Fractal AX8 and first impressions

[Bishop5150]

My AX8 came in last week and I had my first band practice with it last night. It was pretty cool. Have a little bit of tweaking of a few levels but overall I'm really pleased. I've been using my Axe-FX II XL for a couple of years now but just for home practice up to this point. It took a little work transferring all my blocks over from my Axe to the AX8 but it wasn't to bad. I usually use a 5153 50 watt and matching 2x12 cab with a G-system at practice. The guys knew I was using something new cause they could see it but otherwise I don't think they would have known the difference, It sounded awesome. I ran Out 1 to our PA and ran Out 2 to my 5153 50 watt fx return just to have some of that amp/cab feel and sound behind me that I'm used to. I might actually start using it for gigging. Especially for out of town gigs.

 

[neilli]

Thanks for the review - I'm on the waiting list for one, and it'll be my first dip into the world of amp modelling..

 

[davlav4210]

I'll be interested to hear more of your impressions once you've had it a while. I'm on the waiting list as well...

 

[Econ]

I'm on the waiting list as well, but at the rate things are moving, it is going to take some time before I get my hands into one.

 

[Bishop5150]

I've had the Axe-Fx for a few years now and never felt it could work for me live but with all the firmware updates it's just getting better and better and really blowing me away. Whether or not I start using this for gigging I haven't decided yet. Most definitely it will be in my gig bag as a incredible back up rig. I'm possibly considering using it at an out of town show in two weeks. We'll see how it goes at the next practice before the show. Got some tweaking of levels between now and then which I just started doing the last couple of hours since I got home from work. Need to run through our set with it here at home practicing to backing tracks of our set and fine tune everything.