My first few hours with the FX8... a review of sorts.

Admin M@ said:
Hi TRTTRTTRT,

I haven't seen the manual that is included in Europe, but if it's based on the USA version, the essential piece of information that you need is that the (thousands of) effect block parameters are currently detailed in the Axe-Fx Manual.

See the following PDF, Chapter 5, on Page 39.
http://www.fractalaudio.com/downloads/manuals/axe-fx-2/Axe-Fx-II-Owners-Manual.pdf

One of my current projects is to take this chapter out of that manual, add notes about differences between models, and release a single unified effects guide for Axe-Fx, FX8 and AX8.

In the meanwhile, the Axe-Fx Wiki also reproduces this material online.

Hope this helps,

PS: I think you'll all be pleased with the next major firmware release for the FX8.
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Thanks VERY much for that :)

I will go through the AFX2 manual (and continue to go through the wiki) and do my best to learn, learn, learn. The potential is obviously immense!

Oh and I can't wait for the next firmware! My first fractal update :)
 
DavidE said:
It's not necessarily a matter of USING the other effects at once. It's not being able to include them in the preset so you CAN use them if you're not using the reverb. But I get the logic of not allowing that either.
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This is true... I did notice that the CPU meter stayed pretty similar with out the FX activated... I guess I would just change presets if I needed too... the load time seems very quick... at least so far as I can see... :)
 
I read your review with lots of interest - glad your happy with the FX8. I wonder how you managed to outnumber your Himmelstrutz pedal with the FX8. I did not achieve this. My Himmelstrutz pedal sounds definitely better combined with a tele and a redplate amp. I realise there can be two reasons for this: I love low OD sounds and the Himmelstrutz Fitzo is specialised on low OD sounds. Second: My redplate amp seems to be a bit picky with my FX8.
Some days ago I made an intersting observation. My Gibson ES 369 has been collecting dust for some months until I decided to leave my tele aside and try the FX8 with a humbucker guitar. Had to start all the way from scratch with my drive settings and ended up with some really nice ones. Suddenly the drives (think tubescreamer) which I could not pair with my Tele felt good and vice versa. With my Himmelstrutz pedal it was pretty easy to dial in the sounds - no matter if HB or SC. With the FX8 it seems like quite some work to adapt to amp and guitar - please no firmware updates! ;-)) - but boy I got rewarded with a great sound coming from my Gibson!!
 
Hhuent said:
I read your review with lots of interest - glad your happy with the FX8. I wonder how you managed to outnumber your Himmelstrutz pedal with the FX8. I did not achieve this. My Himmelstrutz pedal sounds definitely better combined with a tele and a redplate amp. I realise there can be two reasons for this: I love low OD sounds and the Himmelstrutz Fitzo is specialised on low OD sounds. Second: My redplate amp seems to be a bit picky with my FX8.
Some days ago I made an intersting observation. My Gibson ES 369 has been collecting dust for some months until I decided to leave my tele aside and try the FX8 with a humbucker guitar. Had to start all the way from scratch with my drive settings and ended up with some really nice ones. Suddenly the drives (think tubescreamer) which I could not pair with my Tele felt good and vice versa. With my Himmelstrutz pedal it was pretty easy to dial in the sounds - no matter if HB or SC. With the FX8 it seems like quite some work to adapt to amp and guitar - please no firmware updates! ;-)) - but boy I got rewarded with a great sound coming from my Gibson!!
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I just found... I tend to stack pedals a lot... a lot a lot... I was quickly able to use a few different pedals to play the role of my c'luxe in a stack... if you see my point... the only time I EVER use a single gain pedal is for edge of breakup tones... the second gain level always stacks on top that on my rig... so maybe because I use it that way I am satisfied... or think I can easily get there.. I was really concerned about a few things... the sound of the grainyness, the way it drove my amp, and the dynamics... so far it seems to be very very good in all three respects... :)

Not that I'm going to actually sell my c'luxe ;)

Oh and btw, I only ever really use humbuckers and I have two custom made amps that take all pedals extremely well... so maybe there's something to al of that amp & tele stuff...
 
So a mini-update.

I spent about 4 hours with it over the last few days. I was easily able to match the delay tones, or get 90% of the way there, of my beloved Echolution 2. A/Bing them and being very happy with both. Score.

The drive pedals:

I still love them. Switching the clipping does a LOT. Screwing with things like bias can take take you into insanely weird territory. Happy, but still overwhelmed. Its like finding a box with a few dozens drives and fuzzes. What would you use? How would you stack them? The options are pretty staggering.

Even better than all of that though was getting into making new sounds - things I never could easily make in the past. So for example I quickly made a wonderful sound that was an octave down with tape delay ambient reverb and an automated band pass filter sweep.

That took about 5 minutes. Super lush and warm and inspiring. Saved and ready to go whenever I want. As a pedalboard guy for a LONG time this is really relevatory. No more handwritten "presets," no more photos of pedals before moving the board, or writing on tape to remember settings. Wow.

So much of the experience is daunting and overwhelming, but critically so much is easy and obvious and professional.

The EQs are fantastic. Very pleased.

The compressors sound great and are very useful. No weird coloration.

Pitchtracking was really good as well.

The ONLY thing I'd say that's negative is that the presets are not hugely impressive. But we all know presets suck. Not that they sound bad, at all, but they seem to be a bit random. Some have a lot of scenes. Others are very empty. Some are very very minimal. Others are absurdly over the top. 4CM presets are mixed with PRE and POST presets. It's a mixed bag.

