Trying to get my AX8 sounding good.

Hmm, what type of guitar are you using and what are you monitoring with? To be honest, others peoples presets never work for me either, except occasionally, and Leon’s usually work. It should be super simple to start from scratch and get a good tone (just typed this in another thread) what tones are you hunting?
 
steve bernstein said:
Ok..This is my 2nd go around with this unit.. was too intimidated the first time around, bought a Helix LT (LOVE it), but thought I might be missing some of that Fractal 3D tone...So here I am.. First thing is I have it all hooked up to my studio monitors, watching one of Leon's AX8 Baisc videos (Im also set up with Axe Edit) and my amp sounds (step by step) sound NOTHING like his. For instance, the Friedman BEV1 has NO gain.. I mean nothing, yet guy in the video has this crushing seering tone...Im using the same cabs, same EXACT settings (I have hours into this friggin 12 min video)..even using the same guitar..levels are fine, just not sounding natural or chewie...Did they change something on the newer AX8's??? Help!!!!!
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Hmmmm. Honestly, it’s hard not to find a great tone just scrolling through the factory presets. Sounds like there’s some fundamental issue. What are you playing the AX8 through?
 
Thanks.. Studio monitors..I have verified all of the levels are correct, most of the sounds are honky and buzzy.....We have my buddy's Axe Ultra as well, no issues, sounds KILLER!! beautiful rich harmonics, sustain, AX8 doesn''t sound anything like it. I'm using PRS Single Cut Custom, as well as Les Paul with JB in bridge, Jazz in neck. Even the Marshall sounds are waay over distorted and compressed...Latest update is installed..
 
Go to Setup, Utility, then Reset all system parameters - press enter while that is highlighted.

It sounds like some global setting is turned off.
 
steve bernstein said:
Thanks.. Studio monitors..I have verified all of the levels are correct, most of the sounds are honky and buzzy.....We have my buddy's Axe Ultra as well, no issues, sounds KILLER!! beautiful rich harmonics, sustain, AX8 doesn''t sound anything like it. I'm using PRS Single Cut Custom, as well as Les Paul with JB in bridge, Jazz in neck. Even the Marshall sounds are waay over distorted and compressed...Latest update is installed..
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What are you running it through? How are you hearing the sound?
 
Plugging directly into my studio monitors 1/4' . Same way I run the my Helix. I've owned an AX8 before...Thought it sounded great, just difficult to program.. Im really not enjoying the level of difficulty it takes to get to and set up different cabs and amps...Im just now getting to learn Axe Edit
 
Tahoebrian5 said:
Hmm, what type of guitar are you using and what are you monitoring with? To be honest, others peoples presets never work for me either, except occasionally, and Leon’s usually work. It should be super simple to start from scratch and get a good tone (just typed this in another thread) what tones are you hunting?
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Studio monitors... High gain stuff...Periphery to Jon Sykes to Hendrix to Allman Bros...I feel like there's too much to tweek... Maybe I'll just buy some resets (Freman or Choptones)
 
Listen to @chris above.

You're right , there's alot that CAN be tweaked , but with the latest firmware - COMPLETELY unnecessary to get great sounds.
 
I may be in the minority, but I mostly use stock presets with just tweaks for years.
Try a Friedman or the Shiva, or the Bassman amps out of the box.
 
The main things you have to get right are IR choice, hi and low cut in cab block and master volume setting. Other things help as you learn more but if you get those things right you should be in good tone territory very quickly. Also If you don’t have good monitors it’s never going to sound like a guitar amp. Check out Yeks amp model guide to learn about the amp type you are using and to get a starting ir recommendation. I like to start at 150/7k for hi and low cut. This is fairly aggressive but try it first then back off if needed. Master is not as intuitive as you would think. It gets so loud on a real amp that it’s hard to learn what it actually does other than get loud. If it’s too high it will sound too thick and muddy, too low and it’s thin and lifeless. Try experimenting while compensating with the amp block level control to maintain a constant volume. The Friedman BE and HBE seem to be the easiest to dial in when learning. Give them a try with the above and see what happens.
 
steve bernstein said:
Plugging directly into my studio monitors 1/4' . Same way I run the my Helix. I've owned an AX8 before...Thought it sounded great, just difficult to program.. Im really not enjoying the level of difficulty it takes to get to and set up different cabs and amps...Im just now getting to learn Axe Edit
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Yeah man. Definitely something wrong there. I own an Ax Fx II and the Ax 8 sounded better right out of the box than the FX II did. I still use a few factory presets with just a few tweaks. I used the untouched factory Friedman BE preset for a gig the first week and it sounded killer. Reset the thing and start over. Make sure you’re not clipping the gear you’re plugging the ax8 into.
 
