Quick review after the first few days

parlopower

Inspired
I received my Axe from G66 last Thursday, unpacked it Friday. Contained the usual box of chocolates and personalized letter. G66 are awesome, Jaques provides great service.

Set it up in my lounge for now since my small studio room is currently stuffed full with things I need to bring to the recycling center, dispose of, etc. etc. and I will only get back to working in there in a few weeks again. That means: For now, only headphones.

Connection to my Macbook Pro seamless, integration into Cubase 9.5 Pro perfect.

First I did a listening test, played back some music to check out the converter quality (and headphones amp quality in that case). Sound better than the DA of the Axe Fx II, definitely audible. I found the conversion of the Axe II quite average compared to other audio interfaces, it was good but nothing special, but the III is definitely a step up. Really looking forward to use it with my studio monitors! (It will be the new center piece of my studio, will be used as audio interface a lot.)

Then plugged the guitar in. First impression is that everything sounded more pristine, more defined and clearer than on the II. Not too much of a difference, rather subtle, but I thought I noticed it. Amp sim quality on the II was already so good that I wondered how it could still be improved upon. Well, I must confess I only had time to test a few models (mostly EVH 5153s, Brit 800s) and I did not notice that much of a difference yet. Maybe it becomes more obvious with other amps (vintage Fenders maybe?), maybe it will come with future Ares versions.

User interface on both display and Axe Edit is a dream. So easy to dial something up. Love the new options regarding scene and channel switching, makes the box much more powerful.

What is a real problem for me right now is the crazy amount of cabs. I am fiddling around and around and cannot decide which cab (or even combination of cabs!) I like best. I must say that that was way easier for me on the II, the limitation in numbers helped me to make decisions. I think for starters, I will stick in many cases with the Legacy cabs, especially those that have already cab mixes like the TV Mix, 5153 Mix etc., and then my all time favourite for any Marshall type amp, the Legacy Pre-Rola 55 M160. I mean, just because now they are "Legacy", they have not become bad, have they...

All in all, I am very happy I sold my II and upgraded to the III. The best has just become better.
 
I'm definitely with you on the cab choices...everytime I find one I fancy it gets a color assigned ASAP! Or a cab block saved to my block library ;)
 
Have meanwhile tested it briefly on my studio monitors.
The DA converters for playing back stuff sound great, much better than the average audio interface. They beat my Steinberg UR28M - which is not bad at all - by a wide margin.
Playing the guitar through the monitors sounds better than on the headphones, too. Sounds rounder and less scratchy, but that is probably also a matter of the phones and monitors I use (AKG K271 Mk2 and Yamaha HS80M).
I found it very audible on an STL Tone Pack I purchased recently, the Andrew Wade pack. On the headphones, I liked some of the 5153 presets, but the Recto and Bogner sounds appeared very bright and harsh. I was rather disppointed at first. After using it with my monitors, I am no longer - through the Yammies, the presets sound much better, actually really good - straight out of the box ready for the mix.
 
Back
Top Bottom