AXE O/I One by IK Review

I recently purchased the AXE I/O One to sample and see if it could be a budget alternative for a practice amp. What I found was very surprising.

I purchased mine from from Facebook Market Place, the previous owner never registered the product. Keep this in mind because if you find one used you will need to be able to register it to down load the included software. Lets go on to fit and finish. At first glance I was glad it was a used purchase. It is made of plastic and doesn't look very robust in construction. If you happen to be the type that is very rough on gear this might not last your test. What you see in the picture is what you get. In the front you have a guitar jack input, headphones out, and reamp out(this is used for external recording or for plugging into an amp). In the back you have the USB port(power and communication with your computer), Midi output and input, and pedal one and pedal input and lastly stereo out puts. The box itself is very small and light weight.

The controls can be used directly or through the control software (AXE I/O) this will control the level of the signal, balance of the sound, gain and so on). The controls on the box are as follows:

Input gain control(how much gain from the input signal) Phantom power for condenser microphones Active and passive pickup selection JFET and Pure Preamp Selection changes the tone from modern to vintage Ztone impedance changed the sound from sharp to bold Direct and DAW this is used for the mixing the signal either directly from your input to the Tonnex or Amplitube software. If the selection is all the way counter clockwise the sound will be coming from AXE I/O controller software. All the way clockwise and it will come from the Modeling software Headphone volume knob and Master volume knob.

Lets get into the function of the AXE I/O, there are lots videos online on how to use this little black box and recommended upgrades, my reasoning for this was for a budget alternative to a practice amp. Down loading the free software was a slight challenge, I will attribute that to my lacking computer skills. IK support was very helpful, and after 2 days I was able to get it down loaded and set up. The only reason it took so long for me was I couldn't sit at the computer and wait for a response. In all, if you have time it may take a few hours of waiting for responses. Once I got into the software and began to familiarize myself with the navigation it was very easy. I found that the Amplitube 5 didn't work very well for me, but that would be due to my computer. This software buffered slowly for me causing a slight delay between actual playing and what I was hearing from the speakers. The Tonnex software is what I have been utilizing. I have found that I don't utilize the actual control software unless I go through an amp.

Amplitube 5--This modeling software has a web base that can be upgraded with plug ins. It is a vast library of presets by various artists, and amp models. If you wanted to dial in a specific sound for a song you are playing searching the menu you can select a preset from say from Slash and you are off to the races paying guitar like Slash, well at least sound like him.

Tonnex--This soft ware functions much like the Amplitube 5, but it is a little toned down. There plugin upgrades, and a vast library of amps and stacks to select from. To keep it simple and easy I use the clean amp selections and run foot pedals for effects.

Both of these software selections offer the controls and functions of real amps. The front panel window allows the user to mouse over the knob and dial in the tone. Advanced controls include noise gate, compressor, and reverb, allowing you shape the tone even more.

Here is what I found while using the AXE I/O. I plugged in my Epiphone Les Paul Special for passive pickup testing and my Harley Benton Extreme 84 for active pickup testing. When I first started testing this out I would run it through my amp(Peavey VIP3), which is a modeling amp in itself. It functioned properly and sounded great. Then I ran it directly though my computer speakers, sounded horrible. I also tested with head phones which sounded good and functioned without issue. That is when I woke up, to the idea of running this though a blue tooth speaker with AUX input. That worked, and sounded great. I used a JBL GO2 water proof speaker for my test. For the Price of the AXE $129(if purchased new) a JBL Go2 $20(current price on the internet), I had a good sounding practice amp that I could take any where. As long as you have a portable computer to run the software, most of us do. This is a really affordable practice amp, that has a vast library of amp models to allow us to shape any tone we want.

Here is the set I configured for this. Guitar and pedals go into the instrument input, the USB that comes with the box runs to my computer and the AUX chord goes from the Phones out to the speaker. I run the Head Phone volume, and gain to control the level. Keep your money in your pocket, this is definitely a budget amp. For the price of $150 you could have a practice amp capable of big amp tones. This is a great alternative for a guitarist first starting out.

All in all, I am very pleased with the AXE I/O One. I will admit that I was lucky the previous owner didn't register it, other wise I may have purchased a plastic brick. I would definitely recommend this product for it's versatility alone. If you are more advanced and need a good platform to start recording and sampling this might be a good starting option. Bare in mind that you will require a capture interface for the sound recording. If you are a beginner and are not pleased with the practice amp options out there give this a strong look it is definitely a budget option that is capable of producing big sound. Now get off the computer and pick up your guitar!!

For more guitar related content visit Garage Shop Guitarist.