Who are 100% satisfied with their Axes now after 10?

M

Matt Steele

Experienced
I have to say that I am. I think it was Friday night when I decided to really explore a lot of the other amps, and I was shocked to load up amps that were totally unusable for me with older firmware and find they were hugely improved and had their own character now.

What's even more mind blowing is it is so ridiculously easy to dial anything in now. With the Axe, it used to be a big chore to dial in your tones.

With 10, I would suggest starting with a favorite amp that you know the sound of well, get the settings at defaults, eq settings at noon, and select the right cab IR for your sound with those amp settings. I believe the IR is now the most important factor in getting your sound right now. After that, if you're going for similar tones, you should be able to just run through different amps and they shouldn't need tons of tweaking to get you where you want to be.

It seems like you don't need to explore every control in the Axe with every amp. IT'S SO EASY NOW!

I can't imagine the Axe getting much better sounding/feeling that it does with 10. The only thing I'm really looking forward to is a more stable Axe Edit which has no effect on the sonic qualities of the Axe which are now phenomenal.

Thanks Cliff and FAS for this wonderful firmware. You've really outdone yourself with this release.
 
I have loved the axe since I first got it version 3 and it keeps getting better for me never been unhappy.
 
You can count me in. Ive been more than happy with the effects, and using the amp/cab sims for casual home playing and demos, but now after 10, its a whole new ball game. I pulled up Pro Tools sessions from my last 3 albums, and was able to get tones that were just as good, if not better, rather quickly. I just moved into a new house recently and its nice knowing that I dont have to build a new iso booth or room for my cab. Its no longer needed.
 
Actually, I was 100% satisfied even with my old Ultra. :)

Does anyone who says they are 100% satisfied NOW, mean that they were only 98% or 99% satisfied before? ;)

And if you say you are 100% satisfied now, does this mean you are never going to sell or upgrade the unit now because things just cannot get any better?


Probably too early in the morning over here for a philosophical discourse like this... :D
 
Let's just say that the concept of "thinning the herd" isn't as distant a notion nowadays ;)

I've got a lot of amps. I may have several less in the coming weeks/months.
 
V7 was the game changer for me but V10 makes it so easy to get a great tone and it feels so ampy now. There is something going on with the responsiveness and low end that makes it feel like a cab is in the room with you. It's just a blast to play now, I barley tweak anything and just dial up factory presets. They all sound so good right out of the box!
 
Scott Peterson said:
I was satisfied with my Standard, my Ultra and even with the II v.1.
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Well Scott, when I purchased my II, I knew it was in the middle of its development, and coming from a tube amp background, I was not totally sold on the sonic capabilities of the unit when I bought it for my studio, not to mention the work it required to dial in each amp individually.

I missed out on some firmware versions after 7 so I don't know what I missed between 7 and 10 but 10 does it for me. Anything beyond this point will just be icing on the cake.
 
As others have said, and I concur that I am (was) 100% content with all the Fractal boxes I've owned. Just when you think it couldn't possibly get any better... "BAMM!!"... it does!:D
 
TheGoatLord said:
V7 was the game changer for me but V10 makes it so easy to get a great tone and it feels so ampy now. There is something going on with the responsiveness and low end that makes it feel like a cab is in the room with you. It's just a blast to play now, I barley tweak anything and just dial up factory presets. They all sound so good right out of the box!
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My experience mirrors yours exactly. V7 was the fw that blew my mind, FW10 just polished it up a bit for me. The cab in the room thing is whats blowing my mind now. Just like you said theres this 3d cab speaker feel right in front of me now its so cool.
 
Matt Steele said:
Well Scott, when I purchased my II, I knew it was in the middle of its development, and coming from a tube amp background, I was not totally sold on the sonic capabilities of the unit when I bought it for my studio, not to mention the work it required to dial in each amp individually.

I missed out on some firmware versions after 7 so I don't know what I missed between 7 and 10 but 10 does it for me. Anything beyond this point will just be icing on the cake.
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I will mention that v.10 on the II was the first time I echo'd the chorus of: "Holy shitballs!" ;) :D
 
Ive been using an Axe-Fx for a long time.. (ultra to II). I've always thought it was a great tool, but V10 is really something quite special.
 
I've always been satisfied, I just think that each firmware gives me more and more options than the last.

For example, it's always been extremely possible to get fantastic sounds out of the Axe, but v10 has opened up a lot for me. I used to gravitate towards FAS Modern as my favorite high gain patch and I'd use it for pretty much anything you'd consider "heavy," and it sounded completely fantastic. Now, however, I think I have more options within the "heavy" spectrum. For example, if I'm going for Load/Reload era Metallica, I can dial up a Recto Orange Modern amp + Tubescreamer combo and get there *instantly*, whereas before I'd have just duplicated my FAS Modern patch and maybe eq'ed it a bit differently or something.

The Axe-Fx has always sounded phenomenal, now it's just easier than ever to (please forgive me, this isn't even intentional) mimic the exact tone you're looking for with laser accuracy.

Basically, if you think of the Axe's total number of available, usable guitar tones available for guitar players as represented on a computer monitor, and each available tone is represented by a single pixel, think of firmware updates as simply increasing the monitor's resolution.
 
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110% satisfied.

I'm looking forward to small improvements and goodies, but I could play through this rig as it is for the rest of my life and not miss a thing.
 
Like Scott said.

I was amazed by my Standard back in 2008, thought it couldn't get any better than that. The Axe 2 blew me away, and every firmware upgrade makes it better, which I didn't think was possible. V10 is really special. Like Matt Steele said, the different amps really show their individual character now. And they're very unforgiving, like a good tube amp should be.

Cliff is amazing. He keeps making this magic box better and doesn't charge a dime for all his hard work, wish I could give him something back for it.
 
aleclee said:
That's quite the endorsement. In the 6 years prior to his becoming a Fractalphile, Scott was quite the gear slut.
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Me too. I think I predate Scotty by about a neck-hair, but I had gone through quite the array of amps/cabs/FX before. I would say the Axe FX line has saved me conservatively $20,000 over the last 7 years.

Am I satisfied? Same as the others...I've been happy for years. But that we get continued improvement means that I feel like I'm in the right company.

I'm still leery of anyone who sais 'I'm 100% happy'...anything can be better...even if it's that I'M not properly dialing in my tones...

R
 
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