Is it time for Fractal to upgrade the DSP chips in the Axe FX II/Xl

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I dont think running out of DSP is the norm. I dont hear about it much except on this board where people are trying to use 20 blocks in every preset. I rarely ever see the limit, and it is usually only because I am experimenting and haven't cleaned up my preset yet by deleting the unused blocks.

Plus, it has been said, there really aren't any faster DSPs out there. Even if there were, the cost would be way too high. If you run out of room, do what they did in the pre-Axe days! Buy a different second unit to handle 1 or 2 specific effects!
 
I'm no power user, but a few of my presets are now maxed out. I now have to decide to dumb them down or downgrade back to FW 16. I could use cab lab to merge cabinets and such, but the point of the II was limitless options, which was unrealistic, but the limit sure has come quickly.

Perhaps using some of the amps dedicated dsp, for other stuff, is the solution.
 
I'm no power user either. My biggest patch is something like this:

Comp>Wah>Drive>Amp>Dual UR Cabs>Gate>Delay>Reverb

And best I can remember the other day it was only in the mid 60's. I'm not really huge on effects like some people are. I rarely use the comp, drive, and gate other than the input gate. The rest like Chorus, pitch shift, and whatever else the axe has are pretty much non use to me. I'm a straight Amp/Cab guy with a lil reverb and delay.
 
A little naïve to think adding a dsp chip is either easy or would result in more overall processing power per preset.

One of the innovations of the Fractal is the proprietary hardware backplane. I would think a third dsp would be quite a re-architect of the entire box.

Instead just buy another AxeFx. It's a solution already out there for the few that are out of CPU and really want/need more power.
 
Get the Fx 8 and run in the loop and you have what you want. It's probably about the same cost as adding additional processing to the AxeII and you get the extra foot switches you need for the complex presets.

The AxeFx is by far the most powerful guitar Preamp/ Fx unit out there. You can split it into effects and its the most powerful effects unit or you can split it into amp modeler and its the most powerful! Most powerful x 2 = :)
 
Why all the guilt and negativity about wanting more processing power?

Of course processing power will need to increase to match evolving Firmware capability.

An Axefx III will appear at some point, and of course it will be more powerful re cpu processing power (Either via more powerful gen processors or more processors).

It's pretty much a law of the digital universe isn't it? (see Moore's Law), and ...:
-Good for users to build more powerful patches.
-Good for Cliff to build more powerful features.
-Good for FAS to sell more units.

It's all good!

In the meantime, just avoid those "everything but the kitchen sink type patches"
 
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I think it's funny when the guitar community talks about business decisions in this manner. It's even funnier when they talk about engineering decisions.

Come on. This thing still has top specs and is over the top amazing. FX8 opens up new routing options for more elaborate presets if you need them.
 
I think the prob here is that most folks making the transition from traditional amp / stomps to rack gear is that they try to replicate their entire pedal-board in a single preset..
and to be honest, it's not really practical or necessary..

it makes more sense to build a presets specifically containing what's needed for single songs / types of songs..
then between songs, if need be, you change preset to the one that's applicable for the next song / type of song

living with an amp / stomps and living with multi-fx unit is a slightly different mindset...
given that you have 300+ presets available.. and on top of that, you can archive presets off system that are easily retrievable later..
you ain't ever going to run out of permutations / possibilities...
 
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Before I discovered the Ax Fx , I played through 2 $2000+ Blackface Deluxes , a $3000 + pedal board & switching system with comp, 3-drives ,chorus ,delay , reverb was in the amps . not to mention cables ,etc ! I could buy 2- XL's for that investment and a premium monitor ! Quality over quantity !! I can do far more with my XL than I ever could with the amp setup , I have an Ax II also , but never need it , it's just for backup . Wants and needs are totally different things ! The "I want it all, and I want it now" concept can wrap around any of us if we let it , Think for a moment what it would take to reproduce the chain at the same quality with any other gear for anywhere near the price !! Anything I need , is more than covered by the XL , or the II for that matter , the rest is just want's !!
Enjoy it!! It's a huge blessing !!
 
I dont think running out of DSP is the norm. I dont hear about it much except on this board where people are trying to use 20 blocks in every preset. I rarely ever see the limit, and it is usually only because I am experimenting and haven't cleaned up my preset yet by deleting the unused blocks.

Plus, it has been said, there really aren't any faster DSPs out there. Even if there were, the cost would be way too high. If you run out of room, do what they did in the pre-Axe days! Buy a different second unit to handle 1 or 2 specific effects!

