Conley Shepherd
Experienced
first, I have to say that the AF3 is an awesome unit and I love almost everything about it. The only thing that is causing me to be unhappy is the foot controller options while waiting for the readily available status of the FC12. Not having the FC12 is really a burden on me on the 4th day of ownership.
I researched the Kemper, Helix and the AF3. Not ashamed I invested in the AF3 for the stand alone unit on it's features, unit modification ability for patches, I/O and such. The AF3 is a monster. I have had a lot of good advice and read quite a few posts in the forum by this great community. All of that help has been MUCH appreciated!
My remorse begins with the missing ability to plug and play a controller that will allow me the full functionality of the AF3.
I started off with a GCP and GCX hoping I could get done what I wanted to. I wasn't able to send command to the AF3 from the GCP that got me patch switching and specific scene selection. I get really irritated when proven that things I want to do can't be done. I get really AR/OCD about things I am trying to get accomplished. At this point I started looking for a MFC and found one locally. I thought it was a Godsend. Been struggling with it trying to figure what it can do and how as well as trying to use it with the most benefit for my desired use. I don't think this was asking too much. I dropped a good bundle on that device and expected almost a miracle.
My initial goal for the MFC was the following
1. Select patches - using single patch selection with the bank buttons - accomplished goal!
2. Select specific scenes - acomplished goal using buttons 1-5
3. Turn devices on and off in the scenes selected - they were setup pretty easy with the AF3 learn mode. I was pleasantly surprised! Accomplished!
All of these accomplishments were really good feelings around 0030 this am.
I was hoping to play out with the AF3 and MFC last night and this wasn't working and I left the whole rack and MFC home. I played my night with the stock Mesa Mark V, a tuner, looper and GTX-500 with the boost channel. I really had a great time and thought to myself that the mesa sounded good and that I was really frustrated with the AF3 and MFC not working well together yet. That was when the remorse set in. Got home and worked on the combo for about 3 hours. and finally got basic functionality mentioned above.
I admit that my frustration is with the learning curve of the AF3 setup with a good FC combo. It would have been nice to have a better backward compatibility with the MFC and faslink. This MFC and AF3 setup is quite a chore not knowing the Axe products on day 4 of ownership.
I am moving forward with trying looper assignments and hopefully will figure that out in tandem with the way I have my MFC configured now.
Knowing what I know now(new owner and no prior FAS product experience on day 4) and what I have tried, I would have waited on my purchase of the AF3 until the FC12 was openly available. I presumed too much.
-- My journey with FAS
I researched the Kemper, Helix and the AF3. Not ashamed I invested in the AF3 for the stand alone unit on it's features, unit modification ability for patches, I/O and such. The AF3 is a monster. I have had a lot of good advice and read quite a few posts in the forum by this great community. All of that help has been MUCH appreciated!
My remorse begins with the missing ability to plug and play a controller that will allow me the full functionality of the AF3.
I started off with a GCP and GCX hoping I could get done what I wanted to. I wasn't able to send command to the AF3 from the GCP that got me patch switching and specific scene selection. I get really irritated when proven that things I want to do can't be done. I get really AR/OCD about things I am trying to get accomplished. At this point I started looking for a MFC and found one locally. I thought it was a Godsend. Been struggling with it trying to figure what it can do and how as well as trying to use it with the most benefit for my desired use. I don't think this was asking too much. I dropped a good bundle on that device and expected almost a miracle.
My initial goal for the MFC was the following
1. Select patches - using single patch selection with the bank buttons - accomplished goal!
2. Select specific scenes - acomplished goal using buttons 1-5
3. Turn devices on and off in the scenes selected - they were setup pretty easy with the AF3 learn mode. I was pleasantly surprised! Accomplished!
All of these accomplishments were really good feelings around 0030 this am.
I was hoping to play out with the AF3 and MFC last night and this wasn't working and I left the whole rack and MFC home. I played my night with the stock Mesa Mark V, a tuner, looper and GTX-500 with the boost channel. I really had a great time and thought to myself that the mesa sounded good and that I was really frustrated with the AF3 and MFC not working well together yet. That was when the remorse set in. Got home and worked on the combo for about 3 hours. and finally got basic functionality mentioned above.
I admit that my frustration is with the learning curve of the AF3 setup with a good FC combo. It would have been nice to have a better backward compatibility with the MFC and faslink. This MFC and AF3 setup is quite a chore not knowing the Axe products on day 4 of ownership.
I am moving forward with trying looper assignments and hopefully will figure that out in tandem with the way I have my MFC configured now.
Knowing what I know now(new owner and no prior FAS product experience on day 4) and what I have tried, I would have waited on my purchase of the AF3 until the FC12 was openly available. I presumed too much.
-- My journey with FAS