Axefx Ultra after 2 hours of plugging in...

[MOSHWITZ]

Sup?

I'm seriously thinking about getting the K12 myself. I'm so used to monitoring the Axe through my JBL LSR 4328 studio monitors, I'm not sure the proximity effect would be much of an issue for me though.

MOSHON
DAVE

[Robotechnology]

Hello people... it's been a few months since I last dropped by. Spoke with Fractal today for a bit and July looks to hold an Ultra for Ivan to experiment with I wasn't as into the unit 2 years ago when I 1st played through it/heard it as much as I am interested in it now. Played it at the NY Amp Show 2 weeks ago and really liked most of what I heard but, I wasn't the one turning the knobs and pushing the buttons (which means I'd like it more if I was the one doing the tweaking). There are at least 4 people on here that have these it seems. As far as modellers go I do have a few still (whether I use them or not is another story): Yamaha DG Stomp, Vox ToneLab ST (which I do use), Vox Valvetronix AD60VTX (which I do use), Zoom G2.1u (only use as a digital delay in a loop sometimes but, probably no longer), Johnson J-Station, Behringher V-AMP PRO and a Spider Valve MkII Head (which I just got and I do use). If I added up the cost of all of those, it'd be about the same as the price of a Standard. I guess I'm thinking that I could sell everything except maybe the Vox ST (which is a great portable modeller with footswitches) and VTX (easy grab and go combo) and have the Ultra do everything all those other units do and more but, better. At least I think that's the idea. Time will tell.

[roodyrocker]

I believe Roodyrocker uses the QSC HPR122i (their top model) monitor(s) with his Axe-FX.

Yep, I have an Ultra in a 4 space rack with a Furman power conditioner and a pair of QSC HPR122i's. The QSCs are pole mounted but I've only used one at a time live. One XLR cable goes to the QSC, another to front of house, plug in my Behringer FCB board to switch channels and thats it. Done setting up or tearing down in minutes. I can't remember the exact rating on the QSCs but I believe they're 450W a piece.
Although I love this setup and it is by far the most versatile as far as cleanest cleans to heavy distortion, at this time I'm having way too much fun playing my Marshall Randy Rhoads 1/2 staqck live There is nothing wrong with the Axe Fx and it does kick serious ass live though!

[emperor_black]

Hey guys, if you havent updated to 10.0 yet, you should! The shiva clean is simply awesome!

Rudy, what's the difference (besides wattage, dimensions and weight) between teh HPR 12' vs K12's? Did you try the K12? Why is the HPR heavier? Both supposedly have a class D power amp right?

[roodyrocker]

Hey guys, if you havent updated to 10.0 yet, you should! The shiva clean is simply awesome!

Rudy, what's the difference (besides wattage, dimensions and weight) between teh HPR 12' vs K12's? Did you try the K12? Why is the HPR heavier? Both supposedly have a class D power amp right?

I really didn't look into the K12 as it wasn't out at the time I bought my HPR. The HPR sounds damn good though so I never looked back. In fact the HPRs are used as side fills for the PA when we rent it out to run sound in somewhat bigger local venues for other bands

[Trem]

For people still on the fence or the doubters, From an Original Naysayer.

Well i took the Axe to practice for the first time since i got it to give it the ultimate test.

Short version: it fricking rules.

For Fanboy heaping praise version see below:

Emptied rack of current stuff which adds up to well over 1200 bucks i payed for it all and dropped the axe in with trusty microtube200.
Dropping like 5 patch cables and 3 wall warts, and all together adding up to about a 10th of the axes capabilities.

The patch for the Axe i made was well in axe terms pretty much quick and dirty.
I set it up at home with headphones exactly the opposite of recommended, (flat studio phones ATH-40fs) and also i set it up to check out all it's flexability..IE dual outs.

You very much can make a patch that will transfer to live volume with headphones, and if you know what your power amp and speakers are gonna give you.
Or at least get you in the ballpark.

