.e. 125 hz) as I could find, but am not sure I haven't wonked the tone up so that the FOH is weird. . . Ugg.... Suggestions?
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Glad to hear everything was visible outdoors! That was a concern of mine I haven't had to deal with yet.

For most presets, I leave the high and low cuts alone. However, for my Komet 60 presets, I pull the high frequency cutoff down to about 7k. My actual amp has a hi-cut knob that I use a lot, and this seems to replicate that pretty well. I don't like a very bright sound.

I also worried a lot about what I send to FOH, but I think maybe we shouldn't sweat it so much. Prevailing wisdom seems to be to get a good sound at gig volume through your monitor, and let the sound guy sort out FOH. If there are too much highs or lows, that's what the eq on the board is for. I definitely don't feel the need to use high or low cut to keep the sound realistic.
 
UPDATE:
I've sense had a few more outdoor shows with the AX8 and again, for the most part, I'm happy with the performance. A few very critical and honest friends have told me that the FOH sound was "convincing" albeit a little bit thin in the 500 (umph) range and maybe a bit too bright in the 3K. I've since created modified copies of my go to patches with the eq adjusted accordingly.

My biggest issue is finding the right settings with my Mackie SRM550 monitor. I've experimented with different eq profiles (Main & Monitor). The Monitor mode shaves off some highs and lows but, maybe too much, leaving my guitar sounding a little bit too dull. I have 3 more shows next week where I intend to use the modded AX8 sounds and I'll try the Mackie in both modes and see what sounds good on stage and what the FOH guys tell me.

Also, I've not stopped my ceaseless tweaking of my acoustic guitar patches and feel I'm getting closer to something that will work really well, allowing me to use one send to FOH and monitor for both electric and acoustic guitars. I've gone to using the FX block input for the acoustic guitar, so I can simply change patches and effectively change inputs at the same time. It's getting there. . . .
 
Nozkcb said:
UPDATE:
I've sense had a few more outdoor shows with the AX8 and again, for the most part, I'm happy with the performance. A few very critical and honest friends have told me that the FOH sound was "convincing" albeit a little bit thin in the 500 (umph) range and maybe a bit too bright in the 3K. I've since created modified copies of my go to patches with the eq adjusted accordingly.

My biggest issue is finding the right settings with my Mackie SRM550 monitor. I've experimented with different eq profiles (Main & Monitor). The Monitor mode shaves off some highs and lows but, maybe too much, leaving my guitar sounding a little bit too dull. I have 3 more shows next week where I intend to use the modded AX8 sounds and I'll try the Mackie in both modes and see what sounds good on stage and what the FOH guys tell me.

Also, I've not stopped my ceaseless tweaking of my acoustic guitar patches and feel I'm getting closer to something that will work really well, allowing me to use one send to FOH and monitor for both electric and acoustic guitars. I've gone to using the FX block input for the acoustic guitar, so I can simply change patches and effectively change inputs at the same time. It's getting there. . . .
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I might suggest using the Global OUT1 and OUT2 eq's in the GLOBAL menu to adjust the difference between FOH and your Mackie on stage. That may give you a little more control than you are getting from the Mackie modes.
 
joe rogers said:
I might suggest using the Global OUT1 and OUT2 eq's in the GLOBAL menu to adjust the difference between FOH and your Mackie on stage. That may give you a little more control than you are getting from the Mackie modes.
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I was considering that however, because I'm using the one and only FX loop as an input for the acoustic guitar, and because you can't have an internal loop path within the AX8, I can only use the FXloop as either an input or an output, but not both.

Unless you know of a way to do this, I'm stuck.

Per page 80 of the AX8 Users Guide regarding the "echo" option for Output 2: "Note that the echo feature will not function when an FX Loop block is present in a preset as the FX Loop has priority."

Again, because I'm stuck using the FX Loop to switch inputs to my acoustic guitar (because the AX8 only has one input) I seem to out of luck.

Please do share if you know of a way to do this.
 
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While I'm not able to address the 2nd input issue yet (without an external A/B switcher), I did look into the OUT1/OUT2 eq settings and WOW! I may have solved my eq wonkyness with my Mackie SRM550 monitor by tweaking the master EQ in OUT1.

What I did was pull down the very low frequencies <100 hz, bumped 500, and pulled down the 4K and >. Now, most patches, including the stock ones sound pretty darn good in my monitor. I've gotten rid of the very low rumbling lows, punched the umph/meat low/mids up, and shaved off the sizzling highs.

I only hope that the compensated eq for my monitor when sent to FOH doesn't create an issue for the the sound tech. The less knob twisting I can produce for the FOH tech, the better the chances my sound will be good.

Fingers crossed. I have 3 shows next week and I should know by then how that works out.
 
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