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

TRTTRTTRT

TRTTRTTRT

Experienced
So. How to begin.

I have a Helix on order and have been a very active member of the TGP Helix thread for months. i am still excited to get it and hopefully this thread will not disintegrate into a Fractal vs Helix thread... we live in hope.

When I realised that I would not be able to get my Helix until 2016 I decided to check on getting an AX8... apparently - I'm not sure if anyone knew this - but there's some sort of waiting list for them... I got on that waiting list... why not sure... I'll sell my place to the highest bidder .. ahem.

Then, kinda out of the blue, I realised that if I bought a Fractal FX8 and a Suhr Reactive Load, I could have a kinda fake Helix now, instead of in January! Aha I said, aha!

So.

I contacted g66, and a week later I got an FX8.

First impressions couldn't be better... the packaging was exceptional... three boxes like Russian nesting dolls and other packing material... pro stuff... AND when I opened the third box there was a nice little box of chocolates and a thank you note!

I have bought a LOT of expensive studio gear in the past and so much of it is barely packaged and is impersonal... the box of chocolates felt very warm and analogue.. if you see my point.

I was out of a gig today... 2 hours drive both ways... then rehearsal this evening...when I got home the box was with a neighbour, and after collecting it and dinner I had 7-10 minutes to plug it in, get a grip, and take it to rehearsal... that's right.. I left my normal pedal board at home... deep end people... live it.

Sooo...

As my singer said when I was leaving, "don't worry it was more funny than painful". I'm not so sure.

We did the set, and I just loaded up the first preset pedal board (two drives - four if you count x/y) chorus, two delays, reverb... what could go wrong... well.. a lot.

---

Dear Fractal,

The FX8 sounds fantastic, but your manual leaves a LOT to be desired. Thanks for the lovely chocolates though!

Sincerely,
Me

---

With all of the internet at my disposal i couldn't figure out which of the menu settings - the menus are pretty intense - let me get dotted 8s on the delays... Bummer.

The manual did tell me how to switch types of effects though, and that kinda was helpful, except I managed to completely fuck up the volumes of various fx, meaning that I would go from whisper quiet fuzz to screaming clean sounds... lol.

Maybe this was a bad idea.

But then again...

After the set, we started working on a new tune... I sat on the floor and went to a more empty pedal board (scene) and just started pulling in blocks and creating sounds from scratch... within 5 minutes everyone in the room was literally amazed. Shocked even. The quality of the reverbs are... unbelievable. Bye bye Big Sky... bye bye every other reverb pedal ever... hot damn! After some tweaking I FINALLY discovered dotted 8ths and we ran through a few songs... wow! Once I could get the right basic sound, the delays SOUNDS were immense... as in, I think my Echolution 2 Deluxe is gonna be sold... maybe... but.. very maybe.. it sounds that good... whaaaa? It true.







Finally, the reason you're reading this thread: The Drives.

I am... a bit... picky... when it comes to drives. Himmelstrutz, Kingsley, Foxrox.. Buffalo FX... Noel.. I have a taste for the posher things in life, even though I don't have the money.. it's a curse.. so I have played or own a LOT of very nice drive pedals... I was VERY sceptical... very VERY sceptical..

and...

pleasantly surprised.

The pedals DO sound and FEEL like the originals... maybe the EQ is a bit weird on a couple, and maybe the stock setting are.. odd, but.. BUT I will be leaving my drive pedals at home and trying to make this work, because I think this crazy box can ACTUALLY sound as good as my boutique pedals...

That's a sentence I never believed I'd type. And yet here we are.

Conclusion aka are you still reading this?

I have been very nervous about going FRFR, and very nervous about amp modelling live. Here's how I now feel:

- if the Helix can model amps as well as the FX8 can model pedals, AND if the FX are as good, I'm gonna go FRFR
- if it CAN'T, but the AX8 CAN, I'm gonna go FRFR
- If neither can, or I can't deal with FRFR, I'm gonna be happy with the FX8, I think.

After hearing the reverb, and the delays, and after being shocked by the drives, I can't imagine dragging my massive pedalboard around any more... yes, it's gonna take days, if not weeks to set up, but so what... it took weeks to get my Echolution 2 sorted for the set, and weeks to get the Mobius sorted and years of effort to find drives I love.

It all comes down to one question: If I put in the time, will this be as good as my pedal board if not better?

After a few hours I feel i can say with a bit of certainty, that, as long I don't don't run into any deal breakers, the answer is most probably: Yes.

And that has kinda blown my mind.

 
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DavidE said:
The answer to your question is probably yes. Replaced mine.
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I think you're are most definitely right... I'm just aware of the whole gear honeymoon thing and don't want have to take back too many bold declarations... lol...

Seriously though.. it really surpassed my expectations...
 
the Axe models amps even better than it models effects. whether you can adjust to mic'd tone vs cab tone will be the deciding factor
 
Great review !

I'm about 3 months in on my FX8 journey and agree with all your points you raised.

I would like the switching changed to the 4/4 arrangement but apart from that it's still my number 1 board.

I'm gigging it for the first time on Friday so ill see what it's like live. like you say ... In to the deep end
 
bread said:
Great review !

I'm about 3 months in on my FX8 journey and agree with all your points you raised.

I would like the switching changed to the 4/4 arrangement but apart from that it's still my number 1 board.

I'm gigging it for the first time on Friday so ill see what it's like live. like you say ... In to the deep end
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I'm gonna setup scenes today and use them for rehearsal tonight. I think once they're setup it's gonna be the simplest device ever. I do wish I could apply looper controls to a block. Like a stop button.

Maybe you can...I haven't been able to figure out how yet.
 
Great write up. I played around with mine at home for a while before venturing to a rehearsal and then a gig. I have been gigging mine for about 2 months now and I love it. I run it 4CM with a Mesa MkV 25 and, up until now, have been using the Mesa switch pedal to change channels (to keep things simple). I have just made the move to use the relays on the FX8 for that duty now and will see on Friday how I get on. I still have a lot to learn with it and I am only scratching the surface of what the FX8 can really do.
 
guitarmanUK said:
Great write up. I played around with mine at home for a while before venturing to a rehearsal and then a gig. I have been gigging mine for about 2 months now and I love it. I run it 4CM with a Mesa MkV 25 and, up until now, have been using the Mesa switch pedal to change channels (to keep things simple). I have just made the move to use the relays on the FX8 for that duty now and will see on Friday how I get on. I still have a lot to learn with it and I am only scratching the surface of what the FX8 can really do.
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You were smarter I was. Saying that, I prefer to dive in and force myself to learn quickly. ☺

I spent another few hours with it this morning. I think the hardest thing to get used to is the processor limitations. But it seems pretty obvious that that won't be an issue with a bit of planning and cleverness.

Thanks for your response.
 
I noticed last night that playing around with for example echo density on reverbs and setting the looper location to off for a preset does cut back on CPU usage. Found that info in the manual. Been hearing that the new OS release will help better manage CPU. Looking forward to that.
 
ooh! Looper location to off? I'm gonna try that now!

And I heard about the new firmware... v curious to see how that works out!

Thanks for the info!!
 
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.
 
TRTTRTTRT said:
Thanks!! It seems the reverbs are really the hog... but then again I can't imagine using a cavern reverb AND 7 other effects at once ;)
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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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