My general thoughts on Axe Edit and the Fractal Approach.

"Clinging to past technologies", "we should be looking forward", ... yada, yada, yada.

Sometimes all you want is a TS808, or a Phase 90. Why should we not try to get it all? Why is that so bad? No one is proposing to limit the Axe Fx and derivative products. We want to make them better for more people. To cater for how more people think about their gear by offering an alternate view.
 
vangrieg said:
Well, if you insist that I put it bluntly, here you go: I'm suggesting that people who ask for this feature maybe should think again and do themselves and mankind a favor by stopping to look at Axe FX as a replicator of ancient technology but rather an advanced modeler of guitar tone that is not limited by the number of knobs on original gear, which are more often then not results of simple design mistakes, corporate greed (desire to keep costs down), technology limitations that in the case of Axe FX do not apply, or condescending attitude towards users. Using three knobs instead of 25 doesn't help make great tone. Figuring out what those knobs do does.
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I have no problem with blunt, but I do not see, why we cannot have both (as suggested in this thread). Nobody is suggesting taking anything away from what we have
 
Smittefar said:
I have no problem with blunt, but I do not see, why we cannot have both
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Because there is a thing called opportunity cost. If developers at FA start to draw "authentic" interfaces they won't be doing something else.

And because people need a kick in the butt to move on. If they give you that TS808 with two knobs, those knobs will be the only knobs you'll adjust, and a new killer sound won't be born. I'm not talking about you specifically here, it's just an example.

Johan Allard said:
Sometimes all you want is a TS808, or a Phase 90.
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I never want a TS808, or Phase 90. Why would I? If I wanted a Phase 90 I would get it.
 
Pwrmac7600 said:
Don't gotta tell me, I am the proud owner of 5 Les Paul's.
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Great for you! I think I'll get an LPC and that'll be it for me. I like Les Pauls, but there are many other interesting guitars out there, IMO.

Anyway, I don't see anything wrong with Les Pauls, Strats, old guitars in general, or vintage amps, for that matter. Or recreating old tone or whatever. My point is a little different. If you think about how rock music evolved from, say, blues to rock'n'roll to hard rock to punk to metal to grunge (and I'm not saying that each step is better than the previous one, I'm just naming big events in rock music that influenced not just themselves or even rock music, but human culture globally as they changed what people wear, how they cut their hair and even how the speak), they each did something to use technology differently. Via mods or just breaking things, they took it to the next level in some way.

And here we are, having an Axe FX and wanting to use an overdrive pedal like they did in 1812. And even refusing to look at extra knobs on that damned thing! This "this is how we do things around here" mentality is just wrong. Just wrong. While we sit and drool over those 60-year-old knobs, the world is changed by soul, R&B, rap, folk, and electronic music. And we're on the sidelines, waiting to die out like dinosaurs.

Open your mind, and your ass will follow!

Well, I guess that's enough of my rants for this thread, I'm taking it way off topic. Although it belongs in the wishlist forum, IMO.
 
Admin M@ said:
I think the quest for replica-tone is a myth.

Man, I've played Edge's rig, Vai's rig, Petrucci's rig, Dweezil's rig, Metallica's rig... I played Eddie Van Halen's Marshall. I played Alex Lifeson's ES. I played all the pre-Fractal original gear by the original artists.

I ALWAYS SOUND LIKE ME!
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Dude. Your job has some really good perks.
 
I am personally for a complete standardization of the Axe edit panel, as it is today.
Just because I have no idea of the real controls on the real amps/pedals, and no reference with these amps/pedals.
I know about what to tweak for my own needs.These needs are for sure different for everybody else.
I don't personally don't want to deal with a different Axe edit for every model, but I could of course live with.

A very cool thing i just can dream of would be to have a page in Axe Edit (or a dedicated editor) with a blank schema and just drag and drop resistance, condensators, transformers, tubes, potentiometers.... to create our OWN tube amps and pedals, or try replicate schematics we can found on the web.
I suppose it is very very difficult to implement , and maybe even not compatible with the Axe FX model technology, but it would be an incredible prototyping tool ! (and for learning purposes too) :D
No need to start solder irons , deal with potentially lethal voltages, .... :)
It would be the ultimate platform then (Axe III). No limit to creativity anymore.
(I ignore if the Axe FX II uses modeled blocks of every component or block of functions to model the amps/pedals ?)
 
vangrieg said:
Great for you! I think I'll get an LPC and that'll be it for me. I like Les Pauls, but there are many other interesting guitars out there, IMO.

