Axe-FX Chronicles 4 : Initial impressions

So my Axe-FX Ultra arrived last Wednesday... I totally had to resist the urge to leave the office when I got my "UPS delivery notification" email (which was probably a good thing to let the package sit for a few hours so the temperature could equalize). But, of course, that evening I rushed home to rig it up as quickly as possible... curious to see if it would live up to expectations.

My first trial was running the Axe-FX through a Carvin AG100D, which is essentially a self-contained PA system designed for small acoustic gigs (has 3 channels for acoustic guitar, bass, and vocals/line in). Overall, I wasn't exactly blown away by the tone or feel of the amp simulations... that didn't matter at the time, though, because I was completely distracted by the quality of the effects. I spent the better part of an hour messing around with the pitch shifter... first with the "Brian May solo" patch, then the "Owner of a Lonely Heart solo" patch, and finally the "Ballerina 12/24" patch. (FWIW, "Ballerina 12/24" is my standard for evaluating effects units... If I can dial in that tone without having to open the manual, then an effects unit has good staying potential.) Needless to say, I was pretty impressed by the tracking & tonal quality of the intelligent harmonizer, but didn't quite know what to make of the amp models yet.

By Friday, my Carvin TS100 power amp had arrived, so I was able to rig up the Axe-FX and a couple Randall 2x12's into a suitable guitar rig. This meant disabling the power amp + cabinet simulations on the Axe-FX. All of a sudden, the amp simulations started to come to life... the "Blackface" model had the right bounce, the "Top Boost" model had the right sparkle, and the "Plexi" model had the right snarl. I was particularly impressed by the "USA" models (which were based on Mesa Mark-series amps)... they pretty much nailed the tone and feel of the Mark IV (sadly, they nailed it better than my Mark V did). I spent a bit of time with some of the more boutique models as well (e.g., Matchless, Trainwreck, Budda, Dumble), though admittedly had no real basis for comparison there. Overall, I found myself thinking "um, what do I need all these amp heads around the studio for?"

(We now interrupt this regularly scheduled post for some pictures...)





(We now return to the post in progress...)

Saturday I didn't really play the Axe-FX any, but I did install the AxeEdit software on a Dell Mini (Inspiron 910) netbook, checked to make sure the latest firmware (v9.0) was installed on the Axe-FX, and restored the factory default patches. The Dell has somewhat of a non-standard screen resolution--many programs require more screen real estate than the Dell offers--however, AxeEdit fit perfectly on the screen, almost as if it was designed to be used on a netbook. In the words of Peter Griffin, "Freakin' sweet!"

Finally, Sunday was science project day... knowing how many folks on the Axe-FX forum use solid state power amps with their Axe-FX rigs, I pulled the Carvin HT150 and QSC RMX850 power amps from the PA rig, inserted 'em between the Axe-FX and Randall 2x12's, enabled the power amp simulation on the Axe-FX, and wailed away. Impressions here were so-so... the rig just didn't have the presence of a standard guitar rig... perhaps the combination of solid state power amps with full range speakers is a better pairing. So I switched the rig back to the TS100 power amp and disabled power amp simulation once again.

So based on a few days of fiddling around, here are my take aways...

1) The Axe-FX is a keeper based on the feel and tone of the amp simulations + the quality of effects

2) The AxeEdit software is an amazing productivity booster when getting started

3) I prefer the tone of the Axe-FX through a tube power amp and guitar cabs

Next up will be putting the Axe-FX through its paces in the studio to see how it holds up for "direct to console" recording.

--B

Axe-FX Chronicles 3 : What could I get rid of?

Following a lot of discussions related to Axe-FX owners, there seems to be a trend where the Axe-FX starts out as an effects-only device in an existing amp rig and slowly takes over more & more of the rig's capabilities as time passes. This often leads to a major gear de-acquisition phase in which small mountains of amps + cabs + FX units are gradually unloaded.

