jesussaddle
Power User
I had an Ultra for a couple of years or so, and for the quality of recording that was a fantastic product. As soon as I heard about the new product Cliff wanted to introduce, I knew all I needed to to want it. Now I've had the Axe II for a couple of weeks now, and wanna share my perspective in case there are people wondering if it could be for them.
First, my experience with the USB driver. It didn't go as planned, evidently because I moved a knob on the II or who knows, whatever the reason it gave an error that the installation did not complete. I realized that having the partial file was going to prevent my retrying the installation, so I found the folder that I'd installed into and deleted what was there. I re-ran the installation and all was well. I made sure NOT to touch the knobs on the Axe II once I did what was instructed in the directions, about plugging in the USB cable and turning on the device and so forth (its been a couple of weeks and the details are cloudy at this point.)
So the 2nd time worked like a charm.
As for Firmwares, the guy at the shop installed Firmware 4. I was very happy with that, but was particularly working on clean sounds and learning some stuff. I did notice that the "FEEL" factor was way up from what I had with the Ultra. Sure, there was tube feeling there in the Ultra, but it wasn't what I would say very highly charged. The II changed that. Immediately I noticed more touch response.
Then....yesterday I installed firmware 5.
Firstly, the installation through Axe Edit was not able to complete. Twice I got a message after the file tranfer reached 100% saying the install did not complete. I was hoping that re-starting the unit would give me the Firmware 5 confirmation on the Firmware page.... Nope.
So after two tries, I just went back to MIDI Ox, which happily allowed the USB drive to appear in the options. Transferring the file using MIDI OX took about twice as long, so about 10 minutes or so. It worked without a hitch.
That's where the musical gluttony started. After about forty seconds I realized Cliff had worked out the whole technology of feel in this new Firmware. There's possibly some small degree of stuff that is difficult for a complete novice with this units new edit functions to achieve. But... That's just a tiny area, dealing with maybe some incredibly specific amp mods. Generally though, for most everything that's out there, the tube feel, touch response, burning fingers and notes flying off the fretboard stuff, this is the cake complete with icing.
You can say that the Ultra gave me a recording bonanza since I could easily get a mix together, easily adjusting and inventing guitar tones to fit a soundscape.
But the Axe II does what the Ultra did to aid guitarists in mixing and recording, but way beyond that, impacting performing, practicing and composing at a high degree, since it captures an experience of electric inspiration I've been wondering about since the late sixties - but never could afford. A direct extension between your head an arm and guitar, into a box full of secrets, so your guitar vibrates in hundreds of ways - let your imagination run wild. You can't put it down. Ideas for combinations of notes just seem to endlessly drift down from some newly installed part of the software. This actually makes practicing or writing music for many hours at a stretch an effortless experience.
So that's my take, its gonna be hard not to practice, improve, write good music, and share ideas. And that's the point with art, and this product line did not let me down at all.
P.S.
Someone commented on the simplification to the high freq. resonance controls in Firmware 5 and missing what was in Firmware 4.01. My question is this, is not roughly the same amount of control still available, by accessing it via the speaker page high cut. (From Release Notes: "For convenience, the transformer low-cut and high-cut frequencies are now present on the SPKR page and their influence on the open-loop response is reflected in the impedance graph.")
First, my experience with the USB driver. It didn't go as planned, evidently because I moved a knob on the II or who knows, whatever the reason it gave an error that the installation did not complete. I realized that having the partial file was going to prevent my retrying the installation, so I found the folder that I'd installed into and deleted what was there. I re-ran the installation and all was well. I made sure NOT to touch the knobs on the Axe II once I did what was instructed in the directions, about plugging in the USB cable and turning on the device and so forth (its been a couple of weeks and the details are cloudy at this point.)
So the 2nd time worked like a charm.
As for Firmwares, the guy at the shop installed Firmware 4. I was very happy with that, but was particularly working on clean sounds and learning some stuff. I did notice that the "FEEL" factor was way up from what I had with the Ultra. Sure, there was tube feeling there in the Ultra, but it wasn't what I would say very highly charged. The II changed that. Immediately I noticed more touch response.
Then....yesterday I installed firmware 5.
Firstly, the installation through Axe Edit was not able to complete. Twice I got a message after the file tranfer reached 100% saying the install did not complete. I was hoping that re-starting the unit would give me the Firmware 5 confirmation on the Firmware page.... Nope.
So after two tries, I just went back to MIDI Ox, which happily allowed the USB drive to appear in the options. Transferring the file using MIDI OX took about twice as long, so about 10 minutes or so. It worked without a hitch.
That's where the musical gluttony started. After about forty seconds I realized Cliff had worked out the whole technology of feel in this new Firmware. There's possibly some small degree of stuff that is difficult for a complete novice with this units new edit functions to achieve. But... That's just a tiny area, dealing with maybe some incredibly specific amp mods. Generally though, for most everything that's out there, the tube feel, touch response, burning fingers and notes flying off the fretboard stuff, this is the cake complete with icing.
You can say that the Ultra gave me a recording bonanza since I could easily get a mix together, easily adjusting and inventing guitar tones to fit a soundscape.
But the Axe II does what the Ultra did to aid guitarists in mixing and recording, but way beyond that, impacting performing, practicing and composing at a high degree, since it captures an experience of electric inspiration I've been wondering about since the late sixties - but never could afford. A direct extension between your head an arm and guitar, into a box full of secrets, so your guitar vibrates in hundreds of ways - let your imagination run wild. You can't put it down. Ideas for combinations of notes just seem to endlessly drift down from some newly installed part of the software. This actually makes practicing or writing music for many hours at a stretch an effortless experience.
So that's my take, its gonna be hard not to practice, improve, write good music, and share ideas. And that's the point with art, and this product line did not let me down at all.
P.S.
Someone commented on the simplification to the high freq. resonance controls in Firmware 5 and missing what was in Firmware 4.01. My question is this, is not roughly the same amount of control still available, by accessing it via the speaker page high cut. (From Release Notes: "For convenience, the transformer low-cut and high-cut frequencies are now present on the SPKR page and their influence on the open-loop response is reflected in the impedance graph.")
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