What would the new-gen even have that the current gen doesn’t?

doubleohno said:
I too would hope for a light weight, smaller screen free rack unit. My only other ask lately is for 4+ FX loops like the Helix has.
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Just INS/OUTS on the back, with knobs and a super small screen on the front would be SO useful for touring acts, as long as an external touchscreen is an option. Fitting three AXE-IVs into six rack spaces, instead of two, would be huge for us road dogs.
 
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vangrieg said:
I said this several times already, but to me the positioning of the unit on the floor makes it an inferior place to do any real work. I just don’t care what the interface there is like, it’s a backup option for the rare case I don’t have a laptop, a tablet or a phone with me. Which I don’t even think ever happened in real life except when I did tweak some things mostly out of curiosity, seeing all these complaints about UI.
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Yeah, I get that. For my use case, though - and I certainly understand that mine isn't everyone's - it works, because I'm almost always on the floor when dialling in tones, whether I'm doing it directly on the FM9, or using my laptop (I only have a 1m cable, which kind of sucks).

Dave Merrill said:
When i had a Helix Floor, i mostly put it on top of a rolling plastic set of drawers, so it was at waist height, fine for editing. The touch sensitive footswitches meant you could just touch the Drive switch to edit the drive settings, and so on, very intuitive and quick. I'd put it down on the floor when i was done editing. It also had what i think they called "pedal edit mode", where you could leave it on the floor and use the switches and pedal to edit settings. Not how your want to build things from scratch or do major rework, but fine for tweaks at rehearsal or even live.

That interactiveness was my favorite thing about it. Great tones were a lot harder...
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Oh man, the capacitive footswitches were so good. I really miss them.

I still don't see me giving up my FM9, as much as I am a fan of what Line 6 is doing with their UI. I don't even see me giving it up after the next generation of Fractal stuff is released, because in the end, the only thing that really matters to me is sound, touch, feel, and I can get sounds on this that sound like an amp that's been pushed right up to the edge, like those tubes are about to blow. I can't imagine anything sounding more realistic than this device does. As I've said many times, I have no brand loyalty. If someone comes up with something better, I'll switch without thinking twice about it...but I think things have gotten so good at this point, I just can't imagine what could be better, sonically.

Cliff, if you read this, can you? Do you think there's any areas left, that you can improve on, in that domain? Genuinely curious.
 
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Dave Merrill said:
I don't understand. Both AxeEdit and the front panel show what amp is being used by the current channel.
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yes Dave the amp channels of course show what type is employed such as "FAS Brootalz" but if i modify that amp and name it something else and and save, when i return and boot-up w/ AXE-Edit and want to see my amp i named, it just says "FAS Brootalz" again and I usually don't remember my saved amp. I can look at the parameters and go back and forth until they are a match then I'm bug-eyed. hope that makes some sense?...
 
Guitarmandan said:
yes Dave the amp channels of course show what type is employed such as "FAS Brootalz" but if i modify that amp and name it something else and and save, when i return and boot-up w/ AXE-Edit and want to see my amp i named, it just says "FAS Brootalz" again and I usually don't remember my saved amp. I can look at the parameters and go back and forth until they are a match then I'm bug-eyed. hope that makes some sense?...
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I'm not sure what you're actually doing, but you can't modify the name of an amp sim.
 
A future IV??? (I know nothing)....For me, maybe gimme 3 amp & cab blocks instead of two... gimme 6 drive blocks (Yes, I want a dedicated one for a floor pedal board that has Fuzz, octaves, klon, clean boost and stack overdrives/distortions)... gimme at least 4 instances of every wet and dry effect block (we have some of that, but more is good!) ...and the on-board CPU to deal with a Texas sized pedal board of all that...(3 amps/cabs +6 drives+ plus 3 of the others and still be under 80%)....oh, and gimme a dedicated Tape Distortion block that is stereo in and out... I'm not that hard to please....hahaha!

I love the III more and more everyday. I can get it to do just about any guitar tone I've ever heard recorded...it's such a miracle box! #lifechanger
 
austinbuddy said:
A future IV??? (I know nothing)....For me, maybe gimme 3 amp & cab blocks instead of two... gimme 6 drive blocks (Yes, I want a dedicated one for a floor pedal board that has Fuzz, octaves, klon, clean boost and stack overdrives/distortions)... gimme at least 4 instances of every wet and dry effect block (we have some of that, but more is good!) ...and the on-board CPU to deal with a Texas sized pedal board of all that...(3 amps/cabs +6 drives+ plus 3 of the others and still be under 80%)....oh, and gimme a dedicated Tape Distortion block that is stereo in and out... I'm not that hard to please....hahaha!

