Another new AX8 owner

Satch Boogie

Satch Boogie

Member
Must be the great sale that brought all us new AX8 owners here. Currently I have only ran it Straight into the front of a fender 25w frontman mini practice amp and it sounds pretty wicked. Some of the higher gain patches "mark day 90's patch" produce allot of bass so i had to back that off quite a bit. I am only using the mini amp because its near my computer. I plan on running it into 5150iii effects return or in 4cm on the 5150iii.

My question is the fender practice amp volume is like on 1 on the clean channel and if i put the main out 1 at like 9:00 its crazy loud but the manual says you should crank the main out 1 on the front panel of the AX8 until you just get a little red clipping when hitting cords hard. Is the main 1 of the AX8 just a volume pot that should just be turned a little and the use the amps volume or the other way around?

Also is there a way to change presets and have them open in scene 2 or 3? Every time I open a new preset that I saved when in scene 2 or 3 it always reverts back to scene 1. I was using scene 1 as a clean, in a dirty amp preset so I wanted it to open it scene 2 as the dirty amp and have the option of chosing scene 1 as the clean y amp, if that makes sense.

thx if anyone has any thoughts
 
Satch Boogie said:
the manual says you should crank the main out 1 on the front panel of the AX8 until you just get a little red clipping when hitting cords hard.
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it does not say that.

the "little red clipping" is for the INPUT volume. use the Out 1 knob to adjust the volume as necessary. you do not want to turn this up all the way.

the AX8 can output a lot of signal, and the Instrument Input of a guitar amp is expecting just a tiny signal from a guitar. so just try turning down the Out 1 knob more, but you might have to make some other adjustments if that doesn't work out.
 
Chris, is it correct to say that you would use the Out 1 knob to control volume when connected to powered amp, leaving the power amp levels constant and you would turn the Out 1 knob all the way up when connected to a DAW?
 
Bman said:
Chris, is it correct to say that you would use the Out 1 knob to control volume when connected to powered amp, leaving the power amp levels constant and you would turn the Out 1 knob all the way up when connected to a DAW?
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I tried to crank the OUT1 knob as much as I can because I'm not quite happy on the volume I got when recording. On my current setup, however, I cannot turn it all the way up because I will clip my audio interface. I guess the OUT on AX8 is pretty hot, as previously I've been using my old old Digitech RP1000, and i can crank the master level all the way up to 99 without clipping my audio interface (amp level within presets are like 60 ish).
 
I do record via the SPDIF output and turn the out 1 dial all the way up which equates to 0db output level. If anything is clipping then it's inside the AX8 because the preset has not been leveled correctly.
 
Bman said:
Chris, is it correct to say that you would use the Out 1 knob to control volume when connected to powered amp, leaving the power amp levels constant and you would turn the Out 1 knob all the way up when connected to a DAW?
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Yes. The Out 1 knob is for adjusting volume.

There never is any “exact” way to set any knobs. It’s all about Gain staging and balancing the different devices that handle volume/level. In general you (usually) never want something all the way up, nor do you want something close to all the way down.

An exception is Power Amps where “all the way up” on the knob simply means “not cutting any level” (no attenuation). But even then, you can turn it down for a reason, so use whatever range you want.

I like to use my AX8 Out knob between say 9 o clock and 3 o clock, so I start it at 9, then turn up the other gear until 9 is the right volume in the room. As the gig goes on, I may need to turn up, so I simply adjust the AX8 since it’s right there.
 
I’m waiting for the answer to your 2nd question! (As i’m sitting in an orthodontist office waiting for my daughter!)
 
The Ax8 has a global setting for default scene so you can set it to scene 2 but all presets will then default to scene two when first selected.

Welcome to the club! I ran mine into my 5153 for a while. Imo it sounded better into the fx return than it did in 4CM. Even better with a high quality FRFR monitor though
 
ChristThePhone said:
That's not correct. You can have individual default scenes per preset.
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And this is how confusion starts.

Page 76 of the manual under "The Global Menu":

DEFAULT SCENE (1–8)
This parameter allows you to set which of the eight scenes will be selected whenever you load a preset. For example, if you always want presets to load with Scene 2 selected already, change the global Default Scene to “2”.
 
Sonofiam said:
And this is how confusion starts.

Page 76 of the manual under "The Global Menu":

DEFAULT SCENE (1–8)
This parameter allows you to set which of the eight scenes will be selected whenever you load a preset. For example, if you always want presets to load with Scene 2 selected already, change the global Default Scene to “2”.
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Try it. In the preset go to the config page, there you can dial in whether to use a global default scene, the current scene or any of the 8 preset scenes as default. This is one example where the manual lags behind the firmware.
 
