I don't understand the hate for the green screen...

If price were no object fractal could do anything, but as the already most expensive option in modelers, some constraints are necessary to ensure sales.
 
I'd personally be happiest with the ability to get Axe Edit on my tablet and connect that. Then I'd just stick my tablet in a rack drawer and pull it out if I need it.

I'd love this too....if it was one cable connect (right to the Axe).
 
If price were no object fractal could do anything, but as the already most expensive option in modelers, some constraints are necessary to ensure sales.

True....but there are still people that will pay more, for more features.
I am expressing that I am one of them.
You can buy a 7" tablet for $200. So let's go under the assumption that for Fractal to get a color screen like that, it costs $200.
I would gladly pay $200 more for an Axe with a 7" display.....for home studio, I could care less how many spaces it is. I want functionality...and for me, a 7" touch screen would be 'better' than what we have today.

Again, it doesn't mean I don't love what we have today....but improvements can always be made.
 
The Behringer has a nice screen, but I'm sure the Axe's two-space format limits what screen can be used. Even if the screen was high resolution and color, the physical size might limit the amount of readable information that could be presented. Perhaps someone can take the time to see what other two-space designs have to offer. As far as the price point, Behringer is made in China with poor quality control (I've had enough Behringer units fry to make this statement with confidence). I've also used other products whose LCD screens have gone blank in the Las Vegas heat. No problems so far with the Axe.

I only use the Axe screen for utility functions not available in Axe Edit. I doubt I would adopt a different workflow if the screen were changed. Now, if Axe Edit was not available, I'd have a different opinion.

This is an honest question:
Have you had screens fry on the new Behringer gear? The X32 series of consoles?

I believe these are all made in Behringer's German Factory by the way? (someone correct me if that's not true....I'm not in front of mine to look for a 'made in china' logo).
 
I couldn't care less to be honest. Functionality over aesthetics any day
I agree. Given the choice between a color / bigger screen on the rack unit, and bigger / color screen on the MFC, I would prefer the MFC. My rack is behind me at gigs. I want more information at my feet, at my playing position. It would be great to have space for a few lines of text on each scene.
 
I have never been a fan of it. However it is what is is and you should remember it's a design from an Era ago in today's tech advances.
 
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I agree. Given the choice between a color / bigger screen on the rack unit, and bigger / color screen on the MFC, I would prefer the MFC. My rack is behind me at gigs. I want more information at my feet, at my playing position. It would be great to have space for a few lines of text on each scene.

I'm the same mate. While i understand it could look better for sure i just don't see a problem with it. The unit is rock solid and the screen is basic enough to get it to do what you want quickly. I kind of rather things more simple as opposed to more flashy and a bit more technical to use.

Edit the patches on Axe Edit at home and make minor adjustments at the venue/practice if need be. The more simple things are the less hassle they are and less of a chance of things going wrong i think!
 
I bitched about the screen color a few years back... well 4 or 5 maybe, when I first started using the Axe I had people looking at it thinking it was a BOSS unit and wished like hell that I could go into the setting and change the color to anything other then green. I high rez color screen would be a lot more attractive and would be willing to pay for it. Personally if the next gen units don't have some type of nice high rez touch screen (fixed or slide out) I would be very surprised. God knows there is plenty of room in the unit for one.
 
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We've been through all of this before on the Gen1 days. Although not multicolored.
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I'm sure Cliff looked into it, IIRC he even wrote so. And yet on the II it is green again.

Thye AxeFX is a beast of a machine for the money. Any other unit with two TigerSHARCs and top coverters is way more expensive and aimed top pro markets.

The AxeFX is on a pricepoint that is out of many peoples reach already. Let's face it. Three quarters of the world has a hard time feeding their family every day. Didn't look up the number. If you even have the option of buying an axefx in the first place, you're part of the priviledged few.

Making it even more expensive might not be a concern to you, but it would make me schratch my head even though I do have the money in the bank. I've got three kids to put through college and that's getting more expensive fast. Not to mention pension funds are going bust.
 

