Considering an Axe, have a few questions.

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It is not the most powerful if you have high impedance headphones. But if it gets you the volume you need past halfway then it does it’s job.
Agreed but I find the sound is lacking, I really regret selling my UR284, always sounded good but never took to the Focus. Could just be me.
 
What impedance headphones did you use? 32, 80,250? Shouldnt be the case on 32 atleast. seems likely for 250 or more
I'd have to check bud. I had the headphones, both sets, prior to the purchase and with my UR284 they sounded great. The Focus just doesn't seem as dynamic too

Ill check when I am in the room next.

I believe you are right as most forums point to the impendance but I don't know, I have just always disliked the sound of the interface.....they probably all use the same components in that price range anyway, so it could just be my aging ears.
 
I'd have to check bud. I had the headphones, both sets, prior to the purchase and with my UR284 they sounded great. The Focus just doesn't seem as dynamic too

Ill check when I am in the room next.

I believe you are right as most forums point to the impendance but I don't know, I have just always disliked the sound of the interface.....they probably all use the same components in that price range anyway, so it could just be my aging ears.
i have a focusrite scarlett , but i use axe fx as interface always dk if i should be doing otherwise. is there a noticeable quality improvement in recording? 48khz seems enough so far to me.
 
Agreed but I find the sound is lacking, I really regret selling my UR284, always sounded good but never took to the Focus. Could just be me.
On my 6i6 2nd gen I recently tried it vs an old Marantz receiver and the FM3 headphone out. Used 300 ohm Sennheiser HD6XX headphones. When roughly set to equal volume playing music from my computer they all sounded the same to me, difference was that the FM3 and Marantz were capable of way more volume.
 
My $.02...

1) the Axe FX is great - honestly unmatched - at creating mic'd guitar sounds for recording. That's what it's made to do. It has a ton of amazing amp models and FX, and it feels great to play. It does this at an insanely high level.
2) in terms of live performance, it has the same "amp in the room" challenges as any modeler, with many successful strategies for managing them, but you either have a real tube power section slamming into a real guitar cab or you don't.
3) in terms of being stable, it's unreal. Neither my Axe FX 3 nor the accompanying software have ever crashed for me, even as Fractal continues to roll out new functionality at a dizzying pace. You could scroll through the forums for weeks without seeing reports of crashes. I have now jinxed my system and will go downstairs to find a locked-up, $2500 paperweight. Damn it.
4) in terms of being the primary A/D interface in a studio, I wouldn't consider it for this function. As mentioned above, it's locked to 48kHz for esoteric reasons, it doesn't have a mic preamp or phantom power, and I would want different physical controls and software for this purpose.
5) the time-based / modulation effects are so good I keep meaning to try them on vocals, but I can't arsed to set up the reamp loop. Too many software plugins to play with.

Anyway just crank the Focusrite and buy the FXIII. It's plug-and-play until you want to start deep-tweaking it, you won't spend ANY time re-booting or troubleshooting it, and you'll get the JCM800 sound without loosing criminal sound pressure levels on your decent, respectable neighborhood. Yeah that's right, a grammatically correct usage of "loosing" on the internet.

This is only going to end one way. Let us know when you get one.
 
It kind of replaces my soundcard, effects spend, and amp GASSING in one device.
Really great point here re: GAS. In the long run it's probably saving me money, I basically have every amp and pedal I could ever want. (At least that's one of the ways I justify the purchase to myself.)

Only problem is now my guitar GAS is intensifying
 
On my 6i6 2nd gen I recently tried it vs an old Marantz receiver and the FM3 headphone out. Used 300 ohm Sennheiser HD6XX headphones. When roughly set to equal volume playing music from my computer they all sounded the same to me, difference was that the FM3 and Marantz were capable of way more volume.
I'm probably just being overly sensitive to it. It's not a bad sounding card, I am probably just still pissed I sold my UR284 for it and justifying why I need an Axe FX lol.
 
My $.02...