I love the III more and more everyday. I can get it to do just about any guitar tone I've ever heard recorded...it's such a miracle box! #lifechanger
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Axe F(te)X(as) IV
 
rog said:
I just can't imagine what could be better, sonically.
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I’m fairly happy with the sound from my FM3, and of nothing ever changed from where things are right now, I wouldn’t mind at all (with them VC being one notable exception, this one had a long way to go to become great). And just mere computing power will make things even better as more blocks with higher settings can be accommodated.

But there are a ton of things that need attention and love as right now they are in mediocre to outright bad state:

1. The headphone amps on all Fractal devices need to have proper output impedance, and ideally a separate level control independent of output 1
2. MIDI capabilities in current gen are a downgrade from even previous generation in many respects, these devices can’t send MIDI over USB (FM3 doesn’t even have MIDI over USB capability - what the…, it’s 2025, come on), and of course having just 6 control switches to send MIDI is kinda ridiculous. And even where there is a possibility to control things over MIDI it’s quite limiting in that if you assign an external controller to a parameter you can’t change that parameter manually anymore. That’s like a blast from the last century stuff. So the whole MIDI interaction with external devices and software needs a real overhaul, IMO.
3. Footswitch layouts and views are great but also deserve a lot of improvements as some limitations are weird, like why in the world can I have a stand-in switch assigned to just one layout?? More than one function per switch would also be very useful, as well as assigning MIDI message send to any switch, etc.
4. A large color display is nice but it can certainly do more in a performance mode than just be an active scene indicator.
5. The whole setlist/song functionality needs a lot of enhancements. Why 6 song sections? Songs should have parameters like tempo, midi messages, they should be selectable via midi etc etc etc.


I’d definitely love to have an onboard mic preamp, although I know a lot of people object to this. But the rest is more or less hygiene type of stuff, just foundational functionality for a modern device, IMO.
 
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Personally i'm in a weird spot. Every sound and dsp upgrade is welcome but as i get older i need my guitar gear to be more old school. I prefer simple screens and buttons for tactile feel like a traditional amp. Guitar gear doesn't need to be able to order your groceries with AI or cloud computing. So i don't care about touch screens or wifi modules etc. The fm3 is perfect for my use case as it is.
 
Personally, I don’t need all the extra features you see on other devices, except maybe Bluetooth for a remote app.
I’m not interested in “touching” an amp on a screen the way some other units let you do.
What I’m really hoping for is a new Fractal device that pushes latency even lower so there’s absolutely no difference from a real amp. They’re already very close — just missing that last little bit. Fractal units are the most realistic out there.
having a NAM player with NAMs made by Fractal could be pretty fun too.
In an interview, the technician of a famous guitarist said that the day he goes fully digital, pigs will fly. I hope you’re the ones who will make it happen.
 
It’s not possible to have a zero latency digital device.

Also, if you need zero latency and don’t need the functionality of digital, with this type of priorities why do you use a modeler at all?
 
My opinion:
in a live stage environment any touch screen can be a weakness point (both capacitive and resistive technologies),
that they can reduce their reliability and durability.

I think they could be used only on the rackmount system, not in devices like FM9/FM3.
In addition the protective covers won't allow their use.

Better have a BT/WiFi connection to control the unit from the touch screen of a separate device (tablet or smartphone), mabybe the same used to control the IEM.
 
There's no such thing as zero latency. Even an analog electric chain is governed by the speed of electrical transmission, which isn't instant, even though it's several orders of magnitude faster than anything digital.
 
Haven't seen anyone mention boot time on Helix Stadium 58:16 yikes - my Axe III loads in a fraction of the that time - they would prob address that at some point buts that's a quite a bit of time
 
rsvette12 said:
boot time
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Does it matter? Why would it bother anyone?

Every time I see Dynacabs loading I sigh - I don’t use or need them, so I’m like, I wish I could delete them from here - but it’s a super minor, kind of an esthetic, little thing which doesn’t prevent me from using the device in any way.
 
vangrieg said:
BT or WiFi can be a weak point in a live gig, actually.
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1) It's easier to replace a tablet/smartphone than a FMx touch panel, even in nearly-real time.

2) They should be an additional means of controlling the unit, not the only one,
and the same applies to any touch screen.

In any case, a plexiglass screen protector, often used with FMx devices, would inhibit the use of the touch screen.

But it's just an opinion.
 
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