I'm Just Going to Leave This Here

The Axe8 will be block-compatible with the Axe-Fx. The Drive block on the Axe-Fx is foot-controllable on its bypass parameter and its mix parameter, too. So you can foot-tweak it any way you like.
 
BillyL said:
Question for Axe owners: I use a Pod HD 500, but I've been thinking about moving to an Axe FX. Many of my patches go from a cleaner rhythm setting to a dirtier lead setting with a foot controller (I'm also a singer so I can't be always looking down at my buttons). On the Pod, I do this often by having two parallel paths before hitting the same amp. One path has a dist type pedal on it and the other is empty. Of course I also change many of the amp settings and fx settings with the pedal.

It was stated that this new Axe unit won't do dual amps. That's ok as long as it has dual paths leading to the single amp, or if fx like a dist pedal can go into bypass as a foot controller parameter (as you know, simply dialing a tube screamer to 0 still colors the sound.)

Based on your understanding of the architecture, do you think it likely either of these options would be available on this new floor unit?

BTW, if you have never set up your patches this way, I highly recommend it. It allows instant no-look switching from rhythm to lead sounds while playing as well as nice in-between volumes and tones.
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i'm pretty sure it's a single "path" with 8 (amp/FX) slots BUT it has X/Y capability and scenes so if all you're concerned with is a way of going from rhythm to lead it can very easily be done. scenes being the most effective as you could have (f.ex.) a crunch tone with a little verb, hit "scene 2" (or whatever your preference) and have a drive block, delay engage and verb off. all with one press of a button. if you absolutely have to have it done w/ an expression pedal you could assign control to drive and delay "mix" to achieve a nice crossfade
 
brianv4 said:
i'm pretty sure it's a single "path" with 8 (amp/FX) slots BUT it has X/Y capability and scenes so if all you're concerned with is a way of going from rhythm to lead it can very easily be done. scenes being the most effective as you could have (f.ex.) a crunch tone with a little verb, hit "scene 2" (or whatever your preference) and have a drive block, delay engage and verb off. all with one press of a button. if you absolutely have to have it done w/ an expression pedal you could assign control to drive and delay "mix" to achieve a nice crossfade
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If as a previous poster said, the fx can be pedaled all the way off into a bypass mode, then dual paths are not needed. On the Pod, an effect can only be pedal-controlled on the parameters of the original effect, so a distortion unit cannot be bypassed except with a button, which I prefer to avoid. Things like dynamics, ambience fx and modulation scan be dialed back to 0 or no effect, but dialing a distortion pedal back still leaves a lot of tone shaping.
 
Randalljax said:
I would be surprised if a 4 min looper is possible but who knows .
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I would be surprised if longer looper times are not included. A longer looper time is dependent on having more memory, and memory is cheap. It would be silly not to include it.
 
FractalAudio said:
Yeah, the decision will be to sell it at a lower price with only a few built-in models and then get people to upgrade or sell it at a higher price with all the models. There are pros and cons for each.
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FWIW, the Eventide H9 may be a good product to look at for a recent attempt at doing this.

My experience was overall negative with the H9 business model. It seemed like a good idea to build it up as you want, but after buying a dozen or so algorithms, I felt like I had invested enough and avoided buying more, even though I wanted to. Months later, the H9 Max is announced and I'm upgraded for free to all the algorithms.

So, if there is going to be a base model + add-ons, I'd suggest having a "Max" option for people who want to just get it over with, along with some threshold of purchase that gets you everything rather than feeling like there is no end to cost of the unit. It would be best to launch with all that spelled out, rather than as an afterthought like Eventide.

A tough business decision for sure, but if a lower-price base model gets more people in the door who will upgrade as their budget allows, that's a good thing.

Good luck!
 