I had something similar happen last night. I was using a Dirty Shirley amp. After tweaking the preset a bit the gain basically dropped off; I KNOW this preset had plenty of gain, the input drive didn’t change, but it suddenly had no “power”. I went back and forth between other similarly gained presets in the same bank and they were all fine. Eventuallly I went completely out of that bank, into another preset (using ax8-edit), then came back and the preset was back to normal.

This has happened more than once. So my conclusion was the unit somehow had a hiccup and either changing banks/presets or power off/power on restored it.
 
Guitars, you know... I have this old crappy guitar with very low output single coils which is so acoustically loud it is my guitar with the highest output of all, but the least compressed tone as well. When you download someone's patch, you know nothing about their guitars, how strong is the player's pick attack, how they set their input level.. unless they give you a sample to reamp, their global settings, in order to compare your guitars. The way a plexi reacts to a mid centric overwound low output guitar vs a scooped underwound high output guitar.. a light picking technique with a flat angle or a strong one with a clockwise angle.. is night and day.
 
Was it a new or used unit that you bought? If the latter - I'd suggest definitely starting from scratch - do a system reset, install the latest firmware and the latest preset pack. I've not experienced any issues like you detail however, I have had some odd things occur that were usually when I had loaded a preset from the AxeChange. And as a note, I've also tried some of Leon's patches and found they sounded AMAZING going direct into Logic (which, if I'm correct, is how they were designed) but some didn't translate that well when I put them through my ASM12 cab and needed a little adjustment on my side. Hope you get it figured out man!
 
Try the system rest as @chris suggested. When I first got my AX8, I used the factory presets as a starting point and then tweaked to get what I wanted. The current factory presets sound great to my ears. If you have a friend nearby with a different system, you could try plugging in to that system and see if the problem persists. You might be trying to fix the AX8 and the AX8 might not be the problem. Likewise, if your friend's rig sounds great through your system, then you need to focus on the AX8. Just my $0.02. I do hope you get it sorted out. My AX8 is such a great tool for getting killer guitar tone. As Fudd would say, "I wuv my wig".
 
I had an XL for years, and an AX8 last year. As noted mostly used stock presets and did minor tweaking.
Just picked up another AX8 this week to use while waiting for the AXE3.

Fired it up with FW 9.04.
Stock presets I tried (Friedmans, SLOs, Fenders, Bogners) sound pretty amazing. Zero tweaking.
 
Lkdog said:
I had an XL for years, and an AX8 last year. As noted mostly used stock presets and did minor tweaking.
Just picked up another AX8 this week to use while waiting for the AXE3.

Fired it up with FW 9.04.
Stock presets I tried (Friedmans, SLOs, Fenders, Bogners) sound pretty amazing. Zero tweaking.
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I found the AX8 to be the most gig ready processing gear I have ever used. It is literally possible to unbox it at the gig and get through a gig with it.
 
Schmokes said:
I’ll preface this with: I love my ax8, sounds great, gig it all the time blah blah blah.

Ok, got that out of the way.

Have you considered that the AX8 is not for you? You mentioned that you love the helix, but you were wanting a “3d tone.” Seems like you are chasing ghosts. “3d tone” is just buzzwords. You won’t get it any more from Fractal than you will from Line 6, or Atomic.

If you find something you love that works for you, go with it and don’t look back.
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... I think you may have nailed this...Couldn't vibe with theU.I. first time around (it's me, I know!! Obviously AX8 is killer)I'm not unhappy with the Helix, there just is a certain tone I hear with the Fractal amps..(Other people's rigs- Larry Mitchell, Guthrie, Bulb) slightly more "3D-real feeling.....Just trying to get "settled in and comfortable" with AX8/Axe Edit..I get a little lost, and sounding bad quickly..(my own errors...) Guess Im trying to force myself into AX8 hoping that it gives me that last little bit of "holy grail" tone (haha).. If I can't vibe with it, maybe not for me.
 
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