First impressions of the Axe II and NEED HELP QUICK !!!!

Give it time, definitely. Don't judge the AxeFX II based solely on presets. Presets are just starting points. Even though the presets are much better in the II than the older AxeFX's, they're still just someone else's impressions. My favorite tones have been created by going into a preset that is maybe 75% of what I want, and going crazy from there.

There are so many options for any type of player. Just think of yourself in a studio with the world's best amps and effects. You'd likely pick some amps/cabs/mic/effects, chain 'em together and start having fun exploring. The AxeFX II is no different.

Have fun and I know you'll hit your magic tones soon. When it happens, its a definitely cool feeling.
 
Please remember, he is playing a Atomic 50W Reactor. I think, he needs a translation from all the fantastic direct recorded samples we hear at the forum to the Atomic. And that may be a big problem to find the same or nearly the same tones via Reactor....
 
yes, the reactor is not flat

when i owned a pair, i adjusted the global eq to compensate slightly. i reduced the very low frequencies a touch and also reduced the upper mids (quite a bit)

here are the settings i used with the ultra...

62 = -4
125 = 0
250 = +1
500 = 0
1k = 0
2k = -3
4k = -5
8k = 0
 
Interesting thread - he has a kemper and had so much anticipation about the Axefx then was disappointed not to hear what he wanted from the Afx out of the box, while other successful Afx users try Kemper and find it lacking. To each his own, but unfortunate he did not want to work with Cliff as I think with some effort, the kemper tones he was hearing could be coaxed from the Axe.
 
Clark Kent said:
Wasn't that 3-4 days ago? Well, I hope him all the luck he needs in his tone quest. Seems a bit hasty.
Click to expand...

Yeah. This thread really caught my attention and so I spent a little time on TGP to try to understand a bit more about the OP and where he's coming from. It is surprising to see such a quick about face, as you've alluded to, but I think after reading more of the OPs thread posts elsewhere, I just chalk it up to th OP having G.A.S, and not being willing to dedicate the effort to get the Axefx to work for him, especially after his initial disappointment with factory tones. IMO, any new user should understand that there is a very real possibility that the Axefx may not sound stellar for them right out of the box, and that further discovery and work may be required to "get there". This forum is excellent in offering that help. But you can't please everyone, obviously. OTOH, plenty of new users ARE ABLE to find fairly immediate satisfaction by slightly tweaking factory presets. I don't think you can necessarily view the OP's findings as being typical, necessarily.

Where I'm a little puzzled is that the OP had a similar experience with his KPA, and didn't bond with it until he downloaded some 3rd party profiles. Kemper Update: From "Meh" to "HOLY FRIGGIN' MOLY!!!!!" in 48 hours - The Gear Page

Had the OP taken Cliff up on his offer, and possibly been willing to take some time to digest everything over the full trial period, he may have reached a different conclusion. IMO this is really too bad, but oh well. I just chalk it up to someone with G.A.S who tried to scratch an itch, and when the Axefx didn't immediately do that for him, he didn't want to belabor the point, contrary to whatever he might have claimed previously. I'm not trying to read into any motives from the OP, but it is a little surprising to see his commitment to discovery change so sharply from "3 to 4 weeks", to "returned in two days". Odd. You rarely see that with the Axefx.

If the OP were clever, he'd have used the full trial period and made some KPA profiles of some of the Axefx's best offerings. ...kidding... ;)
 
jimfist said:
Yeah. This thread really caught my attention and so I spent a little time on TGP to try to understand a bit more about the OP and where he's coming from. It is surprising to see such a quick about face, as you've alluded to, but I think after reading more of the OPs thread posts elsewhere, I just chalk it up to th OP having G.A.S, and not being willing to dedicate the effort to get the Axefx to work for him, especially after his initial disappointment with factory tones. IMO, any new user should understand that there is a very real possibility that the Axefx may not sound stellar for them right out of the box, and that further discovery and work may be required to "get there". This forum is excellent in offering that help. But you can't please everyone, obviously. OTOH, plenty of new users ARE ABLE to find fairly immediate satisfaction by slightly tweaking factory presets. I don't think you can necessarily view the OP's findings as being typical, necessarily.

Where I'm a little puzzled is that the OP had a similar experience with his KPA, and didn't bond with it until he downloaded some 3rd party profiles. Kemper Update: From "Meh" to "HOLY FRIGGIN' MOLY!!!!!" in 48 hours - The Gear Page

Had the OP taken Cliff up on his offer, and possibly been willing to take some time to digest everything over the full trial period, he may have reached a different conclusion. IMO this is really too bad, but oh well. I just chalk it up to someone with G.A.S who tried to scratch an itch, and when the Axefx didn't immediately do that for him, he didn't want to belabor the point, contrary to whatever he might have claimed previously. I'm not trying to read into any motives from the OP, but it is a little surprising to see his commitment to discovery change so sharply from "3 to 4 weeks", to "returned in two days". Odd. You rarely see that with the Axefx.

