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Bass multi-effects, anything else than zoom?
- Thread starter ToneTrooper
- Start date
hell if I can get a quote to work!
That Fractal unit looks great but I loathe the idea of a huge footboard like that.
That Fractal unit looks great but I loathe the idea of a huge footboard like that.
yeah.... I know, 4 or 5 have already posted about this unit here.
I agree that it sounds definitely great, and I agree that this topic title might have lead to those kind of answers but if you have read the topic :
THAT IS NOT THE POINT HERE!!!!!!
1) Far tooooooo expensive
2) not compact enough.
3) If you are in the "tech" competition, please just look that :
That said, is this machine flexible enough to make those souds made out of standard pedals and amps by a single guy in live? :
I would be very interested in a positive answer (even if I doubt that this machine could be a cheapest alternative to single pedals here).
Regards,
Pierre
I agree that it sounds definitely great, and I agree that this topic title might have lead to those kind of answers but if you have read the topic :
THAT IS NOT THE POINT HERE!!!!!!
1) Far tooooooo expensive
2) not compact enough.
3) If you are in the "tech" competition, please just look that :
That said, is this machine flexible enough to make those souds made out of standard pedals and amps by a single guy in live? :
I would be very interested in a positive answer (even if I doubt that this machine could be a cheapest alternative to single pedals here).
Regards,
Pierre
Well, if you're looking for small footprint, then the FX8 is not for you.
If you're looking for the absolute best in tone, build quality, support, and ability, the FX8 is the only real choice, IMO. The Axe-Fx units replace whole pedalboards for tons of people, and do so without compromise. But, the FX8 and obviously the rack unit are not "small".
So, you'll have to decide what is more important to you, and then go from there. From what I see in your OP, you pretty much have the complete list of options.
If you're looking for the absolute best in tone, build quality, support, and ability, the FX8 is the only real choice, IMO. The Axe-Fx units replace whole pedalboards for tons of people, and do so without compromise. But, the FX8 and obviously the rack unit are not "small".
So, you'll have to decide what is more important to you, and then go from there. From what I see in your OP, you pretty much have the complete list of options.
Can it replace pedalboards with effects that are a little less "conventional"? E.g. I have a Prunes&Custard and will soon get a SolidGoldFX Imperial. Can this thing do something similar?
Regarding foot-print: You should remember that there's no cab/amp-sims in these, so if you need them you need to add additional cost and space (very impressive rig BTW with the Kemper)
Single question, have you seen the Royal Blood video?
Can you do this with the Axe-Fx ?
His set-up is :
1 bass guitar only, processed in order to go to 3 amplifiers, 1 with the bass tone, 2 with guitar tones (POG octaver).
First, I haven't listen to an octaver sounding like the POG, I doubt the Axe-Fx can.
then can you process 3 different lines out of this box? I doubt.
can you, in addition to the 2 octavers for the 2 guitar voices, add a kind of wammy effect to make "drop down" sounds?
I agree it sounds really good in modeling an amp, but this is definitely not the point here. My point was to process the bass sound only, I'm happy with my POG and guitar process on the other side.
At the moment i find the tone that Mike Ker has with his short scale bass, pedals and real amps really awesome, and he is probably using an even cheaper rig than an Axe-fx. Then, where could be the advantage of an expensive machine with limited capailities???
Please if I'm wrong, I would be very happy to know, but I've never seen any Axe-fx user having this full and multi-instrumental tone.
Yes, I've seen a lot of Royal Blood, including live.
I haven't played much with the various pitch-shifting blocks in an Axe-Fx, so I don't know how close it will come to his sound.
Yes, you actually could do three line outs (1 L, 1 R and 2) of the Axe-Fx II's. The beauty would be though, that you wouldn't need to. With the internal routing, you do all of your splitting / combining, then just run the final tone to your monitoring and FOH. You can have up to 4 parallel paths on the Axe-Fx II.
There may be limitations that the AX8 and FX8 have that the full blown units don't - I haven't yet ordered my FX8 (waiting to see when the AX8 will come out and make my choice then). I'm betting though, given time to tweak, I could get a tone pretty dang close to his. Heck, I'd even make a preset for it this weekend, but I'm not going to waste my time.
I get your hesitation about the Axe-Fx. It's out of your price range, and doesn't fit your needs (small floorspace). I'm not going to spend much more time in this thread about it, since it's been ruled out. You may feel free to "doubt" the ability of it, but I would suggest that if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, don't write something off just because you have doubts.
I haven't played much with the various pitch-shifting blocks in an Axe-Fx, so I don't know how close it will come to his sound.
Yes, you actually could do three line outs (1 L, 1 R and 2) of the Axe-Fx II's. The beauty would be though, that you wouldn't need to. With the internal routing, you do all of your splitting / combining, then just run the final tone to your monitoring and FOH. You can have up to 4 parallel paths on the Axe-Fx II.
There may be limitations that the AX8 and FX8 have that the full blown units don't - I haven't yet ordered my FX8 (waiting to see when the AX8 will come out and make my choice then). I'm betting though, given time to tweak, I could get a tone pretty dang close to his. Heck, I'd even make a preset for it this weekend, but I'm not going to waste my time.
I get your hesitation about the Axe-Fx. It's out of your price range, and doesn't fit your needs (small floorspace). I'm not going to spend much more time in this thread about it, since it's been ruled out. You may feel free to "doubt" the ability of it, but I would suggest that if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, don't write something off just because you have doubts.
If you're dead set on getting that all-in-one bass+guitars a la Royal Bloods, and that is your sole focus, then you might as well go for the dedicated pedals, splitters, etc. and run them out to discrete amps the way they do. You're going to spend money and time, no matter how you go about this. Also, IMHO, if you're going to give this whole experiment a fair shake, pinching pennies for the sake of pinching pennies is just going to frustrate and lead to (likely) an unsatisfying result.
As and AxeFxII ower, along with a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI pedal, I'm pretty sure that the pitch shifters and wealth of drives, amps, and split routing combinations can get you what you want. Of course it would take some time and well conceived creative design of the preset to get a Royal Bloods type of thing, but absolutely can be done with the AxeFxII. I'd also assume that with the AX8 being released soon, there will be current AxeFxII owners who PREFER the AX8 footpedal format and thus used AxeFxIIs will be hitting the market at good prices. The benefit of going the AxeFXII route with a MIDI pedal is that the setup is quick and tidy, and much, much more versatile than the dedicated pedals that you'd otherwise purchase (with their associated necessary powering and wiring).
I do appreciate, though, why a top-dollar item along the lines of the AxeFx is a bit intimidating. It's definitely not for everybody, but IMHO, it is perfect for guitarists and bassists who are doing unorthodox things that require a high level of routing and tone flexibility. If you're just looking for a solid bass tone with a couple effects sprinkled in here and there, it's definitely overkill. I use the Zoom B3 for that stuff.
JMHO
As and AxeFxII ower, along with a Behringer FCB1010 MIDI pedal, I'm pretty sure that the pitch shifters and wealth of drives, amps, and split routing combinations can get you what you want. Of course it would take some time and well conceived creative design of the preset to get a Royal Bloods type of thing, but absolutely can be done with the AxeFxII. I'd also assume that with the AX8 being released soon, there will be current AxeFxII owners who PREFER the AX8 footpedal format and thus used AxeFxIIs will be hitting the market at good prices. The benefit of going the AxeFXII route with a MIDI pedal is that the setup is quick and tidy, and much, much more versatile than the dedicated pedals that you'd otherwise purchase (with their associated necessary powering and wiring).
I do appreciate, though, why a top-dollar item along the lines of the AxeFx is a bit intimidating. It's definitely not for everybody, but IMHO, it is perfect for guitarists and bassists who are doing unorthodox things that require a high level of routing and tone flexibility. If you're just looking for a solid bass tone with a couple effects sprinkled in here and there, it's definitely overkill. I use the Zoom B3 for that stuff.
