Greetings and a little advice...

wezx

wezx

Experienced
Hello all, I have been frequenting this forum for a week or so and learning about the Axe-fx...a little background. I own a music production company. We do corporate jingle work (Hasbro, American Greetings, etc.) as well as nationally touring tribute band shows. www.cponline.us

I have been using modelers both live and in the studio since the first POD came out, but I've never been completely happy with any of them. They always seem to lack the "feel" of a tube amp, and of course some of them sound horrid as well. I sold my huge rack gear years ago and have been using the POD in the studio and the XTLive for the shows where I'm playing guitar. I've been fairly happy with the XT, but Line 6's ridiculously bad proprietary external expression pedals (plastic), and the single "stomp" button for all OD's AND compressor pedals just always have been problems for me amongst other things. I also don't feel like the XT has the sustain and...well, as I said "feel" of a real amp. I recently bought a GT-10 and was pleased to be able to use my Ernie Ball pedal again as an expression (volume) pedal. I think it sounds at least as good as the XT, but I am wondering if I should just return the GT and get an Axe-fx Ultra. I have had a very hard time finding anyone who isn't thrilled with their Axe-fx and there seem to be some very talented players here who swear by it. The only drawback is that the floor units (GT & XT) fit into one of my act's setup very well. With the Axe-fx I would need to carry an extra rack for it, which I'm not very keen on. I keep vacillating between thinking I should just take the GT back and not waste $500 on it, when the best product available appears to be the Axe-fx and thinking that perhaps the GT is good enough??? Perhaps Fractal will make a floor unit?

I also really like the comments I have read about Fractal Audio and their responsiveness to players' needs and that they are always striving for perfection. There seem to be a lot of regular updates which add new features, or upgrade existing features.

I was hoping some of you might be able to speak to my situation if you were in a similar circumstance before purchasing your Axe-fx...thank you for your time!
 
I can dime on the GT-10 as a previous user.

I've had the Axe for around a week now, I could go into alot of detail, but put simply, you cannot compare it to the AxeFx.

I found the GT-10 lacking in character, harsh, flanger sounding midrange, honkey low...I fought with the amp simps for a good 8 months.

Of course i'm on honeymoon with the Axe, but from reading users posts here, the longer you have it the better it gets!...especially with the free updates.

Even with its complexity, it only takes 5 mins to get a good tone. The effects are first class.

Its worth trying out, you wont look back!
 
While I agree that a rack and floor controller as separate units is inconvenient compared to the mainstream floor modelers, it is more than made up for in tone, feel, and overall satisfaction while playing. I'm well beyond the honeymoon stage, and still can't wait to turn my rig on and play every day. I've owned a GNX3000, GT10, and POD, and all of them are like store-bought frozen pizza compared to fresh from the pizzaria pizza :cool: Same ingredients and on the surface they even look the same, but one is just way more enjoyable than the other. (just what the world needed was another analogy :oops: )
 
Go buy an Axe and you will see you can't compair the two it's Appels to Oranges. You get two weeks to try it out if it doesn't nuke your Line 6 stuff send it back.
 
I've owned GNX3K, GT8, GT10, X3L, ZoomG2 - None are in the same league as AxeFx which is light years ahead. I can't speak for other rack based units (gtpro,podpro,eleven, prophesy) but from reading threads here for 7-8 months I can say that never once did I see any comment puts any of these units even close to the Axe-Fx in terms of tone quality.

Try it - if you don't like it you can return it.
 
GuitarDojo said:
If you read through the forum.....why havent you bought one yet? ;)
Click to expand...

heheheh :mrgreen:

New Users:
Step 1: Read the forum, startng page 1.
Step 2: Read the forum, until last page.
Step 3: See Step 1.
 
i run a large music store and i've seen almost every product that comes out, and nothing comes close to the axe-fx, in my opinion. i think the gt10 sounds ok (i prefer the gt8's sound) but it still sounds like a pedal, not an amp, to me.

it's definitely a bit more costly to run the axe, but well worth it if you can afford it. you sound like the type who knows his stuff and wouldn't be daunted by the sheer power and depth of the unit.

i'd say buy one. you have a return period. buy it, plug it into some great full range speakers, and play patch 000 (is it still studio lead?! haha) and you'll probably keep it :)

when i usually buy an fx unit with factory presets, i'll spend an hour going through each preset just to see what it can do. when i got my axefx over a year ago, i plugged it in and spent 2 hours on THE FIRST PATCH just because i couldn't believe how good it felt. time flew by so quickly and i didn't know i'd been doing that one patch for so long hahah!

this forum is a great wealth of info and people will definitely help you at every step of the way, as long as you show some respect and that you're willing to do some things for yourself ;)
 
Thanks everyone for the responses! I have no doubt that the axe-fx is the best product currently out there...it's obviously light years ahead of other devices (Boss & Line 6). I especially enjoyed the Youtube video where the guy goes through the "History of Rock" or something of that sort...VERY impressive. I just keep thinking that 3 months after I buy it they'll come out with a floor model...DOOH! (think Homer Simpson LOL) I would probably go with the Liquid Foot Pro as that seems to be the best midi foot pedal available currently. I am a little concerned about the small size of the screen on the LF Pro as far as reading tuner readings...

