solo-act
Fractal Fanatic
Hey gang! Here's my story, better late than never. I left out all the technical crap to save space and focused on the journey to the Axe-FX and what it's done for me.
Recently the graphics chip on my early-build Ultra fritzed out. Cliff put a completely new unit on a plane
and I sent the old one back. This company never ceases to amaze me. After re-dialing the show with 6.02 on a spanking new Ultra, I feel like I've hit on a good time to finally write down some thoughts.
More of a story than a technical review: My review of the Axe-FX
-------------------------
I've performed professionally without a day job for about 14 years in the west, northwest, and as far north as Canada and Alaska. I sang some lead, backups, played bass and some rhythm guitar. Two of the three bands were variety acts. In my favorite band, the guitars went direct to PA through rack gear and it worked great for stage volume and mixing. After the professional touring scene went to complete hell, I became an acoustic solo act and decided to add electric a few years later. I never had my own electric rig, so it was new ground for me. I wanted to go direct, but money and space were tight for putting together a pro level rack.
I managed to score great deals on a Bruce Egnator IE4 midi preamp and a TC Electronic Gforce. But long story short, I couldn't find a satisfying way to add the amp/cabinet part of the sound without an actual amp/cab. Everything I found was either a toy or unaffordable. I picked up the phone and invited Neale Haywood who tours with Lyndsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac to come over, listen to my rig and tell me what to do. He advised me to go with a small combo and pedals.
To make another long story short, after deaths in the family, a little inheritance money, a Fuchs combo, a Suhr Badger and several pedals, I ended up with a rig that could handle a variety of covers at almost any volume. I loved having the gear and the tones, but there were a lot of tradeoffs:
The pedals and amp had to be tweaked just right to get all the tones I needed. I hauled my own PA, so the guitar rig was just more weight, more effort, more hassle. The tone into the PA was inconsistent because it was always being influenced by the voodoo of the room acoustics and the imprecise nature of micing the cab. The pedals needed attention on every song and every solo, anchoring me to the stage. My rig reminded me of a high maintenance girlfriend that sucked your wallet dry: except it sounded good when it opened its mouth.
As time passed, I began to understand the limitations of trying to play a variety of artists on one amp platform. My playing was better than ever, and my knowledge of gear had exploded in just a few years. But beyond the gigs, the gear and the practice, I still hungered for something else...something that didn't exist until I clicked a quiet little ad on HugeRacksInc.com
Enter Fractal Audio
The website revealed a two-space black monolith with fat rack handles, big buttons, and a giant knob all threatening to swallow a tiny screen glowing dimly in retro 90's green. I wasn't sure what to think of it. It was both industrial and clunky. The usual marketing blurbs and accolades were there. A few raves existed in cyberspace, but it seemed to be completely under the radar. Despite that, the chip and the interface looked promising.
So I found a friend who had one and I A/B'd it against my rig. In minutes I was dialing amps/cabs that had the potential to replace my bulky gear in a live setting so I joined the waiting list. I was excited. I scored a used one within a month and then disappeared for a few days. The Axe-FX proceeded to blow my mind day and night. The complexity of the dynamics, the sound, and the options to create rigs was simply incredible. My girlfriend would come home from work and I'd be jumping around like a little kid dying to play her the latest songs that had been dialed up. She has a good ear. She lived through my learning curve on tube amps and pedals and watched as tones improved in performance and practice. She knew how far I had come with the gear I had.
She came home after my first day with the Axe-FX, heard four songs and said, "That thing is worth every penny you paid for it. I've never heard the songs sound that good". She confirmed what I already knew. I couldn't live on one amp platform. My hunger was over. The longing had ended.
Now I had to learn how to use it.
I didn't know it, but I was already over one sonic hurdle. Because I mixed myself, I monitored my miced rig through a floor monitor. Making my miced guitar rig sound like the original recording (which is a miced guitar rig) had always been my goal. I liked the sound coming out of the guitar cabinet on my live tube amp rig, but I wasn't attached to it because it was only a piece of the tone. The real tone was what was coming out of the PA and the floor monitor. It was a little weird, but I ditched my tube rig, and after 4 years I finally had a professional, all-in-one solution for going direct to PA.
The next hurdle was the learning curve...what about all those amps in there I never played in real life? I watched players invest years into mastering one or two amp platforms and here I was with dozens of amps, cabinets, an earful of microphones, and an armada of effects staring back at me from a little green screen. What made the Fenders different from each other? Why was a plexi good for one song and a JCM 800 better for another? How in the world do you go about matching cabinets to amps, and mics to rigs when everything is constantly interacting with each other? It was crazy!
