Fractal FX8 - used bargain of the century!

StuartMac290

Following on from the chat in the Classifieds, I thought this maybe deserved its own thread. 

We came to the consensus the other day that an FX8 will cover the same ground as (and often out-perform) the likes of the Strymon Timeline AND the Big Sky AND the Mobius. It has one of the best pedal compressors on board in the Studio Compressor model, plus a host of others, all featuring a blend control and eq. The modulation effects are stunning, and all feature a blend control too (whenever I go back to pedals without a blend control now it's incredibly frustrating). 

The drives are excellent - although, full disclosure, I still have a handful of drive pedals I use in the studio. Live it's now 100% FX8 for me, and the latest round of drives are by far the best I've heard in the digital realm. 

It has an outstanding Leslie simulation. The selection of wahs is brilliant (and I've always HATED digital way). The delays and reverbs are best in class, and the dry signal doesn't have that slightly irritating digital signature the Strymons have.

It has a synth pedal built in. It has an Ooh Wah built in. It has great eq.

It's incredibly easy to integrate into your live setup, the way it implements unity gain is effortless, the routing is easy, the online editing is a breeze (and I used my FX8 for the first 10 months of ownership without ever plugging in the USB anyway) and it'll change your amp channels for you. 

It's sturdy, made of steel, and really well put together. They update the software pretty regularly and add new effects.

I paid full price and it was an absolute bargain at that. Nowadays they appear to be going for around £700-£750 used. This is insane!! Folk spend more than half that on a single overdrive pedal. 

I don't know if Fractal pished in their own chips by releasing the pointless MkII too soon, but for whatever reason the FX8 is an astounding bargain on the used market. 

tone1

So I could use an fx8 without ever plugging into a computer?

Roland

@StuartMac290 ;How about expanding this into a Review?

tone1

What’s the difference between mk1 and mk2?

StuartMac290

tone1 said:

So I could use an fx8 without ever plugging into a computer?

Absolutely. I did it for the best part of a year. In fact I've still only plugged it into the editor twice!

StuartMac290

tone1 said:

What’s the difference between mk1 and mk2?

Very little. They changed the order of the footswitches (I prefer the original) and changed the look to make it look cheaper! There were a few other wee switch changes too, none of which appealed to me at all. 

tone1

Thanks

peteri

As a (very) recent convert to the AX8, from G2/Strymon and Helix (as my lightweight answer) - I can only agree with the above.

It's absolutely blown me away more than any other piece of gear, just amazing. I consider the price I paid for a new AX8 a steal.

John_A

I think Fractal shot themselves in the foot with the FX8 when  90% of people see the Ax8 as an FX8 with a load more stuff in there.  I know it's not quite as simple as that, but for a lot of people it will be.  Unless you are dead set on always running a real amp then the AX8 is a better choice for most.

StuartMac290

The FX8 has better FX though - I looked at the AX8 and it couldn't quite do what I needed it to fx wise. According to Fractal the FX8 has more processing power. 

Teetonetal

For me, the biggest reason for not heading towards AX of FX8 was simply that I can't try the thing easily. My local store had a helix, they let me take it home... FX8 and AX were not even in stock with G66, they never got a look in.

Then outside of the forum worlds, I wonder how much Fractal are really known. Where as Line 6 are everywhere. The perhaps means resale is low?

I'd love an FX8 to try though.

guitarfishbay

John_A said:

I think Fractal shot themselves in the foot with the FX8 when  90% of people see the Ax8 as an FX8 with a load more stuff in there.  I know it's not quite as simple as that, but for a lot of people it will be.  Unless you are dead set on always running a real amp then the AX8 is a better choice for most.

New at G66 (inc tax) the FX8 is €1119 and the AX8 is €1499

For a lot of people that price difference is handy if they want to continue to use a traditional amp setup and wouldn't use the modelling anyway.  

There are also various operational differences.

The AX8 uses the full Axe FX grid style approach, whereas the FX8 connects 8 effects in a row (each with their own mix knobs, and position pre/post FX loop) and operates more closely to a traditional pedalboard.  The FX8 has relay switching to change amp channels where the AX8 doesn't.  There are more differences here https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Comparing_Fractal_Audio_devices

It's definitely arguable that either product could be improved, but they do serve different purposes and appeal to different users.

