Fractal AXE-FX II User manual

Owner’s Manual
Also mostly suitable for the Axe-Fx II XL until an update is available in April 2014

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Legal Notices
Fractal Audio Systems Axe-Fx II Owner’s Manual. Contents Copyright © 2011 -2012. All Rights Reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the permission of Fractal Audio Systems.
Fractal Audio Systems, Axe-Fx, Axe-Fx II, Axe-Fx II Mark II, G2 Modeling Technology (“G2”), Humbuster, Multipoint
Iterative Matching and Impedance Correction (“MIMIC”), Virtual Vacuum Tube (“VVT”) are trademarks of Fractal
Audio Systems. Manufacturer names and product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered
trademarks of their respective owners, which are in no way associated with or affiliated with Fractal Audio
Systems. The names are used only to illustrate sonic and performance characteristics.
Important Safety Instructions
WARNING: To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, do not expose
this appliance to rain or moisture.
CAUTION: To reduce the risk of fire or electric shock, do not remove
screws. There are no user serviceable parts inside. Refer servicing to
qualified service personnel.
1. Obey all warnings on the Axe-Fx II and in this User Guide.
2. Keep away from sources of heat such as heat ducts, registers or appliances which produce heat.
3. Connect only to a proper AC outlet of 100–240V, 47–63 Hz.
4. Keep the power cord in good condition. Do not kink, bend, or pinch. If the cord becomes
damaged, discard and replace it.
5. If not using your Axe-Fx II for extended periods of time, disconnect from AC mains.
6. Protect the unit from rain and excessive moisture.
7. Refer servicing to qualified personnel only.
8. Do not operate the unit and obtain service if:
a. Liquids or excessive moisture enter the unit.
b. The unit operates incorrectly or performance is inconsistent or erratic.
c. The unit has been dropped and/or the enclosure damaged.
9. Prolonged exposure to high volume levels can cause hearing damage and/or loss. The use of
hearing protection in high volume situations is recommended.
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Certificate of Conformity
Fractal Audio Systems, USA, hereby declares on its own responsibility that the following product:
Axe-Fx II Digital Guitar Preamplifier and Effects Processor
That is covered by this certificate, and marked with CE label, conforms to following standards:
EN60065
(IEC 60065)
Safety requirement for mains operated electronic and related apparatus for household and
similar use.
EN 55103-1
Product family standard for audio, video, audio-visual, and entertainment lighting control
apparatus for professional use. Part 1: Emission.
EN 55103-2
Product family standard for audio, video, audio-visual, and entertainment lighting control
apparatus for professional use. Part 2: Immunity.
with reference to regulations in following directives: 73/23/EEC, 89/336/EEC.
September 2013
Clifford Chase, President
Fractal Audio Systems
EMC / EMI
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B Digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC
rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful interference in residential installations. This
equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the
instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. There is no guarantee that interference will not occur in
a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be
determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of
the following measures:
Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.
Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.
Connect the equipment to an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver is connected.
Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.
About the Author
Matt Picone is a music technology product specialist, sound designer, creative director, and musician with over 25 years of
experience spanning guitars, amps, effects, synthesizers, software, and beyond. He has worked with greats including Dweezil
Zappa, Adrian Belew, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, the Edge, Peter Frampton, Neal Schon, King’s X, Scott Appleton (Def
Leppard/Rush/etc.) and more. This work is based extensively on the original Axe-Fx manual by Fractal Audio founder and Axe-Fx
creator Cliff Chase.
Many thanks to our team of awesome beta-testers, preset creators, copy-editors and proofreaders, especially Cooper Carter,
Ian Chesal, Alexander Van Engelen, and Friedlieb Jung-Merkelbach.
You may report manual corrections or suggestions in our forum at http://forum.fractalaudio.com

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Foreword
Thank you for purchasing an Axe-Fx II, one of the most powerful musical instrument processors
ever produced. Please take the time to read through this manual to become acquainted with
the Axe-Fx II.
Thinking back to a date when the first Axe-Fx units rolled off the line back in 2006, it would
have been a challenge to predict the scale of what was to follow… that the product would be
such a worldwide success that we would have a hard time keeping it in stock; that musicians
would rally around the unit, from online “Axe-evangelists”to the world’s most celebrated pro
players; that we’d soon be writing the foreword to a manual for the sequel: the Axe-Fx II.
Nevertheless, the Axe-Fx II is here. Advances in technology and knowledge, along with the
shared insights of our community, have allowed us to design and produce a next-generation
product that represents a giant step forward. If you owned a Standard or an Ultra, we think
you’ll be very impressed with all the updates, additions and improvements. If you’re new to the
Axe-Fx family, this is an incredible place to start.
It has been said that the Axe-Fx “restored digital to its rightful place as the superior solution to
musical effects processing.” Every aspect of the Axe-Fx II has been designed to deliver the latest
word in this commentary. It has twice the power of the Axe-Fx Ultra (while even the older
“Standard”still has more horsepower under the hood than the closest competitor). For the
player, this means better sound, smarter features, and improved performance.
We think that a time traveler from that date back in 2006 would be quite pleased with how
things turned out. We are, and we hope you will be too. And now, on to the show…
—Fractal Audio Systems, May 2011

TABLE OF CONTENTS
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Table of Contents
Foreword ..........................................................................................iii
Table of Contents..............................................................................iv
What’s New .......................................................................................1
1Introduction ..................................................................................4
1.1 What is the Axe FX II? ..............................................................................4
1.2 The Inventory/Grid Concept.....................................................................6
1.3 Connectivity and More.............................................................................7
My Head Hertz… ....................................................................................................................................7
2Overview ......................................................................................8
2.1 The Front Panel........................................................................................8
2.2 The Rear Panel .......................................................................................10
2.3 Computer Integration ............................................................................12
Minimum Requirements ......................................................................................................................12
Software Installation............................................................................................................................12
Capabilities...........................................................................................................................................13
3Connections ................................................................................15
3.1 Setting Levels .........................................................................................15
3.2 The PEDAL Jack ......................................................................................16
3.3 System Parameters ................................................................................16
3.4 Connection Diagrams .............................................................................17
Axe-Fx II into Self-Powered Full-Range Speakers.................................................................................18
Axe-Fx II into Studio Monitors .............................................................................................................18
Axe-Fx II with Power Amp and Guitar Speakers ..................................................................................19
Axe-Fx II Effects Loop...........................................................................................................................20
Axe-Fx II Digital Audio Interconnection ...............................................................................................20
Axe-Fx II Four Cable Method (“4CM”) .................................................................................................21
Direct to FOH plus Real Amps on Stage ...............................................................................................22
Axe-Fx II as Effects Processor Only (with Guitar Amps).......................................................................23
Axe-Fx II as a Computer Audio Interface .............................................................................................24
Axe-Fx II and MFC-101 .........................................................................................................................25
Axe-Fx II: One Possible “Big Rig”..........................................................................................................26

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4Basic Operation and Editing.........................................................27
4.1 Presets ...................................................................................................27
4.2 The Grid .................................................................................................28
Inserting and Removing Blocks ............................................................................................................28
Shunts ..................................................................................................................................................29
Connector Cables.................................................................................................................................30
Moving Blocks on the Grid...................................................................................................................32
Example Presets on the Grid................................................................................................................33
4.3 Editing Sounds .......................................................................................35
Quick Control .......................................................................................................................................36
4.4 X/Y Switching.........................................................................................36
X/Y Quick Jump ....................................................................................................................................37
4.5 Bypassing a Block...................................................................................37
4.6 Loading Effects from another Preset ......................................................37
4.7 Saving Changes ......................................................................................38
Swapping the Locations of Two Presets ..............................................................................................38
5Effects Guide ...............................................................................39
5.1 Amplifier [AMP] .....................................................................................39
Basic Amp Parameters (TYPE, PRE, PWR, EQ Pages) ...........................................................................40
Amp Speaker Parameters ....................................................................................................................42
Amp Dynamics Parameters..................................................................................................................43
Advanced Amp Parameters .................................................................................................................44
5.2 Cabinet [CAB].........................................................................................48
User Cabs .............................................................................................................................................50
5.3 Chorus [CHO] .........................................................................................51
5.4 Compressor [CMP] .................................................................................54
5.5 Crossover [XVR] .....................................................................................56
5.6 Delay [DLY] ............................................................................................57
Mono Delay..........................................................................................................................................58
Stereo Delay.........................................................................................................................................59
Dual Delay............................................................................................................................................60
Ping-Pong Delay ...................................................................................................................................61
Sweep Delay.........................................................................................................................................61
Reverse Delay ......................................................................................................................................61
Tape Delay ...........................................................................................................................................62

