I just recently purchased this unit to use in my home studio. not having the luxury to mic an amp I have always struggled with a direct electric sound. I own and have used a POD XT Pro and Amplitube 2, i have also tried the new overloud TH1 plugin.
I was about to buy a new POD X3 Pro when someone pointed me to this unit. Till then i have never even heard of it.
anyway, i listened to the clips provided by users on the company forum, paying close attention to the "direct" ones, and was blown away but what i heard. So i decided to try it out
I emailed the company and got an instant response from them (this is also important to me, company responsiveness, they excel at this)about the cost of a unit and decided to pull the trigger.
there are 2 units you can choose from, the standard and the Ultra. The ultra has more processing power than the standard, although i have not yet come close to bogging the standard unit down yet with any of the pre patch's or my own
the standard unit is very well made, much more so than a POD. the knobs on it are those that you like to feel, stiff but easy to use, it just oozes quality.
the unit is not just an amp simulator, it is also loaded with top end effects such as filters, verbs, chorus, delay, compressors etc. however it also has some of the best sims i have ever heard. They also used many different high end mics to get the different sounds with.
I run the unit with 2 cables, stereo direct to my sound card, a yamaha N12, and thus into my DAW. The unit has 3 banks, A B C, and banks A and B are loaded with pre set patch's.
When i first plugged the unit in i could tell right away i was going to be liking the unit far more than the POD or anything else thus far. The unit gives a very deep, very amp sounding sound and record really well. with a little tweaking you can make this thing scream with whatever your guitar is, or whatever pickups you have. I have a cheap PRS and it has never sounded this good
you can also download a MIDI GUI and run 2 midi cables from the unit to your MIDI card (see the list of ones that work well with the unit before you buy one). I use a small Edirol midi card and have had no issues with the GUI editor.
With the GUI editor i can upgrade the unit, and load pre set patch's and make my own from blank templates. you can also download patch's made by other users and add them to your unit.
i can't really describe the sound of the unit but if you go on the forum and go to the "recordings" section you can hear the unit in use by alot of people. The biggest thing for me is the direct recording sounds is just great and it LAYERS really well! something the POD killed me on
the unit is around 1500 bucks and the ultra goes for about 2K. the support from the company ( a small company in the US)and the quality of the build and sounds is a real winner in my book
and they are constantly updating it and in touch with the user base daily
anyway, if you are looking for a really good direct sound this is the box. you can also use it just for the stellar effects, or run it FOH and thru an amp.
here are some links for you
http://www.fractalaudio.com/http://www.fractalaudio.com/forum/http://axefxwiki.guitarlogic.org/index.php?title=Main_Pagethanks
tim