Guitar players! The search for Amp Sims is over AXE-FX

[AndrewSimon]

So why would someone want this? At that price, you could get a pretty nice amp. And while you'd only then have one pretty nice amp, instead of dozens of reasonably modelled amps, how many guitarists really care about that? How many guitarists really need or want to be able to get both a clean jazzy sound and a high gain heavy metal sound, and of those guitarists who do, how many of them don't have access to more than one amp set-up?

If it really would be THAT good it would challenge all the PODs, etc. e.g. as a top 40 solution.

Shogger

It can not "challenge" PODs because they are in a different price category, it definitely challenges the Line6 Vetta thought.
The majority of AXE-FX users are ex Vetta users.... besides what do I care if a product sells millions or just a few, if it sounds and feels good it is good.

[bmanic]

Which is a key word people that comment here seems to forget. "Feel" is so incredibly important in an amp simulator. No matter how good it sounds once recorded it doesn't help much if it doesn't behave correctly during playing (unless you use it for re-amping only, then "feel" is a moot point).

IMHO the clips posted sound pretty good. Not 1700$ good but pretty good.

Cheers!
bManic

[Hink]

also feel is one thing that is impossible to tell from mp3 demo clips....

[shogger]

So why would someone want this? At that price, you could get a pretty nice amp. And while you'd only then have one pretty nice amp, instead of dozens of reasonably modelled amps, how many guitarists really care about that? How many guitarists really need or want to be able to get both a clean jazzy sound and a high gain heavy metal sound, and of those guitarists who do, how many of them don't have access to more than one amp set-up?

If it really would be THAT good it would challenge all the PODs, etc. e.g. as a top 40 solution.

Shogger

It can not "challenge" PODs because they are in a different price category, it definitely challenges the Line6 Vetta thought.
The majority of AXE-FX users are ex Vetta users.... besides what do I care if a product sells millions or just a few, if it sounds and feels good it is good.

Eh, what? We were talking about quality and not price. A higher price is not automatically more quality. You took that outta context. I was answering a question by shamann who asked why someone would want this. I had a possible answer for that.
For me the answer will be to buy a laptop and a decent audio interface. I already own Revalver. This solution is way cheaper than this axe thingy and will sound way better from what I heard yet. And the laptop also is "reusable" as a live recorder, etc. And as long as I don't hear any stunning audio demos I'm not even impressed to go to a shop to check it out myself and to really concider to fork out that amount of cash for any instant solution again. A company that even has mediocre played and mediocre sounding demoes for such a high priced product online shouldn't wonder about that.

Shogger

[shogger]

Which is a key word people that comment here seems to forget. "Feel" is so incredibly important in an amp simulator. No matter how good it sounds once recorded it doesn't help much if it doesn't behave correctly during playing (unless you use it for re-amping only, then "feel" is a moot point).

Sure feel is important. Very important. That's why I seldom use Revalvers amps straight out of the box but mod them for better feel, according to the situation/sound requirements.
My POD is retired now, also because of that.

Shogger

[Hink]

I think if you want more feel you need to think outside the box

[AndrewSimon]

A few more user clips:

http://christian.augustyn.at/musik/guit ... rutalo.mp3
http://christian.augustyn.at/musik/guit ... rtywah.mp3
http://christian.augustyn.at/musik/guit ... rtywah.mp3
http://www.sheetsofsound.net/audio/mp3/axefx/srvts9.mp3
http://www.sheetsofsound.net/audio/mp3/ ... fender.mp3
http://scoredog.tv/SoCalDriving2.mp3
http://www.javajunkiemusic.com/Audio/do ... kertry.mp3
http://www.soaringmusic.com/Rising%20Fr ... F.Russ.mp3
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInf ... ID=5836880
http://guitarlogic.org/axefxclips/powerball-Master.mp3
http://www.ericlane.com/temp/audio/marleywahjam.mp3
http://www.ericlane.com/temp/audio/jokerwah.mp3
http://christian.augustyn.at/musik/guit ... fx_wah.mp3
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInf ... ID=5790169
http://members.cox.net/rockguitar/HCJAM01.MP3
More FX trickery:
http://www.javajunkiemusic.com/Audio/mr ... erclip.mp3
Harmonizer:
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/97876_ ... yshred.mp3
and one more:
http://www.javajunkiemusic.com/Audio/customshift.mp3
http://www.javajunkiemusic.com/Audio/bfpush.mp3
http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/86197_ ... ountry.mp3
http://www.ericlane.com/temp/audio/clip_youmaybe.mp3
http://www.javajunkiemusic.com/Audio/do ... Dumble.mp3
http://www.javajunkiemusic.com/Audio/finaldo/metal.wma
It's a wave file but worth waitting:
http://guitarlogic.org/axefxclips/AxeFX ... Master.wav
http://www.zottelweb.de/sounds/agoodmansmind_rm.mp3
http://www.soundclick.com/bands/songInf ... ID=5115474
http://www.sheetsofsound.net/audio/mp3/ ... sstrat.mp3

