How long did it take you to get your set up where you like/dialed in ?

msmith886

Inspired
So I have had my AX8 for almost a week. I know there is a big learning curve at first. I wanted to ask how long it took you to get your ax 8 set up to your liking ?

As I posted earlier I am going from several high end pedals to the ax8 and like it so far but feel like I am spending more time editing and trying to get things dialed in vs working on actual playing. I have always been someone who likes easy stuff to dial in but also likes options.

I have several presets I really like and am making banks etc where it will be easier for live use.

I just wanted to see how long it took some of you and if you maybe felt the same way at first ?
 
I got my ax-8 friday. Moved about 50 patches from my XL with the axefxsend, then spent about 3 hours getting the scene controllers and missing blocks sorted out(AX-8 does not have as many effect blocks or cpu as the XL so some modifying was needed). took it to practice Saturday, and it was just as great as using the XL.
 
Yeah I guess I am still getting use to it. I hope to really just sit down and devote a day or two to moving patches etc now that I am figuring it out.

I like a lot of the tones but have a few things I am trying to work on like finding drives I like a lot, cut out the high pitch ring in reverb and delay mix's etc.
 
it didn't take me long to get my basic tone. Wrecker express into a Ownhammer Scumback IR G12H75 or G12M75 = minimal tweaking for me. But I have be at this a while.
 
If you spend too much time tweaking - limit yourself. Put some fixed time limit when you only turn the knobs. Then come back tomorrow or the day after. This way you can spend time on tweaking AND still have time for playing :)
 
I had a live gig very short time after getting my Ax8. I used to be a Vox/Marshall type of sound kind of guy, so I immediately set out to find a good clean Vox sound and a good Crunchy Marshall. I used the same cab for both.
I guess I spent an evening auditioning Voxes Marshalls and Cabs. Then a few more evening dialing 25 presets around these two amps and finally leveling the presets. That worked out very well for me.

Now, I have moved on to different amps and cabs. I have found something that works better for me. My first two amps were great, and I could have gigged with those sounds the whole year, but as I have digged in, I found stuff that I like even better.
 
Yeah thinking If I can get one or two banks set for my shows. Know it will take a little time.

Biggest thing I have had trouble with is finding a drive I like and the high pitch sound I get when using certain reverbs.

Planning on sitting down on an off day and just going in and getting one or two set up then get out of editing mode so it's not so overwhelming and focus more on the playing aspect again.
 
I guess I just have a lot to learn still. I don't know today I am feeling sorta frustrated. Like I got this great new pedal but am having trouble a wk later on using it and feeling frustrated almost.

I know how awesome this thing is and can be it's just going from pedals to the ax8 has been overwhelming I guess with all the options and feel like I have to ask a million questions on here still.

Think this weekend when I'm not gigging I will be sitting down hardcore and trying to get things where I like them and hopefully better understand it more.
 
The best way to get a killer pre set then others like it is find a good base tone then build on it, save it, then try a different amp in a different pre set tweak that tone till you like it then A/B them to give you perspective.

Also Say if you like Hard rock/Metal go to the Mark Day pre set (absolutely killer 'base tone') and for me there were key things I needed to change for my taste in this type of tone. So I started by changing the delay and delay type/amounts then I save like three places and in the two of those I try different amps in there and figure out what I like.
Pretty quickly you will find there are a few amps you really like and actually sound like living breathing fire throwing tube amps and many you would never use based on your taste.

So to answer your question, using this method in 1.5 hours last Friday I found useable tones to hold band practice with. Then over the weekend and the last couple of nights I have been fine tuning and will continue to. But I am very happy with what I have come up with so far.
 
I guess I just have a lot to learn still. I don't know today I am feeling sorta frustrated. Like I got this great new pedal but am having trouble a wk later on using it and feeling frustrated almost.

Think of it this way, if you walked into a warehouse with shelves filled with 200+ amps, 200+ cabinets and racks (and racks) & boxes of various effects, would you really know where to start? (think of this as a blank preset)
And if you the other side of the same warehouse, 500 people were standing around letting you play your guitar through their rig? which one would you pick first?
pretty overwhelming eh? (this of this like using inbuilt/downloaded presets)

Chances are, you'd start with something similar to what you're used to, so why not start the same way with the AX8?
Pick an amp or 3 that you like/ is close to what you are used to and keep it simple!

To get started, you can browse through the existing presets, download some from this forum, or make your own.
I'd be prepared to say that not a single one is perfect for your situation (your guitar, playing style, the speaker you're using, the volume you're listening at - these personal items all make a big difference).

You'll be rewarded by the time you put into the unit learning how to harness the power, but don't try and do everything at once - that's only going to get you frustrated.
 
Greetings,

I spent about six hours last weekend trying to learn enough to create one preset (covering six sounds) I could use at band rehearsal on Sunday, starting with a clean sound I found somewhere in the factory presets and building everything else from there. The approximations of what I needed were fairly usable, with one application of my prominent clean tone sounding better than ever--however the rest of the sounds weren't quite as good as what I'd been using before. (Given how I rushed to do this and kept everything to a single amp/cabinet combination, I was actually fairly pleased with the results.)

As I know this baby is capable of improving all my tones, I'm now trying to build the basic three sounds from scratch--each in their own preset for starters--that I should be able to modify to accommodate all six sounds I'll really need. Starting with the clean tone, I've now spent about three hours auditioning all the amp model, first going through them all with my Strat (knocking it down to 31 possibilities) and then trying all these with both my Godin xtSA and SG--and now I think I've got my top contender nailed down. Spent another hour auditioning the first 64 cabinets to match and ran out of time to go further tonight. If all goes well, I'm hoping to have the final amp/cab choice finished tomorrow and will then probably work on refining the chorus and reverb I'm using.

My original thought was to go through the same process for my '70s style medium overdrive sound and then my heavier tone (which I used to get with a Rockman Sustainor through a Music Man 112 RD 65 amp), but now that I see how long it's taking, I think I'll probably try switching back to finding some existing presets to use as starting points for these two additional timbres--especially as I may need to add a drive and possibly even a compressor to build everything from scratch.

It's been a great learning experience, though (especially building that first do-everything draft preset I used for Sunday's rehearsal, complete with five scenes, several of which leverages X/Y capabilities). The AX8 is my first FAS unit, too, so I kind of need to work through the process from different angles to learn how to get the most out of it. Am really loving the flexibility, many of the tones, and how everything responds to being played. Am really looking forward to getting this live setup fully complete, though, so I can use it for the band and then experiment further with other things I'd like to do.

All the best,


Alan
 
Think of it this way, if you walked into a warehouse with shelves filled with 200+ amps, 200+ cabinets and racks (and racks) & boxes of various effects, would you really know where to start? (think of this as a blank preset)
And if you the other side of the same warehouse, 500 people were standing around letting you play your guitar through their rig? which one would you pick first?
pretty overwhelming eh? (this of this like using inbuilt/downloaded presets)

Chances are, you'd start with something similar to what you're used to, so why not start the same way with the AX8?
Pick an amp or 3 that you like/ is close to what you are used to and keep it simple!

To get started, you can browse through the existing presets, download some from this forum, or make your own.
I'd be prepared to say that not a single one is perfect for your situation (your guitar, playing style, the speaker you're using, the volume you're listening at - these personal items all make a big difference).

You'll be rewarded by the time you put into the unit learning how to harness the power, but don't try and do everything at once - that's only going to get you frustrated.
I know what you mean I spent over 10 days four hours a day Making patches tweaking learning everything i can as this is my first fractal unit
This Thing is amazing my other guitar player liked it so much he bought one
 
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