Switching from Kemper to AX8 or HX Stomp w/pedals

dallasplans

dallasplans

Member
Hello all, noob here. Firstly, I've been lurking in these forums for months now without posting, and you all seem to be a friendly and helpful bunch! Without further ado...

I'm looking to make a switch to an all-in-one solution.

My rig for the past couple of years has consisted of an Unpowered Kemper Rack controlled by an RJM Mastermind GT22. I am happy with it but I really want an all-in-one solution. I know Fractal hasn't yet announced an AX8 successor that is based on AXE FXIII tech. While that would make my decision quite simple, I'm not going to get wrapped up in all the "ok guys, when is Fractal going to announce it?" jiberish. Let's focus on the here and now, right?

One thing I really like about the Kemper is that, provided the profile is done well, it is very authentic feeling in a live setting. I play country, classic rock and at church, rarely venturing into high-gain territory. My signal chain rarely is more advanced than: compressor > drive 1 > boost > amp > cab > delay > reverb. Because of this, I believe I would have success with an AX8 or an HX Stomp with IR's and midi enabled delay and reverb boxes (using my GT22 to control them).

From what I understand, despite the UI advantage of Helix, Fractal AXE Edit makes editing a breeze and is actually quite simple. Also, the Line 6 products can be used as USB interfaces, but this is of little value to me, as I already have one in my studio. So I'm really just looking for input as far as core guitar tone and feeling as opposed to anything else.

I believe Line 6 cannot compete with Fractal without the use of IR's.

I'm leaning towards the AX8, and I can guess what you'd pick out the options above, so I guess I wanted to say "hello" and that I look forward to joining the fractal family and wish you all well this thanksgiving and holidays. I'd still be open to hearing your thoughts though :).

Cheers,
dallas
 
As a quick answer I picked up a Stomp last week as a b rig/backup for my Ax8

It's very nice and has some good features, easier to program off of the device. And has a couple of amps that sound nicer off the bat than the ax8

However, there's nothing tonally the Stomp does that the Ax8 isn't capable of. The ax8 effects are better and overall the amps to me sound better
Axedit is easy to use and you can also have Fractool for editing off of your phone or tablet

Much ad I genuinely like the Stomp, if it was a choice between the two units it'd be the Ax8 every time

Ymmv
 
I too was a Kemper owner and loved it for a year, until I realized it wasn't right for my personality. I went through hundreds of profiles trying to find the "right" one for each amp I wanted. But all I found myself doing was A/B-ing profiles all day.

Then I realized that since every profile was tweaked, EQ'd, and mic'd differently, there was no way to ever find the definitive tone for me. Play 300 Plexi profiles, and you'd get 300 different tones. I came to realize that the Kemper was best suited for people who already owned amps that they loved and then could profile those exact tones that they had spent years playing & tweaking. An INCREDIBLE piece of gear, but not exactly right for a guy like me who's never had the pleasure of playing through all of those amps.

I needed something that allowed me to start from scratch with a virtual amp that I could then tweak to my hearts content. Hello AX8!!!

To put it simply, the AX8 is the most incredible piece of gear that I have ever used, and you WILL NOT be disappointed. To be able to get under the hood of an amp and tweak it without the real-world threat of electrocution is just so friggin' cool. And if you set up an amp model to the same settings of it's real world counterpart it sounds just like it's supposed to. The thing actually lives up to it's rep!

Oh yeah, and it also has the best sims of every effect ever made...

It'll also help you to find amps that you might want to buy in the future, or avoid. Through using the AX8 I've come to realize that I just don't really gel with Friedman amps, or MESA Rectifiers. However the Carvin Legacy is my soul-mate, and that is an amp I never would have thought to try out in the real world.

I can't say anything good or bad about the Line 6, since I never got around to trying it. Once I got the AX8 my gear search ended for good.

Sorry for the long answer, but from one former Kemper owner to another, I promise the AX8 will not let you down.
Until AX8 II comes out...
 
The fact of the matter is they all sound amazing (the top 3 or 4).
The trade off now is amps and effects included and workflow. Even the AX-8 doesn't need 200 amps because 40% +/- are Marshalls or clones of Marshalls. How many Marshalls do you need. While the workflow doesn't entirely suck it is also not all that great from the front screen. It can be done but it's like using DOS 2.0 again.
I loved my 11Rack so I was not surprised by the Headrush. I was surprised by the editing and the initial presets.
Helix is another great product. It just rocks and another modeler with MAJOR effects.

What a great time it is to be a picker. Have fun. Get what you want and don't look back!
 
You can't really go too far wrong with most of the gear that's out there. I think that the AX8 is the best all-in-one floor unit at any price right now. The other guitarist in my band uses a Kemper rack. We both get great tones, and I won't say anything bad about the Kemper. It's a different mindset to use. I get along with the Fractal way, he likes the Kemper way. The L6 and Atomic stuff works too, although I think it's a step behind in various ways. Hell, I recently saw one of my favorite bands do a fly date, and the guitarist sounded amazing. I looked over at his (borrowed) rig, and it was an old Eleven Rack.

flynv said:
How many Marshalls do you need.
Click to expand...

