Countdown 0.5...

Robboman said:
Speculating is good sport. It's fun, I like it. Here's my guess.

It will be an Axe-PC / AxeFx-Lite hybrid. :idea

... (etc)
Click to expand...

This 'countdown' hype is huge. Even Cliff said "it's big news, deserving of a countdown".

So I'm updating my previous guess. I now predict that in a few days we will see the announcement of a whole new line of Axe hardware. :) Multiple products. One will be similar to my previous guess, another will be the all-new high-end flagship Ultra killer. Possibly some products in-between. The current Standard and Ultra will be retired. :(

Here's my arguments why:

Cliff's passion is designing software (effects and modelling algorithms). This is what makes the Axe so great. Yet the business is all about selling boxes (to run the software).

Why NOT have new and better boxes to sell?

Cliff designed the original Axe hardware and assembled units himself in the early days because he was a one-man startup. Later he jobbed out assembly to an American CM. THEN he hooked up with Tom King/Atomic, who already had a relationship with a Chinese contract manufacturer. Eventually the long-promised MFC-101 came out. Guess what, it's 'Designed in America' (hence.. not 'made' in America). Just like the Atomic stuff.

What if Cliff could sell a new box with more features at a lower retail price while keeping or increasing his margin? This is easily achievable with Chinese CM. FAR less costly in quantity, no reason quality should suffer when built to Cliff's specs.

Axe-Lite and Axe-Floorboard are pretty obvious good ideas for new customers in the sub $1000 market, but it would also make sense to have a new Ultra. If it's more capable than the Ultra, many of us hardcore users will line up for it immediately. We're a pretty big market of extremely satisfied customers. Many of us have money to upgrade, we just need the product available.

BTW.. I predict USB and Axe-PC functionality will be built in to every new model. I believe the lack of USB is the real reason Axe-Edit is still beta. No matter how good Axe-Edit software is, it will always appear slow, buggy and laggy when controlling an Axe-Fx over the dog-slow 30-yr-old MIDI protocol. It's a perception problem, lots of people won't know it's MIDI's fault, they'll just wonder why their Line 6 editor is so smoking fast while Axe-Edit is so slow. USB fixes this, and I believe also makes an Axe-Fx VST plugin possible without threat of piracy (the VST core will only run on the Axe DSP and talk to the DAW over USB)
 
AndrewSimon said:
Just an FYI... unless you allow international buyers on your auction
it will most likely NOT sell for that price!


:! :! :!
Click to expand...
I did allow for international (I think!)... that's the only reason I have the BIN for that price... the dollar sucks compared to the euro.

Edit: Thanks for the info... just updated it to allow for International... I hope I did it right.
 
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You know what would really be awesome? An Axe Edit 1.0 that includes your own virtual amp workshop; you can design any amp you want by putting in virtual components, etc. That would be unreal!
 
Robboman said:
What if Cliff could sell a new box with more features at a lower retail price while keeping or increasing his margin? This is easily achievable with Chinese CM. FAR less costly in quantity, no reason quality should suffer when built to Cliff's specs.
Click to expand...

Cliff stated several times, that he believes in a strong home economy, keeping jobs and pay inside the U.S. I doubt, this has changed.
The Atomic amplifiyers are quite different: while Cliff and Tom worked together on them, they are still produced by Atomic and probably by asian manufacturers that were partners of Atomic prior to teaming up with Fractal Audio.
Of course I can be wrong but that's my view on the subject at the moment.

No matter how good Axe-Edit software is, it will always appear slow, buggy and laggy when controlling an Axe-Fx over the dog-slow 30-yr-old MIDI protocol. It's a perception problem, lots of people won't know it's MIDI's fault, they'll just wonder why their Line 6 editor is so smoking fast while Axe-Edit is so slow.
Click to expand...

Actually that's not MIDI's fault (from what I know), but its often poor implementation.
Most of the (consumer grade) usb-midi interfaces are designed to handle just basic stuff: sending/receiving PCs and CCs, and MIDI notes (for synth work).
Additionally, the standard usb-midi driver by Microsoft is not the best, to say the least, opening the door to more possible problems.
I agree that a proper computer connection for editing patches and updates/backups would be good to have (although I don't use the editor and never had problems with the latter).
But I'm glad the Axe does have a big MIDI implementation (actually "huge" if you count in sysex), because it's THE standard interface for controlling various musical devices.

Seb
 
I can't remember the gearbox to be more quick with the pod xt than the Axe-Edit.


