AxeFx2 for apartment use

[Blackie08]

So im moving into a new apartment. Won't be able to play the PT100 hardly at all now. Even with the attenuator i have. Since i'm not in a band anymore, I really don't see the need to have a PT100 other than for my e-peen, so i'm going to sell it :idk: I also haven't been loving the tone from that amp recently so this makes it easier lol

I'm thinking the AxeFx2 is the most logical choice. I will mostly be doing recording work and low volume jamming now

I don't have a recording interface right now so would using the Axe usb out --> my pc work ok? I'd like a setup that allows me to hear both the backing tracks and the Axe at the same time so I think I need some monitors as well.

So what would be the best set-up for me?

Axe2 + mfc-101 + Power amp and cab

or

Axe2 + mfc-101 + Powered speaker/monitor (QSC K10, Matrix Q12A, Mackie HD1221??)

Any other suggestions/experiences/opinions?

Thanks for the help

 

[lessthan12]

Im not in a band right now either and also live in an apartment, I use my axe fx II through genelec monitors and couldnt be any happier. Gives me any tone I want at any volume. I just plug it directly into my macbook as my sound interface and couldnt be any easier

 

[Blackie08]

Im not in a band right now either and also live in an apartment, I use my axe fx II through genelec monitors and couldnt be any happier. Gives me any tone I want at any volume. I just plug it directly into my macbook as my sound interface and couldnt be any easier

Can you hear the axe2 and backing tracks simultaneously using that setup?

 

[Mizati20]

Definitely Axe and some decent monitors man....IMO all these units... meaning the Axe and Kemper etc....sound best with a patch you've tweaked to hell through a pair of great studio monitors...ive used both units extensively with power amp / cab setups, FRFR speakers, and good desktop monitors, and there really isn't anything like jamming through a pair of awesome monitors...

Just my opinion of course....but if you can't even use your PT100 with an attenuator a poweramp/cab is still pretty useless...

 

[Blackie08]

Definitely Axe and some decent monitors man....IMO all these units... meaning the Axe and Kemper etc....sound best with a patch you've tweaked to hell through a pair of great studio monitors...ive used both units extensively with power amp / cab setups, FRFR speakers, and good desktop monitors, and there really isn't anything like jamming through a pair of awesome monitors...

Just my opinion of course....but if you can't even use your PT100 with an attenuator a poweramp/cab is still pretty useless...

What monitors do you recommend? Active or passive monitors?

 

[Mizati20]

I also think the mfc is a bit overkill for just switching at home... but I'm def guilty of buying awesome toys when I don't need them haha!

 

[Blackie08]

I also think the mfc is a bit overkill for just switching at home... but I'm def guilty of buying awesome toys when I don't need them haha!

Lol yea well I want the MFC-101 so there I mean we are guitar players right? There is no such thing as overkill

 

[JimmyBlind]

I dipped my toe into the AxeFX pool for a few months. I loved it for a few months & then started to really hate it. There's no question it sounds superb & it is most definitely a must-have studio companion if you intend to record & produce decent guitar tracks in your house or pro-studio. It is a computer at the end of the day though & if you've spent your career plugging into a gnarly box of tubes, you may find the pristine, endless spectrum of sounds a bit inorganic & overwhelming. It's easy to forget what sounds good when you're switching between so many differently EQ'd amps & patches. In many ways it is too much for most players.
It's difficult to dial a crap sound into a tube amp. It's very easy to dial a crap sound into the AxeFX. I was forever tweaking & found myself doing more tweaking than playing. Less is more, usually, and tone-searching is about finding your sound. You may well find your sound on the AxeFX by means of, for example, a plexi with an overdrive in front of it, going into an EQ pedal & out into a closed back V30 4x12. Once you find that, you may find you'd rather have the real thing.
I digress.
I traded my amp for an AxeFX for the exact same reasons you are, before understanding that the best electric guitar tones undoubtedly come from decent guitars with passive pickups, into valve amplifiers with stomp FX.
Own both if you can afford it. The AxeFX is an excellent studio tool but may lack that little something that you loved about valve amplifiers.

I owned KRK studio monitors aswell as a Matrix GT800FX (Solid State 400w) poweramp & 2x12 Orange cab. The poweramp didn't affect the playing response of the axeFX as the volume was increased or decreased. In that respect it was great for home use. Studio monitors don't have a great deal of headroom, certainly not enough to give you the depth you're used to hearing from an all-tube amplifier & cab.
All about money. If you can own everything, do it. If you can't, there are trade-offs with everything.

