Confession of an Axe FX and Kemper owner ;)

Rockguitarzan

Rockguitarzan

Experienced
I must admit, up until recently Ive primarily had my Kemper plugged into my CLR because the Michael Britt Marshall profile I recently bought was so damn much fun to play thru.

But that all changed when I upgraded to FW 18. The Axe FX has dominated the CLR since then and I think will do so for quite a while.

I am a traditionalist. In the 70s my sound came from a Laney (I brought back from England) in overdrive and a Marshall bottom. Not alot of effects pedals to speak of.

Yeks recent FW 18 preset tones capture that same clean / dirty sound I have loved all my guitar playing life (45 years).

No flaming please ;)
 
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Love to hear honest posts from long time users of both. When I purchased the Ultra, the Kemper was not released yet, and then it came out I ended up deciding to go with the Axe II. At that time I was pissed though that the editor didn't work with the axe for over a year since I had purchased it and I really let Cliff and the team have it, though I felt bad about that soon after the point is I am not the typical fan boy, I just know what kicks ass and I love to support companies that kick ass. Cliff has also adjusted his approach in terms of how they develop the software with the firmware "for the betteR" and he's really been steady and consistent "which I love" with updates.

I believe that the Kemper had better raw tones, but man it was ugly to me and it's effects were not up to par with their amp tones and IR capturing. So I was still glad I purchased the Axe II, but wished it Had IR capturing, then Cliff adds it man!! WTH I was like floored, loved it, though in the middle it had issues and for a time Cliff and the team couldn't work them out, didn't notice them is what I think happened, but eventually Cliff figured the TM out and it's sick now!!!

Point is that no other company offers so much, plus"gives you so much over the next 3 to 5 years in updates and changes" as Cliff and his team do. You can hate on the different things that you might not like "i know I have" but it's childish and ignorant, short sighted if you ask me to be that way. I think giving Cliff and his team the respect and support they need to help us all have the best tool for our music is more important now and I am hoping Cliff comes out with an Axe III with better cpu handling "meaning you can load up all effects to max and still have room on the cpu" and a few other things they I am sure will be adding.
 
Not ONLY no gigs but no remuneration from recordings. So if you want to sound great in your bedroom, it's fantastic. If you're a professional musician who makes his living from playing and writing music, it's a really, really, really difficult time.
 
laughyouraxeoff said:
I believe that the Kemper had better raw tones, but man it was ugly to me and it's effects were not up to par with their amp tones and IR capturing. So I was still glad I purchased the Axe II, but wished it Had IR capturing, then Cliff adds it man!! WTH I was like floored, loved it, though in the middle it had issues and for a time Cliff and the team couldn't work them out, didn't notice them is what I think happened, but eventually Cliff figured the TM out and it's sick now!!!
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Per my recent comparison thread that eventually led me to the Axe, I actually really like the looks of the Kemper. That old school radio vibe really appeals to me. But I agree that the Kemper had the edge in raw tones when I first tried them both, but I think the final release of 18 evens that out a LOT. I completely agree, though, about the effects not being up to par...one of the main reasons I went with the Axe. I didn't want to have to run a separate effects unit along with the Kemper. The Axe's effects are darn good, and while I'm still figuring out how to configure them all (does someone want to do a basic delay tutorial explaining what all of the parameters actually DO, for us old-school analog delay guys that are used to three...or sometimes just two...knobs?), I'm super happy to have all of those options on tap in one box.
 
mbrown3 said:
The Axe's effects are darn good, and while I'm still figuring out how to configure them all (does someone want to do a basic delay tutorial explaining what all of the parameters actually DO, for us old-school analog delay guys that are used to three...or sometimes just two...knobs?), I'm super happy to have all of those options on tap in one box.
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Page 56 here....

http://www.fractalaudio.com/downloads/manuals/axe-fx-2/Axe-Fx-II-Owners-Manual.pdf

If you use the delay 'type' parameter to preset your delay block then all you really need to worry about is the same 3 old knobs. Time, Feedback, and mix. The manual explains what each parameter does fairly clearly. The best thing to do is open the manual, turn on your axe and start playing with the knobs to let your ears match up with what your eyes are reading in the manual.
 
henryrobinett said:
Not ONLY no gigs but no remuneration from recordings. So if you want to sound great in your bedroom, it's fantastic. If you're a professional musician who makes his living from playing and writing music, it's a really, really, really difficult time.
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As much as I feel for the people who depended on music for income...I am much happier with the direction music is headed now.

The monetization of it took it off down a rabbit hole that I honestly wanted no part of. It was more about stage theatrics and music videos and whoever could get the best marketing money behind them. A lot of real talented people never made a dime during all of that. The people who really love it will continue doing what they do.
 
And as much as you might miss being on stage with leather pants and flamethrowers- now you can have your stuff streamed all over the globe with hundreds of thousands of hits (as long as it doesn't suck ;P)

I think a lot of people overestimated the visibility they were getting at those divebars. just my opinion.
 
Owns axe and kemper...
Chooses axe...

*waits for claims of forum plant / company shill / paid troller posts.*
 
Im glad I dont have to choose cause I love having them both to make music with ;) I just dote on one until theres a good reason to indulge in the other.
 
rifflord22 said:
And as much as you might miss being on stage with leather pants and flamethrowers- now you can have your stuff streamed all over the globe with hundreds of thousands of hits (as long as it doesn't suck ;P)

I think a lot of people overestimated the visibility they were getting at those divebars. just my opinion.
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That certainly was never me. I never was into the glitz of anything. Just making what I considered good quality music. My opinion is now that the REAL talented people will no longer be making music because there's no compensation for it. Generally speaking the real talent got attention from the mooks who invested a lot of money so the artist could rehearse, write, record, tour, rehearse, write, write, write, rehearse, tour, buy house, cars, write . . .

I don't know what your experience in the business is or was, but what you said was not mine.
 
Hellbat said:
Page 56 here....
Click to expand...

Primarily I was talking about the multidelay...all of the parameters for diffusion and decay and crossfade and detune and such...but even the regular delay also has the options for things like spread width and ratio and ducking and LFO rates and so forth. I'm not saying I WANT to just stick with the same three knobs, just that that's what I know. I'd like to learn about the advanced parameters so I can make use of them.
 
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