What's all the hype about Axe Fx?

[nateb]

The clips are just crazy. Incredible actually.

This is the thing that I haven't gotten into yet. They have this whole interface where you can plug in your own IR (Impluse Response?) files for speaker/cab emulation. I currently dont know what the status of these are from the 6.0 days to today and I am not sure if it needs to be done. But, from what I understand, from that guys samples, there was some custom cabinets made. All that aside it is nice to know that the versitility is there but, damn... this thing is deep. Wait tell you start looking at the ultra looper and vocoder. Shit, my head is swimming just putting basic patches together.

Next thing for me is to dump the BX8A's and go poweramp -> Mesa cabinets and doing away with the cabinet sims to see how it sounds.

-Nate

[speed monkey]

Bought it.

Tried it.

Liked it.

Loved it.

Talked my friends into it.

sold my bogner Ecstasy Classic.

Hated it.

Sold it.

Thats actually an extremely condensed timeline version, and I should say that I never actually hated the thing. I actually still love it but found I was spending more time tweaking than playing. I found that rack gear is incredibly inconvenient. I'm not gigging so I dont need 386 presets. The Ultra was ultra overkill for me.

I should also say that I've owner nearly every amp in the sim database with the exception of the Dumbles and the CAE stuff (CAE was / is my favorite sim). My Aiken Intruder sat next to it and was a daily back and forth comparison. In the end I like my real amps better, I have zero use for any effects, I was also getting these extreme headaches after playing it for awhile. As far as "giving it a chance" goes - I'm unemployed at the moment and spent basically 45 days playing all day, everyday, hours on end trying every conceivable setup option. Everything started sounding the same after awhile, admittedly I probably burned myself out on it. My perspective was going back and forth between my real amps. I never got it out playing in a band situation. You need to set it up for the volume you're going to play at for it to sound best. That means means basically have a low, medium and high volume tweak for each patch...

There's incredible support for the product. The forum is awesome, the owner really cares about things. Shit, the firmware is updated faster than most people can keep up - for free at that. The black box is well laid out, easy to use. Bottom line is it either works for you or it doesn't - and if it doesn't in no way is it due to being a lousy product - it kicks major major ass.

I will own one again, but next time around it will be a Standard powered by either an ART SL2A or a Verve powered monitor. For now I'm perfectly happy with my Aikens and my good ol boring dry signal

[jgcable]

The clips are just crazy. Incredible actually.

[MOSHWITZ]

Robert, I think when the GT-10 grows up it wants to be one good patch from the Axe-Fx :ROTF:

MOSHON
DAVE

[Trem]

I am sure I will eventually end up with one. I don't even know why I am fighting it.

Wow, checking out some of the clips around, i have to say that it does sound pretty damn good - i was turning my ear trying to pick out any kind of digital aberations that you usually can hear - depending on peoples patches of course but i didn't hear any offending tones on a lot of them - Oh so temping - no must not blow up the classifieds XD

[roodyrocker]

*** Well...my Hero Greg Howe likes it...so there goes $1800.00!
Ty Tabor aint a bad rep either..as his tone is the baddest of all time imo! Damn you guys! And i was really happy with my GT-10!:ROTF:

Robert, I think when the GT-10 grows up it wants to be one good patch from the Axe-Fx :ROTF:

[Matt_B]

*** Well...my Hero Greg Howe likes it...so there goes $1800.00!
Ty Tabor aint a bad rep either..as his tone is the baddest of all time imo! Damn you guys! And i was really happy with my GT-10!:ROTF:

The GT-10 compared to the Axe-FX is like PeeWee baseball to Major League.

[Robert Burns]

Because they have a road crew, larger budget than the average layman, and they don't need the versatility of the AxeFx. If a person is a pro making big bucks and they only need a handful of main sounds and regularly play in arenas, then yeah, the big tube amps are fine.

As far as pros using the AxeFx........Dweezil Zappa is a huge name and he replaced a truckload of gear with a couple Ultras. Last I heard that was only for his overseas shows where transport of the monster rig was a problem, but I wonder if he'll go Axe all the way eventually.

