Review: Fractal Audio Systems Axe-FX II
Ever wondered if there were really 24 Marshall cabinets on that stage? Chances were there wasn’t. Just a Fractal of them.
By Brad Watts
20 May 2012
Dave Mustaine, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Guthrie Govan: all legendary and virtuoso guitarists. All sing the praises of the Fractal Audio Axe-FXII. Fractal Audio has been pushing its Axe-FX system since 2006 with the original Axe-FX, the most recent incarnation having been available since June 2011. The system has won many friends over the last six years with its frighteningly accurate modelled amplifier and cabinet simulations, along with the entire gamut of ancillary guitar effects. In theory it’s the only effects and preamplification system you need, and after a modest amount of time with the unit I’m inclined to support this theory. The Axe-FX covers a vast array of amplifiers and cabinets, alongside every possible effect and processing device you could possibly ask for.
Firstly, let’s look at the physical side of the device. The Axe-FXII is a 2U device, with all editing control available from the front panel. The device feels more like a high-end synth than your usual guitar-oriented processor, but that’s the degree of editing and parameters available under the hood. A 160 x 80 dot-matrix LCD provides the window to the editing system and is perfectly adequate for all editing, however Fractal provide a free Windows or OSX editor via its website for the computer endowed musician. ‘Manual’ editing is executed using the familiar data-wheel and N, S, E, W navigation key set-up. A pair of extra editing buttons switch you between editing ‘pages’. All in all it doesn’t take long to find your way through the innards of the Axe-FXII. The display section includes LED metering for I/O levels, clip status, and MIDI input. To the right are 12 buttons for access to global parameters and utilities such as the onboard tuner, and to the right again are four ‘Quick Control’ knobs for quick access to parameters of a preset (these are assignable on a preset level), and for access to various editing parameters when in edit mode. These are new to the Axe-FXII, and to be truthful, the more dedicated and tactile controls the better on any software-based device, especially those used in a live environment, or indeed, by guitarists. Don’t read me wrong, I’m not having a go, as I fall into the six-string category myself. There’s nothing more of a pain in the proverbial than swimming through edit pages when all you require is to adjust a gain or drive setting. Perhaps more importantly, the Axe-FXII sports dedicated output knobs (as did previous models) — we can’t be annoying the other band members with too loud a guitar now can we!
CUTTING IT
For a comparison with some ‘real’ amplification, ‘head to head’ if you will, I stood the Axe-FXII against a Mesa Boogie MkV head and dual 12-inch cabinet. The MkV is a veritable Swiss-Army knife amplifier capable of a wide variety of classic tube amplifier topologies. The amp contains various channels with alternate tube designs for the utmost versatility, including classic Mesa designs such as the Mark 1 and Mark IIC. The Axe-FXII includes models of these circuits and it was these I compared using both single coil Strats and Charvel humbucker-endowed instruments. The modelled tones are utterly convincing, dare I say better than the real thing. With the Axe-FXII patched into a simple attenuator then into an eight-inch powered studio monitor, I was left in no doubt whatsoever the Axe-FXII would easily stand in for any of the amplifiers it emulates. Forget back-line. This thing does it, and you can carry it in your hand-luggage.
The emulation list is quite exhaustive, with 60-plus emulations from Vox AC30 and 15s, through to Orange, Marshall favourites, multiple Fender classics, Soldano, Matchless, plenty of boutique models such as Cornford and Fryette, all the way through to the venerable Roland JC-120. Yep, a solid state amp emulation that recreates that same clean powerful sound used by so many guitarist since the mid-seventies. Lovely.
Cabinet simulations are also incredibly exhaustive with cabinets matching each of the amplifier emulations, plus you can assign differing stereo cabinet setups. Now, if there isn’t enough cabinet sims, you can import an impulse response file taken from your very own cabinet. 50 memory slots can house impulse responses lovingly created by yourself and your specific cabinets, or, you could download some from the web — in other words, there’s plenty of room to customise the Axe-FXII to suit your personal sound. Oh, and if that doesn’t float your boat anchor you can also choose microphone type and placement for cabinet miking emulations. Mics include the usual amp miking suspects from Shure, Sennheiser, Neumann, AKG, Electro-Voice, Royer, and AKG.
NEED TO KNOW
EFFECT ME UP
Gosh, where to start? The Axe-FXII doesn’t stop at amp and cabinet aping. Within the 2U box is every effect style ever explored by any living or dead six-slinger. If you need to insert your boutique/vintage/Chinese effect pedals this can be done via the stereo effects loop. But back to the effects smorgasbord. Anything you want really. Chorus, flanging, phasing, a plethora of delay styles, panning and tremolo effects, harmonising and pitch shifting sims, resonators, filters, reverbs, rotary speakers, wah, dynamics processing including multiband compressors and noise gates, vocoding, ring modulation and an arpeggiator section. There’s absolutely nothing left out. The nice part about how the Axe-FX effects are designed is their ‘guitarist-friendly’ parameters. Editing the effects actually makes sense. Piecing effect chains together is simple enough with a ‘block and chain’ editing system that you’ll learn within 20 minutes.
What may take a tad more investigation is the array of modifiers and controllers. This is where the Axe-FXII moves into the world of modulation and effect parameter control. You can use synth-style modulators such as LFOs and envelope followers, external controllers such as expression pedals attached to the MFC-101 foot controller for controlling effects such as wahs, filters, pitch, even down to sequencing and pitch detection of incoming signals.
To be completely honest, and to call in an audio review cliché, there’s so much more to the Fractal Audio Axe-FXII than can be covered in the space allocated to this review. But to offer my personal opinion, emulation has come of age and I can’t see why anyone would bother going back to carting around a valve amplifier and a box full of Celestions. Sure, I understand the joy of arcing up some valves and crunching your humbuckers through them — that’s a valid point — it sounds great and has an incredible feel. But in terms of the sound produced the Axe-FXII is right on the money. Why would you bother spending four grand on a boutique or vintage amplifier, and be corralled into the sound of just that one device? The Axe-FXII provides everything you could possibly require as a guitarist, apart from the booze, broads, and backstage hedonism. For two and a half grand you’ve got every amp, cabinet and effect you could ask for, alongside impulse responses of your own cabinets, and it’ll all fit into hand-luggage! Then you add modern amenities such as complete integration with your computer and DAW and a sound-spec that’s worthy of a high-end recorder and you’re looking at the coming of age of modelling and emulation for guitarists. It’s been a while coming, but I believe the ‘wall-of-Marshalls-in-a-box’ is here. Go have a listen and I think you’ll agree.
RESPONSES