Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

Hi all,

What do you think is most likely in the near future ?
A new hardware (an 11R II) or a second Expansion Rack for the current hardware ?

Of course if people from Avid want to give us some clues.... :)

IMO, now that there is tone match on AxeFx II (Firmware 6+) and Kemper profiling I think it would be great to see a similar feature in a new Avid rack. It saves a lot of time tweaking.
Also, I'm not sure the current hardware is capable of cascading many more effects or making parallel signal paths with multiple amps and fx like the Fractal hardware does. At least a second expansion pack would help waiting for a new Avid guitar product generation.

Your thoughts ?

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

I'm hoping it'll be another Expansion Pack...

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

I bet we get another Expansion Pack eventually, and hopefully some of those bug fixes.

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

100% FOR a new expansion pack. I really, really hope Avid doesn't go the route of 11R-II, but am not holding my breath. If so, I do hope an EPII is offered, as well.

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

I personally think that the most likely roadmap is :
- a new Expansion Pack before end of 2012
- a new hardware in 2013

Avid has to work on new hardware right now or give up the Guitar product market , because Line6 and FAS are just way more active in terms of communication and firmware releases to end users
If Avid do not speak out loud in 2013 they will be just obsoleted, out of the game.

I see the new hardware to have more processing power to enable:
- the use of complex time-based algorythms like multiple delays, chorus, pitch shifting fx...
- stack more effects at once in the chain
- enable more signal routing options like multi amps, cabs etc...
- tone matching capabilities (this is going to be critical I think)

A new expansion pack will help people wait for 11R-II and more importantly will give a signal to the market that Avid is still a player to follow on the Guitar Product Market, but... this really has to come in 2012.

Just my 2 cents.

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

Expansion pack, period. The Eleven Rack is a pretty solid piece of engineering that holds up very well to any of the 'new' products out there...and its reputation is growing among players who have never considered anything of the sort before...trust me, I am one of them...been a Marshall/Boogie player for 30+ years, and the 11R won me over. I can't tell you how many other players with a similar mindset have been blown away with this thing...just many of them are too proud or set in their ways to make 'the change.'

No need to fix it if it ain't broke...but another expansion pack, yep...makes sense.

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

I think the questions posted by Avid about interest in the IOS is a clue about what they are working on. Just a wild guess on my part though...

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

just a few days after the ERXP was released one of the developers wrote here that the 11R has, for dsp point if view, a lot of free resources left.

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

But maybe this developper was referring to memory slots rather than processing capability. This is were the 11R may not be able to cope with the Axe-FX II (or even Ultra) when it comes to rigs with dual amps, multidelays, pitch or whammy, well, anything that would require heavier processing in real time.
But I'm not sure either, maybe it has enough, since it also depends on how the code is written...

What I know is I love the Eleven Rack, but I'm frustrated with some of its limitations and Avid's lack of communication.

I got a coupon for an Axe II last week, I'm hesitating to switch back to FAS right now... (I used to have the Ultra, which was an amazing unit already).

Re: Eleven Rack II or Expansion Pack II ?
 

FWIW, the DSP chip in the Eleven Rack is the exact same Texas Instruments chip that's used on the new HDX cards. It's just that the HDX card has several and the 11R has one. Someone who knows about this stuff might be able to figure out what it's capable of.