Anyway, I don't see anything wrong with Les Pauls, Strats, old guitars in general, or vintage amps, for that matter. Or recreating old tone or whatever. My point is a little different. If you think about how rock music evolved from, say, blues to rock'n'roll to hard rock to punk to metal to grunge (and I'm not saying that each step is better than the previous one, I'm just naming big events in rock music that influenced not just themselves or even rock music, but human culture globally as they changed what people wear, how they cut their hair and even how the speak), they each did something to use technology differently. Via mods or just breaking things, they took it to the next level in some way.

And here we are, having an Axe FX and wanting to use an overdrive pedal like they did in 1812. And even refusing to look at extra knobs on that damned thing! This "this is how we do things around here" mentality is just wrong. Just wrong. While we sit and drool over those 60-year-old knobs, the world is changed by soul, R&B, rap, folk, and electronic music. And we're on the sidelines, waiting to die out like dinosaurs.

Open your mind, and your ass will follow!

Well, I guess that's enough of my rants for this thread, I'm taking it way off topic. Although it belongs in the wishlist forum, IMO.
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Ok thanks for the thread hijack. You can stop now...
 
Johan Allard said:
Some people think ease of use is to not have any covers on any electrical appliance and resistors replaced with trimpots so that they can tweak anything at a moments notice. Some people think that ease of use is a device with as few buttons as they can possibly have (but not any fewer than that) to get the job done. Currently, the Axe Fx caters for the first type of person very well but not the second. I don't think there's any right or wrong here and if there was any interest (which I strongly doubt there is), both type of people could be catered for.

This was my example from a couple of years ago, for a Flanger (I'm not suggesting having pictures of the models, it's just a couple of example flanger pedals that could be modelled in the Axe Fx and the interface to the left shows how that would look):

BF-2_zps1ce60997.png


Micro_zps2272677e.png

(looking at that screenshot again now, I should probably have removed Mix, Level, Balance, Spread and Bypass Mode as well for something like a Flanger block, unless it would be on the original device, in which case the originals tab would have that covered)

And just as Chris bet that most people would not use such a page, and that's possibly true for current users. My bet would be that we would increase number of users by focusing on both types of ease of use. I think most people would love to have simplified amps and effects block without having to worry about if they should be tweaking the sine wave to a triangle.
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Perfect! Now that's what I'm talking about!!
 
manu68 said:
A very cool thing i just can dream of would be to have a page in Axe Edit (or a dedicated editor) with a blank schema and just drag and drop resistance, condensators, transformers, tubes, potentiometers.... to create our OWN tube amps and pedals, or try replicate schematics we can found on the web.
I suppose it is very very difficult to implement , and maybe even not compatible with the Axe FX model technology, but it would be an incredible prototyping tool ! (and for learning purposes too) :D
No need to start solder irons , deal with potentially lethal voltages, .... :)
It would be the ultimate platform then (Axe III). No limit to creativity anymore.
(I ignore if the Axe FX II uses modeled blocks of every component or block of functions to model the amps/pedals ?)
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This was actually discussed many years ago and Cliff confirmed that he would love to pursue such a project. It would certainly be a niche market though and subsequently not extremely profitable so I assume it's scuttled or on an extremely back burner to say the least. It would be so cool though and switch the focus from duplication of existing amps to experimentation and creation of something new and different.
 
All that is needed is a little mark on axe edit to indicate which controls actually exist on the original. I wouldn't ever want to "give up" any parameters!!
 
Scott Peterson said:
I proposed (way back in the day) that there was a Global control for "simple" and "expert" that toggled between the actual (aka minimum) and the standard Fractal 'parameter overload' options in Axe-Edit *only* as a way of helping people that know specific amps just get their settings dialed quickly and getting on with it. It's never been added to the road map.
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still a good idea. would leave all the deep editing, amp modding parameters available, yet make it fast to quickly dial in a model based on its original controls. the Axe could really benefit from something like this given its reputation that it's a device for tweakers (which I personally don't agree with, but that's just how it is).
 
Of course this new basic native tab will potentially negatively expose the AxeFX for not being able to sound like the real deal when only using the actual knobs from the original amp! Users will feel that the native tab should be enough to get them there because that's all the actual amp has!

I can hear it now........"The AxeFx can only sound remotely close to the real deal with advanced tab rabbit hole tweaking trickery". lol
 
jlynnb1 said:
no one is suggesting giving up any parameters....they are asking for an OPTIONAL TAB that has original controls only. Optional....
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Sorry, I may have misunderstood then. Surely adding anything that is optional could only be beneficial? I guess it has to be beneficial to enough people to make it worth while though.

For me, it's not that I don't like tweaking or that the axe is too difficult but its just that I can't remember the original controls for all those amps and it sucks having to constantly refer to a web page or a wiki when the info could be built right into the software. Visual hints of original controls in axe edit would be enough in my opinion.
 
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