Rotary comparison Mini Vent, Mobius, Axe Fx II

Here's a quick comparison video between the Neo Instruments Mini Vent, Strymon Mobius and Fractal Audio Axe Fx II. Rotaries are played clean and with drive on in mono and stereo.
Routing for Mono:
- Guitar - Mini Vent - Mobius - Axe Fx II input
Routing for Stereo:
- Guitar Axe Fx II input
- Effects loop Axe Fx II - Mini Vent - Mobius back into the Axe Fx II
The preset for the Axe Fx II I used can be found here: axechange.fract...

[@deeseen3495]

We have AXF, Strymon & Eventide mod effects here and Im not happy with none of them! And I don't care who's using them or trying to promote them.. This little Mini Vent is the sort of quality Im looking for in ALL my mod sounds!! SUPERB..!

[@documentingordinarythoughts]

Oh nooo... Not what I wanted to hear ... I was just proven wrong ! The amps on the AFX are simply amazing, that right there is some serious clean amp sound going on in the video ... But the effect it self ... In comparison to those two ? Oh my ... No wonder you have the vent on your board even having the mobius there.. It sounds amazing :)

[@otaviosmartins1]

Mini vent is the clear winner for me, but Mobius is not that distant.

[@jordandangelo180]

Great demo and great tones! I have a Mobius and I was just about to buy a Micro Vent but I thought, “ let me see if anyone did a comparison of the 2... 🤔 “ Now I’m not sure. The Mobius sounds great for sure but the demos of the Vent sound so amazing and realistic that’s it’s hard not to believe it’s better than the Mobius. What’s your opinion? Thanks

[@mikesharpsongs]

I'm in the same boat you were in; have and love the Mobius, but I recently had the fortune of both trying out a Mini Vent and finding one on a great sale. So, I'll likely be putting both on my board; Mini Vent after an amp sim and the Mobius before, for all the other great modulations it does.

[@axe2grind911a]

Hey man, forget the pedals, I want a pair of those badass shoes!

[@xogmusic]

LOL. check Floris van Bommel - Netherlands

[@axe2grind911a]

Ok, I have now owned and used many of the most popular rotary effects: Neo Ventilator II, Strymon Mobius, EHX Lester G, Pigtronix Rototron, Boss RT20, Strymon Lex, Tech 21 Rotochoir. Here's my take on it. Mobius has the BEST rotary. I would say that Ventilator is best except for one thing: it does not have a good drive sound. Mobius has the best drive sound (except for the Rototron) and overall is the most configurable of ALL of the units, plus - and this is key - you can STORE as many presets as you need without tweaking between songs. True, the Ventilator has a (very slightly) more "realistic" pure rotary, but in the end it falls short on ease of tweakability and lack of storing presets. Very close 2nds are Lex (no storage, inferior drive to Mobius), Rototron (most WOW factor, but is insidiously noisy (and has a noticeable and non-configurable noise gate), Lester G (overall great but compresses sound too much and changes the timbre/EQ). The rest are distant cousins, though the RT20 has a warm and analog sound, yet not quite authentic rotary. In the end, I'm going back to the Mobius, for it's superior drive, tweakability, and saving to preset, plus you get 11 other effects as a bonus! This was a pretty good demo, however, Mobius can actually sound better, but just requires more care than the Vent to get right sound. Once fully dialed in, you can save it for instant recall. Doesn't get better than that folks, although you can certainly try. YMMV

[@MrTimdcarroll]

Great comparison ... always thought I'd buy a Vent II (and still might for stand alone) but, for a board, I'll keep my Mobius ... great job and I totally agree, we all love those "Kicks" bro'.

[@TVGrec]

Yes, the Mobius has the natural airy grind of a nice overdriven rotary speaker.

[@ReyYbarra]

Great post

[@MegaBrebis]

Vent sounds best, then Mobius, then Axe Fx II far behind.

[@teashea1]

good comparison useful thanks

[@noelhoekstra6852]

Why didnt he demo the H9 rotary XD?

[@ahall3823]

Sounds like you didn’t have the axe fx set up right... it can sound much better than that.

[@xogmusic]

ahall3823 you prove that then

[@xogmusic]

I've set it up in stereo and I also created another version with settings from Simeon. The Ventilator is the best you can get and Yek also uses one. The Axe Fx is ok but it doesn't sound really authentic as the Ventilator.

[@ahall3823]

Totally agree about the ventilator. It's the best. But the axe fx can do much better. I'm currently on holidays, so can't demonstrate. The amp you run it through makes a big difference to the 'hair' (that's a technical term...) you hear. You can also set a foot switch to act as the speed and brake, same as the ventilator and mobius. Also, it sounds to me like the axe has the amplitude set too big which isn't helping.

[@xogmusic]

I currently don't own the Ventilator anymore as I didn't use it much so I'm always interested if someone else gets a more convincing rotary sound out of the Axe Fx. Let me know if you have some time to create a demo! All the best for 2018!