Funny, I might (but won't) say that about Fenders. I can tell the difference between most of the Marshall flavors, but the Fenders....meh, pick one and I'm done. :D
 
For the price of the HX-Stomp, your would do MUCH better to look at the Amplifire12 (https://atomicamps.com/amplifire-12/). It is $100 less (cyber Monday sale), and FAR more powerful. Great tones as well.

That said, the Amplifire makes a great back up for the AX8, but the AX8 is a much better primary rig.
 
Mutha Goose said:
For the price of the HX-Stomp, your would do MUCH better to look at the Amplifire12 (https://atomicamps.com/amplifire-12/). It is $100 less (cyber Monday sale), and FAR more powerful. Great tones as well.

That said, the Amplifire makes a great back up for the AX8, but the AX8 is a much better primary rig.
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I sold my AA3 to pay for the Stomp as I never really got on with it.

I'd buy an AA6 if I saw one cheap to give it another go maybe with some aftermarket IR's
 
I currently play an AX8 and picked up an HX Stomp to check out but have had it less than a week so keep that in mind. I kept hearing people claim the Helix stuff rivals Fractal but IMHO the AX8 amps generally sound and feel better than the HX. Perhaps I just haven't stumbled into the right combination of stuff and I've been using the included cabs rather than IRs, but IRs aren't going to improve the feel. That's not to say the HX sounds bad, you can go listen to samples all over of some good tones, but there is just a extra level of realism in the AX8 which the HX just doesn't seem to climb up to. I also had the AA3 and IMHO it did cranked Marshall tones extremely well comparable to the AX8 and a bit better than the HX but for all other amps syles the AX8 and HX sound better to me.

From an effects perspective, the HX is much easier to dial up and generally sounds as good as the AX8. The HX is obviously limited with only 6 effects blocks, but I've found I can make it work. Both the AX8 and HX far exceed the effects number/quality of the AA3 unless they've made some huge improvements since I had it.

The biggest win for the HX is the format. Amazing what they've accomplished in such a small device. I would love to see a similar format Fractal device.
 
ak301 said:
I sold my AA3 to pay for the Stomp as I never really got on with it.

I'd buy an AA6 if I saw one cheap to give it another go maybe with some aftermarket IR's
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I'll say this here. I loved the Atomic stuff when I had it. A few times. But there is just not enough amp options and fx variation to warrant a 12 button device. The 6 would be perfect as it has just enough footswitches to work in a live setting for most. I jokingly wished for a $399 AA6 for Black Friday but I would have pulled that trigger in an instant if it became a reality. A/B switching in it is my absolute favorite switching configuration.
 
Regarding the various AA options - I had one, amp models sound pretty good, but they made the time based effects an absolute nightmare to edit. You get a screen full of dozens of knobs for each of these effects, and its REALLY REALLY hard and confusing to use.

Maybe they've fixed this in the past 18 months or so, but as the time I sold my AA3 editing delay, reverb, chorus, or flanger was an exercise in pain and frustration.

The on device editing makes the AX8 look sophisticated, too. The PC editor is pretty good, aside from the painful time based effects I already mentioned.
 
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I'll find out, at $499 I had to give the 12 a try. After a year, the AX8 to me is still incredibly confusing (miss my 11R) but I picked up some profiles that suit my needs well. I know I need to spend more time with it but work had me in a bind. I'll be off for the next couple of weeks so it might be time to hurt my brain and go a little FrankenRIcky on it.
 
Another happy former Kemper user migrated to AX8, with no regrets at all except not having switched sooner.

Kemper is a great box BUT you need to find a profile that's really REALLY close to the tone you want, because as soon as you start tweaking too much the tone starts to deteriorate. And another thing that I dislike is that CK sacrificed resolution for range, so you're able to dial the controls to values far beyond the original's limits, but a lot of times the distance between two steps near the sweet spot is too big.

The AX8 may not be perfect - it requires tweaking -, but the tones I can get from it are virtually indistinguishable from a real tube amp sitting im the same room, and I plug my AX8 into an FRFR monitor (Yamaha DXR10). In my humble opinion it's a no brainer, even more so if you consider the form factor.
 
Deny Watanabe said:
Another happy former Kemper user migrated to AX8, with no regrets at all except not having switched sooner.

Kemper is a great box BUT you need to find a profile that's really REALLY close to the tone you want, because as soon as you start tweaking too much the tone starts to deteriorate. And another thing that I dislike is that CK sacrificed resolution for range, so you're able to dial the controls to values far beyond the original's limits, but a lot of times the distance between two steps near the sweet spot is too big.

The AX8 may not be perfect - it requires tweaking -, but the tones I can get from it are virtually indistinguishable from a real tube amp sitting im the same room, and I plug my AX8 into an FRFR monitor (Yamaha DXR10). In my humble opinion it's a no brainer, even more so if you consider the form factor.
Click to expand...

SAMESIES lol
 
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