The immersion continued. I researched artists and amp rigs for the songs I did. I invested time on those amps in the Axe-FX, learning what the controls did, how they interacted, and how amps/cabs/mics interacted with each other. The world of tone inside it was so far reaching, I could hardly get my brain around it. My skull had been dropped into a wormhole and blasted into the center of a universe of tone. There was so much to discover, dialing for gig volume became a process of trial and error, figuring out what worked at volume and what didn't.
Then I began gigging with it. Right out of the gate, crowds were more emotional, more responsive. The music was at another level. I was at a new tonal high, enjoying how every song had a custom rig dedicated to it.
I even automated the Axe-FX, embedding program changes and control changes into the backing tracks I had recorded and produced. When a song started, a custom amp, cab, mic, effects rack and pedal board would swoop onto the stage and every single knob was dialed precisely where it needed to be for that song. Song after the song the rigs would pop into existence and be whisked away as the next rig entered. No longer tied to a pedalboard, I went wireless and took the show into the crowd. It was like having a small army of roadies setting up, running and tearing down entire rigs at light speed for each song...all night long.
And no one knew but me.
This was my happy little secret.
The pedals were gone, the knobs were gone, the guitar rigs were gone, and the audience didn't care -- because the music was right. At last, the technology was invisible and in the background. All I had to do was sing, play, perform and launch the whole of myself into the music and the crowd. No distractions. No compromises.
Fast forward to the present.
I've logged almost18 months, a couple hundred gigs and have upgraded to the Ultra in the process. Firmware updates are off the charts with Fractal Audio. Most companies hang you out to dry on firmware updates, forcing you to replace your obsolete unit. My investment continues to pay off in free updates and a constant evolution of the musical instrument that is the Axe-FX.
And I've learned a great deal along the way. When it comes to understanding tone and guitar equipment, the Axe-FX is the best tool for ear-training I've ever seen. If you invest enough time into listening, dialing and thinking, you can begin to unlock the potential inside of it and more importantly, you can unlock the potential inside your own musical brain as you learn, grow and evolve with the unit.
Let me close in saying I've had more fun with this piece of gear than any hardware I've purchased and the revelations and learning continue every time I sit down with it. Sometimes I do nothing but play. I enjoy how it can be adapted to the needs of the end user. It can be used completely alone running direct, jammed in a giant refrigerator touring rack, left un-dialed as a complete novice enjoys only stock presets and downloaded presets, or dialed relentlessly to satisfy the obsessions of a mad artist.
The question isn't about whether the Axe-FX is versatile enough for you, it’s about whether you are versatile enough in your own head to understand it and bend it to your will.
Recently the graphics chip on my early-build Ultra fritzed out. Cliff put a completely new unit on a plane
and I sent the old one back. This company never ceases to amaze me. After re-dialing the show with 6.02 on a spanking new Ultra, I feel like I've hit on a good time to finally write down some thoughts.More of a story than a technical review: My review of the Axe-FX
-------------------------
I've performed professionally without a day job for about 14 years in the west, northwest, and as far north as Canada and Alaska. I sang some lead, backups, played bass and some rhythm guitar. Two of the three bands were variety acts. In my favorite band, the guitars went direct to PA through rack gear and it worked great for stage volume and mixing. After the professional touring scene went to complete hell, I became an acoustic solo act and decided to add electric a few years later. I never had my own electric rig, so it was new ground for me. I wanted to go direct, but money and space were tight for putting together a pro level rack.
I managed to score great deals on a Bruce Egnator IE4 midi preamp and a TC Electronic Gforce. But long story short, I couldn't find a satisfying way to add the amp/cabinet part of the sound without an actual amp/cab. Everything I found was either a toy or unaffordable. I picked up the phone and invited Neale Haywood who tours with Lyndsey Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac to come over, listen to my rig and tell me what to do. He advised me to go with a small combo and pedals.
To make another long story short, after deaths in the family, a little inheritance money, a Fuchs combo, a Suhr Badger and several pedals, I ended up with a rig that could handle a variety of covers at almost any volume. I loved having the gear and the tones, but there were a lot of tradeoffs:
The pedals and amp had to be tweaked just right to get all the tones I needed. I hauled my own PA, so the guitar rig was just more weight, more effort, more hassle. The tone into the PA was inconsistent because it was always being influenced by the voodoo of the room acoustics and the imprecise nature of micing the cab. The pedals needed attention on every song and every solo, anchoring me to the stage. My rig reminded me of a high maintenance girlfriend that sucked your wallet dry: except it sounded good when it opened its mouth.
As time passed, I began to understand the limitations of trying to play a variety of artists on one amp platform. My playing was better than ever, and my knowledge of gear had exploded in just a few years. But beyond the gigs, the gear and the practice, I still hungered for something else...something that didn't exist until I clicked a quiet little ad on HugeRacksInc.com
Enter Fractal Audio
The website revealed a two-space black monolith with fat rack handles, big buttons, and a giant knob all threatening to swallow a tiny screen glowing dimly in retro 90's green. I wasn't sure what to think of it. It was both industrial and clunky. The usual marketing blurbs and accolades were there. A few raves existed in cyberspace, but it seemed to be completely under the radar. Despite that, the chip and the interface looked promising.
