Fractal FX8 users question

kjdowd

The big thing for me (on fx8 vs helix) is that I would happily use either in preference to a pedal board, and before hearing them I was totally down the Gigrig G2, boutique pedals, tube amp route. Modelling has come an awfully long way since I last tried it and I don't think I'll be going back to pedals any time soon. Big question is whether to keep the amps or go FRFR with the helix.

octatonic

kjdowd said:

The big thing for me (on fx8 vs helix) is that I would happily use either in preference to a pedal board, and before hearing them I was totally down the Gigrig G2, boutique pedals, tube amp route. Modelling has come an awfully long way since I last tried it and I don't think I'll be going back to pedals any time soon. Big question is whether to keep the amps or go FRFR with the helix.

I've been down the FRFR rabbit hole- in my opinion it isn't there yet for the 'amp in the room' thing.

Axe FX is great for recording but I use the FX8 with a real amp.

kjdowd

octatonic;950824" said:

kjdowd said:

The big thing for me (on fx8 vs helix) is that I would happily use either in preference to a pedal board, and before hearing them I was totally down the Gigrig G2, boutique pedals, tube amp route. Modelling has come an awfully long way since I last tried it and I don't think I'll be going back to pedals any time soon. Big question is whether to keep the amps or go FRFR with the helix.





I've been down the FRFR rabbit hole- in my opinion it isn't there yet for the 'amp in the room' thing.Axe FX is great for recording but I use the FX8 with a real amp.

I'd love it to work for the convenience but have a sneaking suspicion you may be right. Gonna give it a go though

Cabicular

Unless you do what I'm doing which is XLRs to FOH stereo and 1/4 out to atomic reactor 1x12

DefaultM

has anyone got the whammy sounding decent? Mine is always very warbly.

octatonic

DefaultM said:

has anyone got the whammy sounding decent? Mine is always very warbly.

Pitch source set to global?

I drop the mix level to about 20%, set pitch source to local, put the high cut around 4k.

Seems fine.

Cabicular

This is kind of what turns me off about it though

octatonic

Cabicular said:

This is kind of what turns me off about it though

What does?

Cabicular

Having to do stuff

octatonic

Cabicular said:

Having to do stuff

LOL.

Well, I take your point- it is more complex than other multi-fx units but not overly so- I prefer to think of it as powerful, rather than complex.

Pitch local/global is actually a useful parameter to have control over, if you have high CPU usage.

Have a look here: http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Pitch_effect_(pitch_shifting)

octatonic

I'm finally up to date with V3beta- I had it installed before but hadn't had much of a chance to get to grips with it.

Wow- what an update.

I've got Scene 1/2 toggle and Scene 3 on the first two footswitches, set globally.

I've got Compressor Drive, Delay and Reverb on footswitches 3/5/7/8, not set globally but all my patches have these blocks.

This leaves me with two more footswitches that shift depending on the patch- Footswitch 4 is usually pitch but sometimes synth. Footswitch 6 is modulation (chorus/flanger/phaser/rotary- I only ever have one per patch).

It also frees me up to be able to have wah and volume in the patches but not assigned to a footswitch.

They did a tremendous job on this update.

guitarpolo

Sounds 'kin great to be honest. If they could find the time to model my rotobone and xts multi drive I'd buy one in a flash!

Wazmeister

"Model my Rotobone..."

Now there's a challenge ! One of THE best pedals out there, imho.

Bear with me, i'll try to do that...

Moltisanti

i spent 20 minutes with my EVH Phase 90 and the FX8 side by side matching up the pedal, and i got it so close that i can't tell them apart. The FX8 has so many parameters you can edit that you can vastly change the core sound of any effect

Wazmeister

Moltisanti said:

i spent 20 minutes with my EVH Phase 90 and the FX8 side by side matching up the pedal, and i got it so close that i can't tell them apart. The FX8 has so many parameters you can edit that you can vastly change the core sound of any effect

@moltisanti - and that is the great aspect of the FX8... I was briefly (15 mins ?) this morning attempting to model the Caroline Meteore that I have.

And I got pretty close. I'm not historically a tweaker AT ALL (!!!), but this unit is expanding my knowledge and thought processes. It must be similar, at times, to what a designer/pedal creator goes through.

What settings will reproduce the sounds that I am after ?

The FX8 almost always seems to be at unity volume somehow, and this makes the whole process so much easier.

Moltisanti

you're right., and it's easy to take that for granted, but i suspect that a lot of the purchase price is making that piece of magic happen

DefaultM

How much do these end up costing in gbp? I've been running the axe ii in 4cm for effects only and it sounds amazing, but a pain to put the axe with my combo amp. Can't put it on top because that's where the cables come out.

octatonic

I think I paid around £1100- it fluctuates with the exchange rate, but not much.

Moltisanti

snap

John_P

Has anyone changed the way they organise pedals now you can pretty much assign them to anything?   

As I've got a gig free weekend I might update mine and I was thinking about having 4 presets clean, low gain rhythm, mid/high gain rhythm and lead across the bottom with 4 scenes on each adding in combinations of modulation, delay and wah.   So with two clicks I can hit any one of 16 setups but that default scene as the most likely combination.