This got me thinking a bit... if the Axe-FX really does live up to my high expectations, how much gear could I possibly get rid of? (Note: This blog post contains forward looking statements that may imply that I would sell dozens of pieces of gear. We all know that'll never really happen, or in the event that it does, it would simply lead to the acquisition of dozens of other pieces of gear. Carry on...) So here's a quick inventory of amp & recording-related gear I could probably unload...

Amps & cabinets: Egnater 1x12" cabinet, Egnater/Mojo JTM45 head, Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier Roadster head, Mesa/Boogie Electra Dyne head, Mesa/Boogie Lone Star Special head, Mesa/Boogie Mark Five head, Mesa/Boogie Stiletto Ace head, Rocktron Vendetta 4x12" cabinet, Soldano SL-60 head, Traynor YBA-1 with Fuchs ODS mod

Effects & accessories: Axess Electronics BS2 buffer/splitter, BBE Freq Boost treble booster pedal, Carl Martin compressor/limiter pedal, ISP Technologies Decimator noise reduction pedal, Johnson J-Station modeler, Rocktron PatchMate MIDI switcher, TC Electronic Nova System multi-FX, Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive overdrive pedal

Studio gear: Blue "The Ball" dynamic mic, Kel Audio HM-2d condenser mic, Line 6 GearBox Plug-in Gold Bundle, Shure SM57 cardioid dynamic mics

So tally 'em up... 22 pieces of gear & counting, probably close to $10K in amps alone. Kinda scary, eh? Again, I don't know how much of the above gear I'd actually get rid of, but it's interesting to think about scaling down & starting from scratch. Maybe I'll have to rename the blog to "Gear De-Acquisition Syndrome." (Unlikely!)

--B

New Gear's Resolutions (ha!)

Being a new year and all, I thought it would be appropriate to recap my personal New Year's Resolutions here, especially since several of them relate to my musical hobbies...

1) Jennifer and I will finish recording our Conundrum CD, even if it means I have to hold her captive in the basement for 2 weeks - We started recording in fall of 2008 and managed to get 10 songs done in time for Christmas. For the entire year of 2009 we kept talking about finishing the CD (recording a few more songs, putting final touches on the mixing/mastering) but never did anything. So in 2010 we want to finish the CD for real and get the tracks available on iTunes.

2) I will get back into teaching - Not related to G.A.S., but I used to teach college business classes at night, and recently got connected with a new college and new teaching opportunities. I'll be starting mid-January.

3) In order to do something productive with photography, I want to have 12 killer pictures by the end of 2010 to make a 2011 calendar - Ok, it's not musical G.A.S., but photographic G.A.S. is almost as dangerous. Last year I picked up a new digital SLR camera (Nikon D90) and several new lenses (Nikon 16-85mmVR, Nikon 70-300mm VR, Nikon 85mm macro); in 2010 I plan to put all that gear to good use.

4) Get more proactive about taking advantage of the cultural stuff Cinci has to offer and making plans with friends, hopefully both at once - Um, perhaps this means spending less time in the studio...

5) To "get good" at all the random stringed instruments I've been accumulating over the years... mandolin, banjo, lap steel, violin - Yeah, for those of you who have followed the blog for a while, I think this was my resolution in 2007 as well (and I was too lazy to make resolutions in 2008). What's different this time? For starters, I've actually been listening to a bit more country / bluegrass music, so I'm a bit more inspired. I've picked up a few new instruments including a Dean Backwoods 6-string banjo, a Dobro Hound Dog resonator, a Silver Creek violin, and a Peavey Power Slide lap steel. Finally, I've loaded up my Netflix queue and Amazon wish list with all sorts of instructional DVD's and books. So maybe I won't "get good" at all of the above, but hopefully at least I can "get better".

6) To get my bike and rollerblades cleaned/fixed up and actually start using them when the weather stops sucking - Uh oh... this also means spending less time in the studio...

