Overdrives

My opinion about the drives is a little different I think. I'm not worried if they do or don't sound like the real thing. I have and have had some great overdrives/distortions over the years and I find the drives in the FX8 to range from usable to great. Do they sound exactly like the real thing? Some maybe yes, some maybe no. Are they usable in real playing situations? Absolutely. I've run them into my Roadster and Splawn and have had great success finding gain structures and tones that work for any sound I need. If you're looking for pedals to sound exactly like (fill in the blank), you may be disappointed (i.e. the BBpre sounds different than my personal BB). I find it ridiculous to expect any digital device to perfectly emulate every nuance of an analog pedal. That being said, the FX8 has BY FAR the best sounding overdrives/distortions of any multi-effects unit I've seen. I won't even get into the number of parameters that can be tweaked. It almost seems an insult to call this merely a multi-effects processor! My bottom line is this; if you're looking for a range of overdrives and distortions that will give you practical, useful tones and gain, you'll be very happy with the FX8. If you approach it with skepticism you'll look for flaws, most certainly find some and be disappointed. If you embrace it with a creative attitude and open mind, you'll be greatly rewarded and satisfied.
 
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Something else I discovered, with the ability to place the Blocks wherever you want in the chain, don't be afraid to try the drives in the POST section. Doesn't make sense but I've found a couple that actually sound better there with my amps (i.e. the SDD Preamp). The FX8 is like most pieces of gear I've owned, you get out of it what you put into it. I trust my ears and don't get wrapped up in setting it up like it 'should be'.
 
The FX8 is the first digital device I've tried to create useable drives. The ones I like are really fantastic with a tube amp. And the tweak ability is excellent too. Find a drive that sounds good in context. Then try changing the component that creates the drive (tube, fet, diode, etc...) and see if one of those works better for your sound. Very cool.

The Helix offers the model of a specific pedal without the deep editing. That works very well too for the models I like. I haven't compared the models with the real pedals in my arsenal, but I like the sounds if several. The drive pedals on the M series were pretty much useless. These are pretty darn good and we should see more models soon.


It's a good time to give modeling another shot. AX8 just around the corner. :)
 
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