FX8 Drive Pedals?

S

Strat-O-Matic

Inspired
So I've played around with modeling for a while now and even owned the original Axe FX Standard at one point. I'm currently running a traditional tube amp and pedalboard set up but I have to say I'm a bit intrigued by the FX8. I'm confident that the delays, reverbs, modulations, etc will be top notch but I'm very interested to hear how the drive pedals sound. I know the unit hasn't been officially released but there are some test units out now so I'm hoping someone could point me towards some clips of how the drives sound? Right now my setup consist of a clean Fender style amp that I stack multiple drive pedals in front of to create different gain stages. Does anyone with experience with the unit know if this would be a viable set up? I would just stick with my analog pedals if I can't atleast match the sounds I'm getting with them with the FX-8 and I know that's asking a lot from a multi effects unit but I'm atleast interested to hear how it stacks up.

edit: Also does anyone know what drive models are even in the unit?
 
Strat-O-Matic: I think most tube amp/pedalboard users will have similar concerns…and, like you, a lot interest in the FX8. If the FX8 is initiative and the drive pedals can compete with real pedals, many of us will make the leap.
 
Good to know it will have the same drives as the Axe-FX. The Zen Drive is probably my all time favorite pedal so if they can do that convincingly I'd probably be sold.
 
Would be good if it had more than 2 drive blocks. Switching from x to y is a way to have more drive sounds, but its not perfect for live use. With drives you want to just kick the switch and have them on instantly, holding a switch to go from x to y is a pain live.
 
That's kind of a bummer I thought you could have 4 effect up front and they could be whatever you wanted. I usually have 3 to 4 gain stages with my current rig.
 
My guess is that it’ll be exactly like the Axe Fx 2 in that you can have 2 drive blocks loaded in a preset. But you can also achieve additional gain with pretty much any other block as well. Popular choices in the Axe Fx 2 is to use a Filter, GEQ or PEQ block and you can easily achieve a typical Tubescreamer type drive (a lot of people use the drive very low and the volume high) with a PEQ block setting a Q frequency to about 650Hz and boost that, along with addition level. In addition to that you’ll most likely be able to use Scene Controllers where you set a specific value on a Scene level so if you have say a Zen Master (Zen Drive) you have that set to a drive level of 2 in Scene 1 and drive level 8 in Scene 2, and setting X/Y values so Zen Master in Scene 1 and Ruckus (Suhr Riot) in Scene 2 so there will likely be many options for achieving different levels of gain.

My understanding is that you’ll be able to select any number of effects pre and post amp per preset.
 
Here's a quote I found on the gear page from Cliff

cliffc8488 said:
Any effect can be positioned either pre or post. Like the Axe-Fx there is a "pool" of effects. You remove effects from the pool and place them in the desired slots.

There are eight slots. You configure the number of pre/post slots, i.e. 4/4 or 6/2 or 1/7, etc. You can also configure whether a slot is in series or parallel with the previous slot.

There are no restrictions on what effect goes in a slot.
Click to expand...

To me that sounds like you could use 8 drives up front if you really wanted to. Maybe Cliff can chime in and clarify?
 
It's limited to the same number of block instances as in the Axe-Fx: 2.
 
Strat-O-Matic said:
To me that sounds like you could use 8 drives up front if you really wanted to. Maybe Cliff can chime in and clarify?
Click to expand...

That would only be the case if there were 8 drives in the "pool" that cliff mentioned. It seems, as is the case with the Axe-Fx II, that there are only 2 drives in that pool, each with X/Y states.
 
npx said:
That would only be the case if there were 8 drives in the "pool" that cliff mentioned. It seems, as is the case with the Axe-Fx II, that there are only 2 drives in that pool, each with X/Y states.
Click to expand...

correct. Exactly the same as the Axe-fx.
 
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