Sounding better and better each day!

rocknroling

rocknroling

Inspired
I have been running my AX8 for about 3 weeks now. When it first arrived, I had 4 days to get it all set for a gig. Turned out pretty good. I am constantly going back into the editor and fixing things, trying different cabinets or amps. Now I am my own worst critic and am never satisfied with my tone very long (if that ever happened to me, I wouldn't have needed a Fractal, right?) So this week we had our rehearsal and after another week of tweaking sounds, I thought it was sounding okay. But then it happened... The other guitar player through his normal rig. After hearing his tone, I was SO happy with my AX8! I think I had just been listening to myself too much. And you know its good when the other guy is going back to his amp and making adjustments between every song!
 
rocknroling said:
I have been running my AX8 for about 3 weeks now. When it first arrived, I had 4 days to get it all set for a gig. Turned out pretty good. I am constantly going back into the editor and fixing things, trying different cabinets or amps. Now I am my own worst critic and am never satisfied with my tone very long (if that ever happened to me, I wouldn't have needed a Fractal, right?) So this week we had our rehearsal and after another week of tweaking sounds, I thought it was sounding okay. But then it happened... The other guitar player through his normal rig. After hearing his tone, I was SO happy with my AX8! I think I had just been listening to myself too much. And you know its good when the other guy is going back to his amp and making adjustments between every song!
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Same experience here! Every gig I evolve my presets and keep finding a way to get them to sound better. Initially I ‘cloned’ the amp and pedals I had. Now I’m improving those effects and replacing amps on a song preset basis.
 
Yep. All of the above.

Coupled with a 30 second setup, 30 second tear down, and one trip to the car. And that’s not even mentioning the utter consistency of your sound that no one else in the band has...
 
I’m with you - had mine a couple of months and my sound is the best I’ve ever had - every time!
Sold all my pedals - amps for sale - bought a CLR. I’m committed to the FAS approach!
 
Benn tweaking my tones since the first arrival of my AX8 when they first came out. Every gig, every new set of tunes, makes this tool indispensable! Don't see the tone quest to discontinue, never did before and as much as I like the AX8, don't see the quest to end anytime soon!
 
Every so often, even though I already have a preset for a song, I'll start from scratch and rebuild it. The learning process is still going on, and I always end up with something better.
 
Same here... almost a year now it the AX8 NEVER disappoints!!!

The trick for me was finding the right FRFR for playing live!

~ss
 
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WhiteSpace said:
Do share which FRFR is working for you and type of music you play?
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Well let me start with saying there are some great options out there now and you can get a great sound out of all of them. I've tried the CLR's, XiTone, Friedman, Yamaha DXr10, QSC K10.2 and the ALTO 12's. I play pretty much everything but Jazz and rap my Faves are classic country, southern rock and metal. And my favorite amp is my Matchless HC-30.

IMHO the best are the CLR & XiTone with the CLR's getting a slight edge for a very precise, clean and crisp sound. From low volumes to high they deliver and they are LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!. The XiTone was not as clear and defined on the top/high end as the CLR. I think some of the newer XiTones may be better but I've not had a chance to try them. So it's like 1A & 1B with those two. Only gripe on the CLR's is they get scuffed easily.

The Freidman ASC-12 - This one had the most "amp in the room" feel and I think it would be the best if they were louder. I was very disappointed at how low the volume was compared to the others. The ASC was also very boomy out of the box with the AX8. I had to set the low-cut to 120-150 on most presets.

QSC K10.2 - very loud and clear but a but more "PA or HiFi" sound.

Yamaha DXR10 - loud and sounded great but had a mid-range frequency I couldn't dial out.

ALTO 12 - a good inexpensive option but kinda sounds like it has a blanket over it compared to the others especially the CLR.

JBL ENON - took it back 30 minutes after I opened it but in all fairness I didn't know how to use the low-cut feature when I tried it.

~ss
 
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WhiteSpace said:
Do share which FRFR is working for you and type of music you play?
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I use in ear monitors with triple drivers so the guitar sounds really good. Our front of house system we use EV 15's and 18" Subs. I have used a few FRFR monitors but they sound okay. I have used an Alto 212, a Behringer 12" and a QSC 10" They all sounded decent and did the job. the QSC was the most quiet one of them all. The biggest thing is to help them sound more natural is to cut the High Frequency down to 2800-3400 depending on the amp and cab you are using otherwise the tweeter in the cab makes it sound off. Guitar amps don't have a tweeter, so you want to cut a lot of that out. I really want to try out the Seymour Power Stage 170 and use it with my old Marshall 2x12. I have also heard really good things about the Line 6 power cab (basically a cheaper version of the Friedman FRFR or the Mission Gemini).

Another thing to remember is that your amp isn't on the floor pointed up at your head. I like the idea of the FRFR cabs that are like speaker cabs that shoot straight out down low to the floor.
 
rocknroling said:
I use in ear monitors with triple drivers so the guitar sounds really good. Our front of house system we use EV 15's and 18" Subs. I have used a few FRFR monitors but they sound okay. I have used an Alto 212, a Behringer 12" and a QSC 10" They all sounded decent and did the job. the QSC was the most quiet one of them all. The biggest thing is to help them sound more natural is to cut the High Frequency down to 2800-3400 depending on the amp and cab you are using otherwise the tweeter in the cab makes it sound off. Guitar amps don't have a tweeter, so you want to cut a lot of that out. I really want to try out the Seymour Power Stage 170 and use it with my old Marshall 2x12. I have also heard really good things about the Line 6 power cab (basically a cheaper version of the Friedman FRFR or the Mission Gemini).

Another thing to remember is that your amp isn't on the floor pointed up at your head. I like the idea of the FRFR cabs that are like speaker cabs that shoot straight out down low to the floor.
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Cool. I set low cut to 150 on cab block and high cut to 8k or 10k. I’ve got Yamaha DBR10 which is my first FRFR foray. I point it up at me :(
 
I honestly don't know if there is any company in the world whose customers are as satisfied and happy as Fractal's.

Since I bought the first Line 6 POD in '99 (or was it '00?) I tried pretty much every amp modeling hard- and software. Every year another company was praised for having released the best amp modeling ever and "finally having nailed it 100%". But it never didn't in reality. And honestly I always thought that the original POD still sounded better for home recording purposes than some of the more recent plugins.

Then I bought the Fractal AX8 last month... ;-)

Right now my biggest (and only) complaint is that I simply can't decide which amp model gives me the best high gain rhythm sound that I ever had... the Dual Rec or the JVM HJS... both are sooo good.
 
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