FX8 Amp Routing Question

stratamania

Fractal Fanatic
Greetings folks. It's been a while since I logged on so I hope you are all doing well.

My gear journey is taking me now more in the direction of 4CM and tube amps. When I had the Axe FX II most of my decent pedals went.

So I'm now looking into options and one of those is the FX8, I've been skimming the manual and also read a few posts in this forum. But so far I can't find an answer to the following.

There looks to be the ability to run dual amps with the FX8, or 7CM but what I am wondering is if there any choices of how you can rout the signal from one amps preamp to the others power amp ?

Or if you had a preamp in one side say R could you run it to the power amp in L bypassing the preamp of L?

Is this routing possible or planned ?

Cheers...
 
It's really designed for 1 amp from what I can see.. You could possibly make it work, but you will need other hardware, etc to integrate your concept.
 
Thanks Brads4, there's definitely the I/O for two amps I see in the manual.

anyone else any other info on the routing ?

Another question if using two amps is there a way to take care of phase reversal that may occur ?
 
I'm using 2 Tubemeister 36 amps. its all wired as per the 4 cable method except cable number 5 is added which goes from the FX8 Right channel on the "To Amp Return". This means all preamp comes from the first amp and only the power section is used for the second amp. I can run stereo or dual mono this way. I switch both amps using a midi splitter so they change channels in unison.

I hope that helps.
 
@bread, thanks that must sound pretty sweet.

If you're using the second amp only as a power amp effectively I'm wondering why you are using a Midi splitter to change the second amps pre amp channel if it isn't in the signal path ? Have you tried it wothout ?

So what I am wondering is if you could use the preamp of Amp A in L or the preamp of AMP B in R to either or both power amps.
 
@bread, thanks that must sound pretty sweet.

If you're using the second amp only as a power amp effectively I'm wondering why you are using a Midi splitter to change the second amps pre amp channel if it isn't in the signal path ? Have you tried it wothout ?

So what I am wondering is if you could use the preamp of Amp A in L or the preamp of AMP B in R to either or both power amps.

If I leave the main amp on clean there is a slight difference in tone between the amps when I use the crunch or lead channel - its hard to tell but there is a slight difference, so I switch both amps channels simultaneously.

I'm not quite sure you could route the FX8 the way you describe - I think you would need an A/B box
 
@bread, OK got it. You would not expect a difference but if it's there then it's there. Thanks for explaining.

I've been wondering if an external box would be needed. Still it would be interesting if it can all be done within the FX8.
 
I recently got my FX8 - I am planning on using the 7 cable method - so with two separate amps - and a discrete Left and Right channel throughout the chain. However I also want the two amps to use their own pre-amp's - as I want to maintain that blend of different tones - I will be using a Marshall style amp/tone on one channel and the other will have Fender style/tone amp. The FX8 is definitely set up to allow this - and the only thing you need is the extra cables. In my case I will probably put a dual delay in the chain of each preset - with the Left and Right channels set at about 300ms part - to give even better stereo separation.
 
Here's another scenario. Let's say you have a Marshall of some type. That's set up in 4CM in L.

But then lets say you have an Engl Preamp that has no power amp in R. Could the FX8 be set up to send the Engl preamp in R to the Marshall power amp in L with the Marshalls preamp in L bypassed altogether ?
 
Here's another scenario. Let's say you have a Marshall of some type. That's set up in 4CM in L.

But then lets say you have an Engl Preamp that has no power amp in R. Could the FX8 be set up to send the Engl preamp in R to the Marshall power amp in L with the Marshalls preamp in L bypassed altogether ?

I "think" that in this scenario - it would help if you switch the amps around and use the Engl as the "L" channel and the Marshal as "R" (as mono is usually "L") you would send your pre-out in summed mono "L" to the Engl - then your amp "send" input - with a single cable would go to the FX8's input - then this would be the start of the "loop" - the rest of which could be stereo - and then your FX8's "return" outputs would be "L" to whichever method your are using for the Engl side - and "R" would go to the Marshals "return" input - and so in this way the Marshall will be acting as a power amp only?
 
Thanks Dealmaker, I'll take a look at the manual for the summing possibilities.

I guess what I am wondering about may not be possible without an additional piece of equipment.

I suppose what I'm asking about would require a routing matrix for the A that lives between pre and post effects.

It would appear that it isn't a feature currently available ?
 
Greetings folks. It's been a while since I logged on so I hope you are all doing well.

My gear journey is taking me now more in the direction of 4CM and tube amps. When I had the Axe FX II most of my decent pedals went.

So I'm now looking into options and one of those is the FX8, I've been skimming the manual and also read a few posts in this forum. But so far I can't find an answer to the following.

There looks to be the ability to run dual amps with the FX8, or 7CM but what I am wondering is if there any choices of how you can rout the signal from one amps preamp to the others power amp ?

Or if you had a preamp in one side say R could you run it to the power amp in L bypassing the preamp of L?

Is this routing possible or planned ?

Cheers...

Isn't this just like regular 4CM?
 
Isn't this just like regular 4CM?
I think he wants, for example, the signal at Post In Left to only go to Post Out Right as well as Post In Right going to Post Out Right so they both get processed only by the "right side" power amp.

Maybe making Post Out as Sum L+R would do it?

You wouldn't be running stereo ever with this setup, right?
 
If you had two amps, or one amp and one preamp. It would be being able to use the preamp in the Left or Right Loop to either or both power amps via the outputs.

So you could do stereo or not, but choose which preamp you want to use with both power amps.

Perhaps I might need another Axe FX. At the moment I'm considering options of which way I might go.
 
Hmm, I don't have any inside knowledge, but I wouldn't guess this feature would come to the fx8 soon. I would guess hardware limitation. Again I don't know anything for sure, but in the spirit of making that setup work, I might not wait for it. Maybe some wizard can figure it out with the current features though :)

In a sense but with the flexibility of being able to select or bypass a preamp in a flexible manner if set up with 7CM
It's more than selecting or bypassing though. It's internally shifting/routing signal from one side's input to the other side's output at will.
 
So far I've only gigged my fx8 into a clean amp but this weekend I'll hopefully have time to set it up for stereo with the evh 5153 as the preamp and the outputs into the evh power amp on one side and the power amp input on my bogner mojado on the other. That's how I used my G system and I can't see any reason the fx8 should work just as well but sound even better. It would be very cool to have the options to route a 2nd preamp to either power amp but that's probably more than I need.
 
That's it Chris.

I've been looking at various options of pedals, loopers and routers, etc. By the time you add up the costs an Axe FX may become my best option for flexibility.
 
@john_p, that should work from what I've read in the manual.

Routing different preamps around is probably more than anyone "needs" :) but you know guitarists and gear possibilities...
 
Back
Top Bottom