Resale value on the AxeFX is utter, utter dogshit btw. With fractal bringing out a new model every couple of years, nobody wants to pay big bucks for a dying model.

 

[cardinal]

I hated that thing. Sounded ok, but not a choir of angels from the gates of heaven; and too damn much tweaking (my own personal issue; it never appreciably made it sound better, just different. But I couldn't help but do that instead of actually playing). Much happier with real amps at low volumes.

 

[lessthan12]

I dipped my toe into the AxeFX pool for a few months. I loved it for a few months & then started to really hate it. There's no question it sounds superb & it is most definitely a must-have studio companion if you intend to record & produce decent guitar tracks in your house or pro-studio. It is a computer at the end of the day though & if you've spent your career plugging into a gnarly box of tubes, you may find the pristine, endless spectrum of sounds a bit inorganic & overwhelming. It's easy to forget what sounds good when you're switching between so many differently EQ'd amps & patches. In many ways it is too much for most players.
It's difficult to dial a crap sound into a tube amp. It's very easy to dial a crap sound into the AxeFX. I was forever tweaking & found myself doing more tweaking than playing. Less is more, usually, and tone-searching is about finding your sound. You may well find your sound on the AxeFX by means of, for example, a plexi with an overdrive in front of it, going into an EQ pedal & out into a closed back V30 4x12. Once you find that, you may find you'd rather have the real thing.
I digress.
I traded my amp for an AxeFX for the exact same reasons you are, before understanding that the best electric guitar tones undoubtedly come from decent guitars with passive pickups, into valve amplifiers with stomp FX.
Own both if you can afford it. The AxeFX is an excellent studio tool but may lack that little something that you loved about valve amplifiers.

I owned KRK studio monitors aswell as a Matrix GT800FX (Solid State 400w) poweramp & 2x12 Orange cab. The poweramp didn't affect the playing response of the axeFX as the volume was increased or decreased. In that respect it was great for home use. Studio monitors don't have a great deal of headroom, certainly not enough to give you the depth you're used to hearing from an all-tube amplifier & cab.
All about money. If you can own everything, do it. If you can't, there are trade-offs with everything.

Resale value on the AxeFX is utter, utter dogshit btw. With fractal bringing out a new model every couple of years, nobody wants to pay big bucks for a dying model.

Resale is dogshit? Do you even know what you're talking about? The first gen ultra's are still getting over 1400 and the axe fx II's I havent seen go for under 1700-1800?

 

[Webb]

I dipped my toe into the AxeFX pool for a few months. I loved it for a few months & then started to really hate it. There's no question it sounds superb & it is most definitely a must-have studio companion if you intend to record & produce decent guitar tracks in your house or pro-studio. It is a computer at the end of the day though & if you've spent your career plugging into a gnarly box of tubes, you may find the pristine, endless spectrum of sounds a bit inorganic & overwhelming. It's easy to forget what sounds good when you're switching between so many differently EQ'd amps & patches. In many ways it is too much for most players.
It's difficult to dial a crap sound into a tube amp. It's very easy to dial a crap sound into the AxeFX. I was forever tweaking & found myself doing more tweaking than playing. Less is more, usually, and tone-searching is about finding your sound. You may well find your sound on the AxeFX by means of, for example, a plexi with an overdrive in front of it, going into an EQ pedal & out into a closed back V30 4x12. Once you find that, you may find you'd rather have the real thing.
I digress.
I traded my amp for an AxeFX for the exact same reasons you are, before understanding that the best electric guitar tones undoubtedly come from decent guitars with passive pickups, into valve amplifiers with stomp FX.
Own both if you can afford it. The AxeFX is an excellent studio tool but may lack that little something that you loved about valve amplifiers.

I owned KRK studio monitors aswell as a Matrix GT800FX (Solid State 400w) poweramp & 2x12 Orange cab. The poweramp didn't affect the playing response of the axeFX as the volume was increased or decreased. In that respect it was great for home use. Studio monitors don't have a great deal of headroom, certainly not enough to give you the depth you're used to hearing from an all-tube amplifier & cab.
All about money. If you can own everything, do it. If you can't, there are trade-offs with everything.

Resale value on the AxeFX is utter, utter dogshit btw. With fractal bringing out a new model every couple of years, nobody wants to pay big bucks for a dying model.

You didn't mention...did you have an Axe Fx II or a Standard/Ultra? The II is a totally different beast.

And resale value is still very high with the II. Many are selling on ebay for more than what they cost from Fractal (mostly to the overseas market). But even here they still go for slightly north of $2k.