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Delay Common Parameters .................................................................................................................63
5.7 Drive [DRV] ............................................................................................65
5.8 Effects Loop [FXL]...................................................................................67
5.9 Enhancer [ENH]......................................................................................69
5.10 Feedback Send [SND] & Return [RTN]..................................................69
5.11 Filter [FLT] ...........................................................................................70
5.12 Flanger [FLG] .......................................................................................71
5.13 Formant [FRM]....................................................................................73
5.14 Gate/Expander [GTE]...........................................................................74
5.15 Graphic Equalizer [GEQ] ......................................................................75
5.16 Looper [LPR]........................................................................................75
5.17 Megatap Delay [MGT] .........................................................................77
5.18 Mixer [MIX].........................................................................................78
5.19 Multiband Compressor [MBC] .............................................................79
5.20 Multi Delay [MTD]...............................................................................80
Quad Tap Delay....................................................................................................................................82
Plex Delay.............................................................................................................................................83
Plex Detune..........................................................................................................................................84
Plex Shift ..............................................................................................................................................85
Band Delay ...........................................................................................................................................85
Quad Series Delay ................................................................................................................................86
Ten-Tap Delay ......................................................................................................................................86
Rhythm Tap Delay................................................................................................................................87
Diffusor ................................................................................................................................................88
Quad Tape Delay..............................................................................................................................89
5.21 Tremolo/Panner [PAN]........................................................................89
5.22 Parametric EQ [PEQ]............................................................................90
5.23 Phaser [PHA] .......................................................................................91
5.24 Pitch Shifter [PIT] ................................................................................93
Detune .................................................................................................................................................95
Fixed Harmony.....................................................................................................................................97
Intelligent Harmony .............................................................................................................................97
Classic Whammy ................................................................................................................................100

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Octave Divider ...................................................................................................................................100
Crystals...............................................................................................................................................101
Advanced Whammy...........................................................................................................................102
Arpeggiator ........................................................................................................................................103
Custom Shifter ...................................................................................................................................104
5.25 Quad Chorus [QCH] ...........................................................................105
5.26 Resonator [RES].................................................................................107
5.27 Reverb [REV] .....................................................................................108
5.28 Ring Modulator [RNG].......................................................................111
5.29 Rotary Speaker [ROT] ........................................................................112
5.30 Synth [SYN] .......................................................................................113
5.31 Tone Matching [TMA]........................................................................114
5.32 Vocoder [VOC]...................................................................................115
5.33 Volume/Pan [VOL] ............................................................................116
5.34 Wahwah [WAH] ................................................................................116
5.35 Input Noise Gate ...............................................................................118
Input Impedance................................................................................................................................118
5.36 Output Mixer ....................................................................................119
5.37 Common Mix Parameters..................................................................120
6Global Blocks.............................................................................122
6.1 Introduction.........................................................................................122
6.2 Using Global Blocks..............................................................................122
Saving to a Global Block.....................................................................................................................123
Loading and Linking a Global Block....................................................................................................124
Loading Global Blocks without Linking ..............................................................................................124
Unlinking Preset and Global Blocks ...................................................................................................125
Backing Up/Sharing Presets Containing Global Blocks ......................................................................126
7Modifiers & Controllers .............................................................127
7.1 Introduction.........................................................................................127
7.2 Creating a Modifier ..............................................................................127
Transformations.................................................................................................................................129
Scale and Offset .................................................................................................................................130

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Damping.............................................................................................................................................131
Auto Engage.......................................................................................................................................131
Program Change Reset ......................................................................................................................131
7.3 Control Sources....................................................................................132
LFO1 & 2 ............................................................................................................................................132
ADSR 1 & 2 .........................................................................................................................................133
Sequencer ..........................................................................................................................................133
Envelope Follower .............................................................................................................................134
Pitch Detector ....................................................................................................................................134
Manual Knobs ....................................................................................................................................135
External Controllers ...........................................................................................................................135
Modifier Power!.................................................................................................................................180
8Global Parameters.....................................................................136
8.1 Configuration Parameters ....................................................................136
8.2 Output Parameters ..............................................................................137
8.3 Custom Scales ......................................................................................137
9Input/Output Parameters..........................................................138
9.1 Input Parameters .................................................................................138
9.2 Audio Parameters ................................................................................138
9.3 MIDI Parameters..................................................................................140
9.4 Control Parameters..............................................................................142
9.5 Pedal Parameters.................................................................................145
9.6 X/Y Quick-Jump Assign.........................................................................145
10 Utilities ...................................................................................146
10.1 LCD Contrast......................................................................................146
10.2 Preset Utilities...................................................................................146
10.3 Status Meters....................................................................................146
10.4 Reset System.....................................................................................146
10.5 IR Capture .........................................................................................147
10.6 Firmware...........................................................................................148
11 Tuner ......................................................................................149