AX8 out of the box experience (updated with demo)

hippietim

hippietim

Axe-Master
My AX8 arrived yesterday. Life happened and I was not able to do anything with it yesterday other than unbox it. I had the day off today though so I just got done playing it through my CLR. I recorded my out of the box session with my iPhone - it was apparently 1 hour and 29 minutes. I really didn't realize that much time went by. I need to edit the video down - trust me when I say that nobody wants the whole thing (unless you really want to hear me rustle around for things like a TRS cable).

My initial impression so far is that it is very good. Really damn fucking great actually. In some ways it was completely predictable - it sounds the same as my Axe-FX II. The UX is good. I've used every other Fractal product so it was fairly straightforward. I did a little editing and calibrated an expression pedal - other than that it was just flipping through presets. The out of box experience for me in terms of straight up usable tones was vastly superior to any other product of this kind that I've used. I know I could gig with some of the presets if I had to.

Next I need to test it with my amp and cab. Then I need to decide if I'm going to use this direct or with my amp for my upcoming NYE gig. I'm leaning towards using it for effects only since we don't have any rehearsals between now and the show so I won't get a chance to dial in amp tones to blend with the other guitar player and full band.

 
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Congrats Tim!

Do you gig with your axefx? If so, could you copy your gigging blocks into the 8 so you might be very close prior to the gig?
 
hippietim said:

My initial impression so far is that it is very good. Really damn fucking great actually. In some ways it was completely predictable - it sounds the same as my Axe-FX II. The UX is good. I've used every other Fractal product so it was fairly straightforward. I did a little editing and calibrated an expression pedal - other than that it was just flipping through presets. The out of box experience for me in terms of straight up usable tones was vastly superior to any other product of this kind that I've used. I know I could gig with some of the presets if I had to.

Next I need to test it with my amp and cab. Then I need to decide if I'm going to use this direct or with my amp for my upcoming NYE gig. I'm leaning towards using it for effects only since we don't have any rehearsals between now and the show so I won't get a chance to dial in amp tones to blend with the other guitar player and full band.
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That's great to hear Tim - I hope to have an Ax8 in hand "soon" - Mellin and I are making the switch from (your old) ultra and my II M1 - would be cool to trade some presets.
 
Congrats Tim...Just got mine a few minutes ago...May I ask, have you tried to get anything from your Axefx II into the ax8 yet?
Thanks
Frank
 
Rick said:
You're selling it all wrong, Tim!

"Since acquiring the Ax-8, I have really turned the corner in recognition as a player. I've been invited as the main guitarist for a band being featured at the exclusive New Years party being hosted at none other than the fabulous Abbey Road!"

As Eric said... It's in the way that you use it!
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Lol
 
Ok so I've been trying to edit the video on my iPad. Holy crap, iMovie sucks donkey balls. I'm going to load it onto my laptop and edit it with Movie Maker. Gotta run some errands so it'll be a while,
 
I added a video. Let me know how bad the sound quality is - I did it with my iPhone and trimmed the video down on my laptop with one blown speaker. It sounded like it was attenuating a bunch with the iPhone mic. I've not heard it on real speakers yet and I'm heading out the door to go see Star Wars.
 
Some of the higher gain stuff was a bit "not right"? on my computer speakers (which are JBL's and pretty good ones) But the rest sounded OK-not terrible or bad. Nice video Tim....Thanks for taking the time.....

And it always amazes me- how different people sound and speak than you imagine they would after seeing them on a forum for years.
 
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hippietim said:
My AX8 arrived yesterday. Life happened and I was not able to do anything with it yesterday other than unbox it. I had the day off today though so I just got done playing it through my CLR. I recorded my out of the box session with my iPhone - it was apparently 1 hour and 29 minutes. I really didn't realize that much time went by. I need to edit the video down - trust me when I say that nobody wants the whole thing (unless you really want to hear me rustle around for things like a TRS cable).

My initial impression so far is that it is very good. Really damn fucking great actually. In some ways it was completely predictable - it sounds the same as my Axe-FX II. The UX is good. I've used every other Fractal product so it was fairly straightforward. I did a little editing and calibrated an expression pedal - other than that it was just flipping through presets. The out of box experience for me in terms of straight up usable tones was vastly superior to any other product of this kind that I've used. I know I could gig with some of the presets if I had to.

Next I need to test it with my amp and cab. Then I need to decide if I'm going to use this direct or with my amp for my upcoming NYE gig. I'm leaning towards using it for effects only since we don't have any rehearsals between now and the show so I won't get a chance to dial in amp tones to blend with the other guitar player and full band.
Click to expand...

That actually sounds great for an iPhone camera!
 
Stratman68 said:
Some of the higher gain stuff was a bit "not right"? on my computer speakers (which are JBL's and pretty good ones) But the rest sounded OK-not terrible or bad. Nice video Tim....Thanks for taking the time.....

And it always amazes me- how different people sound and speak than you imagine they would after seeing them on a forum for years.
Click to expand...

Now I've got to ask, what were you expecting me to sound like? Lol
 
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