 

[JimmyBlind]

Resale is dogshit? Do you even know what you're talking about? The first gen ultra's are still getting over 1400 and the axe fx II's I havent seen go for under 1700-1800?

I sold my AxeFX Ultra & Matrix GT800FX poweramp for £1000 last year. I could not get a buyer for more than that after the AxeFX II had come out. The AxeFX alone is £2000 new.

I don't want to argue with you, but they absolutely do not retain their value. It's not an instrument, nor does it have its own unique character or voice. It's a piece of digital rack equipment with a shelf life of 2 years, made to look increasingly inferior by its successor. As Fractal get bigger, they will be capable of shitting these out at diarrhoea regularity.
Would you pay full-whack for a 486 PC or a first-gen ipod? Of course you wouldn't. They are massively superseded & have little value to anyone other than a nostalgic collector.

 

[lessthan12]

Resale is dogshit? Do you even know what you're talking about? The first gen ultra's are still getting over 1400 and the axe fx II's I havent seen go for under 1700-1800?

I sold my AxeFX Ultra & Matrix GT800FX poweramp for £1000 last year. I could not get a buyer for more than that after the AxeFX II had come out. The AxeFX alone is £2000 new.

I don't want to argue with you, but they absolutely do not retain their value. It's not an instrument, nor does it have its own unique character or voice. It's a piece of digital rack equipment with a shelf life of 2 years, made to look increasingly inferior by its successor. As Fractal get bigger, they will be capable of shitting these out at diarrhoea regularity.
Would you pay full-whack for a 486 PC or a first-gen ipod? Of course you wouldn't. They are massively superseded & have little value to anyone other than a nostalgic collector.

heres the latest completed ebay auctions which shows the Ultra's still hitting 1200-1400(keep in mind the first gen is almost 6 years old now) and the axe FX II over 1900 consistently so Im not sure what you're looking at. Obviously someone took you for what you sold yours with a matrix for. Sorry bud but You're Wrong
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Guitar-/3858/i. ... +fx&_sop=3

 

[Ventura]

To the OP, awesome question, and awesome potential solution

The Axe-II is great for in-home/apartment use for sure. Whaddya need? Get the Axe-II, get a powered wedge (preferably the Atomic CLR), a set of headphones, and a notebook computer and you're set.

Look, the powered wedges by Atomic are seriously the best bang for the buck out there, and why spend almost the same on any other monitor only to have to buy a solid state poweramp? So it's 2 solutions in 1 buy. Then the headphones - whatever you have I am sure ought to do. And a notebook - done. Beauty of this too, is that you can still take it out of the house and jam with buddies using the CLR as a backline; they're fkn loud if you want 'em to be.

I've got this same set up at home - 2 active CLRs, Axe-II, and boom - happy as hell.

Outside of this, if you want to do some recording/monitoring, the Two Notes Torpedo Live will give you everything you need and want from your current amp head(s).

Mo

 

[JimmyBlind]

Resale is dogshit? Do you even know what you're talking about? The first gen ultra's are still getting over 1400 and the axe fx II's I havent seen go for under 1700-1800?

I sold my AxeFX Ultra & Matrix GT800FX poweramp for £1000 last year. I could not get a buyer for more than that after the AxeFX II had come out. The AxeFX alone is £2000 new.

I don't want to argue with you, but they absolutely do not retain their value. It's not an instrument, nor does it have its own unique character or voice. It's a piece of digital rack equipment with a shelf life of 2 years, made to look increasingly inferior by its successor. As Fractal get bigger, they will be capable of shitting these out at diarrhoea regularity.
Would you pay full-whack for a 486 PC or a first-gen ipod? Of course you wouldn't. They are massively superseded & have little value to anyone other than a nostalgic collector.

heres the latest completed ebay auctions which shows the Ultra's still hitting 1200-1400(keep in mind the first gen is almost 6 years old now) and the axe FX II over 1900 consistently so Im not sure what you're looking at. Obviously someone took you for what you sold yours with a matrix for. Sorry bud but You're Wrong
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Guitar-/3858/i. ... +fx&_sop=3

$1300 equates to just over £800 in my native currency. These units are £2000 new.

How is that retaining its value? Do you expect them to be going for more or less than that when the AxeFX 3 comes out?

I'm no market analyst, but by this logic, AxeFX units are evidently devaluing with their age.

AxeFX's are built using computer & processor technology. Technology that, historically, has advanced quicker than any technology I can think of in the world.
The AxeFX is a PC, running firmware. As the firmware becomes more sophisticated, so too must the hardware to process it. It's a product line that supersedes itself.

