What Does The Future Hold For Standard And Ultra Owners?

axel

axel

Power User
One of the things that drew me to purchase my Axe Fx, is the way Fractal has supported it's customers with periodic firmware upgrades, making their product unique from the rest. I think everyone realizes there will come a time that further upgrades will no longer be possible, due to hardware limitations. This asside, my concern is that, with the release of the Axe Fx II, all focus will be on improving the features of the new unit, and no further efforts will be made to continue supporting improvements for the Standard and Ultra. This is not whining, or complaining, but I really would like to know, will efforts to provide upgrades for our units continue, and to what extent, or is it the end of the line?
 
After reading all the posts, it seems that the standard and ultra have been taken to their limit. That is why a new product has come out. I could be wrong.
 
The Ultras and Standards are great units as they stand, IMO. Sure, it would be nice to have continued support, especially for the cost of entry. But, also for the cost of entry, we all got an incredible effects unit that does some amazing amp simulations, even if it were never updated again. I've had mine for 8 months and consider myself "new" still to my awareness of this device's potential. Cliff is generally regarded as a genius, and at least an amazingly talented musical and mathematical craftsman, both of which I agree with, but he is alas just one person. We have all placed an incredible burden on him, and even though I probably wont be able to afford an Axe II for some time, I'd rather see him devote his obviously finite mental resources to pushing the boundaries of the new hardware, rather than feel obligated to support the old and taxed hardware. The announcement of the Axe II has been a difficult thing, full of both highs and lows, and nobody is probably more aware and connected to that than Cliff Chase. I think the best we can all do is give the poor guy some room and compassion so he can focus on his passion (something most of us here directly benefit from) and not harangue him and his company. Just my .02
 
I imagine there will be a few cool amps...maybe the odd drive or something. Probably no firmware updates unless Cliff has an epiphany or two. I'm cool with that scenario.
 
Personally he could have stopped firmware upgrades a year ago and I would have still been happy. Not that I'm not loving 11 right now though.... :)
 
While I am disappointed that a new unit was introduced just as I brought in an Ultra- i have to say, the Ultra still is an amazingly powerful and musical box. What more does it "need" really...are there effects that are honestly "missing"? Can you not get pretty close to a particular amp you really love?
Id love to have a Lonestar clean channel, and an Electra Dyne blue channel model, but there are so many other choices that I only think about them when I am not playing. Apparently there may be a little room for an amp or two (per Cliff)- aside that, this box is still the King of the Hill. What is the next contender? I promise that #2 is closer to #3 than to #1....
I would prefer Cliff still keep pushing the tech farther, faster, fuller, and warmer so when I am ready to drop a II, it will be perfected......
my $.02
 
I was really glad to hear that Axe Edit 1.0 is slated to support both new and legacy units. That was key for me, since I did feel that these had been sort verbally committed to for us gen 1 customers.
 
I became an Axe FX user a year ago with firmware 9.0x or something. I always liked the sound. Every update changed the sound a bit and I had to re-tweak my patches.
The sounds of my Axe FXs got better. I don't know it if's because of the new firmware or because of me getting better at patch editing.

A BIG Add-On was the inclusion of the Marsha amps with FW 10.xx, I love them. I also like the Buttery but I am unsure when it was added.
AFAIK no problem if FW 11 is the final state of the classic Axe-FX.
 
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