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True....but there are still people that will pay more, for more features.
I am expressing that I am one of them.
You can buy a 7" tablet for $200. So let's go under the assumption that for Fractal to get a color screen like that, it costs $200.
I would gladly pay $200 more for an Axe with a 7" display.....for home studio, I could care less how many spaces it is. I want functionality...and for me, a 7" touch screen would be 'better' than what we have today.

Again, it doesn't mean I don't love what we have today....but improvements can always be made.

Just as their are buyers for $2,000,000 cars, there are just a lot fewer of them. The Axe is about double what the average bar gig rig costs, then you have to add the monitors and MFC, etc...pushing the total cost to five times, for a full stereo CLR rig with MFC and such. I'm actually surprised they have sold as many as they have given the current economic conditions, to go higher would be risky IMO.
 
I have seen a bunch of people both on these boards and other forums mock the Fractal product for having a green monochrome display that to them seems low res.

I don't get it either, but I've never been one of the 'cool kids' who sits and mocks others. It's always fashionable to internet snicker behind backs.

The screen is good for me, but I'd take into account that Fractal didn't imagine that THIS many features would be developed. Either way, I just need it to be functional for that 'quick tweak'...Axe Edit exists for everything else. The screen should be usable, and more importantly, DURABLE for years of use.

And FWIW, we're also talking about usable 'Real Estate' on a unit's facade. Is it feasible to put a touch screen that is that small? Yes, phones have them, but we're talking significant expense and maintenance for something not integral to a unit's purpose (how does it SOUND?) Poking at it right before your solo on stage? For that we've been given the quick buttons for major things, and the MFC which works for me.

It might just be Fractal's 'signature look', Love, Like, indifferent, or Hate it.
 
I don't get it either, but I've never been one of the 'cool kids' who sits and mocks others. It's always fashionable to internet snicker behind backs.

The screen is good for me, but I'd take into account that Fractal didn't imagine that THIS many features would be developed. Either way, I just need it to be functional for that 'quick tweak'...Axe Edit exists for everything else. The screen should be usable, and more importantly, DURABLE for years of use.

And FWIW, we're also talking about usable 'Real Estate' on a unit's facade. Is it feasible to put a touch screen that is that small? Yes, phones have them, but we're talking significant expense and maintenance for something not integral to a unit's purpose (how does it SOUND?) Poking at it right before your solo on stage? For that we've been given the quick buttons for major things, and the MFC which works for me.

It might just be Fractal's 'signature look', Love, Like, indifferent, or Hate it.

I agree that a touch screen may be too small in this case.
Using the Behringer Xrack again as an example...the screen size is a little larger (being a 3 space unit), and even that wouldn't work as a touch screen.

(I personally) just would like a color screen (never mentioned it should be a touch screen).
Not a feature that would make me buy or not buy....but I still feel it's better, and could be done for not a lot more cost.
I also understand that an extra $200 to the existing cost, would be too much for some folks. So why not just have 2 options?
Axe with a color screen....Axe with a Green screen.
Same way car manufactures offer cars with digital dash features, and lower models without.

I used to be just fine with the Green/Black screen on my Yamaha 01V96 mixer. The when I got the Xrack, I fell in love with the color screen.

Again, just food for though here guys.....don't get all defensive just because some folks don't 'love' the green screen.
 
I agree that a touch screen may be too small in this case.
Using the Behringer Xrack again as an example...the screen size is a little larger (being a 3 space unit), and even that wouldn't work as a touch screen.

(I personally) just would like a color screen (never mentioned it should be a touch screen).
Not a feature that would make me buy or not buy....but I still feel it's better, and could be done for not a lot more cost.
I also understand that an extra $200 to the existing cost, would be too much for some folks. So why not just have 2 options?
Axe with a color screen....Axe with a Green screen.
Same way car manufactures offer cars with digital dash features, and lower models without.

I used to be just fine with the Green/Black screen on my Yamaha 01V96 mixer. The when I got the Xrack, I fell in love with the color screen.

Again, just food for though here guys.....don't get all defensive just because some folks don't 'love' the green screen.