In my case i have very neutral speakers b52 100 watters, B-52 LG412V that are kinda like a EVM12L for 200 dollars cheaper

Took them from the cab they came and threw them in my peavey ms4x12.
A major improvement, they suffer in the b52 ported cab they came in.

Anyway so took maybe 30 minutes to initially set up the patch and messed with the wah and delay for a bit, all done the night before in headphones.

Filter - Wah - Drive - Solo 100 - EFXL (For 'Out2' to cab) - Delay - Cab Recto2 mic sm58 (just picked something standard expected it would have to change once thru the pa) ParaEq for blocking and small bumps and dips.

Output 1 ran to mixing board and PA which is 2 x 1200 watt cabs with 2 x15" woofers a piece and horns, and 2 full range boxes with 18" woofers.

So 4x12" 100 watters 4x15" with 2 horns, 2x18" with mids and tweets each.

I hit an A chord and it was like Marty Mcfly.

My patch was 99% already there, was trying to cop the tone of my mp1 mod4 with special sauce which... fuck all rules. Basically is most like an SLO in an mp1 shell.
It had to be able to at least come close to this beast.

So the only thing i ended up changing was cab and mic to better match the mix in the pa so i switched it to german with r121 i think i added a little bit of air too and turned down the presence a bit.

Verdict.
Does it sound like a tube amp? Yes. ...b,b,but Does it move air? Yes, it made me fart.

I muted the pa and vice versa to hear them individually pa and 4x12.
I milked high notes listened, and checked the mid range depth in driving A type riffs, the pick attack, triplets, all that.
There is No question it is as the real thing, except without any noise and very pristine.
The noise gate in it is perfect, the way it works within itself is like it's not even there.

I can now put to rest in my head the notion that you will be missing anything from an all tube rig, except the hassle.

Full range cabs don't seem to be really needed, if you don't want.
Sound great thru a cab, if you got neutral speaker anyway i guess.

Anyway, Total win.
From someone who has never liked or used any pod or modelers, except for a brief stint with a gt6 thru a tube head, and a very very brief 1 week stint with a gt10 piece of crap.

Always been tubes guy Hated digital if even a tinge of hash or digital fizz it would be gone. Only way i would go for this is if it sounded real, and it does.

+ No mics, 3 cables in my rack now with empty spaces in it.

Win Win Win.

[MOSHWITZ]

Sup?

Amen Brother Trem

I still kinda get a guilty pleasure and giggle out of the people who act like there is no way the Axe could ever sound/act/ or FEEL....dare I say ...REAL




MOSHON
DAVE

[jgcable]

Well i took the Axe to practice for the first time since i got it to give it the ultimate test.

Short version: it fricking rules.

For Fanboy heaping praise version see below:

Emptied rack of current stuff which adds up to well over 1200 bucks i payed for it all and dropped the axe in with trusty microtube200.
Dropping like 5 patch cables and 3 wall warts, and all together adding up to about a 10th of the axes capabilities.

The patch for the Axe i made was well in axe terms pretty much quick and dirty.
I set it up at home with headphones exactly the opposite of recommended, (flat studio phones ATH-40fs) and also i set it up to check out all it's flexability..IE dual outs.

You very much can make a patch that will transfer to live volume with headphones, and if you know what your power amp and speakers are gonna give you.
Or at least get you in the ballpark.

In my case i have very neutral speakers b52 100 watters, B-52 LG412V that are kinda like a EVM12L for 200 dollars cheaper

Took them from the cab they came and threw them in my peavey ms4x12.
A major improvement, they suffer in the b52 ported cab they came in.

Anyway so took maybe 30 minutes to initially set up the patch and messed with the wah and delay for a bit, all done the night before in headphones.

Filter - Wah - Drive - Solo 100 - EFXL (For 'Out2' to cab) - Delay - Cab Recto2 mic sm58 (just picked something standard expected it would have to change once thru the pa) ParaEq for blocking and small bumps and dips.

