What is to be gained? USB source NOT selectable??? Bogus!!!

I've been a member on the forum and a user for 3 or 4 years ,starting with a standard to ultra to AxII. I read a lot of the posts ,but usually don't post a lot, till i find theres something to contribute. all the while I've read posts after each large improvement ,bashing it ,and implying they hate what has happened to their sound,(or what they may be use to)then when the next one comes along the same ,can't live without the one they previously hated,Go figure? Guys this product is soooooo far beyond anything that has ever been released it's ridiculous ! my experience so many times in the past with gear has been to spend a large amount of hard earned money on the latest and greatest thing.only to turn around to the release of a later and greater thing that i have to spend the same amount on or more!It's endless! Cliff has given us a gift here that many don't realize or they take for granted ( a new latest and greatest product consistently being evolved ,at (NO CHARGE!after your initial purchase) I've struggled at times to get wrapped around the changes and improvements,only to find when a little time and patience is applied it's better (EVERY TIME)!most of the time Way better! We could have NO UPDATES till the release of the next product (and it's pricetag!)Here's a what if? what if Cliff one day gets his can full of this and stops improvements? What if he had just kept it for himself? Please appreciate what we have here! And appreciate Cliff for what he is and what he does with this piece of genius! I've learned Father knows best! Trust him with it ! You'll be glad you Did!

And there it is in a box of chocolates! That's all i've got to say about that!
 
jesussaddle said:
Instant gratification seems to make us forget that we don't know what goes on behind the scenes. We assume. Before 7 elevens and ipads and stuff there used to be a thing called patience and civility
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Comment of the fricken year.

Let's not forget we're all humans first. Guitar players second.

Cliff, I know you get tons of praise, but the lil bit of negative stands out the most. I appreciate your attitude & welcome your presence here to allow users calmly, politely, and sanely discuss the product.

Do I have something on my nose?
 
ccroyalsenders said:
You realize that the overwhelming majority of companies neither solicit nor entertain any customer feedback at all, right? Much less at such a personalized level. Get some perspective.
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I think this is what I was ultimately trying to say . . . we can provide feedback & Cliff listens, even if to tell you "no". That is UNHEARD OF. I can't think of but one other instance of that happening (but it's not a product, it's a band, but in a way a product, no? The band members post, fans suggest songs for the setlist, band considers).

Thanks Cliff for all that you do that makes you different.

(There's more stuff on my nose, isn't there?)
 
shotgunn said:
Whiny? I did my research on the Axe FX II. Everyone here told me that it would work fine with PT 9. I have been pulling my hair out since 12-07-2011. Avid claims to have never even heard of the Axe FX II. FAS says it's Avid's issue and that they refuse to help them. Everytime I think I am making progress something craps out on me. My USB related threads' motives are only to resolve my issues. All FAS told is that "We are anti Pro Tools here. We don't even have a PT rig to test on." I think that if they are going to advertise and sell something as a recording interface they should be able to test and verify its functionality with all major DAW's. Love it or hate it PT is one of the most popular and functional DAW's out there. I just want my $2200 investment to allow me the creative freedom to make my music. My 'whiny-ness' (IMHO) has been mistaken for frustration over a complete and utter lack of support. I am not the only frustrated 'II as an audio interface user'. This feature was my main consideration in upgrading from my Ultra. Anyway, this is a total derailment. I just felt I needed to explain myself. I do that sometimes... even to a fault. Man you're lucky you put those smiley face in there. Seriously, those things help set the tone of a message. As for the 'shotgunn interface fund'. I only wish to use my II as my interface.
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I know man. Sorry to be a bit "real" but I really did say it with smiley face intentions. It is frustrating. We did buy the unit with certain expectations and assurances, and if they don't work it's easy to get frustrated.

But we are what's known as "early adopters." I'm sure most of us know that anything dealing with computers, especially Windows-based (because of so many 3rd party components), is bound to have some complications. How long had the axe II been out? It's the first one with USB integration, something fractal doesn't have much control over.

