Axe-fx 2 for the aussies!!!

rickgk said:
got mine yesterday, played with it till very late last night, my expectations were a bit too high i think.
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My first impression was blah also. The factory presets are pretty average IMO. Now I've made my own and uploaded IRs I like, I am very impressed with the unit (except for a few bugs). I played guitar for 7 hours today :)

Still love my ultra tho. The 2 units differ far more than I expected.
 
Unfortunately it will be difficult to describe the difference without reverting to ambiguous terms such as 'beef', 'gravy', or 'sex.' I got my ultra at FW 7 and have never understood the hype associated with firmware updates, in regards to the amp modelling supposedly sounding "so much better". IMO they were all extremely subtle, except for the addition of new parameters which enabled more flexibility (I am only talking about the amp modelling itself here). In that light I was expecting the 'new sound' of the axe 2 to be another overly hyped FW update (obviously with significantly improved hardware and update possibilities, hence why I bought it). The recordings of the 2 floating around don't sound any better to me either. In that light, I was very surprised to find that the two units actually behave very differently. I will point out that in terms the of amp modelling only, at this (early) stage I have no preference of one over the other. And here comes the BS that will vary from ear to ear…

The 2 seems to me to feel 'thicker' in general. This may sound ridiculous, but it seemed almost like I'd moved up a string gauge. Sorta like when a fat man eats more doughnuts. Theres an inherent tonal obesity I cant quite put my finger on. The master volume is also very different. The axe 1 sounded like a nicely cranked tube amp. If you crank the 2 it sounds like a tube amp thats about to explode, so you need to be more careful with the MV. Of course, the 2 has way more advanced parameters to play with if you can be bothered.

That said, (so far) it seems to lack the futuristic super slick hi-fi note definition that the ultra has, and I love that about the ultra. I am going to try and convert some ultra patches and see how close it can get. If not, my rack will be getting fatter too!
 
thanks for the reviews!

very interesting! I think I will keep my ultra regardless as a backup
looking forward to the results on converting the ultra patches to, let us know how it goes!
 
After spending an hour with my Axe 2 last night i have to agree with antcarrier, there is definitely a noticeably 'thicker' feel to the tones in the Axe 2. I am actually quite stunned at the difference between the Ultra and the 2. Presets and amp models that I could never quite get to to my liking on the Ultra like 'Wrecker' and 'Buttery' are blowing me away on the 2, I could sit and play with either of those models, particularly the wrecker, for hours. And i like the Plexi a lot more on the 2. I have barely begun to set up my own presets but with the small amount of customising I did last night I can see it will be much quicker and easier to dial in the type of tones that took me many hours on the Ultra. FYI, I am using an Atomic Reactor cab for amplification.
 
I'm not having as much fun as you guys, i am really only noticing an improvement in the clean to mid gain tones, but on the high gain tones i am getting low end flub and high end nastiness that i could only really describe as making it digital sounding (don't kill me for uttering that word)

I could see how some might call it thicker sounding but for me on the high gain tones this is flub not thickness.

I could also see how people describe it as higher definition than the ultra, because it has more top and bottom end, but i don't necessarily think that's good for guitar especially going direct or recording direct.

This is my opinion coming from the Ultra that i had for 2 years, admittedly i haven't had the ultra for over 5 months and iv'e been using s-gear software in the meantime but i was expecting to be blown away but that's not the case at all.

I am hearing nasty frequencies in the top and bottom end that I did not notice with the ultra nor the s-gear. Having said that for those plugging into a poweramp and cab this would not be an issue.

I haven't written it off yet but i think i am close.
 
I don't have an AF2 so can't really help much, but these problems are dealt with in real amps and other modellers by firstly not using more overdrive than you need (reduce drive it until it sounds wrong, then add a bit), then reduce low end flub by reducing bass before the amp (make it up afterwards if necessary), and high end nastiness can be reduced with a little mid boost after the amp and what's left eliminated with a high end blocking filter after the amp. Might help :)
 
GM Arts said:
I don't have an AF2 so can't really help much, but these problems are dealt with in real amps and other modellers by firstly not using more overdrive than you need (reduce drive it until it sounds wrong, then add a bit), then reduce low end flub by reducing bass before the amp (make it up afterwards if necessary), and high end nastiness can be reduced with a little mid boost after the amp and what's left eliminated with a high end blocking filter after the amp. Might help :)
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Yep I am aware of all that from owning the ultra but as an example, preset no.25 pvh6160 altered so the drive is at 11oclock, bass rolled ALL the way off and 63dialled all the way off in the eq, and master at 2.59 shouldn't sound woofy and lack definition on the bass strings using a bridge humbucker.
 
The high gain factory presets are extremely flub flub flub. I agree with Rick in that the 2 does flub out much faster than the 1, and you need to be far more careful in finding a good balance of drive and MV. However I haven't had any trouble getting unflubby tight high gain sounds with a simple amp -> cab patch, using all the standard tricks such as raising low cut, lowering bass, gain and MV. Also presence and bright increase gain, so you can turn those up and turn drive down to get a tighter sound. Not quite as tight as the ultra, but tight nonetheless. So far I have achieved best results by copying the final 'BYPASS' preset and starting afresh, using farfield IRs. To be honest I don't like the factory presets enough to be bothered trying to fix them.
 
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I'm hearing you ant, I am sure I can do the same with all the tricks and a parametric, I guess i was expecting not to have to do so after everything I have read on the forum about the 2.
Most have said here that the basic amp tones require far less tweaking and are more true to the original amps, but I can't imagine having to turn bass down to zero on a real 5150 and still have flub, same issue with the plexi normal preset, the woof is crazy.
Then I plug into the s-gear and the tone is there with almost no tweaking, everything is sitting where it should in the eq spectrum and all I have to think about is what I need to add eq wise to improve the tone not what I need to get rid of because things sound wrong.
 
I never owned or played or even seen a fractal product, but are you guys putting a low pass and high pass filter on your settings? theres alot of freqencies there that arent needed.
Hey rickgk, if you decide its not for you I will take it off your hands :D
 
Interesting. Like you say most comments I've read state the exact opposite about the II; the factory presets sound awesome and the bass is nice and tight.

Cheers.
 
Is anyone able to use the USB recording function in conjunction with their existing audio interface?
I use an mbox2 to record vocals and feed my studio monitors, it seems that if I want to use the USB to record I have to switch to the axe2 drivers which means I can no longer feed the monitors unless I plug them into the axe2 which is a major hassle.
I've tried the asio4all drivers but they introduce alot of latency.
The USB recording function was my main reason for switching to the axe2, but it hasn't worked out to be useful so far. I can see it being really handy for using as a portable solution with a laptop though.
 
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