AX8 First Impressions

[Jhawlz9989]

So it finally got delivered after being delayed by UPS over the weekend (and a painful weekend it was). I've been screwing around with this thing for a couple hours and have only made it through the first six presets so far. They all sound fantastic. P6 (USA IIC+) is heavenly and P3 (Top Boost) is the craziest thing I've ever heard. I have a feeling this unit is going to be a blast. I feel like P4 (Badger 18) can be used right out of the box with no adjustments needed and fit in just about anywhere. It cleans up so nicely with the volume knob and the two drives can give you just an amazing lead tone. I don't know what to do with myself other than keep playing...

Were there any presets where yall noticed or learned something important? What presets were they and what did you learn?

 

[Willis]

I just recorded a song with the Brit 800 and didn't have to change a thing. Freakin' incredible...

 

[RKF]

I deleted the factory presets in mine and created all of my tones from scratch. Be sure to mess around with the cut, fat and bright switches. The cut switch works wonders in tightening up flubby amps. The fat switch makes certain models come alive...especially the Splawn Quickrod. And experiment with different bright cap values, there is a TON of versatility to be found just by adjusting that value. The negative feedback parameter is fun to mess with too. Forget about where it "should" be set. If you want a tighter tone, wind it up. If you like it squishy, wind it down. Some amps sound badass at stock settings (Trainwreck, JCM800) while others may need significant tweaking (Mesa Mark IV).

Welcome to the club and have fun!

 

[jazznerd]

I just got mine last week and found that all that presets had way too much high end for my tastes.

I was able to build great clean tone presets (which is 90% of my playing), but failed miserably at making any non-clean tones sound good. If it wasn't for Leon Todd's youtube channel (and dropbox presets) I would be lost, confused and angry.

That man is a huge asset to this community.

 

[Phil Scholling]

Also make sure to check out the videos by Austinbuddy. He has good tutorials on gainstaging and is now putting up a series on the axe8-edit.

And definitely check out the sticky thread by Smittefar for a great compilation from many members with excellent ideas and insights.

I've had my ax8 a bit over a month now and it is a blast to play through. So many options and so much you can do with it. What I'm most impressed with so far is that while you can do deep dives and tweak so many things, you don't need to in order to get great sounds.

If you are going to use it for live shows just make sure you test your presets at stage volume as they will sound different. 92 to 95db is the sweet spot that has been recommended and has worked well for me.

 

[Plexi12xxx]

I only have around 6 hours of play time on mine. One can definitely get lost in another time zone with this unit. I spent a lot of time playing on the SLO 100 Lead preset - I believe it is bank 10 or so. I need to get into the Cameron, Captain Hook, and Carol Ann presets next. There is so much candy in there it is hard to decide what's next. To answer your question - locate and download Larry Mitchell's "Life Pad" preset - just search the forum. I learned a lot about routing from this patch. Notice the bottom line is input straight from your guitar - no amp or cab. The ambient sounds are great. Pay attention to the way the signals are panned, either in the mixer at the far right or a volume/pan block (this goes for all presets). Anyway, there is plenty to learn. I also spent several hours just reading through Yek's guide to the amp models and also the info about the deep amp parameters. Not enough time it seems. Also download Danzi's VH patches. OMG. I had to learn a VH song so I can play around with them. Another black hole. Don't forget to try the ambient Black Hole patch too. OK - I will stop.

 

[Cam Heiliger]

Getting to know your AX8 will prove to be a frustrating, humbling, and highly rewarding experience. I have had mine for over a year and I follow this forum religiously because I learn new techniques, new sound tips, routing tips, etc every day. You are correct that Leon is an incredible asset here. His generosity with his time and knowledge is pretty amazing. I know a lot of people who play guitar on this forum sound better through their AX8 because of him and many others who have dedicated so much time and energy to flushing this thing out for people. There are a lot of new users here thanks to the holiday sale, which is awesome. I would implore you all to stick with it and adjust your expectations up front because while you are going to be able to get some great tones out of this machine right away, it is going to take you a long time to master building "your" presets for "your" sounds and footswitch setup. There are just so many parameters and factors to learn, and they change from amp to amp, cab to cab, and effect to effect. If you're like me, you will probably wind up building and rebuilding your presets from scratch over and over again as you learn new tips and tricks. It is worth it. I promise. This machine is amazing if you're give it a fair shake. Welcome to the forum and the Fractal community. It is the best music forum I have ever been apart of.

