Apparent UI Complaints

Those people obviously never tried to program an Eventide rack unit

Or an old Roland JV-2080 synth in Performance mode or a Yamaha A3000 sampler... the Fractal UI is logical and not very difficult to manage. Utilizing the PgUp/PgDn shortcuts in the 'Advanced' pages speeds thing up.
 
I gave my Axe to my bandmate for a week so he could record some guitar parts for a demo we're working on. He's somewhat my opposite in that he doesn't like to spend a lot of time tweaking, particularly in the digital domain. His own amp is a H&K Switchblade 100, with a reverb pedal in front, that's it.

I spent half an hour to connect everything, install the drivers, FractalBot, Axe-Edit, and to set up the session in Reaper to record both his dry and processed guitar signal. The next half hour was about which buttons/menus and knobs on the front panel are important (basically, Tuner and I/O to set his input level correctly), and how to build a Drive/Amp/Cab/effect chain in Axe-Edit. The rest of the evening was spent drinking beer and playing Dark Souls. :)

One week later my Axe came back (unharmed), since he finished recording having dialed in 3 distinct sounds which are probably 95% there of what we would use for mixing. Certainly not bad for someone completely new to the Axe, so I'd say that speaks in the UI's favor.

Explaining the front panel probably wouldn't have worked though, I'm not sure either of us would have the patience for that. ;) I can work with it just fine (and often do during rehearsals), but it's certainly less intuitive than Axe-Edit.
 
Yeah, silly thread.

Axe Edit exists for a reason.

It bears noting that these other products have a sh!tload less *stuff* to put on the screen. Sure, it takes a bit of learning, but IMO the focus is where it should be: on the guts, not 'pretty pictures'.
 
I think that I am one of the rare few who read the manual for the Axe-fx before i bought it. I am not saying it all sunk it, but I at least RTFM'd before I started criticizing things.
^This +1.

Reading the manual beforehand and lurking on this forum made a big impact on my decision to buy an Axe Fx. I pretty much knew how to operate it before I even made the decision to buy it.

The learning curve? It was just down to reading a pdf during some bathroom business sessions. This was without even owning an Axe at the time. Could it be simpler? Yes, but only if you strip away a lot of the features and water down the degree of tweakability.

I do miss the melty face, though.
 
I don't know about Helix, but i think what people mean when they say that KPA is easier isn't so much about the UI itself, it's more about the ease of getting a usable tone. You get a profile you like and, basically, you're done. There's somewhat more work involved with the Axe FX, it's much more flexible, but the flipside of this flexibility is complexity.

The are lots of people who just need one button and one knob, and a few tones with a few effects. For them, Axe FX may be overkill.
 
These posts seem to relate to the UI for programming, not for live playing. For me the UI is more important when playing. I'm learning my way around the UI for the AX8. It's doable, but I prefer AxeEdit. Anyone who can't figure out the UI on the small screen for programming just hasn't bothered to learn how to use it. Plus the dedicated amp knobs help a lot.

But for live use, the Helix UI works much better for me. And I'm now getting sounds out of the Helix that are as good sounding as the AX8 and the feel is the same to me. I'm keeping the AX8 as it has a lot more content and I'm sure I'll come up against something on the Helix that just doesn't cut it. I will also say that it took a lot of fussing with the Helix to get it to sound like have it. I pretty much threw in the towel a couple of weeks ago and started over. The AX8 was pretty much spot on right out of the box. No dialing out nasty sounds. Huge variety of sounds. Etc... It's a good time to play guitar and try modeling!
 
I don't know about Helix, but i think what people mean when they say that KPA is easier isn't so much about the UI itself, it's more about the ease of getting a usable tone. You get a profile you like and, basically, you're done. There's somewhat more work involved with the Axe FX, it's much more flexible, but the flipside of this flexibility is complexity.

The are lots of people who just need one button and one knob, and a few tones with a few effects. For them, Axe FX may be overkill.

I disagree.
After owning both products for several months and comparing them back and forth, It's was much more difficult to find a sound I liked with the Kemper.
I sold the Kemper and am a happy Axe Fx owner.
I have no problems with any of the Axe UI's. Front Panel , Axe Edit or MFC
Just because the settings options are there doesn't mean you have to use them.
I went through each Amp page, one at a time.
Turned all the knobs to see if they made it sound better or worse.
With quantum I rarely leave the "Basic" amp page.

Haters gonna hate
Complainers gonna complain

I couldn't be happier.
 
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Haters gonna hate
Complainers gonna complain

I couldn't be happier.

Just in case, I'm not complaining. :) I personally love all these knobs and options. But I also know that our second guitar player and our bass player will never be able to figure out how to set up the AFX, and are really put off by the process. So I set up their presets. They love the result. But hate the way to get there. This device can overwhelm at first encounter, and not everybody has the motivation to investigate and learn further. I know it took me quite a while to set up usable presets for myself.

