about to buy an axe fx 2 however......

C

Conflict

Inspired
I owned a standard and loved it, however i went back to diezel amps as i missed the tube roar.
Last night my herbert blew all its fuses and maybe two valves.
I am ready to come back to the axe fx and matrix combination i had before but here is what scares me.
Technology moves v quick thus the money imvolved changes v quickly on an items worth.

I see the axe 2 is at firmware 8 already!!! 7 lasted about 2 weeks and was surpassed?
The old axe only had to fw11 then fractal unleashed the axe fx 2, what is the chances in a year we wont be at fw11 looking at the axe 3.

One last thing on the standard i managed to dial out that horrible platic sounding artificial pick attack,all the axe 2 vids i have seen have it in abundance and a lot of recordings have it also....
Just some advice on that would be great.
Many thanks
Colin
 
To be fair - the Standard/Ultra FW had many sub-incarnations. FW 5.xx got up to about 5.24 or something - and whats in a number anyway? Theres no reason why it can reach FW 50 if cliff chooses.

Check out used prices or Standards/Ultras. There not (in general) much lower than they were once the AFX2 became available. Sure if an AFX3 emerged, the AFX2s used price would take a hit - but it wont be worth nothing. it is part of technology based products though. Ask this - how much to replace your valves/fuses and any repairs needed to the Deizel? Take is just as much "devaluation" of that amp.

Finally - timeframe. the AFX2 is a year old (well just over). The first incarnation lasted 5 years. The Ultra lasted 3 (I believe - could have been slightly more) but that wasnt really a jump in technology - it was just a slightly faster processor allowing a few more intensive FX.

Just a few points to consider.
 
Someone asked a similar queation recently and the answer was that AFXII has much more memory that it's predecessors.
 
How many updates did Peter provide on the Diezel?

With the Axe you continue to receive long after purchase.

Even if Axe III is a year off, it doesn't make the II less usable. You could buy a new TV, iPhone and laptop every year chasing technology if you want to.
 
Conflict said:
true paul true, Has fw 8 eradicated that horrible pick attack noise ?
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For me it's not, finally i added a tube preamp into the fx loop block and this solved any attack issues and more.
When necessary, i switch to Axe-only presets, mostly for cover sounds like Pink Floyd or clean sounds.

Also, i got a power amp mod with a rectifier tube instead of diodes, it sounds amazing. Not sure that this can be emulated.
 
Hobot said:
For me it's not, finally i added a tube preamp into the fx loop block and this solved any attack issues and more.
.
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i use a tube mp art preamp (cheap tube preamp, but works great) in the rear input, and this solve this "plastic attack" , who is due, IMHO to what is done to the front input instrument in.it works for a lot of people , but for what i like to play i find it "artificial".rear input + small tube preamp = way better for me :) (did this with ultra too) .BTW axe fx II is a really good improvment over the ultra generation.sold the ultra 2 times, but i will keep the II
 
Technology moves as quick really as you want it to. You can keep buying the latest or buy what you need and use it for as long as you want.

I think there is plenty of shelf life in the Axe FX II. I am still on the latest iteration of firmware 7.0, I was travelling when 8 was released and since I got back any spare time on the Axe FX has been used playing it. My point being that even as it is today it will be perfectly usable for quite some time to come, I will upgrade to 8 but I could continue to use 7.

The world became accustomed to continual upgrades to hardware and software, but its a roller coaster mainly so companies can keep renewing subscriptions. Fractal updates to software are free, and there are still folks happy using the Ultra and probably the Standard.
 
How do you set the Art-I have one and think I'll try it with my Ultra? Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Joel
 
stefherbuel said:
i use a tube mp art preamp (cheap tube preamp, but works great) in the rear input, and this solve this "plastic attack" , who is due, IMHO to what is done to the front input instrument in.it works for a lot of people , but for what i like to play i find it "artificial".rear input + small tube preamp = way better for me :) (did this with ultra too) .BTW axe fx II is a really good improvment over the ultra generation.sold the ultra 2 times, but i will keep the II
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I've got one of those little things as well. How do you have it hooked up? Your explanation wasn't clear. Guitar===>ART===>rear input?
 
So what kind of stuff do you huys play where you hear this "plastic attack". I play pretty much everything but Heavy metal. But I still use some very Hi gain sounds for some old Rock.
I have never heard\eperienced what you guy speak of. I also only record directin a studio-so perhaps that is why also.

But i have never heard mention of this and I have been here for 3 1/2 years+. Curious, that's all-not an argumenmtative query, just curiousity. I am guessing we ar alking Heavy Hi gain stuff-since that's the only type I never play-hence no "palstic attack" history
Thanks guys-
 
Pick attack issues happened for different people under pretty specific circumstances. From time to time, we'll get these posts about 'did Fractal dial that out?' Well, it never really existed for most of the population; and the majority was the brootalz crowd (not a poke, but an observation.)

The OP has a bad question. 'The FW 7 was surpassed'. No. There are improvements to certain aspects of the modeling. YOU NEED NOT TAKE ADVANTAGE OR USE THEM. If you find your tone, then incrementing your FW number does not necessarily mean that it's going to get better. Again, I can see the majority of the complaints come from the metal crowd (flubby, no cut, not angry enough, etc), but there are detractors from the clean side (farting out...)

