How to set up an Axe Fx 2 XL+?

Maksymilian

New Member
Hey all!
I know this question is probably really annoying to a lot of you, or super simple, but being someone who never really dabbled in the world of amp modelers I need some advice.
Basically I'm gonna be getting an Axe Fx in the next few months, and I want to know...
Do I need a power amp?
If so how do I set them up together?
What type of cable do I use to connect the two?
Basically just explain the raw basics as if I'm an intellectual 5 year old, thanks a million in advance.
 
Do you need a power amp? Yes unless you intend on using a decent pair of headphones but that's not really a solution unless you have very finicky neighbours or other reasons why you can't make some noise.

You could either get a power amp and a pair of speaker cabs/monitors, or get active speakers and forget about the power amp.
Then you have to decide if you are using tube or SS power amp, 'real' guitar cab or FRFR.

What you decide on is purely your own choice and you will get a lot of good advice on the forum but one of the questions will always be about your budget. Then it's about how much are you looking to spend? Are you recording in a (home) studio? Are you gigging? All these will influence and determine your choices.

All of these then lead on to what leads you use (sorry - no pun intended) and how you connect everything up.

Provide a bit more info and you will be deluged with suggestions...
 
Welcome to the club. The AXEFX II is the single best music product I ever bought and I hope you enjoy it as much as we all do. Have fun learning ... that's a lot of the fun IMO.
  1. Have you tried reading the manual? You may not know this, but it's online at FAS website for download and will answer all or most of your questions. http://www.fractalaudio.com/manuals-and-docs.php
  2. Also, there is an online wiki here: http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Axe-Fx_II_Wiki_Home
  3. Here is a white paper on amp modeling from FAS: MIMIC™ White Paper
  4. There are many AXEFX II online videos e.g. youtube incl. set-ups approaches
  5. Scan the forum for similar questions answered already; the search function on the forum here works pretty well.
After you have some notion and semblance of how this modelling/AXEFX all works, come back and ask specific questions that aren't quite so open ended. This is a deeply featured product with literally thousands of variables which can't be addresses with a broad brush and offer quality responses.
 
Last edited:
Hey all!
I know this question is probably really annoying to a lot of you, or super simple, but being someone who never really dabbled in the world of amp modelers I need some advice.
Basically I'm gonna be getting an Axe Fx in the next few months, and I want to know...
Do I need a power amp?
If so how do I set them up together?
What type of cable do I use to connect the two?
Basically just explain the raw basics as if I'm an intellectual 5 year old, thanks a million in advance.

What will you be listening through? Monitors? FRFR? Cab? Headphones?
 
Do you need a power amp? Yes unless you intend on using a decent pair of headphones but that's not really a solution unless you have very finicky neighbours or other reasons why you can't make some noise.

You could either get a power amp and a pair of speaker cabs/monitors, or get active speakers and forget about the power amp.
Then you have to decide if you are using tube or SS power amp, 'real' guitar cab or FRFR.

What you decide on is purely your own choice and you will get a lot of good advice on the forum but one of the questions will always be about your budget. Then it's about how much are you looking to spend? Are you recording in a (home) studio? Are you gigging? All these will influence and determine your choices.

All of these then lead on to what leads you use (sorry - no pun intended) and how you connect everything up.

Provide a bit more info and you will be deluged with suggestions...
I'm getting an Orange PPC412 cab that I'll be using just for home and I have about 4000 euros to spend
 
Using real guitar cabs will very much limit your tonal palette available to you. I use real cabs too (stereo), but with the budget you just proposed, FRFR monitors (powered or not i.e. xitone, CLRs, etc.) should be a real consideration as you can then take advantage of all the cabinet modelling options (IRs/Impulse Responses) within the AXEFX (and most other high quality modellers). The AXEFX allows you to pair amps to cabs to reproduce the entire experience/sound combos.

Most folks here will tell you that a large part of the the "tone' from the AXEFX is from the IRs. Highly suggest you explore this critical option before you commit your euros. Otherwise the speakers in your real cabs will always color the sound in similar fashion amp to amp.
 
There are 4 outputs. Out 1 L/R XLR balanced, Out 2 L/R TS unbalanced. Either can be used for FOH. Typical would be XLR cables from the Fractal Out 1 to the stage box.

If you are using in ears or a conventional wedge monitor system with foldback from the same sources as FOH, then that might be all you need.

Also popular is to use dedicated speakers for monitoring the Fractal. This gives you the "more me" capability to control your guitar stage volume independent of the FOH and without having some one mixing monitors for you.

If you are using speakers for stage monitoring, two popular configurations for stage monitoring are:

- FRFR full range full response powered speakers.
- Poweramp / Cab various power amps and guitar cabs

The Matrix GT1000FX is popular power amp to use with guitar cabs.

Guitar -> instrument cable -> Fractal input 1.

Fractal Out 1 L -> xlr cable -> stage box

Fractal Out 2 L -> TS instrument cable -> Matrix Power Amp -> speaker cable -> guitar cab.
 
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