Tubes or not
I love tubes and I love my Ultra. I do find that for the Fender Twin clean in the room sound, I can't quite get there with my Ultra and that is a really great sound to me. It's like the best vanilla, making a fantastic base for many other sounds. I'm not clear whether my inability to get the Fender Twin clean sound is a reflection on the Ultra or my amplification system (RCF 310As at the moment), but I'll be delighted if the II gets me closer.
The inspiration of which some have spoken comes from different places for different people. For some, it's in the availability of many sounds. for others, it's in one basic sound that allows the technique in one's hands and mind to be the huge variable. Others like both. I fall into the both camp. I love the gorgeous Fender clean sounds, but I also love some gainy and highly effected tones.
I also don't yet see the decline of tubes yet. Every time I walk into GC, I see another newly released tube amp or few. At the lower end of the price spectrum, people still hear the fundamental difference between whatever Line 6's basic tones are and a comparably priced tube amp. The Line 6 can do 1000 things ok and even a moderately priced tube amp might do several really well. An Axe Fx rig to compete with a $5-600 tube amp is WAY more expensive. It's also obviously infinitely more versatile.
I'll be buying an Axe Fx II the minute I can get my hands on one. I love the sound of the Ultra and agree with the person who said 75% of the time he's got an easier time getting a great tone through all the wires of recording than by trying to mic up an amp. Whatever sound I'm going for, the Axe sounds really good recorded and in a PA. It sounds good regardless of venue and regardless of stage volume. It keeps my bandmates happy and my hearing in better shape.
I'm not concerned about "fooling people" into thinking it's a tube amp. I still have more tube amps than fingers and toes, but if I had to give them all up to get a new Axe Fx II, I probably would. I hear it recorded and it sounds great to me. I've definitely reached the convenience/benefit tipping point with the Axe though I haven't yet convinced myself to sell all my tube stuff. It also feels as responsive in a way that a tube rig only does at one perfect and ever elusive volume.
On the computer front, I deal with PCs as IT guy at work and I own 2 Macbook Pros. I'd bailed on Mac when they switched to OSX because I had so much $ invested in OS 9 stuff and PC seemed so much cheaper for the same functionality. I lost 100s of hours to that thinking. I recently got the Macbook Pro 15" quadcore and it's fantastic. The thing about my Macs is that the huge majority of the time they just do what I want them to do. Cliff is totally right about the audio subsystem, too. With a Mac out of the box, if you buy any functional usb midi keyboard or guitar controller, plug it into any VI in Garage Band and start playing, using only the built-in audio, you will get playable latency audio. It's not as low as with my Fireface UFX, but I'd guess 10 ms or better. On a Windows machine, first you'd have to buy some software to make sounds, then when you plugged in your usb keyboard, you'd find the latency completely unusable without buying a good interface.
I think the reason I feel so much more affection for my Macs that my PCs is because I've felt so frustrated with the 100s of hours spent configuring PCs to do what my Macs do with almost no fuss, particularly in the world of audio/midi.
We're spoiled for choices right now.
Mike
