ryanhathaway
New Member
Hi guys, Fractal noob here asking for some advice on my first unit.
Basically, i'm curious if a used axe fx ultra is still a worthwhile investment. I'll possibly be running it 4CM with a Laney Ironheart studio, but more realistically just the axe on it's own, and I have an interface to connect monitors/headphones to. I'm not really looking to run it through a cab - this is more a "downsize the rig and be able to play it both in the day and at night" type thing.
I've heard that the modelling on the axe 2 is obviously better, but that with impulses the ultra bridges that gap a bit? The 2 here in the uk also costs about £2000, even approaches that new, while an ultra can be regularly had for £800 - £900. I think the 2 is a bit out of my budget, and i'm considering used ultra and putting the extra money into Adam A7X or Yamaha HS8 monitors.
I also know about the AX8, but i'm not totally sold on having the brains of the whole thing on the floor. I mean, it's possible I might gig in the future with this, and I don't like the possibility of having beer or water spilled on an AX8, or getting cat hair and fluff etc on a £1500 unit at home. With the Ultra it's housed nicely in a rack, off the floor and protected.
I've also heard conflicting things about axe edit. luckily my interface has midi so i can connect axe to pc via that, but is the axe edit version for ultra stable? I'll still be able to dial in stuff visually without it going kaput?
For the most part, i'll be keeping things fairly simple - amp sim, impulse, couple of individual stompbox effects. I think the most complex patches will be stuff like Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time tone, with multiple FX going off at once, or some of the more ambient stuff you hear on youtube where it's literally just spacey delay things. Mostly i'll be playing 80s metal, 90s death metal, some modern tech death and 00's metalcore drop c stuff, and 8 strings ala Meshuggah.
I'll be controlling it with an uno equipped FCB1010.
Basically what my question boils down to is, if I get a used axe ultra, will i still be able to craft amazing tones with axe edit, use it with impules/4CM, map multiple fx to one midi button, and not risk running out of cpu on some of the more demanding stuff (I don't think this would be a huge issue as my POD could handle a SiT tone well enough)?
Also, if I run my Irt Studio DI into the Axe, then monitors into the Axe, and run the Axe in 4cm, will I get tube power through the monitors? Or is it sorta pointless and i'd be better off leaving the laney out of the equation altogether?
I know a lot of people might just say "get the axe 2", and if it wasn't 2 grand i'd agree, but I think that much money is a huge investment for me when I've not got any experience with prior Fractal products, so I have no idea if the axe is truly, 100% for me or not - I suspect it is, but i'd rather not drop 2 grand to test the waters.
Sorry for the long question but tl;dr - used axe ultra + impulses with tube poweramp, yay or nay?
Basically, i'm curious if a used axe fx ultra is still a worthwhile investment. I'll possibly be running it 4CM with a Laney Ironheart studio, but more realistically just the axe on it's own, and I have an interface to connect monitors/headphones to. I'm not really looking to run it through a cab - this is more a "downsize the rig and be able to play it both in the day and at night" type thing.
I've heard that the modelling on the axe 2 is obviously better, but that with impulses the ultra bridges that gap a bit? The 2 here in the uk also costs about £2000, even approaches that new, while an ultra can be regularly had for £800 - £900. I think the 2 is a bit out of my budget, and i'm considering used ultra and putting the extra money into Adam A7X or Yamaha HS8 monitors.
I also know about the AX8, but i'm not totally sold on having the brains of the whole thing on the floor. I mean, it's possible I might gig in the future with this, and I don't like the possibility of having beer or water spilled on an AX8, or getting cat hair and fluff etc on a £1500 unit at home. With the Ultra it's housed nicely in a rack, off the floor and protected.
I've also heard conflicting things about axe edit. luckily my interface has midi so i can connect axe to pc via that, but is the axe edit version for ultra stable? I'll still be able to dial in stuff visually without it going kaput?
For the most part, i'll be keeping things fairly simple - amp sim, impulse, couple of individual stompbox effects. I think the most complex patches will be stuff like Iron Maiden's Somewhere In Time tone, with multiple FX going off at once, or some of the more ambient stuff you hear on youtube where it's literally just spacey delay things. Mostly i'll be playing 80s metal, 90s death metal, some modern tech death and 00's metalcore drop c stuff, and 8 strings ala Meshuggah.
I'll be controlling it with an uno equipped FCB1010.
Basically what my question boils down to is, if I get a used axe ultra, will i still be able to craft amazing tones with axe edit, use it with impules/4CM, map multiple fx to one midi button, and not risk running out of cpu on some of the more demanding stuff (I don't think this would be a huge issue as my POD could handle a SiT tone well enough)?
Also, if I run my Irt Studio DI into the Axe, then monitors into the Axe, and run the Axe in 4cm, will I get tube power through the monitors? Or is it sorta pointless and i'd be better off leaving the laney out of the equation altogether?
I know a lot of people might just say "get the axe 2", and if it wasn't 2 grand i'd agree, but I think that much money is a huge investment for me when I've not got any experience with prior Fractal products, so I have no idea if the axe is truly, 100% for me or not - I suspect it is, but i'd rather not drop 2 grand to test the waters.
Sorry for the long question but tl;dr - used axe ultra + impulses with tube poweramp, yay or nay?
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