But once you dive in its immediately clear that this box is pretty magical.

And did I mention how amazing the reverb is...?

Ha.

All and all I cloned my delay pedal sounds and presets, chose some starting points for drives and made presets for 3 songs. And made a few new sounds for a new song idea. Not bad for four hours.

 
I'd love to see some of your drive presets! I don't have any reference pedals around right now, and it sounds interesting your experiences!!
 
brads4 said:
I'd love to see some of your drive presets! I don't have any reference pedals around right now, and it sounds interesting your experiences!!
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As soon as I settle on stuff I will! I also plan to upload some of the more inspiring random new things I develop. It's probably nothing people haven't been doing on the AFX for years, but ti's pretty amazing for me... so maybe someone else will enjoy them as well..
 
I am also new to this domain, so anything you've got especially in the drive domain, I am interested. I've been using amp distortion for so long I really dont' have a ton of drive experience (except a couple fuzz pedals..... ) I have this fuzz - creepy fingers - harikari fuzz. It's so insane I am going to try and model it perfectly. I think i found one of the harder octave fuzzes that came close... but ya! please share! We are not all axe masters here (speaking for myself).
 
brads4 said:
I am also new to this domain, so anything you've got especially in the drive domain, I am interested. I've been using amp distortion for so long I really dont' have a ton of drive experience (except a couple fuzz pedals..... ) I have this fuzz - creepy fingers - harikari fuzz. It's so insane I am going to try and model it perfectly. I think i found one of the harder octave fuzzes that came close... but ya! please share! We are not all axe masters here (speaking for myself).
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We have a gig in a few weeks. It's an original band. I'll have to be ready by then and I'll post some stuff around then. It may not make sense unless you happen to know our tunes

I would really recommend trying stacking pedals. You can get a lot more complexity and variety that way. At least I can. ☺

Also really try swapping the clipping. Check out then opamp clipping for lower gain sounds. You maybe be pleasantly surprised.
 
Absolutely. I have been tackling in depth block analysis group by group. I haven't done much with drives but create a small clean boost for my mesa.
 
brads4 said:
Absolutely. I have been tackling in depth block analysis group by group. I haven't done much with drives but create a small clean boost for my mesa.
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Funny how much tech is involved in guitar playing

Taking it piece by piece seems to be the only way
 
Yup. I find it even takes me 2 passes through most things to fully grasp the full power of every control. I think the next block is Reverb.
 
TRTTRTTRT said:
We have a gig in a few weeks. It's an original band. I'll have to be ready by then and I'll post some stuff around then. It may not make sense unless you happen to know our tunes

I would really recommend trying stacking pedals. You can get a lot more complexity and variety that way. At least I can. ☺

Also really try swapping the clipping. Check out then opamp clipping for lower gain sounds. You maybe be pleasantly surprised.
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This ^ The Clipping suggestion is probably the biggest Eureka moment I have just had with my drive tones...
 
TRTTRTTRT said:
Pitchtracking was really good as well.
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If I had one complaint it's with the pitch tracking. Seems to glitch somewhat to me. I did find that it improved on some of my patches when I did some adjusting of reverbs, chorus voices, etc... hope when the new firmware comes out it will get better.
 
Thought I'd do a little update, as I've had a lot more time to feverishly poor over the FX8 in prep for an upcoming gig.

In no particular order:

- I'm still very happy. The drives are great and after working pretty intently to clone a few drives pedals I came to a conclusion - cloning pedals is a waste of my time. If I'm happy with a sound then c'est la vie... no need to obsess... plus making a new sound is more rewarding for me.

- Spend time getting your level right... I was running into it pretty cold (low output pups) and sorting out the levels helps.. a lot.

- I also found that I could get rid of any and all hum in rooms with crappy power with a very slight EQ tweak and a little noise gate... at first I thought my FX8 was noisy in a certain room, then I plugged a few drive pedal in and realised they were much worse off the same socket... so, a tiny touch of EQ and noise gate and it went dead silent again...

- learn to edit with the front panel.. I know, I know, the editing software is prettier to LOOK at, but I found making sounds MUCH easier on the front panel... it just took accepting that I had to learn something else... now that I have, I'm very happy with the front panel editing functionality... real knobs crush virtual knobs.

- I was able to make a VERY nice sounding rotary, better than the mobius one at least, but I wish it had an edit screen like most of the other pedals... maybe they'll fix that soon

- the tuner is a lot better than my old stomp tuner... impressed

- I wish the drives all were the same volume when you scrolled through them... that's pretty annoying... oh well...

- I found that most of my CPU issues were resolved by making pedalboards from scratch on a per song basis, instead of trying to modify existing ones... if you REALLY need that crazy reverb, start there and work backwards...

- try sticking a compressor BEFORE the pitch block if you're having tracking issues... it helps sometimes...

- I do find the whole box is a bit lacking in bass, relative to pedals... I dumped a bit of bass on the master EQ and suddenly a few of the boxes seemed significantly chewier...

- here's a good trick IMO - if you're having a hard time dealing with the top end of drives, ice-pick issues, and find that the EQ and tone knobs aren't getting you there, try lowering the sample rate on the advanced tab... I can't claim to know the REASON, but a few of the drives suddenly sounded more real by doing that... YMMV IMBAI

Hope this stuff is helpful to someone!
 
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