Bob G
Member
Intro
As someone who came from Eventide H3000D/SE, DSP4500, Eclipse, Orville and H8000, The Axe-Fx felt like it was sent to earth from the Gods of Mount Olympus to cure the delirium of being an Eventide VSig programmer. Having several different studio setups with racks of top outboard wired into patch bays and a mixing console and then applying and combining the sounds from guitar pedals into real amps mic'd up at good tone volumes was A LOT to manage! I do believe there aren't many left on this earth who would endeavor to go down that path any longer, though there are still a few champions of the old ways who are sonic architects revealing some of the magic of the older gear and putting that knowledge into the Axe-Fx. Cliff and Matt of course, but also others like Simeon Harris, Leon Todd, Brett Kingman and many more.
Things I love about Axe-Fx
Not only do I love how Fractal Audio came up with their own versions of some of the best Eventide algorithms and warmed some of them up with a smoother "analog" sound and feel, but programming became much simpler with Axe Edit. I feel that we are very lucky to have the Axe-Fx units for many reasons. All of them have been like a gift from the Gods compared to the way things used to be for creative guitarists and tone chasers having to manage racks, patch bays and hundreds of cable connections whereby you could spend days chasing down a line trouble, whether it be a short circuit, ground or disconnect. The amp modeling is as close as it gets to the real thing and that is often the main attraction of the Axe-Fx. Its a point which many have tried to argue but Cliff always has improvements coming that put Fractal's Technology ten steps ahead of any other amp simulation maker. Right now, there isn't a single product on the market that sounds as close to real amplifiers as the Axe-Fx III or even the previous generation Axe-Fx II technology. If investment security is something that is a concern, Fractal certainly has it.
What the Axe-Fx evolved into for me
For me personally, the Axe-Fx evolved into becoming a brilliant sketch pad for coming up with new sounds. If you're like me and you use specific guitar pedals for the final production/recorded song version of your sounds, there is nothing better than the Axe-Fx for testing out ideas of sound design to see if they are going to work out or not. Before you commit to anything and start hooking up all your guitar pedals and messing about with the cabling, the Axe-Fx can approximate the sounds of any guitar pedals, close enough to test out an effect chain idea, to hear how it might sound and how it might work within the context of the music.
After spending years with Eventide, Lexicon and other screen based programming effects units, the Axe-Fx made things a lot easier but one problem that I still had with it was that if I had a creative idea, much of my idea would get lost by the time I had the Axe-Fx setup with the sound I heard in my head. So, for a few years, I switched back to using a few of my favorite Eventide patches in the Eclipse Harmonizer and H8000 combined with Strymon pedals and my TC 2290 and Korg SDD3000 rack delays for my digital effects combined with real amps. I moved away from the Fractal because I needed to step outside of being in "programmer mode" all the time. I wanted to get back to something more direct, using knobs and my hands and limiting the amount of programming I had to do, in order to design my sounds. I think there are many folks who came into the Fractal programming world but also longed for the simplicity of real amps and pedals.
Criticisms and a change of heart
I criticized the Axe-Fx harshly in the same way I criticized the H8000 as being a real time waster for a recording artist who is trying to get their creative ideas out of their head quickly in the heat of battle - in the recording studio with work timelines. While this is still true for anybody who's creative imagination is rapid-fire, the perspective that I've gained after a decade+ of using Axe Edit in its various forms is this: I have found my own ways of working with the Axe-Fx, using some saved patches of my own that I've created over many years combined with a built up knowledge that allows me to work efficiently with it in a way that is no slower or faster than using pedal effects.
Because there are continuous firmware updates with Fractal products, as a customer, this made me feel almost like a beta tester; like I was working with a product that was never fully realized and in a state of constant improvement, to reach what it should have been in the first place. The improvements with each firmware update can seem marginal. Some of the updates are a quantum leap, while others just feel like an inconvenience when I have to go back and re-adjust all of my personal programs because the update changed the way they behave. This was an annoyance, but I feel differently now about it and I appreciate that when you buy the flagship Fractal Product, you are really buying the equivalent of 5 - 10 products because of all of the positive changes that come during the life cycle of an Axe-Fx. There are indeed updates, where you plug into your Axe-Fx and it sounds and feels as though you just got a whole new product without having to pay for it.