 

[BYTOR]

Im not in a band right now either and also live in an apartment, I use my axe fx II through genelec monitors and couldnt be any happier. Gives me any tone I want at any volume. I just plug it directly into my macbook as my sound interface and couldnt be any easier

Can you hear the axe2 and backing tracks simultaneously using that setup?

Yes you can hear the Axe2 & backing tracks at the same time. Get a good pair of powered studio monitors. Even the cheap KRK Rokit 8's sound good.

The Axe2 will be perfect for you. Megadeth, Deftones, Devin Townsend, Dweezil & Ty Tabor all use it live for all their amp tones so I think it will be good enough for you in your apartment!!! lol

The clueless dude who claims the Axe Fx units have no resale value is a complete joke. I just got $2000 for a backup Axe2 that I bought in 2011. That is $199 off the $2199 retail price I paid 2 years ago.

 

[JimmyBlind]

Im not in a band right now either and also live in an apartment, I use my axe fx II through genelec monitors and couldnt be any happier. Gives me any tone I want at any volume. I just plug it directly into my macbook as my sound interface and couldnt be any easier

Can you hear the axe2 and backing tracks simultaneously using that setup?

Yes you can hear the Axe2 & backing tracks at the same time. Get a good pair of powered studio monitors. Even the cheap KRK Rokit 8's sound good.

The Axe2 will be perfect for you. Megadeth, Deftones, Devin Townsend, Dweezil & Ty Tabor all use it live for all their amp tones so I think it will be good enough for you in your apartment!!! lol

The clueless dude who claims the Axe Fx units have no resale value is a complete joke. I just got $2000 for a backup Axe2 that I bought in 2011. That is $199 off the $2199 retail price I paid 2 years ago.

An Axe II was that? That's the current model. How much is an AxeFX standard worth now? How much do you think an Axe II will be worth in two versions time?

 

[lessthan12]

Resale is dogshit? Do you even know what you're talking about? The first gen ultra's are still getting over 1400 and the axe fx II's I havent seen go for under 1700-1800?

I sold my AxeFX Ultra & Matrix GT800FX poweramp for £1000 last year. I could not get a buyer for more than that after the AxeFX II had come out. The AxeFX alone is £2000 new.

I don't want to argue with you, but they absolutely do not retain their value. It's not an instrument, nor does it have its own unique character or voice. It's a piece of digital rack equipment with a shelf life of 2 years, made to look increasingly inferior by its successor. As Fractal get bigger, they will be capable of shitting these out at diarrhoea regularity.
Would you pay full-whack for a 486 PC or a first-gen ipod? Of course you wouldn't. They are massively superseded & have little value to anyone other than a nostalgic collector.

heres the latest completed ebay auctions which shows the Ultra's still hitting 1200-1400(keep in mind the first gen is almost 6 years old now) and the axe FX II over 1900 consistently so Im not sure what you're looking at. Obviously someone took you for what you sold yours with a matrix for. Sorry bud but You're Wrong
https://www.ebay.com/sch/Guitar-/3858/i. ... +fx&_sop=3

$1300 equates to just over £800 in my native currency. These units are £2000 new.

How is that retaining its value? Do you expect them to be going for more or less than that when the AxeFX 3 comes out?

I'm no market analyst, but by this logic, AxeFX units are evidently devaluing with their age.

AxeFX's are built using computer & processor technology. Technology that, historically, has advanced quicker than any technology I can think of in the world.
The AxeFX is a PC, running firmware. As the firmware becomes more sophisticated, so too must the hardware to process it. It's a product line that supersedes itself.

They havent made the standard or the ultra in years bud. Your trying to compare the AXE FX II to units that are no longer in production. The standard and ultras fwiw new were UNDER 2000 and ARE STILL selling for 1300-1400 at almost 6 years old. The II's are a little over 2 years old now and have had little to no depreciation in value. People are still getting almost what they paid for them. I hate to point out but most tube amps dont hold their value as well.

 

[JimmyBlind]

Quite. The Standard & Ultra are discontinued. Unsupported. Redundant. Old.

In time, so too will the AxeFX II. By its very nature of what it is & what it's made of, it cannot possibly retain its value. Fractal will stop supporting it, AxeEdit will evolve beyond the old hardware's capability, along with the user patch libraries etc etc etc.

 

[Ventura]

For the record, also using my CLRs to pump my SD2.0 beats as well as Omnishpere and Trilian lines, all while playing guitar too.

Just saying.