How to use drive pedals with FX8

[JazzMac251]

Dig the FX8 a lot, but I have a couple drive pedals I still intend on using along with it. I tend to use low-gain drive pedals with the output pretty high to drive an edge-of-breakup amp hard into overdrive. Normally I'd say just plug them right into the front of the FX8, but I've been noticing that even the stock blacktop filtertrons on my Gretsch tend to clip the input converters of the FX8 at stock settings. I'd bet they're not going to like what a powered preamp (i.e. a drive pedal) does to them.

So, if not in the front, where? The POST section? Is that going to make any material difference? Do I just have to stick them AFTER my FX8 and deal with the whole time-based-FX-into-overdrive situation?

 

[N.Phaneuf]

I tend to use multiple low gain stack drives as well. I bought the fx8 intending it to do everything other than my drive pedals.

i'm currently gigging without them. I encourage you to mess around with the drive block. I also play a Gretsch with filtertrons and I posted a number of my drive settings that you might dig.

I do think putting them in between the pre-section and the post section might work although I have not tried that.

The unit itself can produce volume well above unity. It might be that you could run your pedals out front with lower output and boost the volume internally.

Let us know how it turns out!





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Alabama man]

What's the deal with clipping the input because of your pickups? There's no way around this?

What are you not liking about the FX8 drives vs your external pedals?

 

[JazzMac251]

What's the deal with clipping the input because of your pickups? There's no way around this?

What are you not liking about the FX8 drives vs your external pedals?

There is. You can turn down the input gain, but that raises your noise floor. I don't want to do that because I don't think it makes sense to set the input gain to accommodate a level that's going to vary so wildly (I mean if I start putting drive pedals in front of the FX8's instrument IN). The FX8 is probably designed with this exact scenario in mind, but I'm not sure how to take advantage of that yet.

I'm not a huge fan of the drives in the AxeFX and FX8...but mostly because I'm not a huge fan of most of those particular drive pedals in real life. Some of them are pretty cool, though. Especially the fuzzes.

 

[Rex]

You can turn down the input gain, but that raises your noise floor.

Even at extreme settings, the FX8's noise floor will be way below your guitar's noise floor. And way, way below the noise floor of your guitar plus drive pedal.

I don't want to do that because I don't think it makes sense to set the input gain to accommodate a level that's going to vary so wildly (I mean if I start putting drive pedals in front of the FX8's instrument IN).

It makes sense, because...

The FX8 is probably designed with this exact scenario in mind...

If you still don't want to do that, put your drive pedal at Output 1 (Pre), so it drives your amp directly.

 

[Diego Liñan]

Even at extreme settings, the FX8's noise floor will be way below your guitar's noise floor. And way, way below the noise floor of your guitar plus drive pedal.



It makes sense, because...





If you still don't want to do that, put your drive pedal at Output 1 (Pre), so it drives your amp directly.

Say I put a drive pedal in out 1 pre, wouldn't I

Even at extreme settings, the FX8's noise floor will be way below your guitar's noise floor. And way, way below the noise floor of your guitar plus drive pedal.



It makes sense, because...





If you still don't want to do that, put your drive pedal at Output 1 (Pre), so it drives your amp directly.

Very interesting. Say I put my drive pedal in the output 1 pre, wouldn't I be losing the humbuster capabilities of that output? Would i still have to run a humbuster cable from the output of the pedal to the amp? Also, would this somehow allow me to, for instance, put one of the fx8's compressors in front of the drive, and if so, how?

 

[Rex]

Very interesting. Say I put my drive pedal in the output 1 pre, wouldn't I be losing the humbuster capabilities of that output? Would i still have to run a humbuster cable from the output of the pedal to the amp? Also, would this somehow allow me to, for instance, put one of the fx8's compressors in front of the drive, and if so, how?

Humbuster is a proprietary feature of Fractal's 1/4" outputs. This feature becomes available when you us a Humbuster cable at the output. So your FX8-to-Drive pedal link you'll be Humbuster, but not your drive pedal-to-amp link(because your drive pedal doesn't have a Humbuster feature).

To put an FX8 compressor in front of your drive pedal, put a Compressor block as the last block in your Pre chain.

 

[Diego Liñan]

Humbuster is a proprietary feature of Fractal's 1/4" outputs. This feature becomes available when you us a Humbuster cable at the output. So your FX8-to-Drive pedal link you'll be Humbuster, but not your drive pedal-to-amp link(because your drive pedal doesn't have a Humbuster feature).

To put an FX8 compressor in front of your drive pedal, put a Compressor block as the last block in your Pre chain.

So, for instance, if I wanted to use a wah from the fx8, my external overdrive and a distortion from the fx8 drive blocks after the external drive I should use the wah as a pre block, in theory my drive would come next and i should put the distortion first in the post chain. Would that be about right?
Also, I assumed the whole point of the humbuster cable was to be able to reduce the noise and provide better signal while reducing hum using long cable runs. If that is the case, wouldn't running a standard long cable from the pedal to the amp defeat the whole purpose of the humbuster cable/technology?

 

[Rex]

So, for instance, if I wanted to use a wah from the fx8, my external overdrive and a distortion from the fx8 drive blocks after the external drive I should use the wah as a pre block, in theory my drive would come next and i should put the distortion first in the post chain. Would that be about right?

The Pre section of the FX8 is what feeds your amp. You can put your external drive in front of the Pre section or after it, but you can't put it in the middle,of the Pre chain.

Also, I assumed the whole point of the humbuster cable was to be able to reduce the noise and provide better signal while reducing hum using long cable runs. If that is the case, wouldn't running a standard long cable from the pedal to the amp defeat the whole purpose of the humbuster cable/technology?

Humbuster reduces certain kinds of hum—the kind that's caused by ground loops. But in order for a Humbuster cable to work, it has to be connected to an output that has Humbuster technology built in. Only your FX8 has Humbuster built into its outputs. Your pedals don't. So you can use a Humbuster cable to reduce ground loop hum between the FX8 output and whatever it's connected to, but if you have ground loop issues between other gear, a Humbuster cable won't help.

 

[Manxmusicman]

By putting the drive in front of the fx8 the pedal will be driving the input signal into the fx8. I would recommend putting your drive pedals between the fx8 pre out and your amp, this way the pedals push the amp not the fx8.

 

[Rex]

By putting the drive in front of the fx8 the pedal will be driving the input signal into the fx8. I would recommend putting your drive pedals between the fx8 pre out and your amp, this way the pedals push the amp not the fx8.

It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you like to put other effects between your drive and your amp, go ahead and put the drive in front of the FX8. It'll work the same as if you did that with real pedals.

 

[Diego Liñan]

It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you like to put other effects between your drive and your amp, go ahead and put the drive in front of the FX8. It'll work the same as if you did that with real pedals.

Frankly, What I want to do is disregard all drive pedals from the FX8, except maybe for a booster, which I haven't tried yet. I will use my wah, and my drive pedals but, as you know, some filter effects, work best before any drive pedals. So what I would really want is to user my drive pedals and filter effects in the correct order. For what I can see here, that is quite impossible so I will have to either use filter effects after my drive pedals (no matter if I use out pre or just in front of the axe after the guitar) or get some external filter effects. Now, the last two posts left me confused... Drives between the guitar and the FX8 will overload the FX8 or not?

 

[Diego Liñan]

The Pre section of the FX8 is what feeds your amp. You can put your external drive in front of the Pre section or after it, but you can't put it in the middle,of the Pre chain.



Humbuster reduces certain kinds of hum—the kind that's caused by ground loops. But in order for a Humbuster cable to work, it has to be connected to an output that has Humbuster technology built in. Only your FX8 has Humbuster built into its outputs. Your pedals don't. So you can use a Humbuster cable to reduce ground loop hum between the FX8 output and whatever it's connected to, but if you have ground loop issues between other gear, a Humbuster cable won't help.