IMO the OP needs to stick with the valve amps. This thing (good or bad) requires a certain amount of commitment to learn and understand. This will probably NEVER be that simple...so bring spare valves and fuses to your next gig.

IMO.

Ron
 
Hobot said:
For me it's not, finally i added a tube preamp into the fx loop block and this solved any attack issues and more.
When necessary, i switch to Axe-only presets, mostly for cover sounds like Pink Floyd or clean sounds.

Also, i got a power amp mod with a rectifier tube instead of diodes, it sounds amazing. Not sure that this can be emulated.
Click to expand...

I too use a tube preamp with TMB set to 5; I could never get any of my guitars to tickle the input even at 100%. So I set the Instrument Input to 69% :) It seems best there for some reason and use the preamp to tickle the inputs. I run out the instrument level out of a Real Tube II RT-922 preamp into the front of the Axe-Fx II. The front input is superior to the rear as Cliff has paid special attention to it. It's fine without the preamp; but with it, I find I get that gnarly scratching pick attack noise you hear on so many fine metal albums :)
 
Only recently Cliff said the "Axe III" [codename TriAxeis ;)] is likely "at least" around 2 years away.
 
vAmp said:
Only recently Cliff said the "Axe III" [codename TriAxeis ;)] is likely "at least" around 2 years away.
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Even if it would be like 2 weeks away, I couldn't care less. I don't get all this fuzz about getting the latest gear all the time. The Axe2 sounds awesome and everyone agrees with it. 99% of the people playing it couldn't even win the A/B test, I am perfectly sure about that...`
So what could be improved for the next unit? Should it sound like an additional 0,9% closer to the real stuff? I doubt anyone playing it (let alone the audience) would know the difference.

In engineering, the next step after perfection of a product is always miniaturization. I could see the Axe-III being lighter and probably of the size of a laptop. I could also imagine a more user-friendly touchscreen display, maybe multi-colored to allow for faster front-panel-editing. Other than that, I highly doubt that the sound will get any/much better.
Maybe also the price will drop due to new investments in manufacturing equipment. Seriously, I can live without this stuff and see my money on the Axe-II well spent even with a potential Axe-III around the corner.
 
Zwiebelchen said:
99% of the people playing it couldn't even win the A/B test, I am perfectly sure about that...
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Feelwise, I'm sure 99% would be perfectly wrong.
It's probably not that difficult once you know what to feel for. I have "complained" about it, calling it the "dynamic maximum". I've since read this is one of the ways the maker of the Carol-Ann knows the difference every time, why the maker of the VHT amps advises to use a tube preamp/buffer in front of a modeler, etc.

You may be right that most don't care or don't know what to feel for. I care a lot, but not enough to buy a real amp (so far).

I do agree that for modeling existing amps, the III can never be that much better than the II vs G1. No use in waiting.

In engineering, the next step after perfection of a product is always miniaturization.
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Always?? Not at all, sometimes the reverse. E.g. POD products got bigger until finally the very small one came.
 
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vAmp said:
Always?? Not at all, sometimes the reverse. E.g. POD products got bigger until finally the very small one came.
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Well, ergonomy and miniaturization are not the same. You can't make things smaller that needs to be controlled by feet or hands by a certain level. That might be the reason why the POD products got bigger... though I always felt they had way too much unused space and could be made much smaller and lighter (the pod HD is ridicolously huge, seriously).

Practically spoken, you still can make things smaller without dropping the ergonomy aspect: by changing the overall control concept.
I could imagine the Axe looking like a tablet PC (well ... maybe not, thanks to the outdated cable standards, but with build-in wireless connection, it could work).

Basicly a tablet with a (working) Axe-Edit with the processors of the Axe, with an included wireless system. Now that would be awesome.

For the floorboards, things get more complicated, as we do need pedals and switches... but maybe ... maybe not? It might be weird, but there are possibilities that go without actually having to touch anything. Kinda like the way a theremin works ... just with feet control - or by using Laser-triangulation, detecting the distance of your feet to a sensor.
Or a remote control-pick...

Now that I think about it... that would be extremely weird. Maybe stick to the huge ground boards, but the Axe itself could be a tablet. ;)
 
joeltc1 said:
How do you set the Art-I have one and think I'll try it with my Ultra? Thanks in advance.
Cheers,
Joel
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there is just input/output , i adjut it to not overload the rear input and that's ok

SarasotaSwing said:
I've got one of those little things as well. How do you have it hooked up? Your explanation wasn't clear. Guitar===>ART===>rear input?
Click to expand...

yes .

i know front input works for most of user, so i must be wrong :) but i prefer use axe fx this way, it works better for me.
 
Just received my Axe II, there is A LOT more going on here then the Standard you had or the Ultra I just sold last week. Personally after taking a quick look at all the extra parameters and options it's clear that I have some more learning to do. Not to mention the little extra something going on with the tone... It seems kind of silly to be on the fence because of future Axe versions but 10 days should be plenty of time to figure out if you are willing to take the chance.
 
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