ToneChaser
Member
I’m now entering my 3rd week of Axe ownership and feel it’s a reasonable time to share my first impressions. I have formatted my review to highlight five key areas.
The Company:
First and foremost I have to say that the level of customer service maintained by Fractal Audio is absolutely unprecedented in my experience - from the close monitoring of this forum through to customer contact and follow-up. I had some minor issues with my unit which was responded to very promptly upon initial contact and then I received a call from Cliff directly. After that I had the pleasure of dealing with the super efficient Danielle. This is a great company, with a great product, backed by great people who get it. They’re goal seems to be to build long standing brand and customer loyalty. Well done Fractal Audio – I am honored to be one of your many satisfied customers!
The Product:
Ok now on to my impressions of the sounds in this magical little box. I find the factory presets to be outstanding! I am two weeks in and still lost in a sea of 384 very musical tones plus I have downloaded numerous excellent presets from Axe-Exchange. I haven’t even had to build my own presets at all because all of the sounds that I have ever longed for are either right in my Axe or they are on Axe-Exchange. I have tried building, tweaking, and adjusting presets via the excellent editor just to get a feel for it and find it to be very easy and intuitive. The editor is the way to go for all tweaking and firmware upgrades IMHO. All I can say is THAT is the Van Halen-1 tone that I have been trying to replicate for 20 years nailed right there on not one but two factory presets! Not just the accuracy of his early tone but also all the little details - the left panning of his signal in the mix, the single slap-back delay and reverb settings, plus the reproduction of his Phaser sound and settings - Thank-you Cliff! The clean tones are to die for on this product – best I have ever experienced bar none. The smooth overdriven blues tones are excellent and vey dynamic. Excellent Classic, Hard, and Modern rock and metal tones – tons of gain on tap here if needed. By far the best Marshall and Boogie simulations available currently IMHO. I especially like the Dumble tones. This really does FEEL like you’re playing through a tube amp. The dynamic response and sustain is amazing. Like so many others have stated before me, the quality of the effects on this product are world class. I didn’t realize how average the quality of the effects were in all my current and past gear until I plugged in and heard the Axe. Now that I know what high quality effects sound like I am changed forever and will never be able to go back. The effects alone really are worth the price of admission here. My jaw dropped when I first heard the lush timbre and smooth decay of the reverbs. The delays are top notch and very musical. Phaser, Flanger, and Wah are all excellent. I have never met a processed rotary effect that I liked until now. Also, I’m not a big synth fan but these are really good and will find a place in some of my future recordings. Also, I love the way the Axe highlights and accentuates all of the subtleties and nuances of my various guitars. The Axe is a very deep product indeed and I have barely scratched the surface but it sure is nice knowing that it can do pretty much everything that I can think of and a whole bunch of what I haven’t even thought of yet. I find it to be very dynamic, musical, and most importantly inspiring. The quality of the sounds inspire me to go in new musical directions daily and become a better more rounded player – and for me, that’s priceless.
The Journey:
I’ve been mostly playing via the balanced outs into my multi-track recorder and headphones and the sound quality is just awesome. I still need to tweak more on my mono live sound which is going into the effects return of my solid state Trace Elliot Super Tramp Twin. It’s getting better and better the more I learn and tweak. I am finding that some presets sound better with cab sims off and amp sims on, while others sound better with both cab and amp sims off, and then others sound better with both cab and amp sims on. However, I am very confident that with more time and experience I will nail this. I plan on auditioning active FRFR PA cabs soon.
The Extras:
This User Forum, WIKI, the Axe-FX Editor, and Axe-Exchange have been unexpected and wonderfully valuable extra benefits for me. They have all really helped me take this product to a whole new level. I have especially benefitted as a NEWB from the experience, advice, and tips of the members and because it’s global the response time to posts is very fast. I am very excited about the future firmware updates and the growth and evolution of this product.
The End:
Well, like so many others before me and I’m sure many more to come after me, my search is finally over and most of my GAS products are currently up for auction on eBay as I write this review. The proceeds from all the sales will more than pay for the price of the Axe – my best gear purchase to date - hands down.
