Fractal Audio Systems thread

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Fractal Audio Systems thread

Post by StratMatt »

Since there's a thread for all the other ones, let's do one for the AX8 owners here. Who else had an AX8 turn up this week?

Had a couple hours on it this morning, it's been a bit overwhelming so far if I'm honest. The clean and low gain amp presets are really nice. The high gain amps will take a bit of tweaking. There is a LOT of tweaking to be done.

Deciding how to lay out the foot switches is doing my head in a bit. Scenes? Presets? Effects and amp X/Y? I want a good range of clean through to high gain, what's the best way to do it? (Ed?)

Good times ahead anyway. Post up any tips tricks and questions.
Last edited by StratMatt on Tue Sep 13, 2016 11:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by MattAnt »

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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by slash-ed »

StratMatt88 wrote:Since there's a thread for all the other ones, let's do one for the AX8 owners here. Who else had an AX8 turn up this week?

Had a couple hours on it this morning, it's been a bit overwhelming so far if I'm honest. The clean and low gain amp presets are really nice. The high gain amps will take a bit of tweaking. There is a LOT of tweaking to be done.

Deciding how to lay out the foot switches is doing my head in a bit. Scenes? Presets? Effects and amp X/Y? I want a good range of clean through to high gain, what's the best way to do it? (Ed?)

Good times ahead anyway. Post up any tips tricks and questions.
I'm using both Scenes and Presets.

With my Tele, the "rig" consists of a Tweed Deluxe with drive pedals. So I use Scenes to switch between edge of crunch, chunky rhythm and fat lead tones. Going down to "clean cleans" is done using my guitar volume knob.

With my humbucker guitars, I'm using presets - essentially mimicking a channel switching amp setup like I would have had with my Mark V. Preset 1 - clean/bright JTM, preset 2 - crunchy Plexi, preset 3 - Friedman face melting.

With the Ash Super-Duper Strat that I just got, I've been digging the Morgan AC20 EF86 model, and I'll probably look at building some sort of effects and amp X/Y rig for that too.

So... kinda everything is an option really, depends on your needs.
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by slash-ed »

Oh and generally the way I lay out my footswitches is - preset/scene switching along the bottom row, then individual effects on/off along the top row.
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by StratMatt »

Starting to get the hang of it now. Not hard to make a nice sound if you just work on getting a good basic sound with just a well matched amp and cab; effects are easy enough to attach later. 3-4 presets from clean to balls deep gain and a few effects seems the way to go. Doesn't take much to tap out the CPU, though realistically I don't need that much per preset. Hopefully my levels translate well at band volume tomorrow night, editing on the unit looks a bit intimidating. Still, amp options over scribble strips thanks ;)
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by sirvill »

I should not have come in here because I want one now

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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by shafter »

Still waiting on mine damn it....
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by SimpleSi »

as happy as i am with my Helix. I'd almost buy an AX8 just because i loved my AxeFX.. curses!
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by shafter »

StratMatt88 wrote:Starting to get the hang of it now. Not hard to make a nice sound if you just work on getting a good basic sound with just a well matched amp and cab; effects are easy enough to attach later. 3-4 presets from clean to balls deep gain and a few effects seems the way to go. Doesn't take much to tap out the CPU, though realistically I don't need that much per preset. Hopefully my levels translate well at band volume tomorrow night, editing on the unit looks a bit intimidating. Still, amp options over scribble strips thanks ;)
So in terms of CPU usage... when using an amp and cab block, how many other effects can you add before the limit?
Cheers :)
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by StratMatt »

shafter wrote:
StratMatt88 wrote:Starting to get the hang of it now. Not hard to make a nice sound if you just work on getting a good basic sound with just a well matched amp and cab; effects are easy enough to attach later. 3-4 presets from clean to balls deep gain and a few effects seems the way to go. Doesn't take much to tap out the CPU, though realistically I don't need that much per preset. Hopefully my levels translate well at band volume tomorrow night, editing on the unit looks a bit intimidating. Still, amp options over scribble strips thanks ;)
So in terms of CPU usage... when using an amp and cab block, how many other effects can you add before the limit?
Cheers :)
Still a fair amount. I had a comp, two drives, phaser, chorus, two delays, an eq and a high quality reverb. It doesn't completely cut out, it will just drop the reverb out of the chain for example.

Once I figured out to use X/Y states in order to have two drives or two delays then that freed up a couple of blocks and cpu usage.
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by StratMatt »

If you're getting sick of wrapping your ax8 in a towel to protect it from rain when you take it places like I was, you might be on the lookout for a sweet bag or case. I just picked up one of these which fits perfectly.

http://www.everki.com/products1/18-4-la ... -18-detail

Quite a bit cheaper at PBtech. Solid as, plenty of protection. Plenty of room for an exp pedal or two, cables and stuff. Never quite saw the point of mounting units like this on a pedalboard.
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by sirvill »

I have an AxeFX II... can i hang in here with you guys? We almost need a general Fractal club thread but I don't wanna start one if no one else joins :(

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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by jeremyb »

StratMatt88 wrote:Never quite saw the point of mounting units like this on a pedalboard.
I like having my HD up off the floor, more comfortable to use, and being on a pedalboard I can have other things attached as well, power adapters, my IR loader, wireless when I get one etc... makes setup dead easy and theres space in the pedaltrain hardcase for all my cables, ebow, earplugs etc too :)
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by slash-ed »

StratMatt88 wrote:If you're getting sick of wrapping your ax8 in a towel to protect it from rain when you take it places like I was, you might be on the lookout for a sweet bag or case. I just picked up one of these which fits perfectly.

http://www.everki.com/products1/18-4-la ... -18-detail

Quite a bit cheaper at PBtech. Solid as, plenty of protection. Plenty of room for an exp pedal or two, cables and stuff. Never quite saw the point of mounting units like this on a pedalboard.
I grabbed one of these from Rockshop: http://www.rockshop.co.nz/shop/gator-mi ... d-bag.html

Fits the AX8 and 1 x Mission Expression pedal in the main section, and the outer pocket gets some cables shoved into it. Working really well for me so far!
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Re: AX8 Appreciation Thread

Post by slash-ed »

sirvill wrote:I have an AxeFX II... can i hang in here with you guys? We almost need a general Fractal club thread but I don't wanna start one if no one else joins :(
Yes, this is a safe place from all bears of the Polar variety.

How are you liking it so far?
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