Axe-FX Standard arrived today! Thoroughly impressed so far..

I received my Axe-FX Standard today and so far I'm really impressed! With the 4 hours or so that I've had to work with it today I can say that it is exceeding my expectations so far!

I did start out going through the presets and I found the ones I played impressive. I detoured quickly and often, however, to get under the hood.

The presets are more than not a little over the top with effects for my tastes. A few of the early presets sound fantastic as is IMO. One really caught my attention: Preset #043: Fusion Blues - Not that far off from the overdrive mode of the Fuchs ODS-50 I used to own. A little tweaking and it was closer still. Close enough that it's like having the amp back for recording purposes. Nice that I just stumbled into it. Too much fun!

I spent some time working with the Amp and Drive pedal blocks in a simple patch I built for this purpose: Drive>Amp>Cab>Reverb>PEQ (PEQ used to shelve lows at 70Hz when playing LOUD through my KRK Rokit5 monitors). To play with the Drive pedal block I set up a basic (but very nice) clean tone using the Brownface Amp and 1x10 Gold Cab with a R121 mic. I've only dropped a few Amp/Cab combinations in so far - of those all have been impressive, very impressive! The Drive pedal block is just flat out COOL!!! I found myself happily noodling away for quite a while using a PI Fuzz I'd modified slightly. I spent a good bit of time in the Drive pedal block today and feel pretty comfortable with the various parameters. There's a vast amount of potential in this block alone!

Tomorrow I'll scan through the rest of the presets just to see what's there and then try out some interesting looking user patches I grabbed from Axe-Exchange while waiting for the Axe-FX to arrive. After that I'm going to start learning all of the parameters in the Amp block. I have a feeling I'll find myself sidetracked quite a bit - again. Select an amp model and suddenly 30 minutes is gone.

I ran a few experiments trying to peak processor usage and, for my intended use, the Standard is more than sufficient. I was able to get a dual amp/cab config running without a hitch though, as others have noted, I see very limited use for a dual amp config if any. The amps have so much complexity and user control on their own that I would think just about any texture/tone could be rendered using one of the available amp models.

I've played with the front panel and Axe-Edit for editing enough now to be comfortable with both. The front panel is pretty intuitive but Axe-Edit is fast and completely intuitive. My netbook and M-Audio Fast Track Pro portable USB interface will definitely be travel companions when I take the Axe-FX elsewhere. I mounted the Axe-FX into a Gator 2U shallow hard shell rack case so that I can take it out without fear of damaging it.

I'm running unbalanced to a M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8R USB audio/MIDI interface at my desktop DAW to bypass the mic pre's using the 1/4" outputs at Output 1 on the Axe-FX. I'm going to pick up some XLR to 1/4" TRS cables tomorrow to take advantage of the +6dB signal output of the XLR's.

I'm already **** sure I've mic'd my last amp for recording here. This thing sounds as good or better than any mic'd guitar sound I've ever captured. Controllable harmonic feedback, wide dynamic response, very expressive, very musical! I'll wait until I've had some time with it to consider how I might use it in a live context but I'm sure that will happen eventually.

I'm starting to think that my Mesa Mark V combo's days may be numbered. I can already tell that the Axe-FX can cop much of what that amp does. That amp may just fund a FRFR solution. Time will tell.

All I can say is....... WOW! ...and I've only just cracked the lid on this thing. There's a world inside and I've only peeked in through a gap in the window blinds.

WOW!!!

I purchased all of the RedWirez IR's this evening (BigBox and SpeakerBox). I've only demo'd a few at this point but I can see where these would allow for a much more enjoyable live FRFR application. There's an astounding number of possibilities here! I'll have to record some raw tracks using the Axe-FX with no cab sim and sample these in various combinations to figure out what I want to load into the user cab slots to start out with. I ordered an E-V ELX112P Powered FRFR speaker last night. I want to get started on trying to employ the Axe-FX for live applications. If it works out an Axe-FX foot controller won't be far behind it.

This is all speculation at this time but I can say that I'm excited about the added potential this collection of IR's offers.

It's one hell of a box. I use mine almost exclusively live and for band rehearsal. I run it into a QSC RMX1450 power amp and into a Marshall 4x12 cab with G12K-100's. Sucks that I can't use the cab sims this way but for live, amp-in-the-room tone it can't be beat. Wait until you start blending amps together. That's where you start to loose time all together. :lol:
My main heavy rhythm preset is the Uberschall mixed with the Mark IV. All I use is the noise gate and a PEQ block just for the low/hi blocking trick then out to the cab. Let me know how that EV speaker works out for you. I have my eye on that exact one as well but I haven't found one local to demo yet. Right now the only frfr speaker I have is a Berhinger B12D and it sounds like pure dog a$$ so an upgrade is in order.

Change in plan: I ordered an Ultra this evening and I'm going to return the Standard.

Today I ran into a few scenarios where I either didn't have a feature available while building a patch, grabbed a few patches off of Axe-Excange that I wasn't able to utilize in whole but demo'ing pieces at a time I wanted to be able to evaluate their utility in full, and finally ran short on processing power while building a patch I would definitely make use of IF I were able to. Most of this didn't matter to me as I was just playing around with sounds I'd have no practical use for. Running out of processing power building something I would definitely use after a bit of refinement was what tipped the scales. I had the means to sport for the Ultra when I bought the Axe-FX. I just did not foresee the need for the Ultra. Oops!

I suppose I could have saved myself the cost of shipping back and forth on the Standard if I had purchased the Ultra 'just in case' but it just didn't seem worth an extra $500 for 'just in case' at the time. It does now! Since I've now seen fit to pay that additional $500 I'll definitely be playing around with the additional features in the Ultra to see if I can find uses for any of them. At the very least I'll be able to demo any patch shared on Axe-Exchange. Oh well - live and learn.

The Axe-FX Ultra and powered monitor arrived Thursday. I've logged quite a bit of time building new rigs, tweaking, and playing over the last few days. I'm really liking the FRFR approach for gig/jam volume. First - all of the patches I have built so far at high volume sound MUCH better loud and quiet. I haven't really built anything complete at this point. I'm just learning to work with the Amp, Cab, and Drive blocks to achieve specific results. I'm very happy with the results so far and it gets better, and faster, the more I work with it. The Axe-FX is turning out to be one of the best guitar related purchases I've ever made!