Expanding knowledge
One thing that I think is really important to consider is the community of users and the range of information that is shared about how to get exactly what you need out of the Fractal Technology. Not enough can be said about how much of a difference that makes. As a recording artist, once you get good at programming an Axe-Fx, then you can really dive into the finer nuances of how to really make it do the things that you need it to do for your own music and guitar style. While you can learn a great deal by looking closely at some of the more advanced patches by sound designers like Simeon Harris, I also feel a great deal of gratitude for people such as Justin York and Leon Todd who've been immensely helpful with their expertise and next-level Fractal programming knowledge and skills.
Commitment
This is the most advanced guitar sound creation system available and the future of guitar sound creation will probably evolve from Fractal, not from any of the other platforms. The other platforms largely imitate Fractal with a simplified UI and algorithms that are very much fixed and cannot be expanded upon and customized to the same level. Some of the UI design is quite elegant and touch screens can be nice, though not absolutely necessary. I've used the other systems from companies and I outgrew them quickly because they have sonic limitations that Fractal's technology doesn't. I begged Strymon to make a Fractal quality amp simulator in a pedal in 2016. They tried to do that in the way I described it to them and released the Iridium pedal a few years later. While it's fun and useful for sketching out ideas, it leaves me wanting to plug into my Axe-Fx for the superior sound quality and editing capabilities. I think any other amp simulation product is going to have the same effect for me because my ears are trained to locate the best sounds possible and while many things sound great right out of the box, the Axe Fx can always be pushed to sound better, if you're willing to put in the work of experimenting with the expert level parameters. After going around the gear roundabout for the past decade, I feel like it's very important to commit to one platform and to really learn how to use that technology to it's greatest potential. For me, the Axe-Fx is the only device that gives me everything that I need to commit to it. There is enough room within its capabilities for me to evolve with it over time and continue to explore and push artistic boundaries while also feeling impressed by the results that are achievable. It's the only piece of amp modeling and effects technology I've worked with that doesn't leave me feeling like I can't push it any further. It allows me to do things that are very specific to my personal needs. Some of my needs are very specific.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this post can serve as perspective to anyone out there who is interested in an Axe-Fx or considering moving to the Axe-Fx as the central part of their guitar or sound making life. I've wrestled with Axe-Fx products enough to have gained these perspectives that I believe are unbiased. Yes, it has a steep learning curve at the start for anyone who's never used digital effects rack equipment or more advanced level DAW plugins. There is huge reward for the work that you put into learning how to use the Axe Fx. A reward that becomes greater as you use it.
As someone who came from Eventide H3000D/SE, DSP4500, Eclipse, Orville and H8000, The Axe-Fx felt like it was sent to earth from the Gods of Mount Olympus to cure the delirium of being an Eventide VSig programmer. Having several different studio setups with racks of top outboard wired into patch bays and a mixing console and then applying and combining the sounds from guitar pedals into real amps mic'd up at good tone volumes was A LOT to manage! I do believe there aren't many left on this earth who would endeavor to go down that path any longer, though there are still a few champions of the old ways who are sonic architects revealing some of the magic of the older gear and putting that knowledge into the Axe-Fx. Cliff and Matt of course, but also others like Simeon Harris, Leon Todd, Brett Kingman and many more.
Things I love about Axe-Fx
Not only do I love how Fractal Audio came up with their own versions of some of the best Eventide algorithms and warmed some of them up with a smoother "analog" sound and feel, but programming became much simpler with Axe Edit. I feel that we are very lucky to have the Axe-Fx units for many reasons. All of them have been like a gift from the Gods compared to the way things used to be for creative guitarists and tone chasers having to manage racks, patch bays and hundreds of cable connections whereby you could spend days chasing down a line trouble, whether it be a short circuit, ground or disconnect. The amp modeling is as close as it gets to the real thing and that is often the main attraction of the Axe-Fx. Its a point which many have tried to argue but Cliff always has improvements coming that put Fractal's Technology ten steps ahead of any other amp simulation maker. Right now, there isn't a single product on the market that sounds as close to real amplifiers as the Axe-Fx III or even the previous generation Axe-Fx II technology. If investment security is something that is a concern, Fractal certainly has it.
What the Axe-Fx evolved into for me
For me personally, the Axe-Fx evolved into becoming a brilliant sketch pad for coming up with new sounds. If you're like me and you use specific guitar pedals for the final production/recorded song version of your sounds, there is nothing better than the Axe-Fx for testing out ideas of sound design to see if they are going to work out or not. Before you commit to anything and start hooking up all your guitar pedals and messing about with the cabling, the Axe-Fx can approximate the sounds of any guitar pedals, close enough to test out an effect chain idea, to hear how it might sound and how it might work within the context of the music.
