Thanks supersonic your probably right. I'd never buy something at this cost blind like this do why should I now for ever stunning review I've found Theres another saying it's awful and the sounds are no where near the real deal. Tough call !
I'm not going to try to understand the reasoning behind the internet fights over the AxeFXII; it's absolutely old and tired at this point, but I do think that several years ago there were some valid points made opposing the AxeFX stuff early on that would go from legitimate questions or issues and turn into bashfests and get stupid on both sides real quick. Just trying to be as unbiased as possible here because you can't really have an argument without two parties involved.
But I've been using the FAS stuff for years now and I've seen where it started which was very good, but required a considerable amount of knowledge and trial and error to where it quickly evolved into one of the most amazing pieces of gear I've ever touched. Hell, it is the best piece of gear I've ever used. The release notes are a really good historical account of what's been done and you'll probably find that most arguments (meaning rational, fact based and specific) have been addressed and fixed. There are also numerous innovations that Cliff has implemented along the way as well. I've said this a million times probably, but the moment that Cliff went through and matched the values of the amp models (for things like treble, bass, mids, etc.) to the real amp values the entire process of patch creation and tweaking got a lot easier. I don't know how to explain it better, but to me it appeared that if I was making a preset and say I wanted more treble I could go beyond what the amp would be able to do in real life and it would either be amazing or more typically it would become less authentic. By matching the real deal better it was almost akin to putting limits in there that kept you from getting into trouble. So you want more treble in that patch and you're already on ten? Well it turns out that it wasn't the treble value, but you were using the wrong cabinet or you needed to take a little bass and mid out and raise the volume instead. Or you could just add an EQ in there some where. The thing is that the amp retains the character of the original a lot better. It also helps all of us who go in there and start out by tweaking with our eyes first (because we all do it at some point).
My long winded point here is that back when I had the Ultra and even the early firmware version of the AxeFXII I had come up with an understanding of how to create a patch based on considerable trial and error. There was a definite learning curve, but you were absolutely rewarded for your work. It's been about a year now since I've had to apply more than a fraction of that effort to create better patches than ever before. So I think that while some of the root causes for the arguments about it being hard or being less than authentic stemmed from actual issues those arguments are extremely dated and irrelevant today. And I've really simplified my post here to address just one change; along the way Cliff has reworked a lot of the models using new techniques like MIMIC and voodoo dolls and whatever the hell it is that he does in his lab. Sometimes there would only be a small change, sometimes it'd be massive, but they've all moved into a direction where the entire product has just gotten better and more importantly easier to get to where you want to go with your tone.
And I'm coming from a background of years of frustration with VSTi's and other a laundry list of modelers. I started down the virtual road back in the mid 90's with the original Roland VG-8. What I found was that almost every product could do at least one thing very well, but typically they would do a whole lot of things less than good. That's not the case with this thing here. I can't get a bad sound from it unless I'm really trying to.
With all that said no single thing is the best for every single person. But I don't think that there is anything in this genre of technology that is as good from top to bottom or as well rounded.