Kebabkid

I didn't give mine the time it deserved and programming wasn't instant because of the faff of the editor and didn't have the immediacy of a Helix user interface.

The demos I heard were great and Oct (James) put one up on YT where the drives were excellent but sadly, that's not what I was getting and it went quite quickly and luckily for me, at the higher price than they're fetching now. I hold my hand up and say that it was all me and not the unit.

I agree though that it would be a no brainer for someone who was thinking of going down the route of a couple of Strymons or a H9 and another few bits and bobs and I'd like to revisit it one day or try an AX8 with someone who has been using one for a while. Absolute bargain!

John_A

Yes, there are differences, but if you want 8 FX to run with an amp, some in front and some in the loop you can do that with an Ax8 and get all the modelling for not a great deal more money, I would bet Ax8 sales are outstripping FX8 sales.  With a £30 box you can use the midi on the ax8 to switch amp channels too.

It's certainly a pro level bit of kit, and if I was a pro, touring with a real amp I'd have one like a shot, but as i'm not the Ax8 as greater appeal to me.

StuartMac290

From what I remember of the email Fractal sent me when I was considering the AX8, the FX8 has a fair bit more processing power dedicated to its effects, and can do certain things (the Mega Tap delay, perhaps?) that the AX8 can't. It also has a lower noise floor, which was really important to me. 

If the AX8 was an FX8 with amp models added, I'd have one in a heartbeat!

Moltisanti

i agree, for £750 (and i've seen them under £700) they are a ridiculous bargain. I paid full price for mine new over 2 years ago and it's one of the best gear purchases i've ever made. I don't use amp modelling at home or live so the FX8 was exactly what I wanted - i'd always liked the idea of multi FX but this was the first unit to genuinely do it all at a pro level.

I agree that when the AX8 came out a lot of FX8 users jumped ship, as to 90% of users the differences between the two are negligable. Then Helix came along offering a viable alternative and a killer UI and that pushed even more FX8 guys to sell. 

guitarfishbay

StuartMac290 said:

From what I remember of the email Fractal sent me when I was considering the AX8, the FX8 has a fair bit more processing power dedicated to its effects, and can do certain things (the Mega Tap delay, perhaps?) that the AX8 can't. It also has a lower noise floor, which was really important to me. 

If the AX8 was an FX8 with amp models added, I'd have one in a heartbeat!

This is also correct, I just couldn't find the exact info somewhere official.

My understanding is no megatap delay and also only one reverb block in the AX8.  Also I think if you do run the amp modelling you don't get as much power as an FX8 in terms of effects capabilities

guitarfishbay

The thing for me with the Fractal stuff is it just (IMO) sounds great.  And it sounds great so quickly for my own tastes that I don't really care about the interface not being as good as the newer units on the market, I don't find I need to spend much time tweaking anyway.

I'm actually not that picky if I don't have a choice, I'll use anything that will kind of get the right sound. 

But if I do have a choice I think the Fractal models are mostly all excellent.  I've A/B'd a couple of drive pedals and found there was either a negligible difference, or I actually preferred the Fractal - especially with the Muffs, I like getting access to the mid sweep and tonestack as necessary.  The effects are generally of a quality I'd be happy with from recording plugins, reverb especially.  And they give you access to all the parameters you'd likely want.  It's not something that works for everyone, but coming from a more recording focused angle I'd rather have access to everything and choose to not touch things than be locked out from tweaking things.

simonk

I have to say I prefer the button layout of the Mk2. Being an AX8 user too the layout is common between the two which makes sense. I prefer the black bezel of the 2 whilst we’re about it.

I own a Mk2 though so take the above with a pinch of sodium chloride...

If you can get one used for £700 or so they’re a ridiculous bargain really.

StuartMac290

Ridiculously convenient live too:

FX8 https://imgur.com/a/wSu1D

Moltisanti

StuartMac290 said:

Ridiculously convenient live too:

FX8 https://imgur.com/a/wSu1D

Yep - mine is even simpler with no expression pedal, it's light too compared to a pedalboard