1) the Axe FX is great - honestly unmatched - at creating mic'd guitar sounds for recording. That's what it's made to do. It has a ton of amazing amp models and FX, and it feels great to play. It does this at an insanely high level.
2) in terms of live performance, it has the same "amp in the room" challenges as any modeler, with many successful strategies for managing them, but you either have a real tube power section slamming into a real guitar cab or you don't.
3) in terms of being stable, it's unreal. Neither my Axe FX 3 nor the accompanying software have ever crashed for me, even as Fractal continues to roll out new functionality at a dizzying pace. You could scroll through the forums for weeks without seeing reports of crashes. I have now jinxed my system and will go downstairs to find a locked-up, $2500 paperweight. Damn it.
4) in terms of being the primary A/D interface in a studio, I wouldn't consider it for this function. As mentioned above, it's locked to 48kHz for esoteric reasons, it doesn't have a mic preamp or phantom power, and I would want different physical controls and software for this purpose.
5) the time-based / modulation effects are so good I keep meaning to try them on vocals, but I can't arsed to set up the reamp loop. Too many software plugins to play with.

Anyway just crank the Focusrite and buy the FXIII. It's plug-and-play until you want to start deep-tweaking it, you won't spend ANY time re-booting or troubleshooting it, and you'll get the JCM800 sound without loosing criminal sound pressure levels on your decent, respectable neighborhood. Yeah that's right, a grammatically correct usage of "loosing" on the internet.

This is only going to end one way. Let us know when you get one.
Hey man.

1 appears to be quite a common thread. I would like to use the effects for vocals, just in regard to practice, just not baked into a recording.

2 agreed on that point. To me the Kemper through a 4x12 always sounded great. Then I did try a DSL40c and noticed the clarity. This is always the issue with these type of devices, you write a track with loads of cool effects. Then it's time to gig with your tube amp and you can't reproduce the sound. A bit like when people program drums for a 15 armed drumner.

I have no issue using the Axe live but to be honest, I mostly play rock and metal so I could get away with just an amp and a few pedals live....just joined another band tonight oddly enough.

3 yes I did scroll through a lot of the forum and found no real issue with the software and mostly zero issues with the unit which is great.

Man don't say those types of things, it's like the "this should only take a minute to record" and 5 hours later you still can't get it right.

4 to be honest 48k is ok for me. I own a good GAP Premier Neve clone so happy for my vocals to go via that as they do now. This also solves my Phantom Power needs.

I'm getting the impression it will only end one way, hopefully not tears.

Mike
 
Really great point here re: GAS. In the long run it's probably saving me money, I basically have every amp and pedal I could ever want. (At least that's one of the ways I justify the purchase to myself.)

Only problem is now my guitar GAS is intensifying
Just get a Line6 Jane Taylor Variax.....sorry I misread, you want to solve your gassing lol.

Yes the Kemper did the same, just stopped me even looking until it started playing up.
 
Afternoon Gents

Thank you all for your responses, I am extremely tempted to try one out for size and I think @cardinal hit it on the head in the way I am looking at the device, its for times the JCM800 is not quite doing it. I personally don't use any effects outside of a boost, but again with the Axe it would cover that territory without me having to go on Amazon and order a new pedal. It kind of replaces my soundcard, effects spend, and amp GASSING in one device.

Funny enough I just trialled the Helix Native product, mainly to try the REVV patches that are being raved about, they sounded good, the rest no so much.

@Bruce Sokolovic

The editor does seem to be stable, I found nothing at all in regard to issues when Googling the Axe FX 3, not even sure I seen anything historic to be honest.

Bah, you heathen, how can you knock the JCM800 with a straight face :) Each to there own, I think on its own it sounds too flimsy, but a DS in front and this thing roars.

In regard to Leon's videos, I watched a host of them, especially his one with a year then 2 yearly update, I also like his style of playing. I have not seen the DSL one you refer too, but I have seen his JCM800 with everything on 10 video....bloody lunatic. I will check more of his AxeFX ones out.

@markyd Thank you for confirming. To be honest I only record alone so I work on my own projects only so I don't have a need for anything higher as I am not even daisy chaining devices, its just good to know if I bought any other digital gear or I wanted to use the SPDIF out with my soundcard, I would have a limitation.