Just to say...who find this logical?
iconjm.jpg

Unread : the letter is open
Read : it is closed

:?::?:
 
mba said:
I can't remember the gearbox to be more quick with the pod xt than the Axe-Edit.


Just to say...who find this logical?
iconjm.jpg

Unread : the letter is open
Read : it is closed

:?::?:
Click to expand...
You have yours setup for French... that's why it's all a$$ backwards... ;) :D
 
Robboman said:
This 'countdown' hype is huge. Even Cliff said "it's big news, deserving of a countdown".

So I'm updating my previous guess. I now predict that in a few days we will see the announcement of a whole new line of Axe hardware. :) Multiple products. One will be similar to my previous guess, another will be the all-new high-end flagship Ultra killer. Possibly some products in-between. The current Standard and Ultra will be retired. :(

Here's my arguments why:

Cliff's passion is designing software (effects and modelling algorithms). This is what makes the Axe so great. Yet the business is all about selling boxes (to run the software).

Why NOT have new and better boxes to sell?

Cliff designed the original Axe hardware and assembled units himself in the early days because he was a one-man startup. Later he jobbed out assembly to an American CM. THEN he hooked up with Tom King/Atomic, who already had a relationship with a Chinese contract manufacturer. Eventually the long-promised MFC-101 came out. Guess what, it's 'Designed in America' (hence.. not 'made' in America). Just like the Atomic stuff.

What if Cliff could sell a new box with more features at a lower retail price while keeping or increasing his margin? This is easily achievable with Chinese CM. FAR less costly in quantity, no reason quality should suffer when built to Cliff's specs.

Axe-Lite and Axe-Floorboard are pretty obvious good ideas for new customers in the sub $1000 market, but it would also make sense to have a new Ultra. If it's more capable than the Ultra, many of us hardcore users will line up for it immediately. We're a pretty big market of extremely satisfied customers. Many of us have money to upgrade, we just need the product available.

BTW.. I predict USB and Axe-PC functionality will be built in to every new model. I believe the lack of USB is the real reason Axe-Edit is still beta. No matter how good Axe-Edit software is, it will always appear slow, buggy and laggy when controlling an Axe-Fx over the dog-slow 30-yr-old MIDI protocol. It's a perception problem, lots of people won't know it's MIDI's fault, they'll just wonder why their Line 6 editor is so smoking fast while Axe-Edit is so slow. USB fixes this, and I believe also makes an Axe-Fx VST plugin possible without threat of piracy (the VST core will only run on the Axe DSP and talk to the DAW over USB)
Click to expand...

Judging by the 2+ year wait from the announcement of the MFC until it's actual availability, I doubt very much that any major hardware is released before a similar time span

And concerning USB vs. MIDI, it's really not the case. Unless Line 6 has changed anything recently they were still using USB to MIDI hardware for the XTLive and Variax. From what I saw it's not "smoking fast" and the idea that MIDI is inherently slow because it's "old" is flawed. It's bandwidth limited, but not inherently slow. Otherwise you couldn't use a MIDI sound module in real time.
 
tube buffered input with level meter
usb
axe edit v1
partner with redwirez or ownhammer
more cab slots and nameable
new ergonomics/real knobs
color display

floorboard model

bye bye
 
urrrrr is it possible they are delaying ultras in the shopping cart out of good will of a new product coming out!??!?! :(

hope that doesn't come across as offensive ,,,I maybe didnt word it right
 
It will be the new Axe-FX iPhone app... 100+ amplifiers/cabinets/mics in your pocket...

...it will also allow you to download IR's via SMS, and it will automatically link to your bank account and email Eddie a 50c royalty payment each time you play 'Eruption' via the 'Brown Sound' preset...
 
mba said:
Firmware 11, major improvment :_ a clock

digital-clock_v1.0.jpg
Click to expand...

That would be cool except for the fact that every time you power up the Axe at the beginning of a gig, it would be flashing '12:00'. Even Cliff's not smart enough to write an algorithm to get around that. They've been working on a solution for this very problem at NASA for decades. Your tax dollars hard at work.

Quote most used by NASA Engineers: "Does anybody REALLY know what time it is?"
 
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Has anyone else noticed..no Axe Fx ad in Guitar World (June issue). I think this points towards replacement of the Axe fx hardware units
 
I'm pretty sure its because he didn't want any. Apparently he was talked into doing them before when he initially declined because of the high demand and low supply.
 
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