I’m with the op about the confusion. The way the USB io is mapped is counter intuitive to studio folks.
If you want to stay with usb only, the best you’ll be able to do (currently) is have 2 stereo streams through the axefx, not 4!
As others have mentioned, the manual is unfortunately correct and therefore, in my opinion the io is limited. Most users are probably coming from a II and probably analog so in that regard it is a huge step up. For those used to modern audio interfaces, it’s kind of retro.
Streams are not freely assignable to in’s and outs. I too was dismayed at first. I’m crossing my fingers that the spdif and aes io can be freely assignable in the future (so that we don’t need a computer to handle 2 separate stereo digital streams) and that the usb io will be freely assignable.
If you want to stay with usb only, the best you’ll be able to do (currently) is have 2 stereo streams through the axefx, not 4!
As others have mentioned, the manual is unfortunately correct and therefore, in my opinion the io is limited. Most users are probably coming from a II and probably analog so in that regard it is a huge step up. For those used to modern audio interfaces, it’s kind of retro.
Streams are not freely assignable to in’s and outs. I too was dismayed at first. I’m crossing my fingers that the spdif and aes io can be freely assignable in the future (so that we don’t need a computer to handle 2 separate stereo digital streams) and that the usb io will be freely assignable.