To be honest I know that you want to use the axe only and you have setup your rig, but maybe it's time to accept the fact that for now it doesn't work and maybe you just need a simple 2 channel interface. Then you can use whatever outputs you want. From gig to studio, you would just be plugging in 2 XLR or 1/4 cables instead of 1 USB but everything will be already set on the interface ready to go, no switching drivers or anything. That doesn't sound like a better idea?
 
RDH said:
I've been a member on the forum and a user for 3 or 4 years ,starting with a standard to ultra to AxII. I read a lot of the posts ,but usually don't post a lot, till i find theres something to contribute. all the while I've read posts after each large improvement ,bashing it ,and implying they hate what has happened to their sound,(or what they may be use to)then when the next one comes along the same ,can't live without the one they previously hated,Go figure? Guys this product is soooooo far beyond anything that has ever been released it's ridiculous ! my experience so many times in the past with gear has been to spend a large amount of hard earned money on the latest and greatest thing.only to turn around to the release of a later and greater thing that i have to spend the same amount on or more!It's endless! Cliff has given us a gift here that many don't realize or they take for granted ( a new latest and greatest product consistently being evolved ,at (NO CHARGE!after your initial purchase) I've struggled at times to get wrapped around the changes and improvements,only to find when a little time and patience is applied it's better (EVERY TIME)!most of the time Way better! We could have NO UPDATES till the release of the next product (and it's pricetag!)Here's a what if? what if Cliff one day gets his can full of this and stops improvements? What if he had just kept it for himself? Please appreciate what we have here! And appreciate Cliff for what he is and what he does with this piece of genius! I've learned Father knows best! Trust him with it ! You'll be glad you Did!

And there it is in a box of chocolates! That's all i've got to say about that!
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I absolutely agree with RDH. Shotgunn,I totally get and understand where you are coming from. But for now it's best to deal with things the way they are. Cliff already said he will look in to adding that feature again. The best thing is using another DAW for now. You know we should all be proud that we are members of a community that really does listen. The benefits we get from Cliff's philosophy about the company are just so phenomenal. Where else would we get a product that updates until there is no possibility to update it. I am not saying that Shotgunn was whining or something,but you know if Cliff really decided to end the way he handles things at FAS,then there would have been an Axe Fx 16 or something by now.Considering there were 11 firmware updates on the previous one. We should all appreciate how Cliff really spends time with this product,we get so much benefit out of one purchase. There is no other company that handles things the way Fractal Audio Systems do. On top of that this product is way ahead of it's time and such technology was only a dream some years back. My best advice for now would be to just go with the changes,I feel that feature will return and maybe using another DAW like "Logic" would be a pretty neat thing to do for now. It is quiet possible that Pro Tools doesn't want to really collaborate with FAS. They have their own product that claims to do things similar to the Axe FxII,but is certainly not up to the Axe FxII standard. They see FAS as a competition,and it is possible they don't want to cooperate. I am certain that with the dedication that Cliff and the team have,they would have certainly tried to make it compatible with Pro Tools.Regardless of whichever change takes place in the Axe FxII firmware. But you must also see the other side,Pro Tools probably didn't want ends to meet that way.

All I can say is no body is wrong here and I would also like to give a big thanks to Cliff and the FAS team for always being true to the customers and their dedication in to improving the product.

Cheers.
 
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diggi said:
The thing everyone here seems to ignore is that Branchinelli's (on Long Island) has the best white pizza anywhere.
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Eh!!! Wrong. As a Chicago native I am going to have to disagree. I have had some NY pizza before and IMAO... No bueno!!! The thing with Chicago pizza is this... If you roll the dice and pick some new place from the phone book you're gonna get a GREAT pizza. Some are better than others, but most are at least very good.
 
mgavin said:
i say just switch from protools? if you switched from protools, would you still need a selectable usb?


i'm looking at using ableton and logic for what it's worth, and perhaps reason if it will work...
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I just specifically upgraded to PT 9 so I can use my II with it. I am far too invested in PT to switch now. Especially since I got this new keyboard overlay for my MBP. $30 man!!! I'm in too deep. Not to mention I finally started to learn all the keyboard shortcuts.
 
immortal_soloist said:
I absolutely agree with RDH. Shotgunn,I totally get and understand where you are coming from. But for now it's best to deal with things the way they are. Cliff already said he will look in to adding that feature again. The best thing is using another DAW for now. You know we should all be proud that we are members of a community that really does listen. The benefits we get from Cliff's philosophy about the company are just so phenomenal. Where else would we get a product that updates until there is no possibility to update it. I am not saying that Shotgunn was whining or something,but you know if Cliff really decided to end the way he handles things at FAS,then there would have been an Axe Fx 16 or something by now.Considering there were 11 firmware updates on the previous one. We should all appreciate how Cliff really spends time with this product,we get so much benefit out of one purchase. There is no other company that handles things the way Fractal Audio Systems do. On top of that this product is way ahead of it's time and such technology was only a dream some years back. My best advice for now would be to just go with the changes,I feel that feature will return and maybe using another DAW like "Logic" would be a pretty neat thing to do for now. It is quiet possible that Pro Tools doesn't want to really collaborate with FAS. They have their own product that claims to do things similar to the Axe FxII,but is certainly not up to the Axe FxII standard. They see FAS as a competition,and it is possible they don't want to cooperate. I am certain that with the dedication that Cliff and the team have,they would have certainly tried to make it compatible with Pro Tools.Regardless of whichever change takes place in the Axe FxII firmware. But you must also see the other side,Pro Tools probably didn't want ends to meet that way.

All I can say is no body is wrong here and I would also like to give a big thanks to Cliff and the FAS team for always being true to the customers and their dedication in to improving the product.

Cheers.
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This past weekend I believe I may have found a workaround to my USB/PT woes. Basically things will work fine for a while then they stop. I found that when things start to crap out on me I change the playback from Axe II to anything else. Restart the session and then change it back to Axe II and restart again. This worked several times for me. It kind of sux, but it sure sux a LOT less than an entire day of face palming. If this workaround proves to be consistent I'll be content for a while. Anyway this actually has nothing to do with my OP in this thread.

I still want to ask m@ to create a dedicated DAW section of the forum to help users avoid what I have gone through. In fact, I'll do that right now.
 
shotgunn said:
This past weekend I believe I may have found a workaround to my USB/PT woes. Basically things will work fine for a while then they stop. I found that when things start to crap out on me I change the playback from Axe II to anything else. Restart the session and then change it back to Axe II and restart again. This worked several times for me. It kind of sux, but it sure sux a LOT less than an entire day of face palming. If this workaround proves to be consistent I'll be content for a while. Anyway this actually has nothing to do with my OP in this thread.

I still want to ask m@ to create a dedicated DAW section of the forum to help users avoid what I have gone through. In fact, I'll do that right now.
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I totally understand man. Yea I think informing about this would help other users as well. Honestly I was thinking to myself about Pro Tools. They have a lot of politics with them,good company but definitely not as dedicated as FAS. Knowing that the Axe Fx II would sweep the market they sort of made sure people can't enjoy it with their latest offering,at least not be able to enjoy it via Usb of the Axe FxII. It's really a shame and I do feel bad man that you spent so much money on PT9. I guess some lessons are easy to learn and some are learnt with some tough thorns along the way. But anyhow the bright side is that you still have an amazing unit that is phenomenal and you also know if it is easily compatible with Pro Tools.
 
shotgunn said:
Eh!!! Wrong. As a Chicago native I am going to have to disagree. I have had some NY pizza before and IMAO... No bueno!!! The thing with Chicago pizza is this... If you roll the dice and pick some new place from the phone book you're gonna get a GREAT pizza. Some are better than others, but most are at least very good.
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Meh, I went to Chicago & had to go to Uno's (Due's?) & was underwhelmed. You can get NY thin crust any where now, literally ANY WHERE. It is it's own fast food thing that is as least consistent.

