What is up with the AX8?

[Chris6870]

Interesting to see the acceptance of the AX8 here.

For me, the motives are no longer lugging gear and endless amounts of what seem to be killer tones. I still have doubts, mainly can the average sound guy at the shitty club run this FOH without screwing something up.

Having to buy a power amp and lug my cab or buy more expensive powered monitors would kill the entire idea for me.

No offense to anyone who uses the AX8 with their amps/cabs but having a $1,400 pedal board for effects only seems pretty crazy to me.

If you were to buy a Strymon TimeLine and Mobius you're at $800 already. Then how about a wah, a drive pedal, a power supply, a board itself. Already over 1k easily and you STILL can't do all that a Fractal unit can.

Plus some type of switching system to turn everything on/off and change amp channels- the Boss is like $800.

 

[Lord Toneking]

One thing in really struggling with rolling back the volume. I've adjusted the gate and am still getting a digital type breakup in my signal. I'm to the point of just turning the gate off totally (which Inhavent done yet).
I don't notice it while at home playing at lower volumes, but at rehearsal last night it was there again. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't navigate through the unit without being hooked up to my laptop and using the ax8 editor

Maybe time to read through the manual some more lol. It's so easy with the editor that I haven't bothered tweaking from the unit itself. But anyways, I have the gate barely cracked and it's still breaking up my signal

 

[SkyhighRocks]

One thing in really struggling with rolling back the volume. I've adjusted the gate and am still getting a digital type breakup in my signal. I'm to the point of just turning the gate off totally (which Inhavent done yet).
I don't notice it while at home playing at lower volumes, but at rehearsal last night it was there again. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't navigate through the unit without being hooked up to my laptop and using the ax8 editor

Maybe time to read through the manual some more lol. It's so easy with the editor that I haven't bothered tweaking from the unit itself. But anyways, I have the gate barely cracked and it's still breaking up my signal

What amp models are you using? It works like real life amps...a high gain amp with a drive generally won't clean up well.

 

[thiswaythatway]

One thing in really struggling with rolling back the volume. I've adjusted the gate and am still getting a digital type breakup in my signal. I'm to the point of just turning the gate off totally (which Inhavent done yet).
I don't notice it while at home playing at lower volumes, but at rehearsal last night it was there again. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't navigate through the unit without being hooked up to my laptop and using the ax8 editor

Maybe time to read through the manual some more lol. It's so easy with the editor that I haven't bothered tweaking from the unit itself. But anyways, I have the gate barely cracked and it's still breaking up my signal

You could use an expression pedal and use it to control the threshold of the gate on any preset that you want to roll back on your volume. Roll back as you decrease the gate maybe.

 

[maddnotez]

Just need to try one. That's the only way I'll know. I'm very happy with my rig and think it's going to be hard to beat but I'm definitely tired of lugging gear and it would be nice to have something compact that sounds great.

The only other option I can think of would be to get a 2x12 and a small amp like a KSR Ares but the AX8 seems pretty awesome.

I don't roll volume too much but there is an intro I play that I do roll. Not sure if it's my amp or my guitar (haven't tested with my other guitar yet) but my rig does horrible when it comes to rolling volume. I should get my Footswitch in the mail tomorrow

 

[Lord Toneking]

One thing in really struggling with rolling back the volume. I've adjusted the gate and am still getting a digital type breakup in my signal. I'm to the point of just turning the gate off totally (which Inhavent done yet).
I don't notice it while at home playing at lower volumes, but at rehearsal last night it was there again. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't navigate through the unit without being hooked up to my laptop and using the ax8 editor

Maybe time to read through the manual some more lol. It's so easy with the editor that I haven't bothered tweaking from the unit itself. But anyways, I have the gate barely cracked and it's still breaking up my signal

You could use an expression pedal and use it to control the threshold of the gate on any preset that you want to roll back on your volume. Roll back as you decrease the gate maybe.

That's a good idea. I set my expression pedal as a volume pedal which I never use as a volume. When I'm not playing my volume knob is off. I'm a volume knob freak, I burn through volume pots like crazy. It's a very important part of my playing. Again, I've made only a few patches/scenes. I find what I like and I can pretty much stick to it. So far that has been my only complaint with the ax8, but I know part of that is user error. My time is limited...and I'm lazy lol. But damn, the times that come out of this thing are freakishly good!

 

[Lord Toneking]

One thing in really struggling with rolling back the volume. I've adjusted the gate and am still getting a digital type breakup in my signal. I'm to the point of just turning the gate off totally (which Inhavent done yet).
I don't notice it while at home playing at lower volumes, but at rehearsal last night it was there again. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't navigate through the unit without being hooked up to my laptop and using the ax8 editor

Maybe time to read through the manual some more lol. It's so easy with the editor that I haven't bothered tweaking from the unit itself. But anyways, I have the gate barely cracked and it's still breaking up my signal

What amp models are you using? It works like real life amps...a high gain amp with a drive generally won't clean up well.

Jumped Plexi has become my main amp now. I was using Freidman, 5153 blue, and IIC+.

But even with my clean and mid gain tones (DC30, Div13) I still get the same results

Maybe I'll just not use a gate and see what happens

 

[SkyhighRocks]

One thing in really struggling with rolling back the volume. I've adjusted the gate and am still getting a digital type breakup in my signal. I'm to the point of just turning the gate off totally (which Inhavent done yet).
I don't notice it while at home playing at lower volumes, but at rehearsal last night it was there again. I'm embarrassed to say that I can't navigate through the unit without being hooked up to my laptop and using the ax8 editor

Maybe time to read through the manual some more lol. It's so easy with the editor that I haven't bothered tweaking from the unit itself. But anyways, I have the gate barely cracked and it's still breaking up my signal

What amp models are you using? It works like real life amps...a high gain amp with a drive generally won't clean up well.

Jumped Plexi has become my main amp now. I was using Freidman, 5153 blue, and IIC+.

But even with my clean and mid gain tones (DC30, Div13) I still get the same results

Maybe I'll just not use a gate and see what happens

I'm uploading a video of my live direct tone right now and I actually roll the volume down. Check it out when it's live.