AxeFx - FW 10.0

[Chad]

Yeah, regardless of whether the updates are actually improvements or simply psychoacoustic fodder for fanboys....it is indeed a brilliant and new approach. A way to keep an aging product fresh for prospective customers while making existing customers feel like they are getting something for free. Cliff is no doubt a very intelligent person.

[jgcable]

Yea, I agree, he is a smart guy. His system is revered by some of the best players on the planet who could literally afford to play through anything. Still... 99% of the pro players use traditional tube amps live.

[jgcable]

Actually.. when thinking about it.. if Cliff was so brilliant why didn't he get it right the first time! lol....

[Chad]

I saw you mention the Single Rectifier and 5150-II. Weren't you playing through a Rivera for awhile?

[chrisolson]

Still... 99% of the pro players use traditional tube amps live.

I love this statistic.

Actually.. when thinking about it.. if Cliff was so brilliant why didn't he get it right the first time! lol....

I often ask the same of recent Marshall amps.


:dead:

[Chad]

Actually.. when thinking about it.. if Cliff was so brilliant why didn't he get it right the first time! lol....

It's like the Lexus slogan: "The Relentless Pursuit for Perfection."

Brilliance is a journey, not a destination.

[jgcable]

I saw you mention the Single Rectifier and 5150-II. Weren't you playing through a Rivera for awhile?

I played through a Rivera for 2 shows and I sold it. It was just too high end sounding and didn't sit well in the mix of the band. I have been using the Single Recto and the 5150-II for years now every weekend. For very large shows I use the 5150-II because it pushes more air. I use the Single Recto the majority of the time. It always sounds great.

[jgcable]

I love this statistic.



I often ask the same of recent Marshall amps.


:dead:

Hey Chris, it certainly is the truth though. It might even be a higher percentage than 99%. Regarding Marshall amps.. they got it right the first time around. I don't think Marshall amplification is getting better. Fender got it right the first time around, so did Soldano, VHT, Engl, Peavey got it right the first time around with the 5150. Even Crate got it right the first time around with the Blue Voodoo. Since I play live so much I get to hear first hand all kinds of guitar amps live and the high end all tube amps always sound the best to my ears.

[Jacksons Rock]

All in good fun fellas! All in good fun!

I have a couple decent tube amps and I recently bought the Axe FX II. The amps have been collecting dust, but one thing is for sure - what would these modelers do without all of those wonderful tube amps! Much appreciation!

[kmanick]

I somewhat agree with this conversation.
I believe Cliff sat down with some smart marketing people and figured out that by constantly updating this thing and for free, it will keep the buzz going and it's user base paying attention. Without the constant updates users would get bored and start to look at other units like the Kemper, I mean lets get real here what is the actual percentage of people that own this thing that are
making a living with it?
I'd guess it's very small, that most of his user base is a somewhat older , more financially established bedroom player, who is a tone chaser that is always looking for the next best thing.
I have every single FW release for the II since 3.0 saved on my machine and I have gone back and forth installing a bunch of them to A/B them.
What I think Cliff does is he focuses on a certain area of the FW and when he gets it to where he likes it he releases a new version. This (in the past , not so much recently) usually meant one type of amp sim suddenly got much better while another got worse. During the 5.0-7.0 period the high gain amps sounded terrible, and I almost sold mine. The clean and lower gain amps sounded great, so those players instantly got wood.

Cliff corrected his algorithms and released 8.0. Things got better but something was still off.
9.02 was easily the best FW release to date for recording and getting that "polished" sound right out of the box.
but people complained that the 'amp in the room" thing was missing so once again back to the computer he goes and has his 10000th "epiphany" and 10.0 comes out which was buggy as shit, and the 10.02 is released and nails it.
Now 11B is out because Cliff had another one of those "aha moments" his "missing link epiphany" finally came to him .....again.
11B has more of "tube" like feel to it....I guess.
So here is what I did :
I bought a Matrix GT1000FX "The" power amp of choice for the fan boys over on that forum, liked it, thought "shit for an SS power amp, pretty sweet" played with it for about 4 months..............but something was still missing, I scored a Fryette 2/50/2 for a good price and started to A/B it against the Matrix.
I had my own "Aha moment" the missing link...................a freaking tube power amp.
Through a regular guitar cab, using the Fryette was so much better that the Matrix is already sold an on it's way to Calgary Alberta.
Now using the Axe as a preamp thru a real tube power amp I am finally getting realistic amps sims through a guitar cab.
I also tried all of the top end FRFR solutions (we actually had a shoot out at my house last month).
As good as the latest offerings are , they still sound like PA monitors to me but even more so "feel" like PA monitors.
You would not believe how much shit I've gotten for posting that the Fryette smokes the Matrix over on that forum.
More rabid fanboysim...........I'm doing it wrong, it's not a fair comparison, blah, blah fucking blah.
REALLY? hmmmm this rig sounds ok, but this one sounds great , but I'm doing it wrong??? WTF
Over on the FAS forum if you're not a staunch supporter of the Axe istelf,the Matrix power amps (which are good don't get me wrong, but they can't touch a somewhat flat tube amp like the Fryette), and the Atomic CLR powered wedges you get your threads shut down (I have a couple of times now) and you get constantly attacked for "doing it wrong"
ya Ok

[chrisolson]

That hurt to read. Go play!

[jgcable]

All in good fun fellas! All in good fun!

I have a couple decent tube amps and I recently bought the Axe FX II. The amps have been collecting dust, but one thing is for sure - what would these modelers do without all of those wonderful tube amps! Much appreciation!

The things to point out in this response are.... "I have a couple of decent tube amps" and the question to ask is do you play live? What do you consider a decent tube amp?

[javert]

Many companies in this business work by this kind of model now. TC Electronic does it with their TonePrints, special editions and so on, Marshall are doing all these minor variations of well-known amps. You've got to keep the buzz alive. I believe it's the same with a lot of bands these days (and I've made comments on here to this effect regarding, for example, Megadeth, Slayer). They release new material periodically just to keep people interested (as opposed to making some kind of artistic statement) and so they can go on the road and make money. There is, however, more to this change than simply a new business model. The thing is that it was not possible 15-20 years ago to continuously update software, firmware, etc. If a company would release a piece of software on a CD or floppy discs, it would cost them fortunes if there were bugs. Now, they simply release bug fixes hours after the "release". Similar things apply regarding recording, production and release of music. Equipment is now so good and cheap that anybody can basically afford to make and release their own music, which was not the case earlier. So, this cannot just be seen as a change of mindset.

The thing with Fractal and similar companies is, though, that they make their living selling hardware. All the firmware/software updates are fine to keep the interest alive, but once the market is saturated, they have to release a new box to keep the money flowing. Another way would be to do something similar to some computer game companies and charge a subscription fee for access/updates.

[Chad]

Another way would be to do something similar to some computer game companies and charge a subscription fee for access/updates.

You mean the Avid way? That method is about as popular as a turd in a punchbowl. Well, they charge on a "per" basis (as far as I know) instead of a subscription basis, but....not very popular.

[chrisolson]

It probably has a lot to do with attention span. We don't have one any more. I can attest to that personally...