Fractal Audio FX8 - Page 82

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15 : ADDITIONAL TOPICS
:Q Why should I bother with PRE and POST?
:A Sonically speaking, the main reason to care about PRE vs. POST is that a given eect will sound
dierent when placed BEFORE or AFTER your amp’s preamp—the place where distortion occurs.
How does this dierence sound? If you’ve ever switched the sequence of traditional DRIVE
and WAH pedals, you’ve heard an excellent example. In the case of wah before overdrive, the
resonant lter of the wah “excites” the overdrive in a cool way while still retaining a natural overall
tone. When the wah follows distortion, you might hear a more dramatic ltered sweep—with
heavy distortion it can get almost synth-like—which might be considered less “classic.” It’s not
surprising then that Wah would traditionally be a run as a “PRE” eect between guitar and amp.
The amp’s distortion follows the wah eect. Many other eects fall in this same category.
A dierent example is found in overdrive with reverb and delay. In the natural world, reverb and
echo occur because of open spaces around your guitar amp – like a club or concert hall. These
eects would therefore NOT be heard before a distorted amp, but after it. Recording studios
often add these kinds of eects at the console—after the mic has picked up the distorted
sound from the guitar amp. If you wanted to simulate this natural sounding reverb or delay
these eects would likely be run “POST.” This is not to say that delay or reverb before distortion
is a “no-no.” Many “legendary” tones came from echo units in front of an amp—but this eect
is very dierent from “POST” delay—not only tonally, but also in terms of dynamics.
The good news is that the FX8 allows you to experiment easily and nd what combinations
of pre- and post-eects work best for you. Creativity begins where tradition ends.
:Q My FX8 stopped working during or after a rmware update. How can I recover it?
:A The FX8 has a built in recovery routine. Power the unit o. Hold down the SETUP button,
and then power the unit on. Hold the button for about 1 second beyond the power up,
and then release. The unit will now allow you to install rmware using Fractal-Bot.
:Q Why do I hear a pop when changing X/Y on some DRIVE block types?
:A When you change X/Y on the FX8, the block may need to be completely reprogrammed for its
new function. In some cases, this is sonically transparent. In other cases, this may mean changes
inside the block which cause a small pop. When connected to a loud amplier that has a lot of
gain, this small pop will naturally be even louder. One possibility that makes this completely
avoidable is to use two dierent drive blocks instead of one drive block with X/Y Switching.