I may be run out of town ;) Axe-Fx content

sweepy

I know a few others here have Axe Fx setups  and some, like me find the arse kissing on the Fractal Forum a little sycophantic to say the least, well I have updated the Firmware via 8.0 and now 8.01 and tbh its bloody terrible, clips on input and output settings and sounds naff tbh. So I reverted to 7.02 and voiced my findings on the Forum, I'm waiting to be a called a clueless retard not worthy of owning a Fractal product and Banned

RandallFlagg

I had an AxeFX II for a while in 2015 and found the Fractal forum to be sickly in it's worship of Cliff and the gushing praise poured on each new firmwate update he issues. It's hard to be critical or appear objective without receiving scorn from the devoted faithful.

Don't go on the Fractal forum so often would be my advise, it will drive you potty!

My biggest issue was the frequency of updates. I seemed to spend more time backing up, updating firmware, reloading and then re-tweaking than I did playing.

It really was a great sounding thing though, just a bit deep with option overload for my simple brain.

I have a Helix now which is simpler to use and sounds good but I do miss the Fractal's Detuned Plex Delay in the Multi-Delays. It sounded great and I have no idea how to recreate that in Helix or if it's even possible.

Jonathanthomas83

Ive not tried 8.01 yet, first I'd heard of it. But 8.0 sounds incredible, to my ears. I did experience the same clipping as you though, but it made me re-learn how to set up balance between the gain controls, which is not a bad thing, in my eyes.

The way I see it, with every FW release, it gets closer to how the real thing actually works, mechanically, so that's just part of the trade off. My patches only changed for the better with 8.0, and I was more than happy with them at 7.02! I'm sure I'd be happier still with 8.01, and will try soon.

I can't disagree with the forum point. But how much of it is a cultural thing, being that most of them reside across the pond? 

Like RandallFlagg says, steer clear is your best bet and visit occasionally for updates. 

In the whole scheme of things, I'm confident that I have one of the best sounding pieces of gear on the market, and thats why I took time to seek it out. I'm not going to let a few little niggles like forum and frequent updates spoil my enjoyment of it. At the very least, I could chose never to update it again and I'd still be a happy man.

With all that said, I do wish there were more Fractal owners on here so I could join in more discussions like this. You lot are a good bunch, but my lack of Helix puts me on the outside of a very homely forum, with a group if modelling adopters that know their shit and are very kind.

guitarfishbay

How loud were your patches in 7.02? I think 8.01 is louder on some amps. Generally my patches peak around -10db in Logic on the loudest palm mutes. I didn't experience clipping but I only played for 10 mins after updating.

The the way I use the Fractal forum is to search Cliff's posts to see if anything interesting is in the pipeline, or if he gives any insight to certain models or features. I also sometimes check for bugs, or to see if there are any clips of IR packs I'm interested in. Other than that, I don't use it.

The frequency of updates is non issue because they're optional, plus it's easy to revert back if you want.

There are actually quite a few Fractal users on the forum but they're generally pretty quiet. It used to come up more in discussions but I guess most people are pretty settled in how they use it.

Roland

Jonathanthomas83 said:

I can't disagree with the forum point. But how much of it is a cultural thing, being that most of them reside across the pond? 

There's certainly a cultural difference. I'm beginning to think that they also suffer from the original meaning of the Hawthorne Effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthorne_effect, where every change provokes a response simply because it's a change.

Jonathanthomas83 said:

With all that said, I do wish there were more Fractal owners on here so I could join in more discussions like this. 

You could always start a discussion about something. How about parallel of serial effects, especially chorus and delay? That would interest non Fractal people like @Drew_TNBD.

guitarfishbay said:

There are actually quite a few Fractal users on the forum but they're generally pretty quiet. It used to come up more in discussions but I guess most people are pretty settled in how they use it.

 I'm very settled with my configuration. I update the firmware whenever there's something which looks significant, but not until several weeks after it's released. I got caught out with 7.02 though, which introduced horrible noise into the Tube Pre amp. It really buggered my Acoustic simulation patch. I've had to take 8.0 to get rid of it.

Cabicular

In the interest of balance I also avoid the line 6 official forum for similar reasons. Too much handwringing not enough music for my liking. And occasional out of control brats

octatonic

I have 8.01 installed.
It is fine but you do need to reset your patch levels.
This took me about 2 mins.

All good here.

Beexter

As an AX8 owner,  I'm waiting for the 8.0 release which is currently out on beta but as has been said,  if I never updated again,  I'd still be happy with how it sounds. 
I was messing around yesterday with the AX8 (through a Yamaha DXR10) and played it alongside my two valve amps and the AX8 sounded nicer and had a much lower noise floor,  even at quiet bedroom volumes.
Admittedly, this sort of volume level is not the forte of my valve amps and they are not really hitting their stride but the AX8 sounds just as good at rehearsal /gig volume and the convenience factor is great. 
The update process seems pretty straightforward to me but it beats me why all the amp block resetting is necessary - if they could come up with a way to avoid having to do that on a per preset basis, that would be ace.
The Fractal Forum is very pro-Fractal but isn't that to be expected of a brand dedicated forum? I've had helpful and quick responses to questions and have picked up some useful tips so that'll do me. 
The Helix threads on here are also very positive and Helix owners get equally upset if someone criticises how it sounds.
I think the Fractal users are in a distinct minority here but that's fine by me. I made my purchase decision based primarily on  sound/tone quality and on that criteria, I still believe I made the right choice (for me).

Roland

@Beexter ;You make a decision at a point in time, based on the products and the information which are available. You only know years down the line whether a different decision would have been "better".

guitarfishbay

The amp block resetting is for getting new defaults for parameters. If under the hood changes have occurred then they'll be present without reset, or at least that's my understanding of it

gibsongretschfan

Cabicular said:

In the interest of balance I also avoid the line 6 official forum for similar reasons. Too much handwringing not enough music for my liking. And occasional out of control brats

Yeah some of the guys on there are a bit special. 

gibsongretschfan

I'm going to have to go give some Fractal stuff a try again, been a few versions since I did and probably owe it to myself. 

Haven't tried any of the drives since they were updated and having a FX8 in the cupboard wouldn't be the worst idea at what they are selling second hand now

fretmeister

The Line 6 forum is completely different.

It's all - why they fuck can't I have more things now? Why isn't my idea at the top of the list on Ideascale? Why does it take more than a day to write a MASSIVE bit of software? So the latest release was just for bass players? What the fuck is that all about - I hope the next one will have something that I want!

EDIT - and of course from the Americans - Why can't I make the update work? No of course I didn't follow EVERY step! Don't tread on me!