This is a Game Changing Product from a Game Changing Company.
The Company:
First and foremost I have to say that the level of customer service maintained by Fractal Audio is absolutely unprecedented in my experience - from the close monitoring of this forum through to customer contact and follow-up. I had some minor issues with my unit which was responded to very promptly upon initial contact and then I received a call from Cliff directly. After that I had the pleasure of dealing with the super efficient Danielle. This is a great company, with a great product, backed by great people who get it. They’re goal seems to be to build long standing brand and customer loyalty. Well done Fractal Audio – I am honored to be one of your many satisfied customers!
The Product:
Ok now on to my impressions of the sounds in this magical little box. I find the factory presets to be outstanding! I am two weeks in and still lost in a sea of 384 very musical tones plus I have downloaded numerous excellent presets from Axe-Exchange. I haven’t even had to build my own presets at all because all of the sounds that I have ever longed for are either right in my Axe or they are on Axe-Exchange. I have tried building, tweaking, and adjusting presets via the excellent editor just to get a feel for it and find it to be very easy and intuitive. The editor is the way to go for all tweaking and firmware upgrades IMHO. All I can say is THAT is the Van Halen-1 tone that I have been trying to replicate for 20 years nailed right there on not one but two factory presets! Not just the accuracy of his early tone but also all the little details - the left panning of his signal in the mix, the single slap-back delay and reverb settings, plus the reproduction of his Phaser sound and settings - Thank-you Cliff! The clean tones are to die for on this product – best I have ever experienced bar none. The smooth overdriven blues tones are excellent and vey dynamic. Excellent Classic, Hard, and Modern rock and metal tones – tons of gain on tap here if needed. By far the best Marshall and Boogie simulations available currently IMHO. I especially like the Dumble tones. This really does FEEL like you’re playing through a tube amp. The dynamic response and sustain is amazing. Like so many others have stated before me, the quality of the effects on this product are world class. I didn’t realize how average the quality of the effects were in all my current and past gear until I plugged in and heard the Axe. Now that I know what high quality effects sound like I am changed forever and will never be able to go back. The effects alone really are worth the price of admission here. My jaw dropped when I first heard the lush timbre and smooth decay of the reverbs. The delays are top notch and very musical. Phaser, Flanger, and Wah are all excellent. I have never met a processed rotary effect that I liked until now. Also, I’m not a big synth fan but these are really good and will find a place in some of my future recordings. Also, I love the way the Axe highlights and accentuates all of the subtleties and nuances of my various guitars. The Axe is a very deep product indeed and I have barely scratched the surface but it sure is nice knowing that it can do pretty much everything that I can think of and a whole bunch of what I haven’t even thought of yet. I find it to be very dynamic, musical, and most importantly inspiring. The quality of the sounds inspire me to go in new musical directions daily and become a better more rounded player – and for me, that’s priceless.
The Journey:
I’ve been mostly playing via the balanced outs into my multi-track recorder and headphones and the sound quality is just awesome. I still need to tweak more on my mono live sound which is going into the effects return of my solid state Trace Elliot Super Tramp Twin. It’s getting better and better the more I learn and tweak. I am finding that some presets sound better with cab sims off and amp sims on, while others sound better with both cab and amp sims off, and then others sound better with both cab and amp sims on. However, I am very confident that with more time and experience I will nail this. I plan on auditioning active FRFR PA cabs soon.
The Extras:
This User Forum, WIKI, the Axe-FX Editor, and Axe-Exchange have been unexpected and wonderfully valuable extra benefits for me. They have all really helped me take this product to a whole new level. I have especially benefitted as a NEWB from the experience, advice, and tips of the members and because it’s global the response time to posts is very fast. I am very excited about the future firmware updates and the growth and evolution of this product.
The End:
Well, like so many others before me and I’m sure many more to come after me, my search is finally over and most of my GAS products are currently up for auction on eBay as I write this review. The proceeds from all the sales will more than pay for the price of the Axe – my best gear purchase to date - hands down.
This is a Game Changing Product from a Game Changing Company.
