New XL+/MFC-101/EV-1

Congrats! I also made the same purchase in November, what an amazing piece of gear. Hours and hours and hours of fun tweaking. Almost any question or topic has already been covered on the forum. My advice is search first ask second. Otherwise you wind up looking like an ass as I have many many times. Lol
 
Tom Morris said:
Congrats! I also made the same purchase in November, what an amazing piece of gear. Hours and hours and hours of fun tweaking. Almost any question or topic has already been covered on the forum. My advice is search first ask second. Otherwise you wind up looking like an ass as I have many many times. Lol
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It all depends on how you ask... But, yes, most of the questions have likely been asked and answered numerous times :)
 
Welcome to the Fractal Audio family!

The wiki and manuals have come a long way since I was new way back in 2008!

Axe-Edit also gives you a bird's eye view of the mind of your machine.
 
Read, study, experiment. When you have done that, read, study, experiment. Then ask questions.
Also read, study, and check out yeks work on the different amp models, and check out yeks work on the drive models.

Be sure to read a lot. Look up Aiken amps and read the advanced stuff on tube amps, ...might help to understand whats going on in some of the advanced parameters.

Don't forget to play...a lot.

Look up 'fletcher munson'. Volume will trick you...

Understand that your monitoring system is crucial. Check out the different monitoring systems being used. Your monitoring will make or break you.

Study FRFR. Study IR's. I know you just want to play and sound great but taking the time to know this stuff will greatly enhance your chance to be successful.

Stay away from advanced parameters to start with. Except maybe the new motor parameter found in both the speaker block and amp block.

Use "X and Y" for comparing different settings...keep the volume levels the same.
If you go FRFR, Ir's are critical.

It will take time for you to master this device, it is not a toy. It is a very powerful computer capable of great sounds and equally capable of bad sounds.

Take your time and you will be rewarded with the best sounds you have ever gotten. Good luck and keep us posted on your journey.
 
Thanks for the pointers. I work in IT so I'm looking forward to diving into the complexities of the unit. I have considered going with an FRFR rig as opposed a power amp (tube or solid state) and guitar cabinet setup just from a flexibility standpoint but we'll see how that rubber meets the road for me personally. I've checked out some videos and the XiTone wedges sound fantastic (as do the Atomic CLRs). Can't wait!
 
Wiki. Early, often.

The search button is a powerful tool here. I can guarantee that every question you have/will have has been answered. Understood if you get stuck on something, but the only ask here is make an effort to answer your own question.

Welcome to the family. It's a new world.

R
 
Welcome to awesomeness! I am on the road for 3 weeks without my XL+ and am having withdrawal pangs. Kick some AX for me!
 
Welcome to the Axe family. I purchased the same rig, plus CLRs, about two years ago. Haven't gone back to my nice tube amps or cabs since, and play the Axe at home, band rehearsal, and gigs. I'm also an IT guy, and have found the variety and depth of settings, approaches and solutions appealing and challenging. All this is made more interesting by the subjective nature of our tone and feel preferences, which will result in a number of opinions and directions you'll get.

Give us some more details about how you're going to use it... bedroom/home player, in a band/gigging? What volume do you play at? Going for an FRFR or power amp/cab solution? Recording? Your speaker/monitoring solution is critical to happiness here. For me, the Atomic CLRs have been great. Others here also like the Zitone and Friedman FRFRs, or the Matrix power amps with their cabs. Lots to read about here regarding these solutions and getting the "cabinet on stage" feel of traditional tube amp rigs. This box gets incredibly realistic and inventive "miked cab" sounds. Getting used to that, vs the tube rig cabinet on stage sound and feel, will be important.

There are many resources to help you. The quicker you find these, the faster you'll get your answers.
  • This forum
    • Get familiar with the search tools. Most questions have been answered unless it's a new feature
    • Sometimes a Google search will find a discussion faster than the forum search.
    • We have several gurus on here who are great at answering questions or pointing you to solutions, wikis, documentation. Names like Yek, Simeon, Fremen, Moke, Al Grenadine come to mind for starters. Some of their posts are very comprehensive references
    • Moderators and beta testers are good references
    • The Fractal staff's comments - Matt and Cliff jump in on conversations and take our feedback seriously. Cliff's comments are a great insight to technical details and his philosophies and customer service. We tend to latch on to Cliff's comments as if we had found a $100 bill on the sidewalk. You won't find better customer support and interaction out there.
    • Look at all the stickies
  • The Axe wiki
  • Axe tutorials
  • YouTube demos and tutorials (Scott Peterson, Cooper Carter, Tyler Grund, Chris/Katsu Kuri, etc)
  • The manual - online PDF, often running one or two firmwares behind
  • Firmware release notes - new features are usually preceded by a swarm of discussions and experiences on the forum from beta experiences
  • Axe Edit - I greatly prefer using this over the front panel, although I sacrifice being knowledgeable enough to make quick changes from the front panel at the gig. This is where you get to "use your ears" and tweak hundreds of parameters. You could get lost here for days playing with different settings and getting stuck on something great (don't fire up the Axe at 11 pm thinking you'll just play it for a few minutes!). I tend to go with the more basic settings to get my tone, and you'll typically get great tones with the default settings.
  • Fractal Bot - used for installing firmware to your Axe and MFC
  • New firmware - Usually preceded by beta versions. I've usually gone for the betas and haven't had one let me down at a gig. I also like playing with new toys that come out (like Motor Drive, Opto Compressors, Shimmer Drive) and enjoy the virtual excitement of getting new amps and effects for free. It's like Cliff puts up a Christmas Tree every month. You'll find the new firmware links in the forum first.
 
Welcome and congrats! There are a lot of smart, polite, and funny peeps here that are glad to help! You will be glad!
 
Welcome to the club. We are always here to help. I can't recommend Axe-Edit enough, it's the best software editor for a piece of hardware I ever encountered.
 
Thank you very much! Especially you, dsimms. Great advice! So, I've had the Axe FX and MFC for a couple of days now and love it thus far. I've been checking out the Wiki sites and G66 YouTube videos as suggested and they've been very helpful.

I do have my first question. When you combine the tap tempo and tuner into the same IA switch, can you make the guitar silent when you hold down the button to activate the tuner? If you can, how? Thanks in advance!
 
QueenCityGuitars said:
I do have my first question. When you combine the tap tempo and tuner into the same IA switch, can you make the guitar silent when you hold down the button to activate the tuner? If you can, how? Thanks in advance!
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From the front panel, press Tuner button, move to the next page Config, set the Mute to Output.
 
Another one goes down the rabbit hole. Recently took the plunge myself (effing love it...). Download 'wares & get ready to install. Shop for snacks, you won't want to leave your XL for a while.....
 
Sam K. said:
Another one goes down the rabbit hole. Recently took the plunge myself (effing love it...). Download 'wares & get ready to install. Shop for snacks, you won't want to leave your XL for a while.....
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Absolutely! I have band rehearsal in about two hours and I'm somewhat perturbed that it's going to interrupt my rabbit hole spiral. :)
 
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