How do you rate Axe-Fx 3 effects vs Eventide and other high end stuff?

I actually had 3 H9s on my board back in the day for running in different positions in the signal chain. After spending some time getting to know the Axe, I ended up selling all 3. Granted, I did not do any apples to apples comparisons but once I realized I could get the sounds in my head using the Axe (and with subjectively better quality), I knew I'd never use those H9s.
 
hard to compare, since many of the algorithms in other devices are combinations of fx. Most Fractal blocks are a singular effect and to attain the same things you'd have to combine a few.
 
I think you can achieve the same or better sounds with Fractal's effect blocks but if you're not familiar with how some of the Eventide algorithms work it might be a bit more work since the labelling on the Fractal versions is a bit more technical and sometimes less intuitive.

But a good example is the recently released Ultratap pedal by Eventide. As far as I can tell there's nothing there you can't do with the Megatap block in the Axe-FX, and it's got even finer control of some of the parameters.
 
angelworm said:
And to be clear: i don’t care if axe’s 2290 (for example) is not 100% identical to the real deal.
I’m just curious what the general consensus is.
Click to expand...
I think Bob Bradshaw said that the Axe's 2290 is identical cause he modeled Edge's Fractal units after his old 2290s cause he ran out of presets, and he said you couldn't tell the difference.
 
Budda said:
Run you reverb into a bitcrusher etc? May not be the same, but I bet some cool results could be had with mix levels and modifiers.
Click to expand...
I’ve tried, and tried a bunch of the plugins designed to emulate some of the vintage reverbs and nothing really gets the same sound and coloration.

they had some really quirky algorithms back on those “vintage” units, along with really cheap converters and such. Sounds “bad” in a real pleasing way, especially when your slightly clipping the inputs.

fantastic dark and gritty artificial sound that sounds killer on synth lines, gets that old Detroit sound as those guys were using those very units quite often.

wish I bought up more of that stuff back in the day when you could pick up unloved rack gear for like $25 at pawn shops. Now you can spend a few hundred on some of it.

I remember having an ensoniq dp4, probably sold it for $75 back when plugins seemed all the rage. Now those things fetch a grand....
 
I really wanted to go all Fractal in my guitar rig when I first bought the AX8. Not that I couldn't, but there are just certain flavors that I attribute to certain brands. There's a quality to my H9 effects that I might be able to get from my III if I used multiple blocks and feedback loops, but I'd rather just throw the H9 in a loop. Same with a Hologram Microcosm I just picked up. To me, older Digitech units have a vibe that I really enjoyed when I owned the 2112 and TSR-24, though they don't have the same power as most contemporary devices.

To me it's like different brands of chocolate, or beer. I know what Ghirardelli's tastes like compared to Hersheys. There's a place for both. Sometimes I want something like a Stone IPA, and sometimes I want Busch (I know its trash, but still...)
 
jamongrande said:
I really wanted to go all Fractal in my guitar rig when I first bought the AX8. Not that I couldn't, but there are just certain flavors that I attribute to certain brands. There's a quality to my H9 effects that I might be able to get from my III if I used multiple blocks and feedback loops, but I'd rather just throw the H9 in a loop. Same with a Hologram Microcosm I just picked up. To me, older Digitech units have a vibe that I really enjoyed when I owned the 2112 and TSR-24, though they don't have the same power as most contemporary devices.

To me it's like different brands of chocolate, or beer. I know what Ghirardelli's tastes like compared to Hersheys. There's a place for both. Sometimes I want something like a Stone IPA, and sometimes I want Busch (I know its trash, but still...)
Click to expand...

2112...lol
Man you ain't kidding. I absolutely loved my 2101 back in the day. Thing cost $1000 new in 1995....that's over 1700 in today's money. So in comparison the Axefx3 is an absolute steal with what you get. Funny how the axfx3 simulated tube sounds better than the 2101 did with two real Ax7s.
 
angelworm said:
Hi all, long time Fractal user here: it started in 2009 with Axe Standard, then 2, then 2 XL, then AX8.
For a few years i wandered around with Kemper and Line6.
Out of the blue an Axe 3 came info my life: boy, it’s a different universe.
Since i’ve never had stuff like Eclipse, 2290, HW3000, i Was wondering: how do you people rate reverb, delay, chorus effects from Fractal vs others ?
In these 3 weeks i managed to pull out amazing sounds, and i’m inclined to think that Axe 3 is at least on the same level
Curious to hear other opinions.
Leo
Click to expand...
I think Fractal can pretty much emulate any effect with proper tweaking. The only thing that IMO it can't quite get the full vibe of is the Eventide Micro Pitch algorithm or "detune." But it might can with in-depth tweaking that I don't understand how to do. Like if you hear EVH using that patch on his H3000 back in the 90s, it just sounds different compared to the Fractal, but then again he had a WDW setup. It does sound very close though, just not 100%.
 
rrhoads17 said:
I think Fractal can pretty much emulate any effect with proper tweaking. The only thing that IMO it can't quite get the full vibe of is the Eventide Micro Pitch algorithm or "detune." But it might can with in-depth tweaking that I don't understand how to do. Like if you hear EVH using that patch on his H3000 back in the 90s, it just sounds different compared to the Fractal, but then again he had a WDW setup. It does sound very close though, just not 100%.
Click to expand...

