Entering the Fractal World. TME

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NFABeejay

Member
What’s up guys? After months of deliberation, I have decided to go the AX8 route.

I currently play through an original 5150 Block Letter that I absolutely adore. I use the 5150 for Distortion and Dirty then I A/B into a Firehawk for all my cleans and distinct tones(70-90’s cover band)

However, I have not been happy with the clean tones out of my 5150 or the Firehawk. My brother came by and jammed one night and he has an AX FX2. I was blown away by the sound of that thing and shocked at how close he was able to mimic my 5150.

So.....as I said before, I’ll be ordering an AX8 and couldn’t be more excited. To star, I’ll be playing using my 5150 for power and using my Mesa 4x12 for the cab.

Recommendations and Advice is very welcome.

Thanks
 
Some will say just play and learn as you go, but I've discovered that spending some quality time learning how it works initially will greatly increase how much you'll enjoy the AX8 down the road. There are some great factory presets you can use that will get you playing right away.

Read the manual a few times while you're waiting for delivery. It's a lot to digest but having a rough idea of where to find answers is better than going in blind.

Bookmark Axe Fx II Wiki, it has the answer to just about any question you will have.
http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Special:PrefixIndex

When you get the AX8 take some time initially and go through each block you're planning on using most and look at the different parameters. Read up on their purpose, what they do and experiment with their ranges. You many never use many of them but it makes tweaking presets much easier when you know where to find what you want to change.

I've found a lot of great information by reading through some of the posts in the Tech Notes section on the forum.

I started with the FX8 and spent the first couple of months frustrated. I found out that Fractal products are unlike anything I'd used before. I finally took the time to read the manual a few times, bookmarked some pages and spent some time just getting familiar with the unit. Since then, it's been a blast. When I ordered my AX8, I did all of the reading and spending time getting familiar with the amp and cab blocks before diving in and it's been a much better experience.
 
Since you're planning on using your amp's power and cab, let me add that there is no right or wrong way to configure the amp block to get good tones. There are suggestions that may give you the desired result but experiment with the different options and find what you like. For example, it's been said that when using a guitar amp for power, you must turn off the power amp sim. In my experience, especially on clean amps, this is not the case. Leaving the power amp sim on has given me better clean tones than with it off.
 
Coming from a tube and cab you should be fine! use your ears to dial in your presets deactivate amp and cab sims in the AX8 for the best results!

If you find yourself looking to try FRFR in the future, if you don't already know train your ear to know what a mic'd cab sounds like coming off a monitor. It took me a minute to get used to this as I had always relied on a back line cab sound blowing past me knees for reference which sounds completely different. It's not for everyone but it is pretty cool having all the options available to you.

I have been on the FAS train for 10+ years and haven't gassed for a tube amp in all that time... welcome aboard and may the FAS be with you.
 
People will suggest turning off power amp/cab sims, but it's not always the best way to get the tone you may be after.

Start off building your own rig from a blank preset. Build it just as you would a real rig in front of a tube power amp into a guitar cab. Turn down/off the hi/low resonance in the speaker section of the amp block, that makes the biggest difference when using a real amp/cab.

If you then think the "feel" of the tone is not as dynamic as you like, turn on the power amp sims at a lower supply sag setting to get a more spongy feel. Just remember, the presence and depth controls act differently when power amp sims are in use.
 
Welcome - yeah I will second that you need to read and study the manual, and spend time with some demo vids.

Be sure to spend lots of time with the front panel to get familiar with it - nothing worse than having an issue down the road at a gig and not knowing how to fix a level or mix from there!
 
Don't judge the ax8 through the PA of your 5150 and get a flat response PA instead to feed your 4x12 as soon as you can.
 
Got it last night. Played with it for about 3 hours and Holy Hell!!!! Super impressed, worth 100X than I thought it would be.

I used my full range powered 2x10 wedge to just mess with it a bit and that thing sounded killer.

So worth it!
 
When you're running that bad boy into the power section of your 5150, be sure to set the low resonance to where you think it sounds best. There's an entry by Cliff in the Tech Notes section that talks about this setting, what it does, etc. I've found it useful when using a power amp and can. I got one of the best tones I ever had using on of the Matchless models into poweramp and 2x12. That setting really helped put the icing on the cake.
 
I have my AX8 going into my power wedge into the A Side of my ABY switch. The B side has my 5150 with my Mesa 4x12.

I’m trying to mimic my 5150 but as of right now, my 5150 is blowing this thing to pieces as far as tone goes. I know the AX8 can do it. Just having trouble.
 
It was suggested to me to cut the high and low frequencies in the cab block. Also if you’re trying to get close to the feel of your 4x12 cab thru your wedges you gotta empathize the mids. I haven’t had the ‘aha’ moment yet but to be fair I’ve only been able to spend about 3 hours at it. But this will be my gameplan.
 
NFABeejay said:
I have my AX8 going into my power wedge into the A Side of my ABY switch. The B side has my 5150 with my Mesa 4x12.

I’m trying to mimic my 5150 but as of right now, my 5150 is blowing this thing to pieces as far as tone goes. I know the AX8 can do it. Just having trouble.
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Don't forget you are hearing a mic'd cab sound with the monitor so make sure you are using the right cab sim! if you really want to match your 412 tilt the sucker up at your head and hear what your cab really sounds like. It can be done and you should be able to get really close if not dead on this will give you a better frame of reference to help you dial in the sound your after, good luck!
 
Yeah, by itself last night I was blown away. However, today when I a/b’s and did a direct comparison against the 5150 the 5150 had more ooomph.
 
I’m in the same boat. Ideally I’d like to be able to tweak my tone to get a cab vibe in a band setting and split the 2nd output to the PA with more of a full range sound. The thump of a cab is inspiring to me. Be sure to share how you get to where you’re going. It’ll help me.
 
This is something I posted in another thread. It may or may not help but it was what I found to be key in using amp modeling in general:

The biggest hurdle I had to get over was the feel of modeling vs amp & cab. The aha moment for me came when I started thinking of modeling as creating recorded guitar sounds, not replicating in-room guitar tone. I then started to listen closely to my favorite guitarist's recorded tone, then attempting to create those same sounds. I had much more success using this approach and am having much more fun.

Using an amp and guitar cab will definitely give you the "amp in the room" feel but there are parameters that may need to be tweaked and the amp set up properly. I have a couple of amps that I have a hard time getting tones I like using their fx loops. I go into the front of those amps and I have much better results. Try going into the front and play with the tone controls on your amp. Into the front of my Brunetti I have to set the treble at 1 in order to get a good tone. I usually have it set around 6 when played with my FX8.
 
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