October 22, 2012 – Normally, when we ask an artist for a few words describing how they find using the Axe-Fx II or out other products, we get exactly that: a few words. Alex Lifeson of Rush, however, really kicked it into overdrive, so we wanted to give it all to you here. (It’s also true that we at Fractal have great admiration for his music, without which it is quite possible there would never have been an Axe-Fx in the first place!) Here’s what he had to say about first kicking the tires and then really taking off in his new Fractal-powered rig:
Being a creature of habit, I avoided changing my FX gear line up on the last tour reasoning that if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. Well, that’s fine for an old, crappy car you might want to squeeze another few thousand miles out of but I wanted to get more out of my gear than a shiny wax.
My tech, Scott Appleton, had been using the Fractal Audio AxeFX II and was encouraging me to give it a spin. He’d been behind the wheel for a couple of years with the Fractal gear and knowing how lazy I can sometimes be, took the initiative to pre-program the bulk of the songs we planned for the Clockwork Angels tour. He also used tone matching to create a gorgeous acoustic sound for the piezo installed in my Les Pauls, one that our FOH engineer, Brad Madix feels is one of the best live acoustic guitar sounds he’s EVER heard…not bad from a Les Paul!
The quality of all the effects is superb. There is great depth and transparency, and excellent imaging that makes listening with in-ear monitoring a wonderful aural experience. The choices are limitless and it’s fully loaded with all the options you’d ever need. Take it for a test drive, you won’t be disappointed.
Das Awesome.
Alex Lifeson