Well, I'm super-excited.
As a volunteer beta tester, I've been lucky enough to have a chance to play a beta FX-8 unit with my Bludtone Ojai (same amp modeled in AXE FX II), and like Cliff said, I can tell NO difference between the unaffected tone of the amp direct and when the FX-8 is engaged with NO effects. No volume change, no sound change, transparent. Super impressive. They really spent a lot of time and effort making sure that worked flawlessly from what i can tell. Playing on stage with an amp 99.9% of people are not going to hear any difference -- and I speculate Cliff just might say the last 0.1% are liars or fools!.
I found it very easy to use the FX8 with beta FX-8 edit software to program "my favorite pedalboard rigs." The software mimics much of the current Axe Edit approach, but adapted for the FX-8 - -the concepts are easy to get if you get Axe Edit now.
As a guy who used to have a massive Trailer Trash pedalboard, I'm stoked and excited to buy an FX-8 when they become available -- and agree, for the price of 3-4 boutique pedals it can emulate, you are there.
I also agree with M@tt that it would be great to use an FX-8 in the EFX loop of an AX FX II to further boost your effects abilities for presets; you could do all your mono effects (pre the real amp) in series, and then using an AX FX II build some wild dual/amp cab combos with wet effects that otherwise could use up all your CPU if you tried to do all in AXE FX II.
Say for your live amp rig you like to have a compressor, wah, four drive pedals of varying types (2X and 2Y), phaser/univibe, flanger and filter/boost pedal you like to have available to use on everything at any moment; you could use the FX-8 for those "always available before an amp, no matter what patch" and then put the EFX loop first in AXE FX II presets, and then design dual amps and wet effects to your hearts' content and probably never run out of processing power.
Now, go sell your compressor, four drive pedals, way pedal, phaser/univibe, flanger on Ebay or Craig's list...I bet you net more than that the likely cost of the FX-8. No more cable connectors to fool with either.
I've played the FX-8 beta at gig volume and bedroom volume, and it performs stunningly well. You just get spoiled on an AXE FX II, because in the FX-8 you are limited to just 8 slots, but if you use X/Y that's up to 16 accessible effects per preset, plus add 8 Scenes... it's amazingly versatile. BTW, the Rotary is X/Y in the FX-8 if I recall correctly.
If you have a great amp with an EFX loop, to me this is the way to go to simplify your pedalboard situation.
If you have an AX FX II already, this is like getting another one-half of an AXE FX II's effects palette to add to/increase your effects arsenal. I can't resist!
I've never seen a music instrument manufacturer be so responsive and listen so closely to its customers and act on feedback when appropriate to make things better, and for free (firmware upgrades!).
There has never been a better time to be alive and be a guitar player. We've all got it WAY good. I'm forever grateful to Fractal Audio for never compromising sound quality considerations in any of their designs, period. The best stuff, the best quality, is never cheap; you get what you pay for.
