Mixdown Magazine's expert reviewer, Will Brewster, has made an in-depth review of IK's new AXE I/O audio interface for guitarists and was really impressed by its features and sound quality.

Here are his main thoughts after the test.

"Straight out of the box, however, you’d be amazed at the quality of build and immediate sound of the AXE I/O. The 24 bit/192 k interface delivers an incredibly transparent and high-quality sound, as well as the ability to choose from Pure and JFET input stages to alter your signal further. IK Multimedia’s own patent-pending Z-tone impendence adapting circuit technology also interacts directly with your pickups to offer an insane range of tonal flexibility."

"The AXE I/O’s ability to adjust impendence via the Z-tone feature is certainly one that demands a decent amount of clout when used in a studio context, offering a versatile range of track-ready tones on tap. When coupled with the option to flick between input stages as well as tailored settings for active and passive pickups, the AXE I/O sells itself as a studio essential for the recording guitarist, and that’s even before deep diving into all the software included with it. There’s even an incredibly useful guitar tuner built into the interface next to the preset knob – optimised for your convenience."

"The versatility that can be achieved through this unit would suit guitarists of any style – it also sounds killer with bass."

"It’s when you activate the software that comes with the AXE I/O that the unit really starts to reveal its full potential. The interface integrates seamlessly with IK Multimedia’s AmpliTube 4 software, providing you with banks upon banks of studio quality amplifier, cabinet, microphone and effects modelling software presets at the click of a mouse. These AmpliTube effects can easily be selected and modified via the preset knob on the interface itself, and for ultimate control over your effects plugins, you can even insert an expression pedal and footswitch into the AXE I/O for total hands-free control. When you throw MIDI capability into the mix, it really is quite difficult to pinpoint much fault in the AXE I/O."

HITS 

∙ Crystal clear audio quality
∙ Tonnes of tonal versatility
∙ The Z-Tone feature is a big plus 

MISSES 

∙ What’s not to love? 

Learn more about AXE I/O.
Read the full review on Mixdown