AX8 V6.02 Released

What adjustments have you made when going from 6.00 to 6.02?
I updated, but I didn't have much time to tweak before a gig, so i had to roll back to 6.00. It sounded quite more bassy, i wonder what other things i should tweak when i try to update again.
6.02 high is a bit less but in a good and true way. The amount of bass is also correct, but I think the "quality" of the bass is less organic. Maybe the new tonal balance let the bass character stand out more than before. Keep it as it is, in the band it should cut thru nicely.
 
What adjustments have you made when going from 6.00 to 6.02?
I updated, but I didn't have much time to tweak before a gig, so i had to roll back to 6.00. It sounded quite more bassy, i wonder what other things i should tweak when i try to update again.

There are no differences in the amp modeling between 6.00 and 6.02 except for some minor fixes and the speaker drive stuff. The Drive block changed a bit so I would concentrate there if you are hearing substantial differences.
 
There are no differences in the amp modeling between 6.00 and 6.02 except for some minor fixes and the speaker drive stuff. The Drive block changed a bit so I would concentrate there if you are hearing substantial differences.

hmm that is strange, i was pretty sure my main clean patch sounded different after update.
 
I noticed at gig volumes last night my drive block on my solo patches were taking off and had some unwanted feedback. Adjusted my level down and mix down which made it better but still acting a little weird. Drive is on zero. The block is the FAS Boost.
 
Hi. Never been involved in a Forum. Not sure of all the questions to ask or whom to ask. So I am shooting in the dark here, sort of.
I am on the verge of purchasing an Axe8. I am a purist, always a tube amp - Mesa and Fender. My rig is big and heavy with Strymon pedals and others - I love my tone. I have had, recently, an issue with my Fender SuperSonic 20 and my Mesa F-30. I run both parallel live. So a Pastor friend of mine purchased an Axe8 last year. Waited 5 or 6 mos to get it. Loves it. So I have been reading up on it and its a lot of money to jump in, when I have had decades of denial in modeling. I am just trying to gain some comfort from other players who are happy that they made the switch. I am also trying to figure out what I will play through. I don't want to run through the system - I want a speaker cab. QSC-K10? Friedman Asm-12, Yamaha DSR 112? Atomic Amps? Thank you for any assist. Jim.
 
16.02 is sounding real good. Has the 'Pedal Comp' changed? I'm not getting any much action out of it, and the 'auto gain' doesn't appear to do anything. I'm not sure how long it's been this way, or which pedal it is modeled after, but that seems weird, and i was expecting to get that 'ping' out of each note with the attack and release set right, the way my old pedal did.
 
Hi. Never been involved in a Forum. Not sure of all the questions to ask or whom to ask. So I am shooting in the dark here, sort of.
I am on the verge of purchasing an Axe8. I am a purist, always a tube amp - Mesa and Fender. My rig is big and heavy with Strymon pedals and others - I love my tone. I have had, recently, an issue with my Fender SuperSonic 20 and my Mesa F-30. I run both parallel live. So a Pastor friend of mine purchased an Axe8 last year. Waited 5 or 6 mos to get it. Loves it. So I have been reading up on it and its a lot of money to jump in, when I have had decades of denial in modeling. I am just trying to gain some comfort from other players who are happy that they made the switch. I am also trying to figure out what I will play through. I don't want to run through the system - I want a speaker cab. QSC-K10? Friedman Asm-12, Yamaha DSR 112? Atomic Amps? Thank you for any assist. Jim.

Hi, welcome to the forum. You have really posted in the wrong place and your question may be buried as this thread is about new firmware. In order to get replies I would recommend you start a new thread. Just click on the new thread button near the top of the page in the AX8 discussion area. Lots more people will then see your question. Hope that helps a bit and good luck.
 
Hi. Never been involved in a Forum. Not sure of all the questions to ask or whom to ask. So I am shooting in the dark here, sort of.
I am on the verge of purchasing an Axe8. I am a purist, always a tube amp - Mesa and Fender. My rig is big and heavy with Strymon pedals and others - I love my tone. I have had, recently, an issue with my Fender SuperSonic 20 and my Mesa F-30. I run both parallel live. So a Pastor friend of mine purchased an Axe8 last year. Waited 5 or 6 mos to get it. Loves it. So I have been reading up on it and its a lot of money to jump in, when I have had decades of denial in modeling. I am just trying to gain some comfort from other players who are happy that they made the switch. I am also trying to figure out what I will play through. I don't want to run through the system - I want a speaker cab. QSC-K10? Friedman Asm-12, Yamaha DSR 112? Atomic Amps? Thank you for any assist. Jim.
Dear James,

First of all: what Blackmore said. ^
This does deserve it's own thread.

But, since you are new here...

Best way to get a feel for it is spend some time with your friend who owns the unit.

And I love my Fractals too, but you are probably best served by being honest.
The AX8 is not an instant gratification machine beaming you up into guitar heaven. It takes some getting used to and requires some time, experimentation and knowledge to get the best out of it.

Especially if you are very invested in the "amp-in-the-room" feel and are used to having the amp behind you on the floor, going to a modeller and monitor takes some getting used to. Suddenly you are not hearing the actual paper-edge, small excursion guitar speaker blasting at your shins, your ears quite a distance away from the "beam of sound" being ricocheted off the walls. Now you are hearing a "guitar amp picked up by a microphone in a studio room far, far away", amplified by a hifi rubber-edged large excursion speaker and a tweeter aimed right at your face. It's a paradigm shift. That is the getting used to part and we have seen some that couldn't.

It took me a while to get the best out of the AxeFx, I recently bought an AX8. Most of the work was finding cabinet simulations that agreed with me. Cabsims (also called IR's) are hugely important and make or break your experience with Fractal or any other modeller. They are 75% of your tone. There are quite a few of them already in the AX8 and there are millions of them available on the net from third party sellers and for free. That would be the experimental part. Then again, after going with third party IR's for a while, recently I've come back to stock cabs in the AX8. The ones I had been using became incorporated into the AxeFx as stock cabs. If you have a clear idea of what you are looking for you can narrow the search down quite a bit. That's where the knowledge comes in.

But you will be rewarded with great tone at most volume levels, consistent through most circumstances (give our take a little Fletcher-Munson effect, Google it, it's an ear-physiology thing), you will know exactly what the audience gets through the PA and a light and easy to set up system. I can carry all my stuff in one trip and am set up in under three minutes. Dual guitar bag on my back, AX8 in one hand, powered monitor in the other. Usually I play out with two, though. Stereo. I could carry my AX8 over my shoulder to the side and a monitor in both hands. I'm using dB Technologies FM8 8" monitors. Really small. They sound pretty good, but, as to be expected, not as "big" and "wide" as the bigger 10 and 12" monitors and they may not be able to hang with a loud drummer. They don't cheat physics. Our drummer is very well-behaved so I haven't needed to test the limits of my FM8s. Yet.

All of the monitors on your list are well regarded. From all accounts the Atomic CLR is the flattest response, most true-to-the-source-studio-monitor-like and the Friedman is most guitarcab-like. It's mostly a matter of preference, budget and back strength. You pay for quality. Thing to note is that since you are feeding the monitors a full range signal, you are not limited to the usual guitar speaker limitations. You don't HAVE to have a 12" for it to sound guitar-like. That said, 15" have been reported to have the crossover frequency inconveniently placed for guitar.
 
Last edited:
It can be difficult to adjust to not having the amp in the room thing. You could buy a power amp (like the Matrix or EHX 44 magnum) and use an ordinairy guitar cabinet. This will sound exactly like playing a regular amp, but you are tied to one kind of speakers (the ones in your cab) You like Fender and Mesa, so chances are, you like the regular EV speakers. A cab with those will work great with any of the Fender and Mesa simulations in AX8, but a Vox AC30 simulation will never sound quite right through such a cab. So if you want to unlock the full modelling potential, you should use FRFR speakers, but then the price is that you have to adjust to a new way of listening to your guitar. If you choose to use a guitar cab, no ear adjustment is necessary, but the price is that you dont get the full modelling flexibility.
 
Hi. Never been involved in a Forum. Not sure of all the questions to ask or whom to ask. So I am shooting in the dark here, sort of.
I am on the verge of purchasing an Axe8. I am a purist, always a tube amp - Mesa and Fender. My rig is big and heavy with Strymon pedals and others - I love my tone. I have had, recently, an issue with my Fender SuperSonic 20 and my Mesa F-30. I run both parallel live. So a Pastor friend of mine purchased an Axe8 last year. Waited 5 or 6 mos to get it. Loves it. So I have been reading up on it and its a lot of money to jump in, when I have had decades of denial in modeling. I am just trying to gain some comfort from other players who are happy that they made the switch. I am also trying to figure out what I will play through. I don't want to run through the system - I want a speaker cab. QSC-K10? Friedman Asm-12, Yamaha DSR 112? Atomic Amps? Thank you for any assist. Jim.
Tried all , Dsr112 is the best for the buck . rcf nx12 is a little better but too expensive
 
Checked the FAS Boost again today and confirmed that it is much hotter than before. I will switch to another drive block as the FAS Boost now adds unwanted noise etc...
 
It can be difficult to adjust to not having the amp in the room thing. You could buy a power amp (like the Matrix or EHX 44 magnum) and use an ordinairy guitar cabinet. This will sound exactly like playing a regular amp, but you are tied to one kind of speakers (the ones in your cab) You like Fender and Mesa, so chances are, you like the regular EV speakers. A cab with those will work great with any of the Fender and Mesa simulations in AX8, but a Vox AC30 simulation will never sound quite right through such a cab. So if you want to unlock the full modelling potential, you should use FRFR speakers, but then the price is that you have to adjust to a new way of listening to your guitar. If you choose to use a guitar cab, no ear adjustment is necessary, but the price is that you dont get the full modelling flexibility.

I have 2x Magnum EHX 44 to sell, just saying... :)
 
Maybe the high are where they should...
Incidentally, I feel like overdriving the bass give a "farting" response... I don't notice this "blast" in my real amp. Maybe because I keep master lower in real life. I should investigate further...! :)
CUT switch, buddy! JTM is woffy in the low end. Also, don't be afraid to turn up the low cut filter in the cab block, even past 150Hz- just use your ears.
 
Hi guys Happy new year to everyone in the Fractal Family! Im new to the fractal products and I just finally bought a fractal product (AX8) after so many years of saving money to get it so Im really happy I finally got it and have the opportunity to participate on the forum :). I have tried to see a lot tutorials and videos and I already read the manual but Im a little lost on the way to approach new firmware upgrades.
I had the previous firmware loaded in my AX8 and I had some user presets (I downloaded some of the from the forum) that sounded amazing, yesterday I upgrade my AX8 to the new firmware and some of my user presets started sounding not as good as they were on the previous firmware. I read the new update notes and saw that most of the changes were on the drive block not in tje amp block. In some of the patches if I palm mute the low E string it sounds really bad and farty (dont know how to describe the sound) but it doesnt sound tight as before. I already check the Amp block spkr drive an on all of them its set to 0. I check the drive blocks since most of presers thst sound like this use the drive block but drive is normally set to 0 and tone to 1 o'clock. Im really new so Im not sure where to start tweaking to get it "fixed" and make it sound as good as it sounded on the previous firmware. Dont know if this thread is the correct one to ask this but I hope someone can help me.

Thanks!
 
Hi guys Happy new year to everyone in the Fractal Family! Im new to the fractal products and I just finally bought a fractal product (AX8) after so many years of saving money to get it so Im really happy I finally got it and have the opportunity to participate on the forum :). I have tried to see a lot tutorials and videos and I already read the manual but Im a little lost on the way to approach new firmware upgrades.
I had the previous firmware loaded in my AX8 and I had some user presets (I downloaded some of the from the forum) that sounded amazing, yesterday I upgrade my AX8 to the new firmware and some of my user presets started sounding not as good as they were on the previous firmware. I read the new update notes and saw that most of the changes were on the drive block not in tje amp block. In some of the patches if I palm mute the low E string it sounds really bad and farty (dont know how to describe the sound) but it doesnt sound tight as before. I already check the Amp block spkr drive an on all of them its set to 0. I check the drive blocks since most of presers thst sound like this use the drive block but drive is normally set to 0 and tone to 1 o'clock. Im really new so Im not sure where to start tweaking to get it "fixed" and make it sound as good as it sounded on the previous firmware. Dont know if this thread is the correct one to ask this but I hope someone can help me.

Thanks!

I have had this experience as well.

Changing the preamp tube type back to 12ax7a helped but things are NOT 100% the same.
 
I found with the FAS Boost that the level range changed significantly. I believe Cliff mentioned that the drive block would be the place to concentrate if changes are noted.
 
I found with the FAS Boost that the level range changed significantly. I believe Cliff mentioned that the drive block would be the place to concentrate if changes are noted.
Yes I saw his post about concentrating in the drive block and sorry if Im not understanding correctly but what I understood is that only some drive models were added/updated not all of them so if Im not using any of those drive models my sound would need to be the same as the previous firmware correct? Or are there any "general" parameters on the drive block tha would affect the block itself without taking into account the drive model you are using that I may need to tweak to get the sound I had before, sorry if it is a stupid question but Im in the learning curve.. thanks!
 
Yes I saw his post about concentrating in the drive block and sorry if Im not understanding correctly but what I understood is that only some drive models were added/updated not all of them so if Im not using any of those drive models my sound would need to be the same as the previous firmware correct? Or are there any "general" parameters on the drive block tha would affect the block itself without taking into account the drive model you are using that I may need to tweak to get the sound I had before, sorry if it is a stupid question but Im in the learning curve.. thanks!

I don't have an answer for you as I'm still on firmware 4.something, but just wanted to mention your questions are not stupid at all. You're asking really good questions with good background . Hope you find the answers. Eric
 
I don't have an answer for you as I'm still on firmware 4.something, but just wanted to mention your questions are not stupid at all. You're asking really good questions with good background . Hope you find the answers. Eric
Thanks for taking the time to respond Eric, I always use google and the search tool in the forum as my go to guys and I have learned alot by doing that but sometimes its difficult to find an answer to your specific question and in the end I think this is the reason forums exist :) so I'll appreciate any help from the audio gurus in this forum...thanks!
 
Back
Top Bottom