After spending years with Eventide, Lexicon and other screen based programming effects units, the Axe-Fx made things a lot easier but one problem that I still had with it was that if I had a creative idea, much of my idea would get lost by the time I had the Axe-Fx setup with the sound I heard in my head. So, for a few years, I switched back to using a few of my favorite Eventide patches in the Eclipse Harmonizer and H8000 combined with Strymon pedals and my TC 2290 and Korg SDD3000 rack delays for my digital effects combined with real amps. I moved away from the Fractal because I needed to step outside of being in "programmer mode" all the time. I wanted to get back to something more direct, using knobs and my hands and limiting the amount of programming I had to do, in order to design my sounds. I think there are many folks who came into the Fractal programming world but also longed for the simplicity of real amps and pedals.
Criticisms and a change of heart
I criticized the Axe-Fx harshly in the same way I criticized the H8000 as being a real time waster for a recording artist who is trying to get their creative ideas out of their head quickly in the heat of battle - in the recording studio with work timelines. While this is still true for anybody who's creative imagination is rapid-fire, the perspective that I've gained after a decade+ of using Axe Edit in its various forms is this: I have found my own ways of working with the Axe-Fx, using some saved patches of my own that I've created over many years combined with a built up knowledge that allows me to work efficiently with it in a way that is no slower or faster than using pedal effects.
Because there are continuous firmware updates with Fractal products, as a customer, this made me feel almost like a beta tester; like I was working with a product that was never fully realized and in a state of constant improvement, to reach what it should have been in the first place. The improvements with each firmware update can seem marginal. Some of the updates are a quantum leap, while others just feel like an inconvenience when I have to go back and re-adjust all of my personal programs because the update changed the way they behave. This was an annoyance, but I feel differently now about it and I appreciate that when you buy the flagship Fractal Product, you are really buying the equivalent of 5 - 10 products because of all of the positive changes that come during the life cycle of an Axe-Fx. There are indeed updates, where you plug into your Axe-Fx and it sounds and feels as though you just got a whole new product without having to pay for it.
Expanding knowledge
One thing that I think is really important to consider is the community of users and the range of information that is shared about how to get exactly what you need out of the Fractal Technology. Not enough can be said about how much of a difference that makes. As a recording artist, once you get good at programming an Axe-Fx, then you can really dive into the finer nuances of how to really make it do the things that you need it to do for your own music and guitar style. While you can learn a great deal by looking closely at some of the more advanced patches by sound designers like Simeon Harris, I also feel a great deal of gratitude for people such as Justin York and Leon Todd who've been immensely helpful with their expertise and next-level Fractal programming knowledge and skills.
Commitment
This is the most advanced guitar sound creation system available and the future of guitar sound creation will probably evolve from Fractal, not from any of the other platforms. The other platforms largely imitate Fractal with a simplified UI and algorithms that are very much fixed and cannot be expanded upon and customized to the same level. Some of the UI design is quite elegant and touch screens can be nice, though not absolutely necessary. I've used the other systems from companies and I outgrew them quickly because they have sonic limitations that Fractal's technology doesn't. I begged Strymon to make a Fractal quality amp simulator in a pedal in 2016. They tried to do that in the way I described it to them and released the Iridium pedal a few years later. While it's fun and useful for sketching out ideas, it leaves me wanting to plug into my Axe-Fx for the superior sound quality and editing capabilities. I think any other amp simulation product is going to have the same effect for me because my ears are trained to locate the best sounds possible and while many things sound great right out of the box, the Axe Fx can always be pushed to sound better, if you're willing to put in the work of experimenting with the expert level parameters. After going around the gear roundabout for the past decade, I feel like it's very important to commit to one platform and to really learn how to use that technology to it's greatest potential. For me, the Axe-Fx is the only device that gives me everything that I need to commit to it. There is enough room within its capabilities for me to evolve with it over time and continue to explore and push artistic boundaries while also feeling impressed by the results that are achievable. It's the only piece of amp modeling and effects technology I've worked with that doesn't leave me feeling like I can't push it any further. It allows me to do things that are very specific to my personal needs. Some of my needs are very specific.
Final Thoughts
Hopefully this post can serve as perspective to anyone out there who is interested in an Axe-Fx or considering moving to the Axe-Fx as the central part of their guitar or sound making life. I've wrestled with Axe-Fx products enough to have gained these perspectives that I believe are unbiased. Yes, it has a steep learning curve at the start for anyone who's never used digital effects rack equipment or more advanced level DAW plugins. There is huge reward for the work that you put into learning how to use the Axe Fx. A reward that becomes greater as you use it.
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