CodePoet
Fractal Fanatic
Thought an early review from a guy coming from the plugin world could be interesting to some so here it is...
I have only logged a bit of time checking out my new Ultra, but wow. After checking out the forum for a while, I knew the Axe-Fx was going to be good, but was a bit skeptical of the over-hype that goes on around here and maybe people were just a bit too carried away with their investment. Or perhaps Axe-Fx users were covered in fairy dust when unpacking their hardware and got sent to the land of golden tone in their heads. But after checking it out and hearing the sounds you can pull out of it, that's not the case.
I spent the last few months putting together a lightweight laptop-based rig with plugins (GR4, Amplitube 3, TH2: all great pieces of software) and it was sounding good - very good even, but I just couldn't find the clarity and response that I was hoping for. So I thought, let me check out the Axe, even if I have to sell all my other gear to get it.
Running through the presets of the Axe-Fx, I was blown away with both the quality of the sounds and the wide range of tones that it does well from cleans to crunch to distortions, to the effects, harmonizer, synths, the fast switching, deep tweakability, spillover delays, etc, etc. I haven't even tweaked anything or gone deeper with external IRs yet, so I have a lot more to discover. And things like the pitch-based effects just can't be pulled off in software the way the Axe can do it via hardware. I didn't fully realize what the power of a dedicated hardware platform could open up tone and response-wise, along with the Axe-Fx's seemingly great algorithms.
The cleans have that chime that I just wasn't able to find via a plugin and the distortions have such harmonics and cream that sound so good vs. the harshness that was too prevalent in the plugins. I figured a modern computer with plugins could process anything that a rack processor could (if not better), but after checking out what the Axe can do, there's a definite advantage to hardware accessing that sound immediately at the input and not have to go through a seperate audio interface and audio driver first - much better tracking, harmonization, etc.
Good sounds and recordings via plugins are attainable with some finesse, but things just seem so much easier with the Axe and it has the little extra something that makes the sounds go down smooth. Best of all, it's just fun to play through it. I feel that with plugins, you get into a "match the famous tone" mentality, but with the Axe it's a "create your own tone" exercise because there is such a great toolkit at your disposal. (Not to say that many of the presets on the Axe don't nail many famous tones quite nicely).
So far I'm very impressed and can't wait to convert my patches from plugins to the Ultra. I guess the fairy dust landed on me as well.
I have only logged a bit of time checking out my new Ultra, but wow. After checking out the forum for a while, I knew the Axe-Fx was going to be good, but was a bit skeptical of the over-hype that goes on around here and maybe people were just a bit too carried away with their investment. Or perhaps Axe-Fx users were covered in fairy dust when unpacking their hardware and got sent to the land of golden tone in their heads. But after checking it out and hearing the sounds you can pull out of it, that's not the case.
I spent the last few months putting together a lightweight laptop-based rig with plugins (GR4, Amplitube 3, TH2: all great pieces of software) and it was sounding good - very good even, but I just couldn't find the clarity and response that I was hoping for. So I thought, let me check out the Axe, even if I have to sell all my other gear to get it.
Running through the presets of the Axe-Fx, I was blown away with both the quality of the sounds and the wide range of tones that it does well from cleans to crunch to distortions, to the effects, harmonizer, synths, the fast switching, deep tweakability, spillover delays, etc, etc. I haven't even tweaked anything or gone deeper with external IRs yet, so I have a lot more to discover. And things like the pitch-based effects just can't be pulled off in software the way the Axe can do it via hardware. I didn't fully realize what the power of a dedicated hardware platform could open up tone and response-wise, along with the Axe-Fx's seemingly great algorithms.
The cleans have that chime that I just wasn't able to find via a plugin and the distortions have such harmonics and cream that sound so good vs. the harshness that was too prevalent in the plugins. I figured a modern computer with plugins could process anything that a rack processor could (if not better), but after checking out what the Axe can do, there's a definite advantage to hardware accessing that sound immediately at the input and not have to go through a seperate audio interface and audio driver first - much better tracking, harmonization, etc.
Good sounds and recordings via plugins are attainable with some finesse, but things just seem so much easier with the Axe and it has the little extra something that makes the sounds go down smooth. Best of all, it's just fun to play through it. I feel that with plugins, you get into a "match the famous tone" mentality, but with the Axe it's a "create your own tone" exercise because there is such a great toolkit at your disposal. (Not to say that many of the presets on the Axe don't nail many famous tones quite nicely).
So far I'm very impressed and can't wait to convert my patches from plugins to the Ultra. I guess the fairy dust landed on me as well.