Output 1 ran to mixing board and PA which is 2 x 1200 watt cabs with 2 x15" woofers a piece and horns, and 2 full range boxes with 18" woofers.

So 4x12" 100 watters 4x15" with 2 horns, 2x18" with mids and tweets each.

I hit an A chord and it was like Marty Mcfly.

My patch was 99% already there, was trying to cop the tone of my mp1 mod4 with special sauce which... fuck all rules. Basically is most like an SLO in an mp1 shell.
It had to be able to at least come close to this beast.

So the only thing i ended up changing was cab and mic to better match the mix in the pa so i switched it to german with r121 i think i added a little bit of air too and turned down the presence a bit.

Verdict.
Does it sound like a tube amp? Yes. ...b,b,but Does it move air? Yes, it made me fart.

I muted the pa and vice versa to hear them individually pa and 4x12.
I milked high notes listened, and checked the mid range depth in driving A type riffs, the pick attack, triplets, all that.
There is No question it is as the real thing, except without any noise and very pristine.
The noise gate in it is perfect, the way it works within itself is like it's not even there.

I can now put to rest in my head the notion that you will be missing anything from an all tube rig, except the hassle.

Full range cabs don't seem to be really needed, if you don't want.
Sound great thru a cab, if you got neutral speaker anyway i guess.

Anyway, Total win.
From someone who has never liked or used any pod or modelers, except for a brief stint with a gt6 thru a tube head, and a very very brief 1 week stint with a gt10 piece of crap.

Always been tubes guy Hated digital if even a tinge of hash or digital fizz it would be gone. Only way i would go for this is if it sounded real, and it does.

+ No mics, 3 cables in my rack now with empty spaces in it.

Win Win Win.

liar lol

[Rupe]

liar lol

I've never seen anybody try so hard to dislike something that he's never even tried (and would most likely love if he did)

[jgcable]

I've never seen anybody try so hard to dislike something that he's never even tried (and would most likely love if he did)

I am convinced the only reason I have never heard or seen one live anywhere in this area is because all the COMP USA computer stores have closed down! lol....

[jgcable]

Well i took the Axe to practice for the first time since i got it to give it the ultimate test.

Short version: it fricking rules.

For Fanboy heaping praise version see below:

Emptied rack of current stuff which adds up to well over 1200 bucks i payed for it all and dropped the axe in with trusty microtube200.
Dropping like 5 patch cables and 3 wall warts, and all together adding up to about a 10th of the axes capabilities.

The patch for the Axe i made was well in axe terms pretty much quick and dirty.
I set it up at home with headphones exactly the opposite of recommended, (flat studio phones ATH-40fs) and also i set it up to check out all it's flexability..IE dual outs.

You very much can make a patch that will transfer to live volume with headphones, and if you know what your power amp and speakers are gonna give you.
Or at least get you in the ballpark.

In my case i have very neutral speakers b52 100 watters, B-52 LG412V that are kinda like a EVM12L for 200 dollars cheaper

Took them from the cab they came and threw them in my peavey ms4x12.
A major improvement, they suffer in the b52 ported cab they came in.

Anyway so took maybe 30 minutes to initially set up the patch and messed with the wah and delay for a bit, all done the night before in headphones.

Filter - Wah - Drive - Solo 100 - EFXL (For 'Out2' to cab) - Delay - Cab Recto2 mic sm58 (just picked something standard expected it would have to change once thru the pa) ParaEq for blocking and small bumps and dips.

Output 1 ran to mixing board and PA which is 2 x 1200 watt cabs with 2 x15" woofers a piece and horns, and 2 full range boxes with 18" woofers.

So 4x12" 100 watters 4x15" with 2 horns, 2x18" with mids and tweets each.

I hit an A chord and it was like Marty Mcfly.

My patch was 99% already there, was trying to cop the tone of my mp1 mod4 with special sauce which... fuck all rules. Basically is most like an SLO in an mp1 shell.
It had to be able to at least come close to this beast.