If there's only $200-300 difference in full vs update after purchase version, I'm not sure it would help anyone on either side. If it's $400-500 it may sway in new users but if FAS sells it for their cost in hopes of this, there is also no guarantee of selling enough models to profit.
Video game consoles have been selling at an loss for years in hopes to profit from software sales that they may or may not see.
I think a lot of guys would save their pennies for a $1,000 > < unit but $1,500 > < may be beyond reach for some. I would go for the loaded unit myself. IMHO
 
If you could add just the amps/speakers/effects you wanted/needed, I would pay a higher premium/% to not have to buy it all.
 
fractalz said:
FWIW, the Eventide H9 may be a good product to look at for a recent attempt at doing this.

My experience was overall negative with the H9 business model. It seemed like a good idea to build it up as you want, but after buying a dozen or so algorithms, I felt like I had invested enough and avoided buying more, even though I wanted to. Months later, the H9 Max is announced and I'm upgraded for free to all the algorithms.

So, if there is going to be a base model + add-ons, I'd suggest having a "Max" option for people who want to just get it over with, along with some threshold of purchase that gets you everything rather than feeling like there is no end to cost of the unit. It would be best to launch with all that spelled out, rather than as an afterthought like Eventide.

A tough business decision for sure, but if a lower-price base model gets more people in the door who will upgrade as their budget allows, that's a good thing.

Good luck!
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To me this makes the most sense so I share the same sentiment.

Another thing to throw out there would be to not limit it to just adding Amp sims but Cab sims and Effects as well. This way the customer can customise the unit to fit their needs. So maybe that's where you could have a full blown unit that has everything loaded in it for that person that wants the kitchen sink that is upwards of $x,xxx... and a bare bones unit that you get say 4 Amp and Cab sims and Effects of their choosing that come with it at whatever that aggressive price point is.
 
Hmm, after reading a lot more comments on this, I feel like there's two major camps here:

1) the Pro-pay-as-you-go camp, who would love to pay less as they only need a few models
2) the Con-pay-as-you-go camp, who fear less upgradability, reputation loss and unneccesary overhead cost (DRM, module shop) that could be avoided

... if we take both camps into account, fractal would lose money no matter what: The pro crowd will probably not generate substantial income for the module shop and the con crowd will avoid the AX8 anyway.

Also, let's always remember that there's a certain psychology involved in this aswell: products with exceptionally low pricing will always be regarded as "cheap" or "dumbed down" ... marketting a unit at a much lower purchase price and then adding on top via pay-as-you-go will probably trigger the feeling that the parts and components are of low quality. I think part of the success of the Axe was the high-end feel of it in both pricing and quality.
 
My 0.02$ on this topic. The info came much too early. The FX8 is not yet available, already a new product is in the pipeline and much speculation is going on, also regarding pricing ...based on my experience (the same thing what happend back in autumn 2008 with the Atomic FR), the AX8 will be available within the next 18 months, pretty sure we talking about 2016.

no offence and with much respect to you guys, but this was not very clever....IMO
 
brianv4 said:
do we know if the ax8 will have the expanded looper as in the fx8?
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A looper upgrade that enables 3 separate looper units with current features would be awesome.

A 3-unit looper would enable building and switching between different song elements: verse, bridge and chorus for example.

This is what most loopers are missing. IMO, building multiple sections is far more stimulating than looping the same one over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over.
 
Loopers are demanding functions from a processing and memory standpoint from my understanding... considering the AX8 is supposed to be 'aggressively priced', I'd be surprised if it had a looper at all, so that the processing power/memory can be devoted to other things.
 
JRod4928 said:
Loopers are demanding functions from a processing and memory standpoint from my understanding... considering the AX8 is supposed to be 'aggressively priced', I'd be surprised if it had a looper at all, so that the processing power/memory can be devoted to other things.
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FractalAudio said:
AX8.jpg
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according to the text next to the buttons it will have a looper.
IIRC it's only 1 % CPU on the Axe-Fx II, so I don't think it's really power demanding
 
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