Glenn Fricker reviews the Axe-fx II

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Speculum Speculorum

Speculum Speculorum

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Hey guys,

I thought this was a pretty balanced and fair assessment of the Axe-fx II and how it compares to real amps in high gain recording situations. He does cover how much cost is involved in especially the live aspect of using this system... but he outright flames FAS for the cost on their floorboard... ouchie.

Nonetheless, I think this shows how nice the Axe-fx II compares. Enjoy and comment away, friends!

 
99% of his argument is retarded, I'm sorry. yes go buy a 5150 for $600 and rock on with one sound dude. second... relying on the sound guy? with or without amps you rely on the soundguy... even with your 5150 stack, stage (opposite) of you will not hear anything unless they "rely on the sound guy" to put you through his mic, through his channel strip, and then through his monitors... uggh.

Is it cheap? no.. but you get what you pay for, and if you are in a knuckle dragging death metal band maybe the 5150 is what you need. I can show up to any gig from rockabilly to death metal and can find a tone that fits. No I'm not a fanboy by any means, just urkes me when guys like this throw around blanket statements.... and I've heard lots of recording with the "red bean" that sound great.
 
He had me with his t-shirt, but lost me at the end. Agree that the controller price is pretty crazy but I'd guess that it has to do with volume and build materials more than Fractal trying to fleece people. Also, I play direct to the PA all the time with great results...but that is for smaller spaces where volume control is key. For a metal act like the stuff he was demoing, I could see that being a problem and needing an amp and cab. To crap on all music styles and pub set ups though by saying direct won't work was not well informed.
 
Well I chose A on all of them, so 2/3 go to axe. Wow but axe mesa sounded dead in the mix, though obviously fixable. The guy is a douche, trying to sound cool, throw around curses etc. I play at home only but have to think that as stated by dpeterson what band playing out doesnt rely on the soundguy for everything? And in fact I would think the direct sound of perfection going to the board is a lot less prone to user error than trying to mic an amp in the perfect position then expect perfection mixed by the soundguy. IN fact it always brings up the question, just who are REAL cabinets for, other than super small club venues; The PA is what people hear.
 
His reasoning makes no sense to Me.
Plus, He lost me with the cursing.

Anyways,
5150 900.00 (he's was comparing cost of used)
quality effects close to 800.00(eventide , strymon .....)
so 1700.00 plus cab????

2400.00 is inexpensive in my opinion for what we get with the Axe
 
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His argument about price is completely skewed, for one thing he suggests buying a second hand 5150 and then compares that to the full new price of the Axe FX. For another he completely ignores the fact that the Axe is not just amp sims, it has a ton of world class effects in there too. The 5150 is a great amp.. but it doesn't have a delay built in does it? Or a flanger..or a tremelo.. or...

Plus of course the other thing he completely ignored - the Axe isn't just one sound like most amps are.. try getting a nice Fender-style clean out of a 5150, or a super clean tone like a JC120 and get back to me..

And the fact that he compared it in this video to 3 different amps and it compared pretty well to all of them. So shouldn't he be adding up the price of those 3 amps and comparing to that ? !!

I do kind of agree that the foot controller does seem very expensive, then again I've not seen one in the flesh and I'm assuming the switches etc are high quality like the other components in the Axe.. so maybe the price is justified if it's more bulletproof than the typical footswitch on the market.
 
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Wow.... I like that he keeps his opinion out of the review. Very unbiased. :encouragement:
Probably part of his gimmick.

I do not agree with the sound guy statements. You are always at the mercy of the sound guy.
It was pretty entertaining.
 
Is this guy the Alex Jones of metal production?
He might have made a point (or not) somewhere in his rambling nonsense, but it's buried under the overwhelming level of fucking crazy - why should I trust this guy?

He probably spent all of about 5 minutes on each Axe patch he pulled up vs. amps he's (ostensibly) known and used for years...
...and guess what, the Axe tones still sounded way better.

Not to sound like a fanboi, there's kids out there making monster tracks with ingenuity and far lesser equipment. What is this dude's pedigree? Because this was in every way unimpressive.
 
Yeah I would take his personality with a grain of salt, guys. His over-the-top, outspoken metal guy routine is part of his persona.

And realize too, that his target audience is not dudes who are going to make 100% use of all the features available to the Axe-fx II. I think it's a bit much to call guys who don't need the advanced features here knuckle-draggers.

Further, and you have to accept this fact at some point, the Axe-fx II is in fact an expensive unit for a lot of people. But I think the lot of you are focusing a bit too much on the price issue here. He said he was amazed at how the Axe-fx II performed against real amps, and that's a big :encouragement: as far as our community should go. This is coming from a guy who said that he hates the sound of every modeler he's ever played on and he thinks they are ruining music. So I would say focus on that more than the butthurt that comes with defending a boutique product that you purchased. LOL.
 
As a review I think that it blows. I don't find his attitude funny. The stated facts are wrong.
Maybe he just doesn't grasp the concept. Everyone whose amp is being mic'd, is at the mercy of a sound guy.

I'm only curious which model he used to compare the Cobra to.
 
I'm pretty sure he states that the most interesting part of the Axe-fx II is it's tone matching ability, so I'm going on the assumption that he was using tone matching.
 
^^^ that, mt.
Then again, I'm done giving this guy an audience. I would have to ask why you're defending him so hard, SpecSpec?
IDK, I just look at this review like it was made to incite his audience, not inform them, even if he did give the Axe the thumbs up...
It's like 4-out-of-5 doctors choosing the Axe over amps. Who cares what their opinion is when they're not qualified to give one, or in this case too belligerent to be taken seriously (or both).
+1 to wanting to know what the Cobra was compared to.
+ another 1 to Pete Thorn. There's a guy that gives it to you straight, and proves it to you at the same time so you never have to just take his word.
 
Related to Dee Snider?

DeeSnider.jpg
 
Hey look - I'm just pointing out that he in fact, said that the Axe-fx II was almost identical to the compared amplifiers. And the comparisons are actually quite accurate to one another.

I didn't say he was polite. I didn't say he was informed about all the glories of the Axe-fx II. But he did say, quite clearly, that he thinks the Axe-fx II sounds awesome.
 
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