JMHO
Don't get me wrong, my original question was to have feedbacks as I could read a lot of very positive things about the zoom B3. (and I didn't like the G2 and other cheap and older guitar processors by zoom).
My gloal was to complete my pedalboard with a small and not to expansive unit that could involve a compressor, overdrive, and maybe chorus/delay. The other part of my rig being already done. (not perfect, not outstanding, but sufficient to start serious reharsals for this project).
The Axe-fx is another story, for serious gigs with a good PA and sound guy, with no amps on stage... yeah... Professional music, while I'll play rock and roll in very small places.
Nevertheless, if such a machine is versatile enough to be able to reproduce mike kerr's sound, i will be very impressed, and for sure the "size" constraint is no more valid if you can have only this machine. (the price is another problem).
My gloal was to complete my pedalboard with a small and not to expansive unit that could involve a compressor, overdrive, and maybe chorus/delay. The other part of my rig being already done. (not perfect, not outstanding, but sufficient to start serious reharsals for this project).
The Axe-fx is another story, for serious gigs with a good PA and sound guy, with no amps on stage... yeah... Professional music, while I'll play rock and roll in very small places.
Nevertheless, if such a machine is versatile enough to be able to reproduce mike kerr's sound, i will be very impressed, and for sure the "size" constraint is no more valid if you can have only this machine. (the price is another problem).
Eh, I run my Axe-Fx into an on-stage setup still for one of my projects. You don't have to go "ampless" if you don't want to. My other project, we use IEMs, but that was a decision that we went with years ago due to how that production works - before any of us performers had modelers.
Lots of people run their Axe-Fx into a "FRFR" setup (full range / flat response - fEarful, Audio Kinesis and so on for us bassists) for on-stage monitoring, then run to FOH (when available) for PA support. Heck, some even just use them in the FX Loop of their current amp. It's super versatile in that you can use it practically however you want/need.
Price is what it is. It is a lot to chew off, and for people who won't use everything in it (as jimfist mentioned - if you only use a couple of FX) it's way overkill. Since you're just looking for those finishing touches on your setup, I'd say stick with the B3 or the Line6 M9/M13s.
Lots of people run their Axe-Fx into a "FRFR" setup (full range / flat response - fEarful, Audio Kinesis and so on for us bassists) for on-stage monitoring, then run to FOH (when available) for PA support. Heck, some even just use them in the FX Loop of their current amp. It's super versatile in that you can use it practically however you want/need.
Price is what it is. It is a lot to chew off, and for people who won't use everything in it (as jimfist mentioned - if you only use a couple of FX) it's way overkill. Since you're just looking for those finishing touches on your setup, I'd say stick with the B3 or the Line6 M9/M13s.
Thanks Both for your reply, (I haven't see yours jimfist before replying).
As I have wrote few post ago I finaly wanted to give a try to a small zoom effect, but never recieved it. Thus, I tested an old Korg G3 I had, and surprisingly it seams to be able to provide the little drive I was looking for. Thus I'm able to rehearse and start the project, things will probably evolve and I'll have to upgrade some parts of my rig, but for now I could have a decent sound and I will see where things goes.
The project is not to copy the Royal Blood tone exactly, but for sure they opened my eyes to another level, and has a guitarist who liked enough the bass to own bass and bass amp, the investment in second hand pedals was not that hard.
Definitely I will keep a curious eye on the axe-fx things, as I had on the eleven rack.
As I have wrote few post ago I finaly wanted to give a try to a small zoom effect, but never recieved it. Thus, I tested an old Korg G3 I had, and surprisingly it seams to be able to provide the little drive I was looking for. Thus I'm able to rehearse and start the project, things will probably evolve and I'll have to upgrade some parts of my rig, but for now I could have a decent sound and I will see where things goes.
The project is not to copy the Royal Blood tone exactly, but for sure they opened my eyes to another level, and has a guitarist who liked enough the bass to own bass and bass amp, the investment in second hand pedals was not that hard.
Definitely I will keep a curious eye on the axe-fx things, as I had on the eleven rack.
