Ok now onto some of the other FX
Phaser:
I'm not a big phaser user unless its very suble and i found more than enough phasers in the axe for my use. What i enjoy most about it is how lush it sounds, especially for open chords. Not much else to say, maybe someone who uses more phaser could add a better perspective.
Flanger:
Like phaser i'm not much of a flanger user but I do enjoy the EVH brown sound patch with his signature flanger. Very cool for heavy rhythms and i can see myself actually using that patch alot as you can still make out every note and the flange just adds a texture as most effects should. Again i would say someone who is more of a flanger user might have a more worthy opinion. For me to actually like a flange effect means a lot.
Chorus:
Let me preface this by saying I like a subtle chorus and my favorites all time are the chorus in the JC120 and the carl martin chorus XII. Well you can now add the axe-fx to that list because it delivers the JC120 chorus in spades (for a more suble chorus) and the carl martin type chorus for something a little thicker. Keep in mind i only use chorus mainly for clean stuff and sometimes a lead sound but nothing overly crazy.
EQs:
Here's where i found my biggest gain. I have the maxon ge601 in the loop of the roadster and while i could dial in the right chug, i couldnt use that eq setting for aything else. So i was always stuck just using it for rhythm, chuggy sounds. Now i can dial in one eq for cleans, one for rhythms, one for leads and just about anything else i can think of. The really cool part is using the parametric eq which i found retained more of my amps sound while still letting me dial out certain frequencies. I think the axe just replaced another one of my pedals
Drives:
Ok here's the fx that fall short in the 4CM. I found the drives somewhat wanting when using them in the 4CM but they sounded great when using the axe as your preamp using the amp sims. In the 4CM things just dont sound as good as my OCD, so while i hoped in some way i could have the axe replace another pedal, not so much. I will however keep giving them a chance because i have a feeling i'm just not using them correctly. The issue i'm hearing is the lack of additional harmonics i get from the OCD. Anyway, the drives aren't terrible but for leads and tightening the recto for rhythms i find the OCD better suited, although the FET Boost using the clean channel sounds awesome and the Tape Distortion is very cool.
Formant Filter:
Very cool effect i never used before. It emulates vowels sort of like a wah but lets you change the vowel sound (ooo, eee, and ahhhh) and you can morph between them using an expression pedal. I guess the best comparison is a talkbox except you dont have to look like your doing something indecent to use it :wink:
Pitch Shifter:
Outside an Eventide I've never heard pitch shifting like this. The tracking is nearly perfect (nothing beats a true harmony with 2 guitarists) and the intelligent harmony is just plain awesome. I cannot wait to hear these harmony patches in stereo with one harmony panned hard left, the other hard right and my dry root in the middle. The octave divider is cool for some evil sounding rhythm lines (think The Rose by APC) and crystals are very cool when you add them to reverbs and delay tails, its very The Edge from U2. What impresses me the most is these type of effects can sound very cheesy very easily but all the stock patches with these sound good and once you tweak them they sound even better. I haven't had a chance to try the whammy but i've heard its very true to the original XP100.
Tremolo-
Tremolo in this thing sounds so good. I tend to use a very soft tremolo but you definitely can get that Boulevard of Broken Dreams type hard tremolo. The stock patches that use the tremolo sound amazing especially the ones that use lots of reverb and pitch shifting.
Thats all the fx i've gone through so far and let me tell you, even if this was just an FX unit it would be worth the $1500 they go for new. What i like about it the most is nothing is over the top unless you tweak it that way. Most of the stock patches are usable and most are very musical. There are very few that are there to show what the unit can do and evn those are pretty **** cool and could be usable for the right guy. Again i feel like i've only scratched the surface of what this unit and am not using it right now in the most optimal setup to make use of the amp and cab sims. Also take into consideration I wouldnt consider myself a pedal guy because most dont have enough to tweak and i need too many to do everything i need them to do. If i were playing gigs again i would definetly use the axe and a personal monitor and go straight into the mixing board. Less to lug around, much easier to setup and tone that meets my standards.
At the end of the day there will always be guys that just need an amp and a few pedals to get there sound. There are also some guys that need units like this. Then there are the rest of us that are somewhat in the middle. If your a guy that doesnt need much more than an amp or a pedal or two to get your tone, i think the axe-fx might not be worth it. if your your a guy that needs a ton of sounds and a ton of fx and need them to sound top notch, i think the axe-fx is a great fit as its a very comprehensive yet intuitive unit that delivers great tone. If your in the middle and love your tube amp but need a a great fx unit that sounds great and has lots of routing options i would take a good hard look at the axe-fx.... there are other units that could give you the same fx but i bet none sound as good as the axe-fx :wink:
In closing... i'm now a believer and consider the axe-fx one of the best purchases i've ever made.
