Fractal FX8 OD/Distortion quality

[faisalbaig]

Considering an FX8 for 4CM with my Marshall JVM410H.
I currently use a GSP1101, while not bad, its not stunning either. While the FX are ok, i don't find the drive sounds to be very natural sounding.
I do like to push the front end of my amps set for mild OD and then boost with drive.

I was making a list of all the stomp boxes i would like to have and the cables, power supplies and pedals themselves would become quite expensive.
The FX8 seems like a nice unit. How do you guys feel about its drive block compared to analog OD stomp boxes.
I am always weary of pushing a digital unit into a tube amp's front end. Something just gets lost.
Digital FX in the loop are fine if they are transparent enough.
Opinions guys ??
Thanks
Faisal

 

[thenine]

So far so good for me - although I prefer amp distortion, sometimes boost with a hot signal or mild OD. Other than fiddling around I havent tried to run my FX8 the way you are saying or into a clean channel with all distortion coming from the FX8.

The JVM is a good choice though for this multiFX. I have a Fortin modded JVM 210 and I am using the FX8 with that. If you hook up a midi cable you can use the FX8 to change everything on the JVM except knob positions. So with one click you can change channels, change mode of the channel (green, orange, red), choose reverb on/off, FX loop on/off and choose master 1 or 2. Pretty f"in coolio!