MusicRadar and Guitarist Magazine's Trevor Curwen has been taking an in-depth look at AXE I/O in their August 2019 issue. He was particularly impressed by its re-amping capabilities, dedicated guitar input and ability to work with external control pedals.
Here are some some of his key comments:
"The secret sauce here is the Z-Tone knob, which changes the input impedance and can undertake more dramatic tonal shading."
"We experienced no latency issues at all in use."
"Reamping is easily set up through the 'amp out' output, which lets you feed a DI-recorded guitar from your DAW (or a live parallel feed from Input 1) to a real amplifier or stompbox(es), while still being able to monitor the session from the main output."
"If you bring the reamped signal back through guitar Input 1, the Z-Tone can also come in pretty useful if the reamping is being done via a vintage pedal, because its sound can change depending on the load impedance"
"A pair of rear panel controller inputs provide connection for expression pedals and footswitches for real-time control of various parameters of your virtual rig"
"Why buy AXE I/O over any other audio interface? Well, as audio interfaces go, this one has decent specifications and all the facilities you'd need for standard recording tasks and being able to take input from microphones, line level sources and instruments."
Trevor's final verdict was:
"The dedicated Number 1 guitar input here can make a real difference in the quality of your guitar recording. Not just that, the Amp Out facility makes getting signal to your amp and back into the DAW a real doddle. It's a well thought out box for guitarists at a decent price."
Key Pros
+ Good basic set of audio interface features+ Dedicated guitar input+ Reamping output+ Facility to connect external control pedals/switches+ Two line outputs to send sound to different destinations
Read the full review at MusicRadarLearn more about AXE I/O