BUT . . .

You can NOT get a good stuffed pizza in many places, except NYC. I don't mean deep dish, I mean CRUST - SAUCE/CHEESE/MEAT - CRUST. I found a place in Fort Worth that makes it dead on for NYC & I'm quite content.

I'm a food, as evidenced by my beltline, so I don't eat at chains much, much less Pizza Hut/Dominos/etc.
 
LAYGO said:
You can NOT get a good stuffed pizza in many places, except NYC. I don't mean deep dish, I mean CRUST - SAUCE/CHEESE/MEAT - CRUST. I found a place in Fort Worth that makes it dead on for NYC & I'm quite content.
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One thing I really miss being in LA is NY pizza.

@shotgunn; have you tried the Digi User Conference (DUC) or Daw-Mac? Not sure if the DUC is stilled called that after Avid dropped the Digidesign name, but there may be some help around there. The Daw-Mac list (on yahoo) has been around for a long time and has some very experienced PT users, the kind that run big facilities, in addition to composer types etc, with project studio setups. It's not limited to PT but any DAW on a Mac.

I still have PT7 and a MBox around for opening projects but typically migrate them to Digital Performer or Logic. From what I understand about PT9 and up is that there are serious limitations to monitoring the record source, especially while trying to do a punch in/out.

I know you bought PT recently but may want to consider selling it and for $200 going with Logic. Not what you want to hear but...

Getting OT from the thread but thought this may help.
 
shotgunn said:
I just specifically upgraded to PT 9 so I can use my II with it. I am far too invested in PT to switch now. Especially since I got this new keyboard overlay for my MBP. $30 man!!! I'm in too deep. Not to mention I finally started to learn all the keyboard shortcuts.
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Not to get off topic, but I think it's silly that people are suggesting to switch from Pro Tools. FAS may be "anti-Pro Tools" (if that's what they really said), and Avid's business model may be questionable at best, but PT is still the de facto DAW in most professional studios.

I'd be frustrated too if I had issues using the II as an interface, since this is a big selling point of the unit. But I guess I've been lucky though...I've had the II playing nicely with PT 9 for the most part. I actually just upgraded to PT 10 but haven't installed it yet. Gonna clone my HD before I install incase I have any problems.
 
immortal_soloist said:
Knowing that the Axe Fx II would sweep the market they sort of made sure people can't enjoy it with their latest offering,at least not be able to enjoy it via Usb of the Axe FxII.
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Excuse me...a bit far fetched, no? It's a USB audio interface protocol. The fact that it's also a guitar processor or whatever makes no difference. Avid, or any other multitrack audio software, doesn't collaborate with every audio interface manufacturer out there. Software and hardware companies need to follow the USB protocol.
 
Trazan said:
Excuse me...a bit far fetched, no? It's a USB audio interface protocol. The fact that it's also a guitar processor or whatever makes no difference. Avid, or any other multitrack audio software, doesn't collaborate with every audio interface manufacturer out there. Software and hardware companies need to follow the USB protocol.
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I was just trying to figure out the why in this myself. So I just thought what I felt,indeed I am probably wrong or in other words my statement is a bit far fetched. You certainly make a valid point. Bottom line is i guess FAS and Pro Tools isn't a good combination.
 
Damn, it's been months since I've had Picchi Pacchi (NYC stuffed pizza in Fort Worth) & now I'm craving it. I keep talking about food food food lately and I'm trying to DIET! (Funny thing, you can't have a diet with out DIE!)
 
Webb said:
Not to get off topic, but I think it's silly that people are suggesting to switch from Pro Tools. FAS may be "anti-Pro Tools" (if that's what they really said), and Avid's business model may be questionable at best, but PT is still the de facto DAW in most professional studios
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At the risk of sidetracking this thread even further; PT being the "de facto" Daw doesn't automatically make it better. No offense intended. Different studios with different needs will have different solutions.