[shogger]

Thanx Andrew,

a few nice ones in there. Nothing overwhelming or -very- good sounding. Decent, yes. The Wah sounds good.
If this would be a one stop solution for less than 500 bucks including a floor board I would say that it could be worth the money. But like this I'd say that a Behringer V-Amp plus midi floor board is an equivalent and way cheaper solution.

Shogger

[Amberience]

I think if you want more feel you need to think outside the box

Can I take this to mean that the feel issue is something outside of the amp sim, or did you mean something else?

[Hink]

I think if you want more feel you need to think outside the box

Can I take this to mean that the feel issue is something outside of the amp sim, or did you mean something else?

I think that if you want of what I consider feel you have think software might not be the best of all answers. Remember there are a few other things to consider and the soundcard plays a huge role. So a POD is outside the box, the soundcard imo is outside the box, the guitar is outside the box, so are good ol' guitar pedals. There are a few other ways to regain feel besides the software used. The comment was made that revalver (which I like a lot) has more feel than a POD when you tweak it, I disagree...it might be in his case, but it wouldn't be my approach. But remember I'm still not sold on software sims that rely on the computer (the computer of course being the box) and of course this is just my opinion.

[Amberience]

Hmm..

Well I see the innards of a Pod, the innards of the AXE-FX, and the Innards of any other digital pedal as being the same as the innards of a computer. They all have DSP chips, and they all treat sound as 0's and 1's. But, with a computer, you have "advanced" control. You control your soundcard (and therefore inputs and outputs) and you control the way your computer treats audio, and I just think a lot of people don't really know how to do it properly. *shrug*

I get some wonderful feel from Revalver, and even Amplitube2. I don't want for feel. Now, sometimes when I use a real amp, it lacks feel. The other week I was using a Roland bass amp, and god it was awful, I just couldn't get in the mood - it was off somehow. Today I played through the usual Laney bass amp, and I was loving it once more.

It really is a perceptive experience. Not all guitarists react the same way to gear, threads like this are testament to that. But I really don't think there is much of a difference between running a computer with Amplitube on it, or running a PodXT.

[Killvehicle]

Meh, I listened to about a half dozen of those clips Andrew posted.. And I dont hear it as anything close to the 'Holy Grail'.. Very average, IMO..

And the price just makes it all the more of an uninteresting option..

[Hink]

I honestly believe tha PODs and like devices and this AXE-FX are likely to have more dedicated pre-amp stages for the guitar than a typical soundcard which pretty much needs to cover a broad range of uses. On top of that is still the fact that pc based software is far more prone to latency, which kills a lot of what feel is to me. Before all that though I have found my mxr distortion plus to serve nicely when used with a feather touch to help soften up the attack that many people have complaints about, I also feel a low z signal helps that as well.

[Lunch Money]

Feel of the amp aside, I've always been impressed with what Line6 did with their ToneDirect technology. DSP using the PC, but with near-zero latency due to bypassing the standard (eg. ASIO, DirectSound) drivers and operating in parallel at the kernel level. They may be repackaging their technology ad-nauseum (the new Bogner thing, the Pocket Pod), but every now and then they have serious innovation, and the ToneDirect is one example of that.

Greg

[Cap'n Spanky]

I've been listening to a lot of Axe-Fx clips lately. I am starting to get impressed with the quality I'm hearing. I keeping an open mind about this thing.