AxeFx II (vs. Ultra) - has anybody actually heard it?

Scott Peterson said:


Very quick, very simple. The mp3 does the dynamics *no* justice.

PRS Custom 22, Axe-FX II direct.

Assorted amp/cabs. Room verb from cab block; slight reverb (2.5% wet) on some of them. Rotary on the first part of the Friedman BE. Spent 20 seconds setting up each tone. (No BS on that).
Click to expand...

I'm impressed. With all the latitude given by the IRs...wowowowowow (i hear the tubes)
Can you post the flac version? (or ogg, ogg is better than mp3)
 
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mba said:
I'm impressed. With all the latitude given by the IRs...wowowowowow (i hear the tubes)
Can you post the flac version? (or ogg, ogg is better than mp3)
Click to expand...

Let me do proper clips once I have things actually dialed in.

It is so easy to dial up tones now. I've never found any box/amp/pedal whatever that gives up the goods like this. The dynamics and clarity are stunning. It's like ripe fruit is on a low hanging branch now - ripe, sweet and ready to pick. The sweet spots are massive. It's more expressive than some of the actual amps - folks will go insane huffing and puffing when I say that; but this is exciting and undeniable. The pick attack and response you can change up with the impedance selector with about a dozen choices there and do that per preset. The in the room parameters in the cab block will make you laugh out loud.

It builds on what the Ultra/Standard already did well and goes beyond...

Here's the FLAC file format:
For bmi/mba: http://www.mediafire.com/?bbbxd77al53ime5
 
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Sounds great but Is it just me or does it sound rawer or less produced than the axe1?
I don't know if that's a good thing or not.
 
This first sample talks to me a lot...anyway.
Thanks for your work scott, i will wait but i'm already confident.
Great great thing that happens here. :D
 
Scott Peterson said:
Let me do proper clips once I have things actually dialed in.

It is so easy to dial up tones now. I've never found any box/amp/pedal whatever that gives up the goods like this. The dynamics and clarity are stunning. It's like ripe fruit is on a low hanging branch now - ripe, sweet and ready to pick. It's more expressive than some of the actual amps - folks will go insane huffing and puffing when I say that; but this is exciting and undeniable. The pick attack and response you can change up with the impedance selector with about a dozen choices there and do that per preset. The in the room parameters in the cab block will make you laugh out loud.

It builds on what the Ultra/Standard already did well and goes beyond...
Click to expand...

Can you explain more about the impedance selector and what it means for us users?
 
mba said:
It sounds more like the real deal IMO.
Click to expand...

More like the real deal in the room or recorded? Sounds more in the room to me.

I'm just thinking this could be a double edged sword, in that those of us with poor production skills may not get as convincing results in the mix. Sacrificing polished recordings for killer live in the room tones.

Just thinking out loud here not knocking the unit, the clips sound great.
 
rickgk said:
Can you explain more about the impedance selector and what it means for us users?
Click to expand...

It changes the impedance of the input; different amps and pedals have different impedance loads on their input to load down the pickups/signal offering different feels/responses.
 
rickgk said:
Sounds great but Is it just me or does it sound rawer or less produced than the axe1?
I don't know if that's a good thing or not.
Click to expand...

That's because all you are hearing is an amp/cab in most of what I am doing with it in that little bunch. There are touches of other effects - reverb/delay and a bit of rotary at one point (damn that sounds great too!) but these *are* raw tones. If you've ever heard what I do with the box, remember that I sort of go for that sort of thing.

Note that you can get it slick and produced quite easily if that's your goal too - what I do is NOT definitive of what you can do with this at all. The world is wide open with this thing. WIDE open.

This is very exciting stuff.
 
All right, I know that it is just mp3 and what not, but I think that the clean sound now actually has that certain flavor like the "real" thing. And without actually playing the thing myself, it feels like playing the real thing. Pretty incredible. Can't wait to get this box :)


and mba, thanks for the file. much appreciated.
 
IR makes a lot for the sound. If i record my twin with my custom/tweaked microphone i will have something more clear but for the Axe it's all about IR so you can't make any final judgment.
What impressed me with this sample is the fact that you can hear the sound sustaining into the amplifier between two chords, like the real deal with good amplifiers and old tubes and it's new. I am clear?

(thanks scott for the flac)
 
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FractalAudio said:
An incredible amount of work went into the amp modeling. I spent three years refining the algorithms. Heck it took months just to figure out how to model an output transformer.

The Ultra is a great unit. The Axe-Fx II is better. I wish I could retrofit the new algorithms into the Ultra but they won't fit. My latest modeling algorithms simply need a more powerful platform and that's why I developed the II. I listened to the users and developed a product based on their feedback.

The hardware in the Axe-Fx II is really good. Still using all film caps on the I/O. The D/A converters are now buffered with instrumentation amps for improved S/N when doing the 4CM. The circuit board is controlled impedance with gold-plated pads. The layout is "partitioned" and uses EMI filtering between partitions which achieves an incredibly low noise floor. The self-noise is so low that I can barely measure it with my audio interface.

There is a ton of RAM and FLASH for future expansion. There's a 200K gate FPGA that offloads tasks from the processor. Etc., etc., etc.

The Axe-Fx II is the finest hardware I've ever created in my 25+ years as a designer and I've designed probably over 100 circuit boards in that time.
Click to expand...


Hey Cliff, you mentioned when the Ultra was out that there were things that you wanted to do but was limited by the hardware. With the AxeII, do you still feel that there's limitations to your vision or does the new unit cover it with room to spare?
 
Scott Peterson said:
Very quick, very simple. The mp3 does the dynamics *no* justice.

PRS Custom 22, Axe-FX II direct.

Assorted amp/cabs. Room verb from cab block; slight reverb (2.5% wet) on some of them. Rotary on the first part of the Friedman BE. Spent 20 seconds setting up each tone. (No BS on that).
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot, Scott!

Would be great to hear some clean, crunch and high gain tones with Tele and Strat...
 
MoreK said:
+1 Mark's clips convinced me quite thoroughly when I was planning to purchase Ultra.
Click to expand...

Hehe, despite the gurning and gain?? lol

I've heard that on the AxeFx II, Cliff has it so when the gain goes past 4 and the user has less than 11's for strings a warning flashes on the screen with a pic of one of my facial gurning moments.

:)

Mark
 
Scott Peterson said:
That's because all you are hearing is an amp/cab in most of what I am doing with it in that little bunch. There are touches of other effects - reverb/delay and a bit of rotary at one point (damn that sounds great too!) but these *are* raw tones. If you've ever heard what I do with the box, remember that I sort of go for that sort of thing.

Note that you can get it slick and produced quite easily if that's your goal too - what I do is NOT definitive of what you can do with this at all. The world is wide open with this thing. WIDE open.

This is very exciting stuff.
Click to expand...

No mic models on those clips?
 
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