AXE FX 2 - gave up trying to make this work in a live situation :(

And ofcourse another thing is that we guitarists have been gigging for years if not decades with real tube amps and are used to the "sound in the room" (which is ofcourse easily possible with the Axe-Fx and a cab and power amp) but personally I hadn't really been gigging for a long time before getting into modeling so I much prefer the studio quality tone live that cuts through and also lets me hear other band members better. Amp in the room will have a lot more low end and reverb ofcourse which are things that are hard to model and at least IMO stupid to try and model since a FOH will always have natural room/reverb qualities. Running real amps live always lead to me never hearing our vocalists and me being someone who is singing half of the lyrics anyways I can't hear myself if I have my Orange rig with me on smaller club gigs. :D But ofcourse this is once again about what we're accustomed to.
 
My Ultra/QSC rig with Jay's IR's does really act like a 1x12 or 2x12 cab without any problems. The only problem is that I don't have too many IRs :)

Jens
 
vexamatic said:
Also interesting is that someone like Steve Vai does exactly the opposite of what you do. He's brought his Axe Fx II out as his main touring rig and adds a few additional pedals to his effects chain. I believe he uses the Axe through his effects loops (four cable config?) but I'm not positive on that. In the studio, he prefers to use the real thing and only does a few recordings using the Axe Fx. There is nothing like the real thing just yet perhaps, but using the Axe does hold the promise of lugging around less gear, that's for sure. Quicker setups, tear downs and all that. Only you know what's right for you, and its about art, which has no other right answer, except for what's right for you.
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Steve Vai uses the Axe FX for effects only live, in the FX loops of his real amps, and still uses his Jemini pedal, wah, and old whammy pedal.
 
My eyeballs are still waiting for the editor. I haven't begun to tweek anything and I have had this thing sitting for two months. "soon" I was told. What ever.

I bought the A-2 to copy cover tunes. I cant get all the different guitar tones from my old Marshall and cab with stomps.

If some tallented A-2 user were to build a library of presets from country to blues to rock, and sell them for a buck each, they would get rich quick. If , of course they were acurate.
 
With my experience I found the Fryette power amp solved my amp in room problem. I've made presets that work with my guitar cabs and I have presets that work with a frfr setup.
The frfr is by far more versatile and when tweaked enough it satisfies my need for amp in a room, however nothing will satisfy the need for me to actually possess the amp other than the obvious.

The unit does have a learning curve. You can get up and running quick but depending on what you want and how much is up to the time you decide to put in. It may be that it will never duplicate your dream tone but
you are almost guaranteed to get your money's worth out all the features it provides and such a great community to boot.
 
Hey OP and Fellow Albertan!

I read your post and was right with you all the way up to this part, which was opposite of my experience:
axecellent said:
so, then I decided to go the "power amp" and 4x12 cab route and I went out and bought a Matrix Gt1500FXBD to power my marshall 4x12 cab...no go.
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I'm really surprised here. I've found I can completely dead-on NAIL the tone and feel of the amps I own using the Axe-Fx II and Matrix (GT1000) into the same guitar cabs. Then once I've nailed it.. I can fine tune things in the Axe that are not possible with the real amp and wind up with something even better.

No doubt my amps are different than yours, but I have done pretty extensive A/B comparisons with my stuff. I like to do this a few times a year to baseline and make sure I'm keeping it real with my Axe-Fx rig. Especially with the latest dynamics stuff in the Axe there is just simply no compromise anymore.

That said.. it took time to get comfortable. When I first got an Ultra back in 2008 I jumped right into FRFR and really wanted it to work. I already had some nice EV active monitors but I even went out and bought a QSC HPR12 (the box Scott P. was using at the time). In the end FRFR live for me was, as you say.. no go. But using my real cabs has been going REALLY well, for a long time now.

There was and still is rather a lot of hype on this forum for new users to go FR for live right away. IMO, any gigging guitarist coming to an Axe-Fx after using tube amp\cab\pedals should start out by using the same cab powered by a nice SS amp like a Matrix. It's just a whole lot simpler, consistent and easier to satisfy your own ears quickly - given what you are familiar with.

Good luck whichever way you go!
 
To me, the greatest feature of the Axe II is the DI, grab & go live, no amp, no cab, only stage monitors. I have a room full of amps really more for reference tone and noodling now and use the Axe rig for the stage. Suggest you find one or two amps that you like, leave all the settings as per factory but adjust the EQ slightly. I find through the FRFR's that only the top end needs to be raised slightly and drop the mids just a touch and this gets me where I need to be. The other thing important is to get the output levels to be close. Set these two amps up in a Scene mode and concentrate on these. You can get totally lost in the Axe II by trying to audition them all. You have to be less concerned about what the amp model/cab IR is, rather that what dials up the tone you like. Stick with it and good luck.
 
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