If the OP were clever, he'd have used the full trial period and made some KPA profiles of some of the Axefx's best offerings. ...kidding... ;)
Click to expand...

I think this summed it up very well.

I think that anyone that guesses another's motivations is chasing fool's gold; and people coming down on the OP are assuming heavily. It is pretty obvious that for the OP, it was 'instant karma... or else!' and his posts through his very short experience are obvious he had his mind made up from the beginning - either he gets tones that blew him away out of the box or he was out. For some it is instant. For others it requires some work. All these things have variables on the rest of one's rig, one's experience, understanding of the concept and workings of the gear in question, etc.. There is no way to control for all these variables involved.

You see threads/posts from guys that get this piece of gear or that piece of gear and gig it that night. You see others that take 6 months to get a handle on this or that before they feel they 'get' it.

All gear isn't all things to all people. One person's experience isn't universal to anyone else. One person's hasty decisions - well intended or not - are not definitive for all. One person's rudeness towards another isn't indicative of any user group's general behavior either.

People any more are instantly critical, instantly willing to wish only the worst and instantly doubt anyone's motivations. It is the time we live in. Real life and the Internet don't really have much in common unfortunately.
 
Yeah exactly. I did it the other way around. I had the Ultra at the time and I tried the Kemper vs Axe-Fx II (vs my Ultra ofcourse) and I struggled with the Kemper so badly. I was actually already set on buying a Kemper myself. I wasn't struggling with the interface... it's very quick and easy to use. It was just that other people's sounds didn't seem to work for me. Then changing cabs/IRs on the Kemper seemed like other things changed also. Then the last strike was when we had three amps (Mesa Roadster, Orange Rockerverb and a Marshall JMD) that we tried to profile and to us it was like a poorly done match EQ. (we were able to match EQ it to sound like the original though) At the time I made a YouTube video about it which was poorly executed and Kemper forum was bashing it as much as possible and making me seem like I was biased which I probably was and still am. Still it's funny that they have threads asking people to use my patches with the Axe-Fx and profile them for the Kemper. :) So they can't be deaf by my standards then. :D

MIMIC was the last reason I wanted Axe-II. Now I got my Axe-Fx II a month ago... A MONTH AGO! And here's the clip I made using the patch I made on the first day with my Axe-Fx II:



And as always in my patches: One amp block and one cab block. But obviously there are people who still prefer the Kemper over Axe-Fx II. A close friend of mine is in that boat which is funny to me since he's one of the biggest Periphery fans I know. :) I also saw Keith Merrow defending Kemper in this video:



And I'm pretty sure many people trust him. I think Kemper is more popular in the brootalz metal genre. Like the example clips in that video. To me it sounded like someone needed an exorcism. :D And I'm a metal guy. But anyways my opinion is that amp modeling doesn't have to be that good for that much gain. It's all about the IR at that point if you ask me.

We simply have to be less subjective and realize that these units are tools and some people simply prefer using a hammer instead of a drill to make a hole. In the end you'll end up with a hole no matter what. :)
 
Why the hate for the reactors since the CLR came out? Before people were hyping these things like crazy.
(Gear page thread mainly with the bashing)

CK you are a bit different than most users because it seems like a very large portion of your patches all have some custom or third party IR
 
animal said:
Why the hate for the reactors since the CLR came out? Before people were hyping these things like crazy.
(Gear page thread mainly with the bashing)
Click to expand...
And then they raved about the Verve stuff being so accurate. Now they claim that the Verve stuff was not truthful.

Thing is, the Reactors sound great. A little tweaking to get them pretty flat. Surgical correction should be done with near-fields, anyway.
 
animal said:
CK you are a bit different than most users because it seems like a very large portion of your patches all have some custom or third party IR
Click to expand...

I thought the majority of people using the Axe-Fx use third party IRs... :O

IMO this whole modeling competition is about the IRs and you can now use third party IRs with both of these units so they are literally tools for doing the same thing.
 
I offered the op to buy his axe twice if he was not satisfied, he never took me up on it. I'm disappointed too. Who knows, maybe he never had one.
 
animal said:
Why the hate for the reactors since the CLR came out? Before people were hyping these things like crazy.
(Gear page thread mainly with the bashing)
Click to expand...
I think he has the older reactor, not the FRFR one, and people started confusing them.
 
vAmp said:
I think he has the older reactor, not the FRFR one, and people started confusing them.
Click to expand...

Ok I didn't know that. Because in the past I thought it was a highly recomended pairing.
Saying that I hope to pick up a CLR in the future.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom