Just bought a Fractal FX8

BintyTwanger77

I have to say, from all the talk on here (particularly from @Wazmeister) the temptation was too strong (thanks to @cbellanga...). I figured, if it doesn't work out it will sell very easily here, so I had to try. 

I still love the Strymons and Eventides of this world, so haven't done the big sell-off, but the reasoning is that this will cut down on tap-dancing, will satisfy my need for big, weird ambient patches, and cut down on problems with cables, set-up, power supplies and all the twatty bobbins that goes with assembling a pedalboard BUT I do not see this as the answer, or an end to GAS. 

It's doubtless been done before, but all those who have sacrificed pedalboards for one of these powerful multi-FX units, let me know how you got on, whether it killed your GAS, whether you still have both, whether you went for an FX8/Helix, etc but came back to pedals. I'm guessing a lot of you have had this experience, it seems to be a well-worn path.

guitarfishbay

Went Axe FX 2, haven't bought any guitar stuff since.  I don't own a conventional amp anymore though I do still have a basic pedalboard.  

It's great for bass too but doesn't currently model all of the stuff I want to use so I still have some bass preamp pedals and analogue octavers.  If they ever got modelled to the same standard as everything else in the unit then I'd probably sell those too.

Heartfeltdawn

Give yourself the time to get to grips with it. At least a month before any flip. 

Teetonetal

Nope. Gas still rages. Helix and it's 4 loops make that nice n easy

BintyTwanger77

Heartfeltdawn said:

Give yourself the time to get to grips with it. At least a month before any flip. 

Of course.

Drew_TNBD

I would like one too. Nice purchase. Write music with it.

Sporky

I have had pretty much no GAS since going Helix. All I want now is cello stuff; guitar is sorted. And cello stuff just means a next-step bow and a cello that was made in Austria or Germany in the 18th century.

Roland

GAS is dead.

kjdowd

I bought an AX8 and GAS was dead. Logistics meant that this stayed in the studio for a while, so I thought I'd try a pedal board again. Plugged the AX8 in at home again today. Upshot is that I'll be selling a few pedals in the very near future...

Beexter

New AX8 owner here. Since getting it, I've stopped Gassing for any more amps or pedals which is quite a turnaround for me.
I've been really pleased with the sounds I'm getting and it just makes me want to play more. 

octatonic

FX8 owner here.
It is stellar and yes, a GAS killer.

Drew_TNBD

Lots of things are GAS killers...... for a while

I've got the Helix which is fantastic, but I've also got a singles board still and I don't see that changing any time soon!

I do quite fancy an AX8 or FX8 at some point, but really I've got all I "need" ... it aint really about "need" though is it!

Beexter

Drew_TNBD said:

...but I've also got a singles board still and I don't see that changing any time soon!

Fair point - I've got a small pedalboard that I've refined over years and they're not going anywhere. 

DavusPG

Bought my FX8 18 months ago and no amp or pedal related GAS since.

Recently Sold my FX8 on here and bought Waz's AX8 and am very happy...still learning but quickly got plenty of very useable presets. As @Beexter says it's also making me play more so win, win.

For the first time in years I'm a content guitarist! Not solely down to this but also from taking the plunge and selling off several guitars that I realised I didn't need.

Trying to spend the time I used to waste obsessing about gear to actually play.

I hope you enjoy it, I'm sure you will

professorben

Quitting this forum is the ultimate GAS killer. 

guitarfishbay

professorben said:

Quitting this forum is the ultimate GAS killer. 

Nah my biggest GAS comes from the bass forums I don't even post on lol

BintyTwanger77

professorben said:

Quitting this forum is the ultimate GAS killer. 

Awarded a laugh, but still true and wise. I just come to this forum for the chicks...

Erm...

Sassafras

I'm only here to meet like minded people with a view to forming a long term relationship.

Wazmeister

WELL, COME ON - HOW IS IT ?!?!?!?!

BintyTwanger77

Early days, @Wazmeister early days!! I tried using it with the DUI and without FX8-edit, and that sucked, I used all of the swear words and invented a few new ones.

Lot better when I linked up to the software and created some patches. 

Now, I'm running the FX8 using 4CM, which is good, means I can use the gain on my amp.

Overall, the sounds are just spectacular. Superb quality of delays and reverbs (Deep Space can get really close to Blackhole on the H9) I've set it up to use F1 and F2 to scroll between presets. Couple of things.

I'm not sure if it's automatic but there seems to be a universal noise gate on it, and I really don't like noise gates. Great for high-gain metal, but not much else. How do I disable this?

I thought I'd set the F3 switch for tap tempo, but it doesn't seem to be working.

Going through the factory presets, there are enormous leaps in volume between some of them. Not sure why that is.

Very impressed so far, though...

Beexter

If the FX8 computer editor is similar to the AX8, the noise gates are in the Input section on the left hand side of the grid. Right click in the input block and the noise gate settings should show up. 
With the tap tempo,  tapping the switch should adjust the global tempo - you just need to instruct each effect to use this "global" tempo (which you do in the various effects blocks in the computer editor.)