Webb said:
I'd be frustrated too if I had issues using the II as an interface, since this is a big selling point of the unit. But I guess I've been lucky though...I've had the II playing nicely with PT 9 for the most part. I actually just upgraded to PT 10 but haven't installed it yet. Gonna clone my HD before I install incase I have any problems.
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My understanding from admittedly second hand information is that PT has some issues with some third party interfaces. And there are real limitations to PT functionality with third party interfaces.

Perhaps you can be helpful on a practical level with shotgunn's PT/Axe issues? I'm out of the loop on PT at the moment.
 
Hey Shotgunn, have you tried another ASIO capable DAW just to try to narrow it down to PT or the AxeFXII? I'm probably one of the more vocal AVID bashers on the planet because of their business model and practices and having had to deal with them for 20 years now in my professional life. It was really hard for me to even install PT8LE on my own computer in order to use the 11R for a few months. It worked great, but that's how they do it....they get you sucked in so damn deep and in order to get EVERYTHING out of the application you have to use their products. Their philosophy is to make it so that you can't even consider another company's product and it has made them a ton of money and made them huge.

I will just add that after having used PT8LE for about 6 months that it's nothing special at all compared to any other reputable DAW out there. The only advantage is if you really go all AVID and then you can start taking advantage of hardware acceleration and processing, but with today's CPU's there's just no need for it. They all made their names back when CPU's were in the sub 200MHz range and you had to have dedictated hardware to do anything. It's not like that anymore, but people recognize the name and they have hung onto their business model for ever because its how they got where they are today.

Case in point about 90% of VST plugins can be converted to RTAS with a small program. But they made their own proprietary format for plugins because there's more money in it for them. I mean how many other DAW's work perfectly fine with VST? But it's not good enough for AVID?

I'm not saying to ditch PT, but if you expect them to REALLY go out of their way to create a platform for people to be able to use other vendors that is absolutely perfect you are probably going to end up disappointed and frustrated. Plus they move extremely slow in development....case in point the 11R has a million suggestions for improvements and there is nothing in the works and there has only been one firmware update since it was released several years ago. PT8LE had an upgrade path to PT9 and before they got all the bugs worked out they announced PT10...which cost you another limb. And from hanging around on the DUC forums it wasn't exactly well received and it's far from perfect. Who knows when they'll get it straightened out? Maybe after PT11 is released? Do they even have a 64-bit version out yet?

I'll also add that while many other companies have been using ASIO for their DAW's, AVID is very new to this. The chance that they got it down perfect from the start is pretty slim based on my experiences with them.

They've got their own agenda and they don't hide it nor apologize for it and the first person they answer to is their shareholders. So the motivation to undercut hardware sales is probably pretty low.
 
NY Guitarist said:
One thing I really miss being in LA is NY pizza.

@shotgunn; have you tried the Digi User Conference (DUC) or Daw-Mac? Not sure if the DUC is stilled called that after Avid dropped the Digidesign name, but there may be some help around there. The Daw-Mac list (on yahoo) has been around for a long time and has some very experienced PT users, the kind that run big facilities, in addition to composer types etc, with project studio setups. It's not limited to PT but any DAW on a Mac.

I still have PT7 and a MBox around for opening projects but typically migrate them to Digital Performer or Logic. From what I understand about PT9 and up is that there are serious limitations to monitoring the record source, especially while trying to do a punch in/out.

I know you bought PT recently but may want to consider selling it and for $200 going with Logic. Not what you want to hear but...

Getting OT from the thread but thought this may help.
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I use Tapatalk to access FAS's forum on my iOS devices. Fortunately Avid's forum is also on Tapatalk. They're forum is nowhere near as helpful is FAS's. For instance I posted a few ?'s several days go by and no one responds. Then I start a thread with the subject line reading "Why does nobody respond unless I get rude?" of course several people soon responded with solutions that greatly helped me. Surprisingly no on griped about my subject? Most people I talk to and companies as well, have never even heard of the Axe II. I called Avid for help... they said Axe wha???
 
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