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Fractal Audio AX8.

#101
Finally got a chance to use the AX8 with a band. Seriously, I had two weeks where every rehearsal and gig was cancelled. Was everybody in the world sick at once?

That's a keeper.

I mean, yeah, nothing's quite like standing in front of the column of air provided by a huge rig, but as far as "that's the sound I want coming from the PA" I'm sold.

Selta said:
I had thought that FAS had logic in their signal processing to not induce phase issues no matter what? I know the Axe-Fx II has DePhase control (the AX8 does not), but that isn't for out of phase alignment between two paths. I could be mistaken about this, it's been awhile since I've used a cab block in a preset :)
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Well, they can compensate, but the nature of a speaker cabinet is that it's unavoidable. :) You can add a bit of delay to line things up, but it's not a phase-linear transform. In practice it's not much of an issue.

I recently was talking to someone (can't name drop who) that suggested if we can get schematics to pedals, there may be a better possibility of something happening in that regard. Makes me wonder if I go around and dig up schematics for some of the bass amps if that'd help, too. I'd love to find a B7K schematic, but I'm pretty sure it's held very close to the chest (rightfully so).
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Haven't played with the effects much yet so I don't know what my wishlist is, but I've always loved tube based stompboxes, which is to say I think bass amps should have more options for preamp gain, so maybe I'll just play with guitar amps. Always wished I had time to hack the Silver Dragon and mod the tone circuit, as the "tube based tube screamer" setup has a lot of promise, but they stopped short of really taking it to its full potential IMO.
 
#102
Hey, you can still stand in front of an 8x10 if you want :). Pretty often, I'm too lazy to take my AudioKinesis to rehearsal, so I just run my power amp to an 8x10 there in the studio. In fact, I have a couple of presets I've tweaked to shape the tone of the 8x10 to sound better :D.
At gigs, I run my ThunderChil 118 on stage for monitoring (when not IEM) and then FOH for the heavy lifting.

I see what you mean about phase now. I believe the output of a cab block is phase aligned with any parallel paths at least, so you're not compounding the issue. Dephase in the Axe-Fx II helps a little with the phase issues of a mic in close proximity to a speaker.

I've always felt that guitar amps sound better for hi-gain tone, which is why I have a 2nd amp that's always a guitar amp. This also means I'll always be schelping the Axe-Fx II, and not an AX8.
 
#103
Selta said:
@tekhedd and @Ba55Man1ac how are you guys getting along with your Fractal gear? :) Anything I can help with?
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Hey Selta, having a ball! Haven't gigged with it yet, but bought some shmick headphones (Sennheiser HD650) & enjoying playing with cab IR's. Really digging the Ownhammer AMPG pack - I add a ROOM preset on 1 side & SUB on the other & it sounds just like there's a cab behind me!

What's the reason you don't use the cab block?
 
#104
I just haven't found one that substantially adds anything to my tone yet. I bought the Ownhammer AMPG pack, but haven't loaded it yet, so that may change my mind. Another guy is releasing another bass pack here soon, which I also intend on picking up to test the waters with.
 
#106
Yeah. Headphones to a amp/cab setup is a big change, and then low volume to high volume is another big change as well, even ignoring playing alone vs. a full band. I usually setup my presets with my amp/cab at home at a decent volume, but then really tweak it at rehearsals. It can take a bit of time to really get a preset going :).
 
#113
I have my first 3 presets just about done for the AX8 bank that I'm going to release, hopefully late this month! :)
I'm dialing them in with my Dingwall, and also trying them out with my EBMM Sterling 5 HH and Bongo 5 HSp fretless. Once I get all 8 done, I will post short sound clips with one of each bass as well.

If you use these, it's pretty likely you'll have to tweak them to your play style and bass, but should be an OK starting point!
 
#114
Hi guys.

I thinking about getting an ax8. The main fx I need is, chorus and octaves, since I would use it for Paul Young stuff.
So it's pretty important for me to get close to an boss OC2 for the octaver, and a nice 80's analog sounding chorus.
But I've read in the thread that the octaver is not tracking well (I need it to be fairly stable down to a on the E-string).

Also would I be able to send FOH one signal before the amp sims and one after?
 
#115
I'll have to dig in and give the octaver another whirl - I was a few firmware versions behind.

I'm not sure why you'd want to do two FOH signals like that, but I'm pretty sure you can, though not with both signals going over XLR. I think you'd have to use OUT2, which is 1/4", to do the non amp sims.
 
#118
A lot of people that use the AxeFx will pre or post treat the pitch shifting block with a drive block. This is what I've done to impart a more natural "lo-fi" quality to the shifting because it can be too pristine.

I think people have gotten used to the Digitech Whammy, which is a highly colored pitch shift. I know that's what my ears were trained for (having owned one), and it took me a while to get the octave pitch shifting to sound like it blended properly.

This is where the AxeFxII has a distinct advantage over the AX8, in that you have a lot more at your disposal to really carefully craft a specific effect, for example, using an EQ or Filter Block, Drive Block and Pitch Shift block, solely to fine tune the tone of the shift, and without worrying as to whether you'll run out of FX slots or DSP.
 
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