Welcome to the club @Satch Boogie!

Take some time with the manual and reading through the forum (if you haven't already) - you can find the answer to just about any question you might have, I know I have! With regards to the volume thing - just to offer what I do - my output 1 goes to FoH and it's set at about 10-11 o'oclock, my output 2 goes to my ASM-12 and is usually anywhere between 11 and 1 oclock. The volume on my cab is at 50% - so I could turn that up and turn the AX8 down, or vice versa if I needed to. I use the VU meter on Page 4 or 5 on the AX8 to level my presets/scenes and then tweak by ear to make sure things are somewhat consistent across the board.

Have fun man!
 
I run Out 1 at around 10 o'clock. Seems to work well as a starting point. I usually play at our church, but do play other venues. Out 1 at 10 seems to put me in the ball park most of the time.

As for the scenes, I have mine set to give me scene 1. I arrange my presets the same way for each bank. I only use 2 banks with one eq'd for humbuckers and the other eq'd for single coils. I arrange each bank the same way, meaning 1/5 very clean, 2/6 clean with a bit of break up, 3/7 with crunchy rhythm, and 4/8 lead tones. As for scenes, I arrange my presets to give me what I want as soon as I engage the preset, so with my lead tones, the drive is already engaged in scene 1.

Within each preset, I arrange the scenes the same way. For example, footswitch 4 is always the boost. I use the null filter as a boost within each preset. It takes a while to get it organized, but once you do, it is an awesome tool for guitar players. My needs are simple, so my method works well for me. I do not use a bazillion presets and basically use the AX8 as an amp rig. I use the same few amps and work my guitar volume (a lot) as I am playing (just like I did with a real amp). There is a bit of a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, the AX8 is the best. My tone is better than ever, and it is easy to use in a live setting.

Welcome to the machine.
 
Found it in the release notes:

"NOTE 2: Default Scene per Preset
The Default Scene is defined as the scene that is loaded any time a new Preset is selected. Prior to V6.00, the Default Scene was strictly a global setting. Starting with this release, each preset can override the Global setting and select a different Default Scene. Take the following steps to access this new parameter.
From the Main screen, use the <PAGE> button and navigate to the “CFG” page. Use the <NAV> knob to select the bottom parameter menu item “DEFAULT SCENE”. This parameter can be modified by any of the other knobs, “A” – “D”.
The choices for DEFAULT SCENE are:
 Scenes 1 – 8
 CURRENT – This leaves the current scene unchanged from what was currently selected prior to the Preset Change.
 GLOBAL – This uses the previously mentioned Global DEFAULT SCENE setting. Note: This is the default for all presets created prior to V6.00."

 
ChristThePhone said:
Try it. In the preset go to the config page, there you can dial in whether to use a global default scene, the current scene or any of the 8 preset scenes as default. This is one example where the manual lags behind the firmware.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great tip it worked perfectly from the front of the AX8 but I could not find anyway to do it in AX8 edit maybe its not possible in the editor? I was trying to set up my presets the same, s1 clean, s2 dirty, s3 dirty lead, and other switches instant access effects. This worked in my head until i went to a dirty preset and it opened in scene 1 witch was clean. So you solution fixed that as my dirty presets open in scene 2 but I can still pick scene 1 for a clean, this thing is awesome of the versatility.

I learned from previous processors (Digitech GNX3) that keeping presets similar with the footswitches makes playing and switching songs alot easier if you dont have to think what switch does what.
thx
 
Brian Coonan said:
Welcome to the club @Satch Boogie!

Take some time with the manual and reading through the forum (if you haven't already) - you can find the answer to just about any question you might have, I know I have! With regards to the volume thing - just to offer what I do - my output 1 goes to FoH and it's set at about 10-11 o'oclock, my output 2 goes to my ASM-12 and is usually anywhere between 11 and 1 oclock. The volume on my cab is at 50% - so I could turn that up and turn the AX8 down, or vice versa if I needed to. I use the VU meter on Page 4 or 5 on the AX8 to level my presets/scenes and then tweak by ear to make sure things are somewhat consistent across the board.

Have fun man!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I was reading the manual the week before I got the AX8 to get familiar it, was a bit overwhelming until I started actually using the AX8 now it making sense. So i was setting output 1, to taste and adjusting the amp to a normal volume and that worked well. Where is the VU meter in ax edit?
 
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