NAMM looking real good! New DSP - One Chip with 4 X the power of TigerSharc

nznat

Experienced
Apparently the new tech DSP chips are out and about too, apparently one of the new DSP chips has the power of four tigersharc chips put together. wow wonder what brand these are, bring on the AXE FX 3.

















Oh Wait: That was Christmas bollicks. Merry Christmas everyone!
 
And 140W.

140watt = 2 Amps + 4 ultra Res Cabs + 30 effects pedals at once, including 4 reverbs on High Quality = CPU still only at 40%. NICE! It would sell like hot cakes!

Be interesting to actually take a forum vote who would buy a unit with a big ass CPU / DSP in it like that new Intel thingee. Keep the Axe FX 2 XL+ unit as it is for now, yet replace the tigersharcs with one of those over the top powerful Intel chips.

A bit of a survey to see where the community is at. It may be surprising, as there is a decent percentage of the fractal community who will jump on board without a thought as they love the Axe FX and the tones they are getting yet the thought of MORE POWER is similar to buying a big pickup truck with a 1500HP engine under the hood. hehe Be interesting!
 
I actually think it makes more sense to go the other way and offer an Ax4 with less power (if thats even possible) than the Ax8 at a $599 price point. One amp, one cab, lower cpu, reverb and effects This would grab tons of market share.
 
I actually think it makes more sense to go the other way and offer an Ax4 with less power (if thats even possible) than the Ax8 at a $599 price point. One amp, one cab, lower cpu, reverb and effects This would grab tons of market share.

can have a small version too, but that is already the case with the AX8. Have a small unit and a mid range (the current XL+) and a full blown power house, im pretty sure the big kahoona will sell like hot cakes aswell.
 
At this point, I don't really think a more powerful processor that handles more simultaneous effects or a bigger grid is necessary or even really desired by most Axe-Fx users. The Axe-Fx doesn't really need more processing power, specifically. It needs to be able to hold more settings within individual blocks.

When compared to the Axe-Fx, the *single* theoretical advantage of any other rig you can build is that within individual effects, you can have as many sounds "per patch" as you want, provided you get the right gear. Buy a Strymon BigSky and you have 200 reverbs available without having to change any of your other effects or amp channels, etc. In the Axe-Fx, you're limited to 2 instances per block.

So yeah, the best improvement for the Axe-Fx I can currently think of would be more available instances within effects blocks. Imagine being able to have 5 or 6 instances of the "Amp 1" block (instead of X/Y, having V/W/X/Y/Z,etc) in one patch. You'd be able to have a different 5 or 6 channel amp in every patch, along with 5 or 6 drives, delays, reverbs, etc.

Or maybe this could be done by expanding the Global Block's available memory and functionality to store 20 or 30 instances of each block, and then allowing any global block setting to be recalled and override its block in any patch. So for example, on any patch with an "Amp 1" block, you could press a switch on your MIDI board to "apply Amp 1 Global Block - 25" or whatever. At that point, you'd have 20-30 "favorite" amps available in every patch.
 
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True. However, in the Axe II you have hundreds of preset slots in which to save completely different virtual rigs, so you still have instant access to hundreds and hundreds of different tones. The Fractal approach seems to be geared more towards planning ahead and saving unique tones on a song by song basis rather that trying to create a single preset that covers many different tones on the fly. With scenes and controllers you can pack quite a bit of variation into any one preset, but with so many preset slots available, there's no need to limit yourself in that way. Think about how many different tones do you really need for any given song. It's a bit of a paradigm shift when coming from a traditional pedalboard where you are used to tap dancing and tweaking a single static rig to get all the different sounds you need. With the Axe II, you can create hundreds of different virtual rigs from scratch and call each of them up as needed.
 
I would be more interested in a full blown AX8XL++

Not me..I love the fact that the AX8 is a single amp unit. Too much becomes just that ..... Too much.
I'd add an upgraded unit with a better screen ( for old man eyes ) and a better 2nd row of footswitches ( for old man feet , trying to hit buttons that I'm looking for , with those old man eyes )
 
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