Fractal vs Strymon Delay Comparison

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[@andisarandopoulos9364]

Love your AX8 videos! Just ordered mine. Should arrive tomorrow hopefully! Going to look though your videos again when I have the AX8 in front of me. Cheers!

[@basspartout]

Very good. Thanks a lot, Todd, got an AX8 a few months ago and all your videos help me a lot understand and appreciate that great piece of gear. Since I'm a big fan of the BigSky, I'd love to hear a comparison of the two. To my ears, the reverbs of the AX8 sound excellent.

[@richardfuller9274]

Boom! nailing the content and delivery! Keep it up dude :)

[@LeonTodd]

Thanks so much! Anything you'd like to hear in the future?

[@6Stringers]

Have watched several of your vids now (started with the Soldano/ Jet City comparison, as I have a 50h myself). Your vids are practical, clear, concise, and nofluff or BS. Sub for you sir :)

[@LeonTodd]

Much appreciate Dave, that means a lot and that's definitely the goal here.

[@Guitardojo]

Great job Leon!

[@chaosEngin3]

Thank you Leon, great comparison, and you inspired me to make some Multi-Delay Plex Shift presets on my Fractal FX8.

[@LeonTodd]

Those two blocks rock my world. So many great tones in there!

[@jeffschaefer186]

Great Job. Many thanks for the vid!!

[@EstebanGutierrez86]

Great video Leon!

[@LeonTodd]

Much appreciated mate

[@miguellopez106]

Such a great job, Leon! Thanks for the effort! Tweaking in both units is absolutely necessary. Both sounds great, many musicians would feel the same in a live situation, but in studio with more complex and precise recording processes there's a noticeable difference... not too too too much. I think it depends on what you're looking for. Strymon are dedicated machines for effects. For what I can hear Strymon mixes better when you push the effect in the mix control. I hear ax8 getting the effect present but it lacks strength, not too much but it's noticeable. Strymon is a little expensive but you are paying for a fine piece of gear and the great effort to make the presets an instant effect for the music instead of tweaking the ax8 until you get inside a rabbit hole... I have the ax8 and a big sky, I'll get the timeline and mobius as soon as possible.

[@shakeyjonez]

That Strymon sounded much more natural to my ears. Wasn’t expecting that. Really would love to hear the Big Sky vs the FM3.

[@billyarsenault1970]

You did the best you could. Nice touch.

[@64north20west]

Well. This video answers the questions I had in your previous video. I think I could live with the AX8. Cheers!

[@LeonTodd]

That was the goal, cheers!

[@brianw7731]

Great video. I would love to see someone duplicate the MXR Carbon Copy with Modulate on in the AX8. One of my favorite delay sounds.

[@LeonTodd]

I loved that delay when I owned it. I'll do some listening

[@gandhischlote260]

Fantastic! Now compare the Big Sky with AX8 verbs!

[@LeonTodd]

As soon as I can track down a Bigsky I'll do it!

[@gandhischlote260]

Leon Todd I should have phrased that as a question, lol sorry! Dude the TL and the BS are great units but if I don’t have to have them as extra pieces on my board and just strictly stick to making more patches/scenes on the AX8 I would much rather do that. Thanks for this and the subsequent videos you do!

[@mercigoku]

@@LeonTodd when we'll see BigSky vs AX8. your videos are very important for us. Thanks!!

[@basspartout]

@@mercigoku Thumbs up! I second that!

[@mercigoku]

@@basspartout mate for now, is better FM3 x Big Sky?

[@elliotkillianmusic4619]

The stereo delays on the AX8 are panned wider than the strymon, can you adjust width on the strymon to make the stereo effect more or less wide?

[@chris666boss]

Seems like the pre-delay on the Strymon is a bit more but otherwise they both do the job very well. God job btw!

[@JasperKaamino716]

how do you connect/set up modulation pedals into ax8???

[@philiprobinson593]

Great vid LT. Appeciate all the time you put into the ax8.what is the best way to contol the strymon delay via the ax8. Would you the midi funtions on both units?