Have you checked out Andy Woods video on getting the EVH W/D/W sound? He pretty much nails it better than I've heard anyone do it.
 
angelworm said:
Hi all, long time Fractal user here: it started in 2009 with Axe Standard, then 2, then 2 XL, then AX8.
For a few years i wandered around with Kemper and Line6.
Out of the blue an Axe 3 came info my life: boy, it’s a different universe.
Since i’ve never had stuff like Eclipse, 2290, HW3000, i Was wondering: how do you people rate reverb, delay, chorus effects from Fractal vs others ?
In these 3 weeks i managed to pull out amazing sounds, and i’m inclined to think that Axe 3 is at least on the same level
Curious to hear other opinions.
Leo
Click to expand...
I think another unit the Axe has done an amazing job at is the MXR-117 Flanger. No other pedal or modeler can touch that EVH flanger sound, but the Axe is the closest I've heard, it's basically 99% there.
 
The only thing I feel I really miss is the Shimmer reverb algorithm by Strymon. Man, that reverb is awesome. There is a shimmer reverb in the Axe-FX III but it’s not even close, sorry.

All the rest is absolutely amazing, and anyway in a mix context or in a band context nobody in the audience would notice the difference.

I have no doubt the Fractal shimmer algorithm can improve, probably Cliff is focused on other stuff. He definitely has the ability to match the Strymon shimmer reverb if he wants to 🙂
 
Denny99 said:
The only thing I feel I really miss is the Shimmer reverb algorithm by Strymon. Man, that reverb is awesome. There is a shimmer reverb in the Axe-FX III but it’s not even close, sorry.

All the rest is absolutely amazing, and anyway in a mix context or in a band context nobody in the audience would notice the difference.

I have no doubt the Fractal shimmer algorithm can improve, probably Cliff is focused on other stuff. He definitely has the ability to match the Strymon shimmer reverb if he wants to 🙂
Click to expand...
Interesting. I feel like the shimmer sounds in the axe make most pedals sound like a toy in comparison. When I was still interested in pedals I remember the GFI specular reverb coming out, I thought the shimmer on that blew the strymon out of the water. Then I got the axe 3 and GAS for pedals pretty much vanished overnight.

The reason you may prefer the strymon so much is most likely hi cut. Their hi cut setting when engaging their shimmer is most likely a lower value than when you engage any of the fractal algos. Like a LOT lower.
 
Thanks so much for this thread! Before settling on the Axe3, I was looking to add some high-grade effects to my gear. Really wanted flagship-level stuff, so I first looked up used gear like H3000, 2290, etc., and couldn't believe what they were still going for (well, listing for, at least.) There was no way I'd drop that kind of coin for gear that old. Next it was H9, Strymon, etc., and I quickly realized that I'd end up shelling out a couple thou, and maybe have to return a pedal or 2 to figure out what I really wanted. That's when it just seemed best to get the Axe, and have it all (or at least "all" of everything I could ever need.)

I feel like I made the right choice.
 
I had the H8000 and have an H9000 now.

Eventide units are not user friendly. As great as they sound, the software is a bear to use.

if you want to design algorithms., i.e., new types of reverb, they are the bees knees. But I find it challenging to extract all that the device is capable of.

their plugins are really good and use the same algorithms. So, I'd suggest getting Blackhole and UltraReverb as plug-ins and look at the rest of them.
 
I have a lot of effects. Eclipse, h8000, most of the strymon pedals tc 2290, tc1210, tri-stereo chorus, echoplexes ,space echo, among other things (probably 50 or so pedals). The Axe-fx more than hangs with them. They are all different and have their sound and place, but the Axe-fx III just has it all in one unit and makes it all easy. I wind up just using it just about all the time.
 
javajunkie said:
I have a lot of effects. Eclipse, h8000, most of the strymon pedals tc 2290, tc1210, tri-stereo chorus, echoplexes ,space echo, among other things (probably 50 or so pedals). The Axe-fx more than hangs with them. They are all different and have their sound and place, but the Axe-fx III just has it all in one unit and makes it all easy. I wind up just using it just about all the time.
Click to expand...

Yes. Same reasons. 👍
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom