Hi guys,
last week I finally made up my mind and pulled the trigger on brand new AX8. It came in an undamaged package and everything seemed fine. I plugged in and gave it a go with some high gain stock stuff. Well, factory presets of most products sound underwhelming but from what I read and heard (YT), they should sound at least ok. Not so much. Tons of bass, no definition, lack of dynamics, felt lifeless. Sure, this unit needs a hell of tweaking so I opened AX8-Edit and tried. Either I made it fizzy as hell and it was even more flat, or boomy. Needless to say, I'm new to it all. Let's try some custom presets from exchange and youtube (most of them 8.X and 9.X. I loaded like 20 of them. Clean sounds? Amazing! High-gain sounds? Bad... Same issue here. All of them had so much bass it was hard to hear anything else, although beneath there was clearly improvement of tone. Yet they all were without any life. Lacking bass "chug" and definition. High gain should roar.
Hours of tweeking while watching loads of videos and reading 18 pages of AX8 forum. Some results, but the dynamics and definition weren't there. It felt same like my old Line6 PODxt.
I thought "Ok, something is wrong, let's find out what it is."
Chacked power amp and cab simulation both in setting and grid. Used 2 guitars (different PU), 3 cables, changed I/O settings. Resetted unit settings. Plugged straight into audio interface. Went to my rehearsal room to try through mix into Mackie Thumb 15A (I know, suboptimal but better than what I have at home.). Nothing.
So I plugged into my Engl Fireball. Instant joy! Yes, you can argue that captured cabinet and amp in the room are two vastly different things, they are. Engl's gain singed. It felt like an amp. AX8 was boomy something with a sizzle on top of it.
I went to a local store and tried Helix LT through Yamaha DSR12. It was a night and day. Sure, stock presets were not wonderful, but they had definition, adequate bass response, muting "chug" and they felt alive. High freq sizzle as there but adjusting that took few minutes.
I thought Yamaha cabinet finally did the difference. Then we plugged in the AX8 and it was true disappointment. Not much has changed. Some of the flubbyness was gone but rest remained uninspiring and without dynamics.
The shop assistant who was serving me said, he actually knows AXE-FX from his friend and it sounds incredibly good and to him this AX8 was shockingly bad. We tried to go through same presets and tweek it there but it was all the same.
Today I donwloaded free OwnHammer IR from their wesbsite. There are nice sounding with wide options but it's to no aid when whole sounds like under a rug.
May I ask you for help? Any suggestions are very welcome indeed.
Thank you.
last week I finally made up my mind and pulled the trigger on brand new AX8. It came in an undamaged package and everything seemed fine. I plugged in and gave it a go with some high gain stock stuff. Well, factory presets of most products sound underwhelming but from what I read and heard (YT), they should sound at least ok. Not so much. Tons of bass, no definition, lack of dynamics, felt lifeless. Sure, this unit needs a hell of tweaking so I opened AX8-Edit and tried. Either I made it fizzy as hell and it was even more flat, or boomy. Needless to say, I'm new to it all. Let's try some custom presets from exchange and youtube (most of them 8.X and 9.X. I loaded like 20 of them. Clean sounds? Amazing! High-gain sounds? Bad... Same issue here. All of them had so much bass it was hard to hear anything else, although beneath there was clearly improvement of tone. Yet they all were without any life. Lacking bass "chug" and definition. High gain should roar.
Hours of tweeking while watching loads of videos and reading 18 pages of AX8 forum. Some results, but the dynamics and definition weren't there. It felt same like my old Line6 PODxt.
I thought "Ok, something is wrong, let's find out what it is."
Chacked power amp and cab simulation both in setting and grid. Used 2 guitars (different PU), 3 cables, changed I/O settings. Resetted unit settings. Plugged straight into audio interface. Went to my rehearsal room to try through mix into Mackie Thumb 15A (I know, suboptimal but better than what I have at home.). Nothing.
So I plugged into my Engl Fireball. Instant joy! Yes, you can argue that captured cabinet and amp in the room are two vastly different things, they are. Engl's gain singed. It felt like an amp. AX8 was boomy something with a sizzle on top of it.
I went to a local store and tried Helix LT through Yamaha DSR12. It was a night and day. Sure, stock presets were not wonderful, but they had definition, adequate bass response, muting "chug" and they felt alive. High freq sizzle as there but adjusting that took few minutes.
I thought Yamaha cabinet finally did the difference. Then we plugged in the AX8 and it was true disappointment. Not much has changed. Some of the flubbyness was gone but rest remained uninspiring and without dynamics.
The shop assistant who was serving me said, he actually knows AXE-FX from his friend and it sounds incredibly good and to him this AX8 was shockingly bad. We tried to go through same presets and tweek it there but it was all the same.
Today I donwloaded free OwnHammer IR from their wesbsite. There are nice sounding with wide options but it's to no aid when whole sounds like under a rug.
May I ask you for help? Any suggestions are very welcome indeed.
Thank you.