We had been talking bout Fractal Audio Axe-Fx Ultra Preamp/Effects processor in the forums lately, so I found a clip by the guy I posted yesterday where he goes through a lot of classic sounds.. quite impressive!

Yeah, Ketil is truly an awesome player!

Yeah, he is, never heard of him before until yesterday, do You know him?
Anyway, the amp sim is quite impressive as well, there is not so many demos out there, but
he's doin a part2 of this now ......

//Staffay

I know him a bit, he`s the teacher for one of my buddies, and plays with one of my "older" buddies, and I tend to meet him on concerts.
He`s actually posted several demos of his equipment I believe, which all are pretty good.

Yeah, im watching them right now... I find it much more useful when someonelse than the company is demoing the products, since it tends to be more "fair"...

//Staffay

The AXE-FX looks awesome,
but is too expensive for me atm

yeah, for me too..... I must get the "real" amps first....

//Staffay

I bought an Axe-FX Ultra about 6 weeks ago and used it for my last 2 lessons (the Tom Morello one and the right hand metal workout), it is by far the best modeling amp that I have ever heard! I will definitely not use anything else for recording here at home anymore.

Yeah, I've seen some raging reviews and sound clips, but how does it sound when playing through it just clean with no effects compared to the "real" amps ??? I mean with no distorsion and such, the most modeeling amps/software I've tried seems to lack the "warmth" of a real amp, even that some do distorsion modelling real good....

//Staffay

Staffy - if you're more interested in the effects side of the Fractal than the amp modeling check out an Eventide Eclipse as well.

There's a discussion of some of the relative merits of the two here.

Personally as all my use is studio I find the Eclipse has more flexibility for I/O at pro level then the Fractal. 24/48 i/o and unbalanced just doesn't work for me - albeit it might for you and/or other people. It's also worth mentioning that for the Eclipse there is a beta version of the new OS that increases the number of patches and reduces the time to change patches significantly.

If you need it to gig rather than studio then the Fractal may be the better option. One thing though - if you do go with a Fractal get the Ultra.

Hmmm, interesting points. Eventide has always made top products. What I really was after was if a modeller really could replace a real amp. Since I got a 40 sq. meters room just for my homestudio purpose and have some 4 (soon 5) really great amps + microphones, the question here is really if this would be a better choice?

//Staffay

Modeler cannot replace real amp for now, both for live and for recording. It can "replace" but it cannot replace
The modelers are flexible tho, and they are constantly making them better and better. I think in 10-20 years, tube amps will be replaced completely, once they start to emulate the whole circuit component-by-component. Computers today are not that powerful yet, it's a complex simulation. Probably it can be done with todays supercomputers, but it doesn't have a commercial value just yet. It will tho..

This post has been edited by Ivan Milenkovic: Nov 8 2009, 06:32 PM

I'm definitely getting one when I can afford it.

This would be very useful for touring, when you can't get you real amp. I have to try this

What are you monitoring that with? Whenever we monitor modeling software, I wonder if we're expecting PC speakers to sound like 4x12 cabinets.

I bought the Axe FX for exactly that reason, to have a light backup for my regular touring setup. I will for sure keep playing my Rectifiers, but for example when we are flying somewhere and we can't take our full backline with us for weight reasons then the Axe FX can step in. And I have to say I don't know any other modeling amp that comes that close to the real amps, some of the sounds are really impressive, same can be said about the effects section. Of course in the end this is always a matter of personal taste, but I for sure really love this amp and I can definitely recommend trying it at least. And I also agree, if you want an Axe_FX, definitely go for the Ultra.

Thats an interesting point. I monitor with my Tannoy studio speakers and compares to what a "real" amp sounds like when miced properly in the same speakers, in my opinion shall the sim sounds similar to the real amp, if it don't - then did'nt they succeeded...... If You shall run the sim throug a cabinet, then You could use a real amp instead....

//Staffay

I love how this device sounds! Till few weeks ago I didn't know it existed. Quality is really impressive.

The modeling software is modeling not only the cab, but the microphone as well (and the room possibly)

i just discovered the fractal.. it's quite impressive, i used to hate modeling, but come on, they're really getting somewhere!, and i consider myself a vintage sound lover

HAVE to buy this