7) And finally, not make more New Year's Resolutions than I can reasonably keep in 2010

And, of course, not a true resolution, I guess, but I am making a concerted effort to blog more regularly and not get so behind on posts/videos. We'll see how that goes...

--B

New FX gear - MXR Custom Audio Electronics MC-404 wah

It's a bit amazing/overwhelming how many wah pedals are available on the market today... everything from classic to modern, from simplistic to infinitely tweakable. Having tried a lot of them over the years, there are some features that (IMO) are must-haves when it comes to wah pedals... 1) switchable voicings - to handle everything from super-clean funk to 7-string riffs, 2) true bypass - to prevent tone suck, 3) indicator light - to remind me when it's on. So the new Dunlop MXR CAE MC-404 wah pedal caught my attention as soon as it arrived on the scene.

From a specs standpoint, the MC-404 has switchable inductors (red is more subdued while yellow is more biting), adjustable/switchable boost, true bypass operation, and four indicator LED's to show the status (red/yellow lights to show which inductor is selected, green/blue lights to show when wah & boost are engaged). For tweakers, there are internal pots to adjust the "Q" of the two modes. My only wish is that it would be cool if the boost could be independently engaged from the wah (e.g., give me 10db of full range boost when the wah is off). Like most Dunlop pedals, it's solid from a construction standpoint. One thing that's kinda irrelevant but not obvious from any of the pictures on the website/brochure is the finish... it's got a brushed metal look that is unique and classy, and there's a large CAE logo on the treadle which adds to the unique look.

To put the wah through its paces, check out the following video of me working through Joe Satriani's "Summer Song" with a PRS Standard 24 and Mesa/Boogie Stiletto Ace:



More reviews & videos coming soon...

--B

Axe-FX Chronicles 2 : Pulling the trigger

So having spent what feels like a vaguely unreasonable amount of time over the past few days researching the Axe-FX (e.g., reading dozens of reviews on Harmony Central, watching hours of video clips on YouTube, reading the manual + the Wiki, and browsing hundreds of posts on various forums), I've decided to make a go of the Axe-FX rig like so...



First, I decided to go with the Fractal Audio Axe-FX Ultra vs. the Standard model, mostly as a future-proofing exercise... While some players are perfectly happy with the Standard, others use the Standard for a few months then start yearning for the Ultra. So to save myself the hassle of buying a Standard, getting it configured + dialed in, then deciding to trade it for an Ultra later and have to start over with setup & configuration, I decided to bite the bullet and get the Ultra from the start.

From a "live rig" standpoint, I am working with many components I've already got, including a Sennheiser EW172 wireless, Rocktron MIDIMate footcontroller, and Randall R212C cabinets (one is loaded with CL80's, the other with V30's). From a power amp standpoint, I chose the Carvin TS100 over the Randall RT2/50 for two reasons... 1) cost and 2) the TS100 is a pretty "flat" sounding tube amp--I had one many years ago when I assembled my first Randall MTS rig, and the TS100 didn't have as much "character" as the RT2/50 did. As it turns out, however, lack of power amp "character" can actually be a good thing with the Axe-FX!

For recording purposes, I'll be connecting the Axe-FX (with power amp + speaker sims enabled) directly into the Presonus DigiMax FS preamp/converter... no more futzing around with mic placement! The cool thing is that I will be able to run both setups at the same time... run the "live rig" with the TS100 + 2x12" cabs from one pair of Axe-FX outputs to get the right "feel" in the room when recording while capturing the audio direct to disk from the second pair of Axe-FX outputs. For after hours recording sessions, I can still record direct without using the live rig for in-studio monitoring.

So, that's that... after several days of research + several online transactions, I'm well on my way to having an Axe-FX rig together. I expect to have all the gear in-hand and wired up by next weekend, at which point I'll be ready to start an in-depth review of the Axe-FX's capabilities. Stay tuned...

--B