not worth £2000

T

triorg68

New Member
OK. i have just brought my axe fx 2, as a guitar unit it is the best there is, no doubt, hands down, a sheer piece of brilliance, utter class, you get my drift,

i am absolutely chuffed with the dynamics of the sounds you can get, and yes it does sound very close to a real amp, no question.

however : the sound card is just utter crap, i would not suggest to use this for home or studio recording to interface with your DAW if your using other software in your DAW, such as omnisphere or superior drummer, symphobia or kontakt, the buffering size and asio problems are a nightmare and so unstable, the axe fx is way to loud in all presets against any other input source, the balance is just wrong all together, the reamping affects all the other software programmes levels so you are never ending turning this up or turning this down,switching this or that,

i really do think fractal should have just dropped the idea of trying to get the axe fx to do to many things, so is it worth £2000, no way, i would rather spend £500 on a decent sound card and have fractal to just concentrate on doing what they do best and getting great sounds for us guitarist and leave the sound card idea to pro's like RME or FOCUSRITE and UNIVERSAL,

so fractal don't over complicate things, just look at the forum and see how many people ask about buffering, usb, asio, things not working or breaking down, clipping, popping, to much going on for the axe fx to do or compromise people studio set ups, it is a clear sign that there are problems with this device and a costly one at that.

myself, 30 years playing in bands, recording engineer for 15 years, used cubase and pro tools since day one, loads of experience.
 
I use in my studio rme fireface 800. When i travel i have my axe with me and sometimes use it
as a interface to keep on working on arrangements, productions....

Yes u are right its not an RME but still not as bad as u define. I use komplete, superior, stylus, omnisphere...
Never had issues. About reamping i cant make a comment, never tried it.

triorg68 said:
OK. i have just brought my axe fx 2, as a guitar unit it is the best there is, no doubt, hands down, a sheer piece of brilliance, utter class, you get my drift,

i am absolutely chuffed with the dynamics of the sounds you can get, and yes it does sound very close to a real amp, no quKestion.

however : the sound card is just utter crap, i would not suggest to use this for home or studio recording to interface with your DAW if your using other software in your DAW, such as omnisphere or superior drummer, symphobia or kontakt, the buffering size and asio problems are a nightmare and so unstable, the axe fx is way to loud in all presets against any other input source, the balance is just wrong all together, the reamping affects all the other software programmes levels so you are never ending turning this up or turning this down,switching this or that,

i really do think fractal should have just dropped the idea of trying to get the axe fx to do to many things, so is it worth £2000, no way, i would rather spend £500 on a decent sound card and have fractal to just concentrate on doing what they do best and getting great sounds for us guitarist and leave the sound card idea to pro's like RME or FOCUSRITE and UNIVERSAL,

so fractal don't over complicate things, just look at the forum and see how many people ask about buffering, usb, asio, things not working or breaking down, clipping, popping, to much going on for the axe fx to do or compromise people studio set ups, it is a clear sign that there are problems with this device and a costly one at that.

myself, 30 years playing in bands, recording engineer for 15 years, used cubase and pro tools since day one, loads of experience.
Click to expand...
 
I do have some issues with one of the USB-ports on my HP Elitebook 8570p (pops and stuff), but everything works fine with the other ports and also on my other PC.
 
triorg68 said:
i really do think fractal should have just dropped the idea of trying to get the axe fx to do to many things, so is it worth £2000, no way, i would rather spend £500 on a decent sound card and have fractal to just concentrate on doing what they do best and getting great sounds for us guitarist and leave the sound card idea to pro's like RME or FOCUSRITE and UNIVERSAL,

so fractal don't over complicate things, just look at the forum and see how many people ask about buffering, usb, asio, things not working or breaking down, clipping, popping, to much going on for the axe fx to do or compromise people studio set ups, it is a clear sign that there are problems with this device and a costly one at that.

myself, 30 years playing in bands, recording engineer for 15 years, used cubase and pro tools since day one, loads of experience.
Click to expand...

"A clear sign there are problems"? Like many others, no issues here.....works great...
 
I connect my AFX USB connection into my MacBook and record without too many issues.
When recording with GarageBand (my fav.), I have found that the input levels from the AFX are too low for my taste and I cannot raise them enough.
I also find that if I use Logic X on the same machine, the input levels are great!
That tells me my GarageBand level problem is not the AFX, the interface drivers, or the laptop, but a problem with GarageBand.
If you are having problems, you should really look to start replacing subunits and finding the fault before blaming some part of whole recording system.

It sounds like you would like the AFX to remove the USB audio transfer portion of it's capabilities in return for a lower price.
Instead you would like the AFX to convert it's digital signal into an analog signal and be cheaper.
Then you will spend £500 to reconvert back into digital for your DAW to consume.

For me, I would prefer to grab the raw digital data skipping the dual digital/analog conversion process.
Adding in another expensive sound card to assist in complicating the recording system does not seem to be the way to resolve the problem.
If you have an DAW already, then you should already have an decent sound card for recording analog signals from other devices.
Use the XLR output from the AFX to your DAW. Then use your third party ASIO drivers or whatever came with your sound card to input data to your DAW.
Good Luck!
 
triorg68 said:
OK. i have just brought my axe fx 2, as a guitar unit it is the best there is, no doubt, hands down, a sheer piece of brilliance, utter class, you get my drift,

i am absolutely chuffed with the dynamics of the sounds you can get, and yes it does sound very close to a real amp, no question.

however : the sound card is just utter crap, i would not suggest to use this for home or studio recording to interface with your DAW if your using other software in your DAW, such as omnisphere or superior drummer, symphobia or kontakt, the buffering size and asio problems are a nightmare and so unstable, the axe fx is way to loud in all presets against any other input source, the balance is just wrong all together, the reamping affects all the other software programmes levels so you are never ending turning this up or turning this down,switching this or that,

i really do think fractal should have just dropped the idea of trying to get the axe fx to do to many things, so is it worth £2000, no way, i would rather spend £500 on a decent sound card and have fractal to just concentrate on doing what they do best and getting great sounds for us guitarist and leave the sound card idea to pro's like RME or FOCUSRITE and UNIVERSAL,

so fractal don't over complicate things, just look at the forum and see how many people ask about buffering, usb, asio, things not working or breaking down, clipping, popping, to much going on for the axe fx to do or compromise people studio set ups, it is a clear sign that there are problems with this device and a costly one at that.

myself, 30 years playing in bands, recording engineer for 15 years, used cubase and pro tools since day one, loads of experience.
Click to expand...

I am thankful I do not share your opinion.
 
If you were expecting your Axe II guitar modelers audio interface to be in the league of an RME audio interface that costs 2K+ then maybe just maybe you weren't thinking straight.

As Chris said, we bought 2K guitar modeler and effects units that happen to have an audio interface for those who don't have one. It works but if you are going to be doing extensive recording etc. you might want to upgrade to a separate unit. I personally use my II with a RME UFX and its a killer unit. The best of both worlds.

Oh, and welcome to the forum!
 
My Axe has become my main interface because of its quality. It works better for me than either my MAudio or Tascam units, specifically because it has better buffer and latency times. I use it to reamp quite often, and the levels are usually pretty low, compared to my Tascam's input levels. Sounds like you don't have something setup properly with your DAW.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom