I got in a Fractal Audio Axe-FX today and had a chance to play with it this afternoon. I am very impressed. This is easily the best sounding modeler I've ever encountered and certainly the best built, most powerful processing unit of its kind on the market.
Interface-wise it is very intuitive and easy to program... but also very deep. Tweak haters beware, there are lots of tweakable facets to each parameter on this thing and you could easily burn a week's worth of playing time fine tuning a single patch. :)
In terms of overall sound I have found I like the unit much better when used as a digital preamp running into a power amp that pushes a real guitar cabinet. Setup this way it is pretty much indistinguishable from a real amp. However, it does need a power amp to function this way... and a tube power amp to really get the feel I'm looking for.
Great unit, well built and you get a new update to the software every two days. :) Great buy if your thing is tweaking and you like tons of paradigm-shifting updates on a regular basis. If you don't like MIDI then you'll probably want to stay away until the next generation comes out sporting some USB or Firewire connections... currently the only way to update the machine and run the optional footswitch is via old-school MIDI apps and hardware.
Monday, June 16, 2008
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