Can anyone comment on the Tuner in the Axe-fx? I have a Peterson endorsement, so I could just use a strobe, but if the tuner in the Axe-fx is accurate, I might not use a seperate tuner. Also, can anyone speak about the screen on the LF Pro? Do you have any trouble reading the display while tuning or otherwise?...it looks small.

I'm sure it seems trivial, but it's such a pain to add ANOTHER rack (for the Axe-fx) to the rig...it just sounds so GREAT though! I'm used to programming, so I don't fear the complexity of the unit...

Is there any talk of a floor model in the works? I haven't seen anything here about it...

Thanks everyone for your insights.
 
I also posted cliff' about a floor version,the silence was deafening :p why make life more
complicated , you make the best product in the near solar system so stay with it :lol: Tuning
should be a cinch' just add an on-board tuner to guitar and bingo, I personally go with slightly
off-pitch to prove the live-playing aspect :D honest that's the reason . So don't hang about
get axed-up and join the party, you know it makes sense. The only person having more fun
than an Axe' player is Tiger-Woods :lol: :lol:
 
wezx said:
Can anyone comment on the Tuner in the Axe-fx? I have a Peterson endorsement, so I could just use a strobe, but if the tuner in the Axe-fx is accurate, I might not use a seperate tuner. Also, can anyone speak about the screen on the LF Pro? Do you have any trouble reading the display while tuning or otherwise?...it looks small.
Is there any talk of a floor model in the works? I haven't seen anything here about it...
Click to expand...
I use Peterson also and the tuner on the AF is excellent it tracks really fast but for live I would not use it just for the simple fact with my setup the AF is not eye level so would be a bit hard to read, at least for tuning. I’m looking at a LF pro myself from videos I have seen the display looks fine, however if you plan on using the tuner of the AF and read it on the LF due to the nature of midi it appears to be a bit lagging. So I would probably stick to the Peterson.

As for an Axe floor model (with the same power) I kind of don’t think so. The AF is a computer and like all computers needs room to stay cool, not that it gets hot like a PC but still needs to stay cool, and so a floor unit may have to be a far size. Also making a floor unit would really drive up the cost of a unit. Just my guess.
 
wezx said:
Thanks everyone for the responses! I have no doubt that the axe-fx is the best product currently out there...it's obviously light years ahead of other devices (Boss & Line 6). I especially enjoyed the Youtube video where the guy goes through the "History of Rock" or something of that sort...VERY impressive. I just keep thinking that 3 months after I buy it they'll come out with a floor model...DOOH! (think Homer Simpson LOL) I would probably go with the Liquid Foot Pro as that seems to be the best midi foot pedal available currently. I am a little concerned about the small size of the screen on the LF Pro as far as reading tuner readings...

Can anyone comment on the Tuner in the Axe-fx? I have a Peterson endorsement, so I could just use a strobe, but if the tuner in the Axe-fx is accurate, I might not use a seperate tuner. Also, can anyone speak about the screen on the LF Pro? Do you have any trouble reading the display while tuning or otherwise?...it looks small.

I'm sure it seems trivial, but it's such a pain to add ANOTHER rack (for the Axe-fx) to the rig...it just sounds so GREAT though! I'm used to programming, so I don't fear the complexity of the unit...

Is there any talk of a floor model in the works? I haven't seen anything here about it...

Thanks everyone for your insights.
Click to expand...

The tuner is very accurate. The screen on the LF pro makes reading the tuner from the ground easy.
 
Frankly,

I'll be surprised when ANY new product comes out from Fractal. Aside from the free software updates, which are awesome! There's supposed to be a foot controller, and a patch editor for the PC, and a VST version of the Axe-Fx, and I'm not sure what else coming out. But I haven't heard a peep on any of these fronts for like 6 months. I really don't think a Floor Model is going to appear in the next year, if ever.

There was a recent full-range speaker product that came out, but I think that was more Atomic than Fractal, if you get my drift. None of this slowness for new products really bothers me, as I already bit the bullet and bought the Behringer FCB1010 and an ART SLA-2 to complete my setup within a few days of receiving the Axe-Fx.
 
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