I bet an Axe-Fx that sits in a studio for 20 years will be in better condition than an Axe-Fx that is toured for 20 years. But the same could be said of just about anything, whether it's meant to be toured or in the studio.
Aye.
Some rack gear has been designed for life on the road. Most aren't. It's logical in a way. Rack gear was originally intended for in studios. Then some nutters started taking them out on the road as well. Eventually some in the industry caught on and started building stuff that was more road worthy as well. Any guitar multi FX that is in rack format is obviously meant to be be road worthy. Otherwise what's the point?
Personally I think the days of effects rack units are numbered. For FOH digital mixers are more and more becoming the norm, and they come with internal FX already. And studios seem to be moving into plugins mostly. Guitarplayers are all about pedals and floorboards. I'm sure that there will still be the odd purist who craves that classic rack delay, reverb or compressor, but I doubt that there will still be a lot of new effects rack units coming out in the future.
I would be very surprised if there ever was an Axe FX 3 and it would still be in rack format with a separate MIDI controller. The AX-8/Helix format seems like a far more profitable choice and it would allow guitarists to do away with racks altogether. The rack format might still be good for most professional touring guitarists, who use a lot of other stuff as well and are bound to use a separate dedicated controller anyway, but I doubt that Fractal could profit from those guys only to release another rack processor. Not even if Edge had a whole Marshall stack style wall full of Axe FX units.
well i asked that because my friend ridiculed me from saying that I can just use reverb from Axe-fx rather than Bricasti unit so that you can save money. am i being ridiculous there? he was like, "why are you comparing studio rack mount unit to Axe fx?"
Why would he want to use studio rack units as a guitar player? If he only plays at home, doing some home recording, use plugins. If he plays a lot on the road, unless he plays major venues with good PA's nobody will hear the difference between a regular reverb pedal and some uber rack unit. Which means its basically overkill. It's not about comparing which unit has the best sound in the most perfect setting, because in practice you will never have that setting. It's what will work best for you on average in a wide variety of settings. James Hetfield said it best in a recent interview, he and Kirk use Fractal because now their sound is consistent, and they can take their rig anywhere, festival, stadium, arena, radio studio and still get the same sound.
also, has people tried out that new Sunset overdrive? Ive seen in the guitar stores but really haven't tried the actual pedal.
I've pretty much lost interest in whatever pedal is the flavor of the week. Especially overdrives. They all sound the same to me anyway. And I've built dozens of them.