 

[Geezerjohn]

I have been using FAS gear exclusively since 2010 so I am not a newbie. I have an Axe FX in my studio, and use the AX8 for live gigging. Yes there is a learning curve, and it can be steep. To me the fractal experience is like golf. If you just want to have fun, enjoy the walk and hit the little ball, you can do that, but if you really want to master it, well that takes a lot of effort. Even after all these years of Fractaling, I still keep learning new tricks and features. My tone keeps getting better, which inspires me to play better. The whole Fractal experience has brought me to where I play better, sound better, and enjoy my guitars even more. Thanks to Cliff, Matt, and the entire FAS team, it is such a great time to be a guitarist.

 

[Wigam2]

Ironically, most of the reason I'm here is after 20+ years of working hard at golf, I felt like I was a beginner again (hook, straight, slice, repeat). So I hung up the clubs, dusted off the guitar and got an AX8. And love it!

But I'll probably return to golf this spring.

 

[Rick]

If it hasn't already been suggested, you should bookmark the AX-8 Wiki

https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Fractal_Audio_wiki:_AX8

These pages have saved me many an hour of head scratching. Like @Geezerjohn up there, I have been using FAS gear for a while now (since 2011) and still have a lot of ground to cover. If there's something I've learned, it's that there is always more to try. I'd tell anyone new to these to spend time on the amps you absolutely don't know. Several (Tucana, Triptik, Ruby Rocket) were a revelation to me.

 

[Jmango]

The thing I love about the AX8 is that it doesn't suffer from that "what the hell changed with my tubes on this amp while I went away and took a piss" thing... Tube amp players know what i'm talking about...

 

[Jhawlz9989]

Also make sure to check out the videos by Austinbuddy. He has good tutorials on gainstaging and is now putting up a series on the axe8-edit.
...
I've had my ax8 a bit over a month now and it is a blast to play through. So many options and so much you can do with it. What I'm most impressed with so far is that while you can do deep dives and tweak so many things, you don't need to in order to get great sounds.

If you are going to use it for live shows just make sure you test your presets at stage volume as they will sound different. 92 to 95db is the sweet spot that has been recommended and has worked well for me.

I have definitely watched some of those videos. I was building a preset with him as my first dive into AX8-Edit with a Deluxe Reverb that turned out okay. Pretty simple program and decently similar to the Pod software. I think it's going to be using the on-board interface that takes me quite a bit more time. I also picked up a decent pair of studio monitors so I can evaluate at gig volume.

I only have around 6 hours of play time on mine. One can definitely get lost in another time zone with this unit.

I can confirm that this is possible...

Getting to know your AX8 will prove to be a frustrating, humbling, and highly rewarding experience. I have had mine for over a year and I follow this forum religiously because I learn new techniques, new sound tips, routing tips, etc every day. You are correct that Leon is an incredible asset here. His generosity with his time and knowledge is pretty amazing. I know a lot of people who play guitar on this forum sound better through their AX8 because of him and many others who have dedicated so much time and energy to flushing this thing out for people. There are a lot of new users here thanks to the holiday sale, which is awesome. I would implore you all to stick with it and adjust your expectations up front because while you are going to be able to get some great tones out of this machine right away, it is going to take you a long time to master building "your" presets for "your" sounds and footswitch setup. There are just so many parameters and factors to learn, and they change from amp to amp, cab to cab, and effect to effect. If you're like me, you will probably wind up building and rebuilding your presets from scratch over and over again as you learn new tips and tricks. It is worth it. I promise. This machine is amazing if you're give it a fair shake. Welcome to the forum and the Fractal community. It is the best music forum I have ever been apart of.

Good advice. Day 1 was just amazing all the way through. By the time I skimmed through 40 presets a lot of it was "okay I've heard this before it's not that cool". Day 2, the same patches had a little less "appeal" and I was more eager to start getting into them and seeing what makes them tick, and see what I could build.

I have been using FAS gear exclusively since 2010 so I am not a newbie. I have an Axe FX in my studio, and use the AX8 for live gigging. Yes there is a learning curve, and it can be steep. To me the fractal experience is like golf. If you just want to have fun, enjoy the walk and hit the little ball, you can do that, but if you really want to master it, well that takes a lot of effort. Even after all these years of Fractaling, I still keep learning new tricks and features. My tone keeps getting better, which inspires me to play better. The whole Fractal experience has brought me to where I play better, sound better, and enjoy my guitars even more. Thanks to Cliff, Matt, and the entire FAS team, it is such a great time to be a guitarist.

I keep hitting my shots off the toe. Just one more excuse to play more guitar. I imagine at some point I'll be looking for your advice on building a versatile group of P&W presets.

If it hasn't already been suggested, you should bookmark the AX-8 Wiki

[link removed for post limit]

These pages have saved me many an hour of head scratching. Like @Geezerjohn up there, I have been using FAS gear for a while now (since 2011) and still have a lot of ground to cover. If there's something I've learned, it's that there is always more to try. I'd tell anyone new to these to spend time on the amps you absolutely don't know. Several (Tucana, Triptik, Ruby Rocket) were a revelation to me.

Done - I read through the manual while I was waiting for delivery, but like most things it's easier to learn with the unit in hand. I still need to make it through the Wiki. Unfortunately, because I only have limited experience with tube amps (my Blues Jr. and a Mesa Lone Star Special I tried at a store), so many of the names I see are completely meaningless to me. I think strategy at this point is to build out the basics - AC30, Deluxe Reverb, Plexi, and Badger 18 (since I loved that preset so much), then I'll start digging around into the other amps? I will definitely suffer from option paralysis unless I'm deliberate about my strategy up front and getting comfortable with my presets in the gigging environment.

The thing I love about the AX8 is that it doesn't suffer from that "what the hell changed with my tubes on this amp while I went away and took a piss" thing... Tube amp players know what i'm talking about...

So true. There's days when I love my Blues Jr. and other days when it's just been "Eh...".

Thank you all for the advice! It's exciting to see the other newcomer threads and know there's many others in my situation. And like @Geezerjohn said, it truly is an amazing time to be a guitarist. If nothing else, I could see how the AX8 will inspire me to go purchase some of these amps one day.

Josh

 

[Geezerjohn]

I imagine at some point I'll be looking for your advice on building a versatile group of P&W presets.

Glad you are enjoying your AX8 experience, Josh.

FYI, I posted my updated presets here at the forum. All of them are in the AX8 exchange. I use one bank for worship services. I have my bank set up with 4 clean amps, 2 rhythm amps, and 2 lead presets. I have my AX8 set up left to right as follows:
#1 = Carr, #5 = Vox AC30TB (wet)
#2 = TX Star, #6 = Vox AC30TB
#3 = Plexi 100w, #7 = Plexi 50w
#4 = Tucana, #8 = Dweezil's Bman

All of these presets for 9.03 have been posted under the thread headings of "clean amps" and "rhythm and lead freebies". As you can see, my clean amps are on the left, the rhythm amps are in the middle, and my leads are on the right. I either put the AX8 in sticky mode if I just want to go from preset to preset, or if I want a deeper dive in the preset, I just use a preset (not in sticky mode) and toggle effects or scenes as needed. I choose my digital rig to suite the song. I typically set up each preset the same way with footswitch #'s 1 & 5 for scenes, and the remainder used for specific effects. Footswitch #4 is always the filter for a boost. I like to keep things organized so that when I step on a switch, there are no surprises.

My main gigging guitars are a Suhr Modern and a Suhr Classic. I also use my signature guitar (disclaimer - I am an endorser for WG Bristol Custom Guitars). My signature model is loaded with Lollar single coil pickups. I choose the guitar I will use, based on the music we will be playing.

You are welcome to download all of my presets, put them in a worship bank, and organize them how you wish. If you don't like a particular preset, then just discard it and put something else in its place. You are welcome to PM me with any specific questions you may have. If I can't help you, I'm sure that one of the taller trees here, like @Rex, or @Moke, or @austinbuddy can.