So I found a friend who had one and I A/B'd it against my rig. In minutes I was dialing amps/cabs that had the potential to replace my bulky gear in a live setting so I joined the waiting list. I was excited. I scored a used one within a month and then disappeared for a few days. The Axe-FX proceeded to blow my mind day and night. The complexity of the dynamics, the sound, and the options to create rigs was simply incredible. My girlfriend would come home from work and I'd be jumping around like a little kid dying to play her the latest songs that had been dialed up. She has a good ear. She lived through my learning curve on tube amps and pedals and watched as tones improved in performance and practice. She knew how far I had come with the gear I had.
She came home after my first day with the Axe-FX, heard four songs and said, "That thing is worth every penny you paid for it. I've never heard the songs sound that good". She confirmed what I already knew. I couldn't live on one amp platform. My hunger was over. The longing had ended.
Now I had to learn how to use it.
I didn't know it, but I was already over one sonic hurdle. Because I mixed myself, I monitored my miced rig through a floor monitor. Making my miced guitar rig sound like the original recording (which is a miced guitar rig) had always been my goal. I liked the sound coming out of the guitar cabinet on my live tube amp rig, but I wasn't attached to it because it was only a piece of the tone. The real tone was what was coming out of the PA and the floor monitor. It was a little weird, but I ditched my tube rig, and after 4 years I finally had a professional, all-in-one solution for going direct to PA.
The next hurdle was the learning curve...what about all those amps in there I never played in real life? I watched players invest years into mastering one or two amp platforms and here I was with dozens of amps, cabinets, an earful of microphones, and an armada of effects staring back at me from a little green screen. What made the Fenders different from each other? Why was a plexi good for one song and a JCM 800 better for another? How in the world do you go about matching cabinets to amps, and mics to rigs when everything is constantly interacting with each other? It was crazy!
The immersion continued. I researched artists and amp rigs for the songs I did. I invested time on those amps in the Axe-FX, learning what the controls did, how they interacted, and how amps/cabs/mics interacted with each other. The world of tone inside it was so far reaching, I could hardly get my brain around it. My skull had been dropped into a wormhole and blasted into the center of a universe of tone. There was so much to discover, dialing for gig volume became a process of trial and error, figuring out what worked at volume and what didn't.
Then I began gigging with it. Right out of the gate, crowds were more emotional, more responsive. The music was at another level. I was at a new tonal high, enjoying how every song had a custom rig dedicated to it.
I even automated the Axe-FX, embedding program changes and control changes into the backing tracks I had recorded and produced. When a song started, a custom amp, cab, mic, effects rack and pedal board would swoop onto the stage and every single knob was dialed precisely where it needed to be for that song. Song after the song the rigs would pop into existence and be whisked away as the next rig entered. No longer tied to a pedalboard, I went wireless and took the show into the crowd. It was like having a small army of roadies setting up, running and tearing down entire rigs at light speed for each song...all night long.
And no one knew but me.
This was my happy little secret.
The pedals were gone, the knobs were gone, the guitar rigs were gone, and the audience didn't care -- because the music was right. At last, the technology was invisible and in the background. All I had to do was sing, play, perform and launch the whole of myself into the music and the crowd. No distractions. No compromises.
Fast forward to the present.
I've logged almost18 months, a couple hundred gigs and have upgraded to the Ultra in the process. Firmware updates are off the charts with Fractal Audio. Most companies hang you out to dry on firmware updates, forcing you to replace your obsolete unit. My investment continues to pay off in free updates and a constant evolution of the musical instrument that is the Axe-FX.
And I've learned a great deal along the way. When it comes to understanding tone and guitar equipment, the Axe-FX is the best tool for ear-training I've ever seen. If you invest enough time into listening, dialing and thinking, you can begin to unlock the potential inside of it and more importantly, you can unlock the potential inside your own musical brain as you learn, grow and evolve with the unit.
Let me close in saying I've had more fun with this piece of gear than any hardware I've purchased and the revelations and learning continue every time I sit down with it. Sometimes I do nothing but play. I enjoy how it can be adapted to the needs of the end user. It can be used completely alone running direct, jammed in a giant refrigerator touring rack, left un-dialed as a complete novice enjoys only stock presets and downloaded presets, or dialed relentlessly to satisfy the obsessions of a mad artist.
The question isn't about whether the Axe-FX is versatile enough for you, it’s about whether you are versatile enough in your own head to understand it and bend it to your will.
