Wow, a ton of people have got the wrong end of the stick with this. It's not talking about getting rid of hardware and having only software instead, rather it's taking about having Axe edit as a plugin in your DAW to improve studio workflow. All sounds and processing is still taking place on the AXE FX, just like UAD plugins, Antelope Audio FPGA Fx and probably many more do. As a studio engineer, there are two major issues I have with the Axe FX: 1. No Axe Edit plugin and 2. Things not syncing with the down beat (i.e time-based FX and LFO's) without a convoluted MIDI setup in the DAW. Having both of these things would make the Axe FX absolute king of the studio world as far as guitars are concerned, but would also make it an amazing outboard FX processor for things like Keys, synths and just about anything, because the FX are awesome too.