So the only thing i ended up changing was cab and mic to better match the mix in the pa so i switched it to german with r121 i think i added a little bit of air too and turned down the presence a bit.

Verdict.
Does it sound like a tube amp? Yes. ...b,b,but Does it move air? Yes, it made me fart.

I muted the pa and vice versa to hear them individually pa and 4x12.
I milked high notes listened, and checked the mid range depth in driving A type riffs, the pick attack, triplets, all that.
There is No question it is as the real thing, except without any noise and very pristine.
The noise gate in it is perfect, the way it works within itself is like it's not even there.

I can now put to rest in my head the notion that you will be missing anything from an all tube rig, except the hassle.

Full range cabs don't seem to be really needed, if you don't want.
Sound great thru a cab, if you got neutral speaker anyway i guess.

Anyway, Total win.
From someone who has never liked or used any pod or modelers, except for a brief stint with a gt6 thru a tube head, and a very very brief 1 week stint with a gt10 piece of crap.

Always been tubes guy Hated digital if even a tinge of hash or digital fizz it would be gone. Only way i would go for this is if it sounded real, and it does.

+ No mics, 3 cables in my rack now with empty spaces in it.

Win Win Win.

Win Win Win until you have a software glitch or your internal battery craps out.
One of the shows we did last year featured a warm up band that was traveling the country. They used alot of laptop computer sample stuff and even some ipods plugged into these little funky mixers along with an entire band. Anyway.. something happened to one of their computer programs and they couldn't even do the show. My bands real tube amps worked great and if one of them crapped out we always carry a spare 5150II head with us. What do you do at a gig when your Ax FX craps out? I guess you would need to call the GEEK SQUAD!!

[MakeAJazzNoiseHere]

Win Win Win until you have a software glitch or your internal battery craps out.
One of the shows we did last year featured a warm up band that was traveling the country. They used alot of laptop computer sample stuff and even some ipods plugged into these little funky mixers along with an entire band. Anyway.. something happened to one of their computer programs and they couldn't even do the show. My bands real tube amps worked great and if one of them crapped out we always carry a spare 5150II head with us. What do you do at a gig when your Ax FX craps out? I guess you would need to call the GEEK SQUAD!!

Naw, any real geek knows, you always have BACKUPS.

[Matt_B]

What do you do at a gig when your Ax FX craps out? I guess you would need to call the GEEK SQUAD!!

I'd just bring my 2nd Axe-FX which is sync'd up with all the same programs. Problem avoided.

[VitaminG]

Win Win Win until you have a software glitch or your internal battery craps out.
One of the shows we did last year featured a warm up band that was traveling the country. They used alot of laptop computer sample stuff and even some ipods plugged into these little funky mixers along with an entire band. Anyway.. something happened to one of their computer programs and they couldn't even do the show. My bands real tube amps worked great and if one of them crapped out we always carry a spare 5150II head with us. What do you do at a gig when your Ax FX craps out? I guess you would need to call the GEEK SQUAD!!

thankfully tube amps are much more reliable than well built electronic equipment so i'm confident that I'll never have an issue with a tube head failing.

Actually, a while back we were practicing at my drummers house to work on some new tunes so rather than drag the stack out (frickin RM100 weighs a TON), I grabbed a 30w tube combo and a guitar and hit the road. Get to his house and fire up the amp - everything lights up but no sound! Couldn't work out what was wrong and didn't want to spend half our practice time dicking around with it, so I plugged my old Korg AX1500G direct into the PA. Digital modelling (and not great modelling at that) to the rescue!!!

In the end it was only an internal fuse, but how is that different to an internal battery, apart from that the internal battery should last a helluva lot longer? I would think that the highly engineered and well supported AxeFX would be more reliable than my cheap made in China tube combo. But it won't "push air" like good old tubes, right

[VitaminG]

Naw, any real geek knows, you always have BACKUPS.

geeks or no, isn't the gigging mantra to make sure you have backup?