Don't see anyone as defensive. Just trying to understand a different point of view.

And I'm not against a different screen, just stated personally I don't NEED it. But I'm a UNIX guy, so my idea of 'pretty' is green characters over black on the command line.

But Fractal certainly listens to it's customers (how many companies put a 'Wish List' as a sub forum...and it actually gets READ?), so who knows what will happen in the future? Holographic touch screen with Google Glass display...but you'll look like you need to be put in a rubber room when you reach into thin air to boost mids...
 
I'm not trying to be Negative Nancy here, but I get this kind of stuff across my desk all day long almost everyday. I always look at stuff like this and ask if there is value added and then start weighting priorities of the customer. I can tell you right now that the single number one priority of everyone here is going to be the sound performance. Second may be price (it may be first or last, but it's going to be a priority). Next would probably be reliability followed by ease of use. Last will probably be appearance. Now that doesn't mean that you can't work on all of those areas, but when you start looking at how you allocate resources (i.e., time and cost) you are going to use that weighting system to prioritize.

Now I think that we know that the sound performance is pretty well addressed by the box and the continued development. The amount of resources poured into that is evident by the rate of firmware releases.

Price is going to be determined by features and performance. Basically this is going to be more of a conditional limitation on the actual device, but it's still going to be weighted in this argument because it is so important. As it stands now the price is not prohibitive for everyone, but if it was cheaper there would obviously be more owners and none of us would complain about a price break.

The reliability is fairly high; probably better than similar devices.

Ease of use. Well this one can be argued because it seems to always be brought up, but I think that if you really look at the feature set that is available that unless you start stripping back features you are going to have trouble simplifying it more than it is. You have to balance ease of use with capability and I think that the AxeFXII strikes a pretty good balance. I'm no rocket scientist and I can figure it out.

So that leaves us with the lowest ranked priority/feature which is how pretty it is. Adding a color screen would look cool, but has anyone really spent time looking at a sub 2RU color screen and seen how poor the definition is? The old green screen is high contrast which means you are going to lose some readability with color or you have to go bigger. If we go bigger the chassis has to be increased which means it starts getting into the toaster format and footprint. The other thing that people are asking about is touchcscreen capability. With the present form factor the screen is just too small to mash any of our big fat nose pickers and make any edits. We're looking at probably at least a 7" screen in order to be able to have close to the same layout of parameters and be able to get something remotely usable in terms of precision for adjustments. And as cool as touchscreens are we all know that they are not precise. They just aren't. So now we're looking at probably 4-5RU to add a screen that looks pretty, but is actually harder to make precise changes to. The other thing that may be impacted is reliability because touchscreens will break at a higher rate than the current display where you aren't touching it. Another question is just how much more processing power would be required to handle a full color display? I don't know, but I bet that it'd be more involved than what is in there. The cost of the current display may be about $5 in bulk; how much more is a color touchscreen? How much development is involved in creating the GUI? Would it add to the start time of the AxeFXII when powering up?

Until you research and get answers to all of those questions that I just thought up in about 2 minutes time you can't move forward. And after you get all of those answers then you can weigh it against the other priorities I listed which are all ranked higher. The touchscreen is in conflict with a lot of those priorities of the customer; price will increase, reliability will likely decrease, ease of use in terms of precision will arguably be impacted negatively and it adds absolutely zero value to the sound performance of the AxeFXII.

That's a lot of potential/probable negative impact on the priorities of the customer in order to look neat.

Now if this was a project that I was working on I would probably suggest looking at something like a cheap Windows 8 tablet like an Asus T100 which can be bought for around $200. Install AxeEdit on it and you get a touchscreen with a nice big display. You can connect to the internet and download presets and IR's, load them onto the AxeFXII and you can probably even do some light recording/editing on it. I'd also investigate a wireless USB or MIDI device so that I can put the thing on a mic stand holder or on my desktop. I get everything I want and more without impacting the things that I consider important. And $200 for a cheap tablet is less cost than buying this "new" AxeFXIII would be.
 
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