A patch I built using a Wah, Drive, Amp, Cab (stereo UltraRes with preamp on) Chorus, Delay, Pitch and Reverb on high quality exceeds CPU on Axe. That's not using 20 blocks or the kitchen sink. It's ok, I'm working around it and find the increase in quality of tone to be well worth the effort. Certain blocks eat more CPU than others. Load a Compressor, 2 Drive blocks, Amp, Stereo UR Cab w/Preamp on, Multi Delay and Reverb on high quality and see where you're at. Now add modifiers etc., pushes limit real fast.
I'm more than happy with this unit and would love to see even more improvements, even if it costs CPU to use them. Like said above, I'll take quality over quantity everytime!


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Every device has its limits. The Axe is way ahead of anything else out there in the marketplace. Nothing else even comes close to its power and flexibility.
 
A little naïve to think adding a dsp chip is either easy or would result in more overall processing power per preset.

One of the innovations of the Fractal is the proprietary hardware backplane. I would think a third dsp would be quite a re-architect of the entire box.

Not to mention that the difficulty in scaling a complex computational problem efficiently across multiple processors increases pretty dramatically with the number of processors. And a series of non-uniform real time tasks presented in random order with heavy constraints on latency? Tuning that sort of system to efficiently utilize more CPUs, were they available, is a decidedly non-trivial exercise.
 
A patch I built using a Wah, Drive, Amp, Cab (stereo UltraRes with preamp on) Chorus, Delay, Pitch and Reverb on high quality exceeds CPU on Axe. That's not using 20 blocks or the kitchen sink. It's ok, I'm working around it and find the increase in quality of tone to be well worth the effort. Certain blocks eat more CPU than others. Load a Compressor, 2 Drive blocks, Amp, Stereo UR Cab w/Preamp on, Multi Delay and Reverb on high quality and see where you're at. Now add modifiers etc., pushes limit real fast.
I'm more than happy with this unit and would love to see even more improvements, even if it costs CPU to use them. Like said above, I'll take quality over quantity everytime!


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I hesitate to chime in on this because it may come off as negative whining [I'm Jewish - It's an ethnic thing with me :)] and I still really love my Axe II.

My Presets are similar to Bill's.

Wah > Comp > Drive > Amp > Vol > Pitch (for stereo detuning/chorus) > Mono Dly (Slapback) > Dly (Echo) > Rev > Cab > Out 1
> FXLoop (after the Rev Block) > Out 2

My Presets are designed for stereo power amp + cab (via Out 2) and stereo FRFR (via Out 1) simultaneously.
My Cab Block is set up to sound very similar to my real cabs.
It's a stereo Cab Block.
That routing doesn't really seem all that over-the-top to me.
Except for the Cab Block it's exactly how I'd be routing with real amps and separate effects/pedals.
I use I/A switches for the Wah, Comp, Drive effects.
The Bypass state of my Delays and the Rev are stored per Preset but I also have I/A switches for them.
(I'm still using an FCB1010 UNO btw.)
I'm not using any scenes and all my Presets have only 1 Amp Type.
I have 5 Presets like this for my Strats and 5 more for my humbucker-equipped guitars with the only difference being a different Amp in each Preset (Clean Bright, Clean Dark-Jazz, Bluesy Breakup, Mid Gain, Hi-Gain).

This routing never taxed the CPU in my Ultra days and it never taxed my II until recently.
It stays pretty low on the CPU usage if I use either a Low Res Stereo Cab Block or Normal Quality in the Reverb Block.
I've settled on using the Low Res Stereo Cab Block because the normal Quality Reverbs don't sound all that good to me and I can live with the lower res Cab Block.
So, IMO, the CPU capabilities of the Axe II are fine unless you want to use all the new goodies that Cliff is throwing our way like High Quality Reverbs and UltraRes cab IRs.
But if you're like me you'd be more satisfied w/o that limitation.

So it seems obvious to me that Cliff has already hit the threshold of what the II is capable of and that he'll need to come up with something else (an Axe III or a different way of coding for the II) if he wants to continue with the types of advances he seems to want to continue with.
 
The TigerSharc is already the most powerful processor out there. There are two of those inside the AxeFx.
Adding a 3rd would increase the price with hundrads of dollars.

Maybe the answer is to use FPGA's (field-programmable gate array) processors which superior than DSPs. FPGA's are being used in Avid's HDX Cards and Fairlight sytems.
 
This routing never taxed the CPU in my Ultra days and it never taxed my II until recently.

Well, turn off Ultra-res Cab [make it mono] and turn off high-res options everywhere. The Axe-Fx Ultra didn't have these features.
 
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