I don't think it's an issue where you can agree or disagree. It's just a fact of life that people have different requirements and expectations with regard to what a "simple" UI is and even whether "simple" is a good thing.

Axe-Change could've been a way to alleviate this problem, but, unfortunately, at its current state, it isn't.
 
Do most people really find the UI itself difficult to learn? Or is it just the TGP community?

I'd say the other units' UIs are far easier to grasp right out of the gate with almost zero learning curve.

I'd also say that nobody listens to the UI.

And no, it's not just TGP. Or shills that may or may not lurk therein.
 
Vangrieg,
I didn't mean to imply that you are one of the complainers.
I agree that different people have different requirements.
No matter what the UI design, someone will find fault with it.
I wonder if some folks just buy it sight unseen.
With this great forum and all the tutorial videos from Chris and Cooper, shouldn't you understand what you are purchasing?
Maybe they don't even own it and are complaining...
In any case, this is "THE BEST" guitar product from "THE BEST" company, during in my 50 plus year lifetime.
Cheers mate
 
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I agree with the OP, all the talk about "learning curve", WTF? Makes me feel like an effin' genius! I really love the UI, and front panel editing on my XL and AX8!

Just RTFM! (and watch Chris and Cooper's videos):D

PS- The "Green Screen" on a stage is FAS' unique signature!
 
I wonder if some folks just buy it sight unseen.

Yes, of course! A lot of people buy things without any investigation whatsoever, even expensive ones. And then whose fault is it when the product is in some respect not what they imagined? Well, not them for sure. :)

To a certain degree, this is understandable. It's not that easy to try Axe FX before you buy, and distribution is limited, especially if you're outside the US. So a lot of purchases are rather blind. Then musicians generally aren't the most tech savvy people, and reading manuals before purchasing gear just isn't a common habit. So they hear that it can do any kind of sound, and go for it. Obviously, getting the sound they have in mind isn't really automatic, so there's room for disappointment right there. Partly its because the current model of distribution of IRs sucks, by the way. It's not something FAS controls but it's something that hurts them for sure.
 
The Helix user interface is absolutely beautiful. It's 100% intuitive and easy as I've ever seen the face of a digital product. Designated Tonestack knobs and super easy parameter control. The kemper is also laid out in a seemingly easier format. The is obviously why fractal copied Kempers designated knob.
The axefx is different in so many ways. It is designed to allow the user to reach EVERY SINGLE FACET of your sound. After going through pages and pages of options it just makes other UIs seem lazy.. For many, this is a rabbit hole that takes a long time to fully comprehend, much less utilize. It can be hard at first to dive in and use the axefx as it should be as soon as you would a Helix. That's a promise.
All that being said I wouldn't trade my AxefxII for all the tea in China...Unless there was an AxefxII+ in that tea stash..!
Btw I own both. The helix is easier for me for my sit-in pedalboard and what I would se if someone wanted to use my fly rig live. I've been able to fully make presets onstage at the gig with helix. No can do with the fractal. Do I need to? No, Because I've spent weeks upon weeks dialing in my AxefxII.

Anyone who wants to diss the obvious usability of the Helix is just a hater. It's a great unit. Period. Axefx is in a whole other ballpark tho... Life changer.
 
I think that I am one of the rare few who read the manual for the Axe-fx before i bought it. I am not saying it all sunk it, but I at least RTFM'd before I started criticizing things.

Yeah, while I was gathering the money for the unit, I must've read the user's manual ten times through, just drooling, so by the time I got it, it was pretty much plug and play. Not that it isn't plug and play anyway, because of all the great presets, but I mean editing was no big deal.
 
Honestly, the hardest part of the Axe's front-panel UI for me to get right on the first try is connector creation and deletion in the matrix. The rest is incredibly obvious.
 
I don't know about Helix, but i think what people mean when they say that KPA is easier isn't so much about the UI itself, it's more about the ease of getting a usable tone. You get a profile you like and, basically, you're done.


Well, as someone who owns both an AFX and a KPA, I can say that your assessment doesn't ring true.

Your claim that getting a good sound from the KPA is a simple matter of finding a profile that one likes is correct, of course. But exactly how does one find that particular profile?

I've played a fair number of profiles; even ones that should sound similar to one another can be all over the map. I've downloaded and purchased profiles that have sounded nothing like what I've expected. Mind you: there are good profiles out there; they're far from all being wild misses. All I'm saying is that finding "a profile you like" is way easier to type than it is to do.
 
No difficulties whenever, since 2010 (or was it 2011) ? Howbeit, anything can get more perfect, there was some post about redistributing certain parameter on other pages that was not bad...but nothing that would refrain me from preferring Axe Edit to the panel interface for editing.
 
I use my Axe solely for recording. The only time I ever touched the units UI was to set me input levels. Ever since all of my programming has been done through Axe Edit. being that I do not gig anymore, I don't ever see a time when I would program from the unit itself. With that said, I don't think I would have a problem with the units UI other than getting use to some parameters being in a different location than they are in axe edit.
 
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