Axe-FX PC (again)

[zenaxe]

As far as software goes, I'd love to be able to load up my old copies of Ultima or Wing Commander on modern day Windows machines, unfortunately the company that made them is long gone and no updates to be had. If Fractal went belly up tomorrow, we'd still have our AxeFX's (though no more firmware updates). If this happened, I suppose eventually you might run into a situation where spare parts are no longer available, but given the choice, give me hardware! When the AxeFX 3 comes out, I can always sell my AxeFX II for decent money to help finance the AxeFX 3, so in a sense the AxeFX 3 would come with "upgrade pricing" for me.

While I agree with virtually all your points: if you are looking for new legal copies of the Origin games, they are in fact available and playable on modern PCs. Go to GOG.com. They are awesome. They sell officially licensed, DRM-free digital only versions of many games, and they use virtualization of old x86 hardware (via DOSBox) such that the games run properly on overpowered hardware. In fact the DOS games are, ironically, supported on the Mac as well. /end unrelated content.

 

[Tuco]

Wow, I can feel the tension. OP just asked a question.

I've lurked here for years, and I've never understood why people here get so pissed off at simple questions.

I also have to agree that latency, and general mac/pc issues are unimportant. Especially since your average user will most likely be using it in the studio as a reamping tool. But I also think it could easily be sold as a companion product, only available to Axe-FX hardware users.

As far as piracy, it's not beyond reality to pirate the software currently within the hardware Axe-FX. But honestly, with all the companies out there with software only modelers that are NOT going under due to piracy, I'd have to believe that it's an overstated issue.

Unless there are posts which were removed by the mods, I'm not sensing any particular hostility toward the OP. What I am seeing are people explaining why they think it would be a tough nut to crack. Yet the OP keeps poking. Is it his/her right to poke? Certainly, she/he should be able to satisfy his/her curiosity about the subject; it's part of the reason why there's a forum here.

It would be a nightmare for FAS to try to support all kinds of hardware combinations / quality or the lack there off.
And peoples computer problems would be mixed up with problems with the software. I've been working with support
for years in different environments, the user always claim they are innocent, and they hardly ever admits to have done anything wrong.

And the more they think they know the worse they will screw up, and then they just turn around and bad mouth whatever software
or hardware manufacterer they "believe" is responsible for their problems, when in fact they are more often than not responsible themselves.


By controlling the hardware and the user interactivity with the software and hardware, FAS eliminate a gazillion potential problems.

Not trying to bash your idea, only expressing my 2 cents

^This.

Fractal is a small company. They have a specific business model that keeps them profitable (hopefully), as a small company. Their current customer support is part of this small company. I can't even begin to imagine how much larger their customer support staff would have to be to support an Axe software (and you know he ain't gonna outsource it to India).

And the forum headaches for Cliff would be a nightmare. Were you here for the rollout of AxeFx II or AxeEdit 3? There were a lot of people who nakedly displayed the dark side of their (entitled) personalities with complaints, insults, and threats, when they found they couldn't get their hands on these products right away. Imagine what these types of people would do when a software Axe wouldn't function well on a cheesy or outdated PC.

Cliff is a bright guy, and if he thought a software Axe would work, he would do it.

 

[laxu]

Honestly I don't think a hardware device controlled entirely by Axe-Edit (or MIDI controller of choice) would be a bad thing at all. It keeps CPU usage down while providing a compact, easily carryable device. Similar to an audio interface, maybe a tad larger. The smaller size because they wouldn't have to cram anything except output volume controls on the front.

Software becomes obsolete in exactly the same way hardware does. The difference is that you only delete files rather than have to get rid of a device.

 

[Alexis]

NO, just one word: PIRACY

 

[guitarjim]

I'm not sure I agree that the lifecycle cost would be cheaper. I look at what I paid for the Axe and what I pay for maintenance (ZERO) and compare that to what I pay to maintain something like the Adobe Creative Suite and I spend a lot more on Adobe. The Adobe suite is about $1,000 and each year they put out a new version that is about $400 for the upgrade. Now the are switching to a $49 per month model for everything, I know, but I'm trying to make this an apples-to-apples comparison.

Anyway, the longer you wait to upgrade, like if you skip a version, the value of your current version degrades and you pay more for the upgrade. if you skip two upgrades, you have to purchase a new suite. On the other hand, I have the Axe FX, which I paid more for, but which will provide value for many years and continually improves with FREE upgrades. Sure, at some point, there will be a new platform, and I'll have to buy a new unit if I want to stay current; but at that point, my worst case scenario is that I'm stuck with the system as it exists at that time for the rest of my life. Frankly, if that were to happen today, and I was stuck with 13.02 for the rest of my life, I think I'd be okay, but I know there are still many improvements coming before that day exists. With Adobe, I know that at some point, my version (I'm two versions behind current) will no longer support a new operating system and it is going to be rendered useless.

It's debatable, I guess, but it doesn't sound like the situation would be much better financially with a software solution. I mean if you think that somehow the updates would be $50 or something, you might be right, but given the huge support costs that have already been discussed here, I'm thinking the financial model would have to be something more akin to Adobe's.

Just MHO, of course.

 

[nixerx]

I like the set top box option better than a PC version. Taking piracy out of the equation, the coders can focus on the chosen platform and optimize it and optimize that. If the crack team of coders at FAS had to worry about windows Versions and OSX versions of the simulation portion i bet wed see less quality FW releases.

IMO