I totally agree that there is an admirable talent to making things sound good at all volumes. But also, basically I do find a difference with the Axe FX played through headphones (no output into the air of the room and hence no guitar pickup recycle of the tones) and the axe played into the room with via monitors. I would wonder what Kemper (and even Helix) would do with this input since the processes used are evidently so different. (I tend to presume the Axe FX signal processing method is more detailed and precise and so it may be noticeably more lively - I haven't had either of the other units so this is just a curiosity - and what dog doesn't want to believe his leg is up higher - but just yesterday I had a Euro Red Modern preset, and was just sitting there lifting my hand off the strings and getting a great super realistic feedback...). For me the Axe seems to be able to take this signal at fairly low volumes and very delicately respond to it as if the whole chain was real and not virtual. I used to have a Boogie simulclass power amp and the "feel" of even just the power amp, played into via MP1, was very noticeable and I loved the slight little squish I got combined with the feedback. Of course in an apartment and with traffic noises and etc., to record I needed to isolate the cab from the main room of the apartment, which basically had windows and a poorly insulated door along the entirety of the front wall. Not only would the neighbors complain, but the incoming sound would get onto the [awful
] recordings. So I used to have a Marshall Power Brake and to mic my 2/12 and the lower I turned it the less than beautiful feedback into the pickups must have been occurring; and then to record I finally used a somewhat soundproofed walk in closet ( the clothes probably overly muffling the reverberation, but ah well..)
For me the Axe FX II outshines the basic "cab in the same room" livelier sound; because in addition its not only giving me endless variety, but reacting equally strongly and realistically to the new input into the pickups. As for the closet recordings, in retrospect of course they completely lacked that little feedback parameter that was diminishing as I had turned the Power Brake down in the first place.
When I first got the Axe FX Ultra and listened to it with headphones, it was disappointing. I first had to go through an evolution of learning about headphones. I found that the Dennon headphones AH-D1100 gave me a more realistic "soundstage experience". But until I got some decent monitors I didn't realize I was missing that monitor-to-pickup feedback. It's all been quite a journey.
Yes, depending on the preset it can get twice as nice at fairly loud volumes, so as the OP said I do recommend using this for a lot of the composing/recording process. Its nice to know the Axe FX experience isn't diminished all that much when the volumes go down a little. I don't think a very, very quiet level would work for me for being the most inspiring. I have no problem using it during a lot of practice.
But this feedback mechanism seems to still work pretty nicely at reasonably low volumes, like maybe the volume of a typical male speaking voice at a couple of feet away. I'm not sure how Cliff got it that sensitive, (maybe as sensitive as the real thing).
