maltomario
Member
I ordered a Fractal Audio Systems Axe-FX Ultra on saturday and yesterday it arrived.
I didn't get home from work until ~ 7pm so I didn't get as much time as I'd like with it tonight but I figured i'd dive right into the features of this thing.
first, had to unpack her from her box..
Being an electrical engineer (and graduate student who focusing heavily on DSP), naturally I had to open this up and peek inside to see how well this thing is put together. Frankly, I am impressed. It definitely looks and feels like a pro-quality piece of gear (As well it should given its pricetag!).
VIdeo tour of the 'guts'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q63C8fMkOm4
i didn't bother testing it right out of the box - this is going right into my rack. no turning back now, so i pulled my beloved PSA-1 and my g-major out of the rack, and slid this monster in. Despite its size, its actually very lightweight - around 8lbs.
an assortment of connections on the back make this suitable for any type of application. it has 2 sets of outputs, and one set (output1) has both XLR and 1/4". I'm using both outputs because I want the ability to disable cabinet simulations when playing they my mosvalve mv-962 power amp, yet still retain ability to run thru cab sim when going DI to the PA mixer. so output 1 is my DI feed, and output 2 (FX Loop) is going to my amp/2x12 cabinet. phew hope that makes sense - once you understand that its a piece of cake.
This box is really quite easy to understand and only takes a few minutes to get the feel for it. in 10 min I was able to get my midi footcontroller talking to the AxeFX. I have my CC pedals controlling things like wah, volume, etc. these are not global modifiers - they are saved on the patch so you can have one patch w/ wah, and another with control of say, tremolo speed or chorus depth. pretty cool.
Effects / amp models can be combined together using a 16x4 virtual grid for very flexible routing options. its almost like dragging and dropping blocks then connecting them together. brilliant user interface design. because it was similar to my g-major in some ways, learning the new system was a snap.
what surprised me the most isjust how closely this thing nails some signature tones. wow. at first some were kinda farty sounding but that was before I had my fx loop running before the cabinet simulator, after fixing my presets all i can say is wow.. jaw dropping, high quality effects and killer preamp tones. this is really a single box solution for gigging cover band guitarists.
the best thing is probably the user community - the group of guys who help eachother, share patches and ideas/suggestions freely . there's software (written by a forum member there) you can download to edit patches in your PC then transfer via midi interface.
I loved my PSA-1 for its great distortions, but it fell short on convincing clean tones. this axe fx just blows it out of the water (both clean and distortion / OD tones).
But enough of the chatter. on to a quick demo. on youtube most guys play less than stellar presets which don't do this product justice. Or, they play covers of U2 songs. so I was adamant about picking usable tones and NOT emulating the edge, although this box can nail all of his tones if you wanted to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbKmiSI0lw
Totally digging this. I'm planning gigging this on friday night, will try to record some video of it going thru PA to see how that sounds. but as of right now i am impressed with this very much..
A pic of my new monster tone rig
Cliff - if you're reading this just wanted to say thank you for designing such a quality product and not cutting any corners both on component selection and country of manufacture.
I didn't get home from work until ~ 7pm so I didn't get as much time as I'd like with it tonight but I figured i'd dive right into the features of this thing.
first, had to unpack her from her box..
Being an electrical engineer (and graduate student who focusing heavily on DSP), naturally I had to open this up and peek inside to see how well this thing is put together. Frankly, I am impressed. It definitely looks and feels like a pro-quality piece of gear (As well it should given its pricetag!).
VIdeo tour of the 'guts'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q63C8fMkOm4
i didn't bother testing it right out of the box - this is going right into my rack. no turning back now, so i pulled my beloved PSA-1 and my g-major out of the rack, and slid this monster in. Despite its size, its actually very lightweight - around 8lbs.
an assortment of connections on the back make this suitable for any type of application. it has 2 sets of outputs, and one set (output1) has both XLR and 1/4". I'm using both outputs because I want the ability to disable cabinet simulations when playing they my mosvalve mv-962 power amp, yet still retain ability to run thru cab sim when going DI to the PA mixer. so output 1 is my DI feed, and output 2 (FX Loop) is going to my amp/2x12 cabinet. phew hope that makes sense - once you understand that its a piece of cake.
This box is really quite easy to understand and only takes a few minutes to get the feel for it. in 10 min I was able to get my midi footcontroller talking to the AxeFX. I have my CC pedals controlling things like wah, volume, etc. these are not global modifiers - they are saved on the patch so you can have one patch w/ wah, and another with control of say, tremolo speed or chorus depth. pretty cool.
Effects / amp models can be combined together using a 16x4 virtual grid for very flexible routing options. its almost like dragging and dropping blocks then connecting them together. brilliant user interface design. because it was similar to my g-major in some ways, learning the new system was a snap.
what surprised me the most isjust how closely this thing nails some signature tones. wow. at first some were kinda farty sounding but that was before I had my fx loop running before the cabinet simulator, after fixing my presets all i can say is wow.. jaw dropping, high quality effects and killer preamp tones. this is really a single box solution for gigging cover band guitarists.
the best thing is probably the user community - the group of guys who help eachother, share patches and ideas/suggestions freely . there's software (written by a forum member there) you can download to edit patches in your PC then transfer via midi interface.
I loved my PSA-1 for its great distortions, but it fell short on convincing clean tones. this axe fx just blows it out of the water (both clean and distortion / OD tones).
But enough of the chatter. on to a quick demo. on youtube most guys play less than stellar presets which don't do this product justice. Or, they play covers of U2 songs. so I was adamant about picking usable tones and NOT emulating the edge, although this box can nail all of his tones if you wanted to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snbKmiSI0lw
Totally digging this. I'm planning gigging this on friday night, will try to record some video of it going thru PA to see how that sounds. but as of right now i am impressed with this very much..
A pic of my new monster tone rig
Cliff - if you're reading this just wanted to say thank you for designing such a quality product and not cutting any corners both on component selection and country of manufacture.