@cardinal Same here, I turned it on, played a chord and then sold my Kemper an JVM410h. Everything I have owned after has paled in comparison to the grit and bite this amp produces. I get your 'boomy\woofy' statement, I had the same issue recreating the JCM800 sound on the Kemper.

@grandinq Superb, glad to know its compatible. Out of interest, what Buffer settings are you using and what is your overall latency?

@rossipedia Man I hear you load and clear. I moved from Line6 for that reason, too much tweaking. Then went back to digital and opted for the Kemper over the Axe due to the Axe having too many options to distract me (I don't need anymore distractions). The Kemper sounds great but I felt the same as you. beyond a minor tweak of a very good patch, I was at the hands of the profiler for the sound or at the mercy of my wallet hunting good profiles. At that point I started to miss the tweaking.

The other thing that made the process difficult is there is no defined way to take a profile, this meant the quality, tonality and overall volumes where extremely random due to profilers having different gear and rooms to profile in. I will say, Choptones and Deadlight make some fantastic profiles though; I am sure Choptones does Axe models too.......don't quote me on that.

@Bruce Sokolovic Time to Google "Authentic Tab"

@FullThrottle64 Man it only got worse for me. I didn't find Performance mode limited as I was about to have 5 patches across the board for each song. The issue was Rig Manager was so bad it would crash, or not save the preset, or even worse just lose connection to the Kemper yet not notify you so you spend an hour tailoring your sound to find nothing has changed on the Kemper! I don't want to come across as hating the Kemper, it does sound great but it was developed into the ground for me due to rushing features.

@PBGas How do you find the sound in regard to its upfrontness (not even sure that's a word) when recorded. For example I just tried the Helix Native app, when playing any of the presets the sound almost feels distant, like some form of reverb has been introduced. I switched to my tube amp and it was right at the front of the song, in your face but not when flipping patches on the Helix.

I am asking but I did not check the IR used so unsure if it was close miced or had a lot of room ambience.

@touch33 Thank you for some comfort as shelling out two grand on a device, the support best be top notch. I hope I can say this without annoying anyone, but I have heard this forum is "protective" let's just say, about its investment in the Axe products........now about that front panel :)

Thank you all, a little more research to go and I may be joining this side for good :) I feel at this point I probably just need to try one.

Mike


The latency says it’s 25ms, but I don’t notice a thing.
 
The latency says it’s 25ms, but I don’t notice a thing.
That's quite high bud, I am at 4ms with Cubase 10.5 and Focusrite.

What are your buffer settings?
 
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Oh well, after much thought I have just placed my order. I have 30 days to return but at point I'll never know without testing.

Thank you all
 
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I'm betting you'll know within a few hours that you made the right choice. 👍
Hahah probably will. If I can dial in a few times in the first week, I'll be happy. I am sure once I crank a Marshall or Friedman profile, add some stereo delay and start playing some lead, I'll be hooked.

From day one, if I can set it up as a sound card, create a good dual amp rig and a nice lead channel, the rest will come with time.

Can I ask a few questions:

How does the Axe FX 3 respond to pedals through its input? I want to retain my current wah pedal.

Does it have a feedback maker similar to the Frequout?

Can you record various elements of the signal chain for example have a great lead sound with a stereo delay in the loop but only record the stack without the delay?

The biggest issue I have now is since placing the order my GAS for a second amp has disappeared, now I am hooked on Fractal tutorial videos lol.

Mike
 
I haven't had latency issues and I use it as my recording sound card. If you need to use it in a low latency application make sure you disable the safety buffer which I believe adds some samples to the output. I mean, at 64 samples it shouldn't really matter though. I think if you try to play electronic drums through midi to trigger a drum VSTi you may notice some latency, and then I would say to disable the safety buffer and it should be fine.

As everybody else has chimed in about being locked at 48khz I will just add that to me it isn't a big deal. Also the no mic pre isn't a big deal as like you I have a separate pre (Great River ME-1NV). I think it works fine as a sound card. It has been glitch free and stable for me, even on larger projects.
 
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