Axe Machina

Axe Machina – A No-Compromise Virtual Metal Guitar

Axe Machina is a powerful multi-sampled virtual electric guitar designed for pure metal destruction. The library was sampled from a custom Kiesel Aries multi-scale 7-string guitar, tuned to A Standard and played by Craig Peters.

The instrument features 24 frets, a swamp ash body, a birdseye maple neck, Guitarmory Polaris pickups and D'Addario XL 10–64 gauge strings. The swamp ash body delivers a strong natural tone with rich resonance and a distinct sonic character.

Sampling and Articulations

Axe Machina includes detailed sampling of single notes and power chord sustains, complete with palm mute variations and a wide range of performance effects.

• Single notes and power chords
• Palm mutes
• Pinch harmonics
• Mutes and chokes
• Pick scrapes in slow, medium and long
• Fret noise, rakes and slides

Sound and Amping

The library offers full control over the final tone. The pure D.I. signal can be routed into any external amp simulator, or the included custom reamped tone can be used for instant results. The amped sound was carefully crafted using Neural DSP software.

• Pure D.I. signal for custom reamping
• Custom hi-gain reamped tone for immediate metal sound

Presets and Play Modes

A flexible preset structure supports different workflows and performance requirements.

• Main Presets – full sample set with complete performance features
• Lite Presets – reduced round-robins for lower RAM usage
• DI Presets – completely unprocessed guitar tone
• Amped Presets – modern hi-gain sound ready out of the box
• Standard Presets – individual string control with overlapping note ranges
• Simple Presets – simplified mapping with fixed cross-over points

Performance and Interface

The intuitive interface provides fast access to articulations and performance features in real time.

• Real-time articulation switching
• Key-switch and mapping options
• Arpeggiator, auto-strummer and sequencer
• Customizable, performance-focused GUI

Modular FX Rack

The integrated FX rack features 27 DSP effect modules that can be freely assigned across up to eight slots in any order.

• Phaser, flanger, delay and distortion
• Amp and cabinet simulators
• Compressor, EQ, rotator and more
• Convolution reverb with 99 rooms, halls and environments
• 40 additional creative FX impulse responses
• Factory FX chain presets for instant inspiration

Product Specs

• Custom 7-string Kiesel Electric Guitar
• Single note & power chord sustains, palm mutes, pinch harmonics, mutes, pick scrapes, rakes, slides
• Pristine D.I. recordings, ready to be run through your favorite amp sims and plugins
• 8 Powerful Kontakt .nki instrument presets
• 71,796 samples in locked .ncw format
• 22.8 GB Installed
• Flexible and intuitive multi-layer user interface controls, with LFO, filter, glide, and arpeggiator
• Full FX rack with convolution reverb with custom rooms, halls, chambers & FX environments

This library has been licensed for use in the free Kontakt Player virtual instrument engine. It can be used in Kontakt Player or the full retail version of Kontakt (version 8.1 or later).

This product requires the free Native Instruments Kontakt Player, the latest version can be downloaded through Native Access, Native Instrument’s download manager!

The minimum required Kontakt version for this product is stated in the product description or can be found on the manufacturers website.

System Requirements:

Mac:

• macOS 11, 12, 13
• 64 bit
• Intel Core i5 or Apple Chip
• RAM: 4GB (6GB recommended)

Windows:

• Windows 10 or 11
• 64 bit
• Intel Core i5 or similar CPU
• RAM: 4GB (6GB recommended)

Supported Interfaces:

• Mac (64-bit only): Stand-alone, VST, VST3, AU, AAX
• Windows (64-bit): Stand-alone, VST, VST3, AAX

Legacy Versions:

If you require legacy installers of Kontakt Player please refer to this Knowledge Base Article.