Hi Paul,

Axon-100 MKII is a fantastic MIDI guitar converter, plenty of sophisticated features and programability. I did try it by two weeks aprox. but because I prefer go straight and simple on MIDI guitar recording area and I don´t need internal sounds, I finally got a Roland GI-20 GK-MIDI interface , it don´t have sounds, but it work fast and accurate with my Godin xtSA, I use it primarily as just a interface for drive my external synths and virtual instruments. It is important to considere AXON has gained the reputation of be the faster MIDI interface, it ' has an early transient recognition system (ETR) which evaluates the impulses from the strings as soon as they are picked and converts them into values for pitch' , it does great and fast in low strings!. Just my personal experience with AXON was not all the successful I wanted, because my playing style tend to be strong and precise and the AXON ETR mode in my case produced ghost and retriggering notes. ETR work great for fingerstyle and soft picking, but in my opinion it sacrifice accuracy and dynamic sometimes. As compensation Roland have six PLAY FEEL modes and individual string sensitivity adjust, all of which work great for me. In the other side Axon-100 MKII as standalone device is a big step up over its little and squalid brother Axon AX 50, which need a PC software for even the minimal taks. Also Axon 100 MKII tone bank does a good job and bring a decent sound palette, although IMO nothing outstanding, just then I did connect it as GM bank to my Band-in-a-Box 2008, it did sound good in an average basis, just that, anyway matter of likes. However it have lot of tone patchs specially designed with MIDI guitar on mind which sound impressive, indeed lot of fun there!. Another plus in Axon is it include a software editor for Windows and Mac and a hold mode with arpeggiator and drum sequencer that work great.
But as I said before I prefer go simpler, and I love the convenience virtual synths give me, instant rendering without need to connect and record audio from an external module, btw, I only make that when I have some appetizing analog synth handy . Like Axon, Roland GI-20 also let me assign different MIDI channels to each string and it have other useful features like foot pedals for hold, expression, prog. change etc, and all I need for real time control is in my Godin xtSA: octaves change, basic switching and volume.

unfortunately I didn't record anything while I had the AXON. But I have some videos and examples with Roland GI-20, btw, using BIAB most of times. Look here:

Mina Sambinha - MIDI guitar and Band in a Box
Band In A Box - MIDI Guitar Audio Recording

Carlos

Gabriel Arellano,
Nucleox Music