[@LeonTodd]

Yeah use midi from the AX8 to the TL; that way you can have scenes setup on the AX8 that also change the relevant presets on the TL :)

[@ledooni]

Thanks for the great video! Could you do the same for Reverb with the BigSky? And are the FX III delays/reverbs significantly different/better? A comparison with those or even between AX8 and FX III would be amazing! 😊

[@LeonTodd]

Definitely, as soon as I can either borrow a Bigsky or find one cheap I'll do an in depth one. I might have an Axe III in the near future to try too.

[@ledooni]

Leon Todd That sounds great man, thanks! :)

[@Ryan-kw7gj]

Does the Axe FX 3 have a Binson Echorec style delay? I just bought a strymon Volante.

[@LeonTodd]

The quad tape delay would be able to cop those tones. Volante looks like a sweet unit.

[@MichaelWilson-ri9pn]

Love your videos. Thank you. I have a question. I have an AX8 and have created a few preset blocks of my own, trying to copy my mxr evh90 and things. Is there anyone putting out blocks you can download of famous pedals and effects? I've bought some custom IRs and I think it would be great if I could download presets of pedals I like. Hopefully that all made sense. Thank you

[@LeonTodd]

Check out this guy; it's all for free but you can support him and donate if you like them www.simeonharris.co.uk/Blocks/blocks.html

[@MichaelWilson-ri9pn]

Thank you for that! But I'm looking for specific blocks, ya know? xotic effects ep booster, Jerry Cantrell wah, etc. Someone should do a site where you go in and download the blocks you like based off famous pedals

[@LeonTodd]

Search the forum. I've got some Cantrell and Petrucci wah settings on there and there was a whole effects emulation thread on there too :)

[@anxiolyt2834]

Good comparison! Does the Fractal have Undulator effect, as Eventide?

[@LeonTodd]

You can do it like this - kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZqOshmaZrK-th8U

[@GersonGuzmanD]

excelent!

[@nhudson78]

Thanks for doing this. You may want to level the frets on that guitar though. Buzzing a tad ehh?

[@patrykgalant6981]

Nice! I prefere ax8 delays. It's like a more delay in the delay ;)

[@markushohmann3857]

Great Comparison, but your MUTE settings are wrong for delay and Pitch Block: Mute FX in means, when muted, the direct signal still gets thru = doubling the direct signal level, because you in parallel. In parallel you will have to switch bypass mute to MUTE IN to discard the signal in the grid input.

[@LeonTodd]

I just checked and when running a parallel delay or pitch block with the mute fx in setting there's no difference in output when bypassed compared to mute in. I definitely didn't get why that worked at first, but it must be down to the way parallel blocks are summed depending on the settings.

[@LeonTodd]

Oh yeah and thanks for checking out the vid, glad you liked it :)

[@RichardA5150]

to save CPU on my AX8 I actually run a TimeLine in the loop.

[@LeonTodd]

Perfect solution!

[@knutbausch7344]

What about the latency? Am I right in assuming. that the AX's loop needs additional DA - AD conversion and add another 2 ms latency ? @@LeonTodd

[@understone]

Pretty close. Preferred ICE setting to AX8. I'd be interested in comparison to new strymon delay. This video demonstrates why I personally prefer pedals though......easily turning a knob on a pedal vs using a computer editor. My personal preference is to have knobs right there. I want no parts of a computer or app or digging through menus. Some people like that but for me it is a deterrent to creating sounds especially on the fly which I like to do. I've had a taste of all in one effects systems when I had GSystem and it didn't take long to expand on it. So many pedals and no way any all in one device will keep me fenced in..which defeats the purpose. The flip side is the cost and space of pedal boards and the routing complexities especially when you get into WDW rigs.

[@LeonTodd]

The Strymon stuff really is inspiring to use; they're one of the few companies that make great factory presets too!

[@funfreq9282]

They are both really close which means you can with enough time, match the effects as long as you have both to use as a reference. Knowing what the exact settings are in any effect preset would be the ultimate but your probably not going to get that info from the manufactures.

[@LeonTodd]

More importantly you can use both to get creative and make some sweet delays!

[@danielakerman8241]

I found myself preferring the AX8 sounds 9 times out of 10. Most likely an EQ thing, and that can be dialed out or in, but as demonstrated, the AX8 tones were preferable to my ears. The key point for most people I think, is that even if you prefer the Timeline, it costs $400 -- and then you still need to get your amp, your drive pedals, your reverb pedals, your modulation pedals, etc etc... And all of those things will need to be powered and connected, leaving you DOZENS of possible points of failure. It easily will be WAY more than the cost of an AX8 (and, if necessary, an inexpensive preamp and speaker cabinet) and the AX8 will be more consistent, more reliable and get you 98% of the way there in terms of tone. To get 98% of the way there with an AX8 for probably 25-50% of the cost and less weight and problems seems like a no-brainer to me.

[@dre1kke]

Strymon is really awesome. But this video once again proves that you don't need to spend grands to have a giant board of Strymons. You can have the AX8 instead 🤘 Thanks Leon 🍻 Would you kindly do the Reverbs (Big Sky) comparison as the next? Also, even more, it would be awesome to discover the deeper AX8 possibilities in Modulation/Pitch comparing to the existing market benchmarks (like Your pitchblock video but a bit more detailed). Thanks again, you're doing an awesome job!🍻🍻

[@LeonTodd]

Definitely going to try get my hands on the Bigsky and do a similar video :D

[@kikomarty4337]

Through my speakers, I like the timeline better. However, it is a dedicated delay unit.

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

Strymon will sound better as it is one of the best delay in world next to Free the Tone Flight Timer Delay pedal. Fractal is great for a grab and go all in one unit like what Line 6 and Boss have.

[@lukather1]

Now Leon - bluesky and carbon !! Please

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

Axe FX better than what you would pay for several Strymon pedals. BUT if you gig live, and only need 1-2 pedals the Strymon is a winner. Plus you can use the Strymon pedals with synthesizers besides guitars.

[@LeonTodd]

The AX8 handles line lend and works great with synth too. I think you just gave me a video idea ;)

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

@@LeonTodd so cool as I did not know that as I play synths/keys in addition to guitar. Ideally would be sweet to have both for backup rig. I am leaning toward getting a combo of Strymon and Fractal to have a light portable setup in the future. One issue with a large multi FX unit is single point of failure- if you have a power spike and it fries your Fractal then you are screwed without a backup. That is why folks have a Fractal plus backup pedals.

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

now do a competition video between Axe FX and Kemper!

[@lukather1]

Renaissance Man axefx evertine if you want to build your own amps sounds ! Kemper for copying a amp ! Simples

[@GuitarsAndSynths]

@@lukather1 ideally both would be cool- Kemper for home studio and Fractal for live/studio. Plus they would back up if one died at a live show.

[@renaudschwab]

i can't hear any differences between the two

[@LeonTodd]

They're spot on to my ears too

[@miguellopez106]

This!!! But to get them both equal you need to tweak those details to pair them identical and it's totally possible! I stay with ax8!

[@jeffhudson2346]

Sounds good, but I'll stick with my Carbon Copy.

[@LeonTodd]

Great delay, I owned one for a while and enjoyed what it did.

[@FelipeSantos1000]

Strymon is more connected with the original tone. AX8 has infinite resources and variations, though.

[@abysmillard78]

The ax8 is more three dimensional and realistic. timeline response sounds digital and flat by comparison to me.

[@srdjanbosnjak7413]

I have a strange feeling that someone will soon sell Strymon Timeline.

[@shckltnebay]

lame

[@Allan-ts1ux]

Fractal was almost always a better sound..but you can't beat having a pedal you can just pick up and go ..

[@user-zv7lm8uk7h]

Strymon is 96khz QUALITY. Wake me when Fractal makes something more than 44.1khz (spoiler: they never will).

[@LCRLive687]

The fractal is better to me and more versatile in many ways. After seeing this I am selling my timeline and buying a fractal product.