Sorry if I sound to ignorant, but How do you exactly "put the external drive in front of the Pre section or after it". I can't seem to find a way to do so... Can you walk me through an example on how to configure the FX8 to do, for instance, FX8 compressor -> external drive -> whatever comes next? Thanks!

 

[Diego Liñan]

It all depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you like to put other effects between your drive and your amp, go ahead and put the drive in front of the FX8. It'll work the same as if you did that with real pedals.

Maybe I don't have a clear picture of the signal path and that is what is confussing me (I come from G-System, sorry). In the case where I put my drive in OUT 1 PRE, then basically all of the PRE FX8 effects will be processed and then the signal will enter my drive pedal. Is that it? So if I wanted to use the compressor alone (for arguments's sake) I would edit the signal chain, select 1 pre effect, put a compressor in there, that gets proceeesed by the FX8 and then out goes the signal to my OD and all of it then hits the preamp, right?

 

[Rex]

Sorry if I sound to ignorant, but How do you exactly "put the external drive in front of the Pre section or after it". I can't seem to find a way to do so... Can you walk me through an example on how to configure the FX8 to do, for instance, FX8 compressor -> external drive -> whatever comes next? Thanks!

Let's start at the beginning. How do you have your FX8 connected to your amp?

 

[Diego Liñan]

Let's start at the beginning. How do you have your FX8 connected to your amp?

I am currently using the 4CM as per the manual's instructions (still have to make the humbuster cables though until I have all these issues sorted out so Im' using TRS for now) with both the volume and expression pedals hooked up to the FX8.

 

[Rex]

Thanks. That helps.

Sorry if I sound to ignorant, but How do you exactly "put the external drive in front of the Pre section or after it". I can't seem to find a way to do so... Can you walk me through an example on how to configure the FX8 to do, for instance, FX8 compressor -> external drive -> whatever comes next? Thanks!

"Put the external drive in front of the Pre section" means GUITAR > EXTERNAL > DRIVE > INPUT 1 PRE, and OUTPUT 1 PRE > amp.

"Put the external drive after the Pre section" means GUITAR > INPUT 1 PRE and OUTPTU 1 PRE > DRIVE > amp.

 

[Deadpool_25]

guitar > (TS cable)
Input 1 pre >
FX8 effects >
output 1 pre > (humbuster)
drive/distortion pedals > (TS)
amp input >
amp FX send > (TS)
input 2 post >
FX8 "post" effects >
Output 2 post > (humbuster)
amp FX return

Simply put any FX you'd typically put after distortion in the post path. This actually seems quite logical and "standard".

The FX8's inputs can clip if you send too hot a signal. It's doable, but unless you're putting some effects between your distortion and the amp (again, that's fine but pretty rare), it makes the most sense to put the dirt pedals between output 1 pre and the amp input.

 

[Diego Liñan]

guitar > input 1 pre > (FX8 effects) > output 1 pre > drive/distortion pedals > amp input > amp FX send > input 2 post > (FX8 "post" effects) > Output 2 post > amp FX return

Simply put any FX you'd typically put after distortion in the post path. This actually seems quite logical and "standard".

The FX8's inputs can clip if you send too hot a signal. It's doable, but unless you're putting some effects between your distortion and the amp (again, that's fine but pretty rare), it makes the most sense to put the dirt pedals between output 1 pre and the amp input.

Perfect. That's what I needed to know. I was fuzzy on what happens and when. I needed conformation that the FX8 effects "happen" before the external pedals when these are hooked on the out 1 pre. So, It's really cool because I can use, for instance, the FX8's wah the way I use it now without the FX8, which is before the od or distortions.

 

[Deadpool_25]

Edited that last post to show where Humbuster cables go.