Rough guess as to when Fractal stops updating the II?

FWIW, I had the same concerns before joining the cool kids' club. No one wants to pay good money for something that will eventually be obsolete when it comes to anything tech. The thing I came to realize is that even if support/updates ended today, the Axe would still sound as awesome as it does now for as long as I have it.
OP, to your question, if the funds aren't there then it sounds to me like you've answered your own question. IMO, you aren't sacrificing much going II instead of XL... closest comparison I can think of is buying a car, or the same car with a bigger trunk and a few small feature upgrades. Power under the hood is the same either way.
And that is where the recognizing the differences between quality vs. shiny shit comes into play. ;)
 
And that is where the recognizing the differences between quality vs. shiny shit comes into play. ;)
Sure, that's always true, but I remember not knowing how good this thing is vs other modeling tech at the time I picked it up.
People who haven't played an Axe - really to the point of being comfortable with it - need that exposure to understand it's not just another POD at 4x the price. It's infinitely better, no doubt, but to someone unfamiliar with it, until they hear/play one it's just another racked doohicky.
 
If I could upgrade to have another DSP that would increase the CPU overhead even 25% for $500, I would not even hesitate.

On the same token, I think if Cliff designed another version of the axe fx that gave us more CPU overhead, even if it cost 500 more, most people would buy that over the others.

Just my opinion.
What with all the new products on the horizon, I wouldn't be shocked if we see something like a 1U racked "AxeLite" that acts as a II/XL expansion.
...and if I'm right, go ahead and put me on the waitlist!
 
Really wanted to order an XL+ this week, but the funds aren't there with some other expenses I have at the moment. Anybody want to hazard a guess as to when they might stop updates on this model? Looking at buying a used II but don't want to do that if it's going to be stuck in 6 months or something...not that the current FW doesn't sound absolutely badass; I'm just wondering about support down the line.

Thanks!

I got mine last Thursday, had the same thoughts as you, but I figured now I have had it two days to play with instead of keep wondering if I should buy one or wait, no one can answer your question, even fractal audio can make plans for the future and have them all change, nothing is guaranteed in this life, so far, even though I am overwhelmed, many fine people will help you and the reading material available has been a godsend, but one good preset you made and you will say yes, I have made the right decision.......
 
If I had to guess I'd say it'll be...

1: When Cliff's development is halted due to current hardware/DSP limitations, and...

2: When new DSP's capable of supporting said further development for more than just a couple of years becomes available.

Cliff has stated on occasion that the AxeII is able to support further development for a while longer and that he has not yet begun design for a next gen AxeFX unit. I'd hazard a guess that the current gen AxeFX is good for the next couple/few years before an AxeFX III emerges.

That's my guess. Time will tell.
 
Even if the II was to get full for new algo's, I think the seperate memory(?) for amp models would still have plenty space left.

I believe Cliff once hinted it had room for a few thousand amp models (or at least: A LOT!).

I don't know if some of the memory for extra IR's was taken away from that piece of memory though...

Anyway, if we should still get the extra pitch shifter stuff, I wouldn't be too devastated if it went End Of Development after that.
All has its pros and cons.
 
As the efx become more complex and everything becomes ultra resolution you will run out of CPU. As it is, scenes are becoming harder to utilize. The time for the III is now, as the II is nearly tapped out.
 
Depends on how much you want to put in a single preset. I'm running most of my presets around 80% CPU usage. I don't need every effect I *might* want to use in a preset. In fact, even at 80% I have effects blocks in my presets that I never use.
 
IMO the next major upgrade would be a more sophisticated cab/mic modelling (additional to / instead of using IRs). That means the movement and distortion of the speaker components as well as the position (angle) and characteristics of the mic would be calculated by algorithms. As we already have some speaker parameters today I can imagine Fractal will show more advanced features sometime in the future, but this will sure require another DSP.
 
Luie, stop trolling.

Nuff said, unless the master has news. And if he has, I'm sure he won't blab about it here for all his competitors to see.
 
As the efx become more complex and everything becomes ultra resolution you will run out of CPU. As it is, scenes are becoming harder to utilize. The time for the III is now, as the II is nearly tapped out.

Scenes harder to utilize? Not here. They are the greatest gift ever given to the guitar processing world, and become more useful everyday.
 
Depends on how much you want to put in a single preset. I'm running most of my presets around 80% CPU usage. I don't need every effect I *might* want to use in a preset. In fact, even at 80% I have effects blocks in my presets that I never use.

Same here. I've removed a bunch of effects from most presets just because I know I'll never use them. In rare instances when I need one of the most esoteric effects (esoteric for me might be standard for many others; I'm a pretty simple guy for the most part), I'll add them into a preset as needed. But right now most of my presets are between 70 and 80%.
 
Based upon the Ultra days, I would guess it would be after FW 11...
Since we are at FW 18, guessing doesn't serve us well.
 
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