Look who decided to join me for my drive home

Quick report.

The Good:
  1. The height is going to work perfectly on my older PT Pro in the original tour case. It fits even with the feet, and I'll be taking the feet off to attach it to the PT Pro.
  2. The build quality. Tough as a tank and yet some Apple-esque thought went into the industrial design, like how well balanced it is when grabbed from the handle / roll bar.
  3. The factory presets are actually kinda awesome. Tons of blocks I'll be stealing when I start building AX8-specific presets. The factory presets seem to be better tuned or perhaps just work better in my particular setup than the Axe-Fx II factory presets.
  4. Ernie Ball VPjr 25k works great as an expression pedal. Calibration was close to full range and the taper feels good for morphing.
  5. My external drive chain works perfectly into the front or the loop. There's a very slight tone change (or maybe just level + Fletcher Munson) with everything bypassed while it's in the loop, and I'm almost certain that's the affect of the extra cable length and/or the buffer in the analog MVP volume pedal it's hitting.
  6. Both outputs work great at 100% as I was planning. Unity for the FX Loop, and full +4dBu line level for Out 1 going into my Apogee Duet set to +4dBu line level in.
  7. The MIDI OUT port provides enough power for my MIDI Solutions Relay, so if I feel like doing 4CM with my Mesa Maverick, I'll be able to switch amp channels (using MIDI PCs via scenes).
The Bad:
  1. MIDI Program Changes via Scenes aren't sent out the USB port, only the physical MIDI port. That's unexpected, I assumed it would act as a USB MIDI port (not just for SysEx). It's not a huge issue because I've got plenty of MIDI-to-USB cables around, it's just an unexpected inconvenience.
  2. It doesn't send MIDI CC at all. I knew this, but I don't mind mentioning it again. =)
The Ugly:
  1. Are you kidding? There's no ugly. This is the best music gear purchase I've ever made. I've used the Axe-FX II XL+, but it wasn't mine (just borrowing). The AX8 sounds perfect going into my studio monitors at decently loud volume.
More random tidbits:
  • I tested the tuner precision and speed against my ST-200. It isn't quite as precise nor as fast, but close on both accounts. The ST-200 will stay on the board for visibility, and I'll have access to a nearly as good tuner when I use the AX8 standalone. Awesome.
  • I discovered the Ruby Rocket. I was familiar with the Trainwreck Rocket on the Axe but apparently missed the Ruby. SHOOT DANG it's sexy.
 
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