AX8 2?

I'm curious about development on the "old" platform, now that the next generation is here. Will it stop? Only for the Ax-fx II? I believe I will want to keep my AX8 as long as there isn't some revolutionary amp-sim stuff happening exclusively on a newer generation. Color led-display is cool, but at the end of the day, I joined the club for the sound ;-)
 
Axe Fx III looks awesome. I'm going to go against the current and say that I'm expecting an updated Ax8 pretty soonish (which I'll buy as soon as I can). A couple of observations - look at the Ax8 firmware updates in the last year. Soo many threads about usability improvements and we've hardly seen any usability improvements. Why spend time updating something if there's a new thing around the corner? And it's obviously clear that the Ax8 firmware shares a lot of code with the Axe Fx 2 and it's really just a scaled down version of it. If the plan was to keep the Ax8 going for another couple of years, that would either mean a couple of years with no firmware updates or a couple of years where Cliff and the team would try to progress the Axe Fx 2 as well as improving the Axe Fx 3. It doesn't make sense. Sure, there will be some minor updates from here on if there's any issues detected, but I wouldn't expect any major firmware updates to either the Axe Fx 2 or the Ax8 now.

My guess is that we'll see an updated Ax8 before the end of the year. I'm also going to guess that it'll be either an Ax-10 or Ax-12 with the same button layout as the FC-6/FC-12 and most of the Axe FX 3 front panel on top. Can't wait, and these really are just guesses :)
 
yes, logical guessing :)However, I think I read Cliff stating they considered Ax8 as a relatively new product, so I think it'll live on for a while. I wouldn't bet on software development continuing at the same rate though... (but who knows)
 
If there's one thing I like more about the Axe III than anything else is the input and output LEDs to control clipping. One problem I have with all my old Boss, Line 6, Roland, Atomic modelers over the years is the patch to patch leveling. There has never been a clear "up front" display that I can think of that helps the user get the best sound per patch and best balance between them. Yes there are workarounds but when I am downloading patches from the exchange or buying presets from Fremen and others, I always need to play with the levels and there is never a continuous simple front panel way to do that. Kudos to the gang at Fractal!

My pennies and selling of any gear will now go towards the Axe III unless the successor to the AX8 does the same. This helps me more than fancy color displays or scribble strips.

Nice hardware guys but overall, I still prefer pedal boards but this is a compelling reason to get a rackmount which I haven't had since my old Boss GT-Pro some 10 years ago.
 
Don't think it will be a "soon". My wild guess would be earliest around 2019 (which would be nice, since then I have the money to buy an updated version immediately :D).

Have read here in the not so distant past that the AX8 is considered a "not so old unit".
Seeing from own experience (working in a company which develops own measurement equipment), development and product support it's a time consuming thing. Sure, it certainly has a distinct taste to upgrade all hardware to a new platform, thus maintaining only one codebase - but my wild guess is that this is "flagship first, keeping the older stuff run awhile". And as far as I see it, they need at least two compilers for Axe-FX II and AX8 (and certainly some special platform dependent code), so three platforms appear to be manageable.

I got excited about the FX III, but - this doesn't mean Axe-FX II will out get no updates of nowhere (and so AX8), because that appears also completely in contrary to the claim "Future-Proof Technology". If I remember correctly in the Wiki, it's stated somewhere that Cliff wanted to support the Ultra, but there was no memory left to support it further.

But a better display for the AX8 would be nice, for sure.

So: I don't see a successor popping up out of nowhere in the next months - but if I am mistaken, then I would be happy, of course ;)
 
Think about the effort required to complete the Axe 3. New DSP platform, new boards, new chipsets, new interface, new graphics controller for new color screen, new communication protocol for foot controllers, etc, etc, etc. All this design and engineering and testing, all new software to tie it all together and make it function.

Compare that to effort required to simply build this into a floor-shaped box with foot switches, as an alternative to the 3U rack box it's already in.

I'm not a hardware engineer, but I would think a functionally equivalent floor unit would be a relative piece of cake at this point.

I'm guessing sooner than later.

Also I hope we get a full-featured flagship floor unit! Or maybe two floor units, one of them can be the 'lite' version that's smaller and lower price as long as it uses the same blocks. Smaller grid, fewer instances would be OK.
 
I'll say it again. Combine the FX8 and AX8 into one version that can do both. Increase buttons and CPU. Add scribble strips. Bam! Done!
 
I am completely in line with @Johan Allard here. As far as I can tell, all development ressources has been pulled from the AX8 in order to make the Axe FX III. It is certainly possible that this launch will free up some ressources that could be allocated towards AX8 development, but I also think the developers will be looking forward to a new product. I too expect an AX8-II announcement in 2018 (I have no knowledge, this is pure personal speculation). Personally, I don't hope for an AX10 or AX12. I actually really like the current layout.
 
I feel I’m just scratching the surface with what I can do with the AX8, and don’t really feel I’m missing anything (probably because I wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway).

4 channels, or even x,y,z states of our single amp block would have been great, though.

It would’ve made it much easier to build clean/crunch/dirt setups within a single preset. This can still be done with scene controllers and drive-blocks and just the x/y-state. But it takes a little bit more tinkering.
 
Scribble strips are nice... and a few more iconic drive pedals would be cool (OCD, KoT). The only other things I think are central (as the AX8 is geared towards performance) are a few loops for pedals and a build in Class D power amp.
 
You never know, FAS may have designed much of a new floor unit along side the new 3. I would be surprised if they didn't, at the very least, plan how to integrate a floor unit to share some common code or other time saving elements. The surprise of the 3 release is an indication that anything posted by anyone other than a FAS employee is pure speculation.
 
I’m not sure what the thermal properties are of the new TI chips compared to TigerSHARC or if TI offer lower power options that would make it possible, but I would definitely be more interested in an all in one floor unit. I would not be surprised if they replaced the AX8 with a TI based unit in the next year. I’m sure it’s easier to update one unified platform than two.
 
... and you shouldn't really trust any employee statements about future product releases. It is only a few months ago, it was stated that Axe3 was years into the future :D

That is all exactly as it should be :)
I agree- I haven't searched the forum but I recall this as well.
 
One thing I would like to see in a new design is the integration of the EV-1. It's the only thing that was a bit puzzling to me, the AX8 designed as a gigging floor modeler and no expression pedal. The EV-1 is such a great expression pedal, I doubt there would be any pushback if one were added. I for one wouldn't complain. :)
 
Personally, I don't hope for an AX10 or AX12. I actually really like the current layout.

The reason I thought of an AX10 was that it would be similar to the current AX8 but instead of having 8+3 buttons, there could be 10 freely assignable buttons - effectively the two bottom rows of the current AX8.
 
One thing I would like to see in a new design is the integration of the EV-1. It's the only thing that was a bit puzzling to me, the AX8 designed as a gigging floor modeler and no expression pedal. The EV-1 is such a great expression pedal, I doubt there would be any pushback if one were added. I for one wouldn't complain. :)
When I worked as a General manager in music retail, any foot controller with a built in pedal was a nightmare when it broke. Imagine doing a gig with one or more broken pedals, it looks so silly, and you can’t do anything about it. I for one do like having them separate.
 
When I worked as a General manager in music retail, any foot controller with a built in pedal was a nightmare when it broke. Imagine doing a gig with one or more broken pedals, it looks so silly, and you can’t do anything about it. I for one do like having them separate.
That is a good point, just curious though of the failure rate of the EV-1. I had 4 Line 6 XT Live modelers and never had any one of the pedals fail.
 
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