Other notables:

http://www.fractalaudio.com/artist.html

*** Well...my Hero Greg Howe likes it...so there goes $1800.00!
Ty Tabor aint a bad rep either..as his tone is the baddest of all time imo! Damn you guys! And i was really happy with my GT-10!:ROTF:

[VitaminG]

This series of 7 videos was posted on YouTube by one of the folks from the Axe-Fx boards. He covers the plethora of tones the Axe-FX offers and if I hadn't already ordered one, these videos would have convinced me to do so.

Please note how dynamic the high gain patches are. That's always been my gripe with other modelers. They never had the processing power to replicate the range of dynamics a real tube amp can get with picking attack and volume control manipulation. I guess being digital devices, they like to be binary - on or off. Anyway, enjoy.

#1 Cleans and SFX

#2 More Cleans and SFX

#3 Crunch and High Gain Part 1

#4 High Gain Part 2

#5 High Gain Part 3

#6 Pitch Shifter

#7 High Gain Part 4

I watched all those a couple of days ago. Sounds great! Really good player too.

[deflep]

This series of 7 videos was posted on YouTube by one of the folks from the Axe-Fx boards. He covers the plethora of tones the Axe-FX offers and if I hadn't already ordered one, these videos would have convinced me to do so.

Please note how dynamic the high gain patches are. That's always been my gripe with other modelers. They never had the processing power to replicate the range of dynamics a real tube amp can get with picking attack and volume control manipulation. I guess being digital devices, they like to be binary - on or off. Anyway, enjoy.

#1 Cleans and SFX

#2 More Cleans and SFX

#3 Crunch and High Gain Part 1

#4 High Gain Part 2

#5 High Gain Part 3

#6 Pitch Shifter

#7 High Gain Part 4

Sounds awesome! Hehe :P

Alex

[nateb]

Thanks for the leet info dave =) I am going through the patches right now. I will check into the cab IR stuff as soon as I figure out what the fuck it actually is =).

-Nate

I'm still doing that shit,,and smiling all the time.

There are three things you'll want to have,,

1)Download the archive of user presets,,there is some great stuff in there.

http://www.axechange.net/downloads/archive2.zip

2) Download Bome's SendSX,, to send the user presets to the AXE

http://www.bome.com/midi/sendsx/

3) And IR converter, to change all your favorite Cab IR's(.wav) to the AXE-FX's (Sysex) format.....then load them into the ten user slots in the AXE with Bome's SendSX.

http://guitarlogic.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=sd7kfvmntoqinjpjhm39q2d5s0&action=tpmod;dl

Tweak away,,,,,,Enjoy

MOSHON
DAVE

[marcus]

Heck, I just watched the new Jeff Beck DVD and I can say that he blew me away and all he had was a Strat and a Marshall. He can get harmonics and melodies out of that guitar with ZERO technology.

You don't count amplifiers and electric guitars as technology?

[Matt_B]

This series of 7 videos was posted on YouTube by one of the folks from the Axe-Fx boards. He covers the plethora of tones the Axe-FX offers and if I hadn't already ordered one, these videos would have convinced me to do so.

Please note how dynamic the high gain patches are. That's always been my gripe with other modelers. They never had the processing power to replicate the range of dynamics a real tube amp can get with picking attack and volume control manipulation. I guess being digital devices, they like to be binary - on or off. Anyway, enjoy.

#1 Cleans and SFX

#2 More Cleans and SFX

#3 Crunch and High Gain Part 1

#4 High Gain Part 2

#5 High Gain Part 3

#6 Pitch Shifter

#7 High Gain Part 4

[Leo Chang]

You guys are killin' me..

stop it..

Come on Bill, you know you want one

And did I mention Jeff Loomis uses one?






- Leo

[Leo Chang]

There is something romantic about just plugging straight into a great amp ( with a pedal or two ) and cranking it.

Heck, I just watched the new Jeff Beck DVD and I can say that he blew me away and all he had was a Strat and a Marshall. He can get harmonics and melodies out of that guitar with ZERO technology.

Have we lost our way with all of this gear???

Alex

Agree with most of what you said... just that most of us don't get to crank our tube amps as loudly or as often as Jeff Beck can.

For someone who wants the same tonality of a cranked amp (or an approximation that is extremely close to it) at any volume, the Axe Fx looks from all indications to be a very good option.

Plus... after years of mediocre digital modeling solutions, this is the first truly significant step toward finally fulfilling the promise of digital. From this point on, the possibilities are truly endless.


- Leo.