10 years with Fractal Audio

nikk©

nikk©

Inspired
In 2009, a friend told me about Fractal Audio, He had bought a multi-effects amp simulator that he loved, which piqued my curiosity…

in February 2015, I took the plunge and bought an Axe-Fx II XL!
And I loved it! Perfect for playing with headphones, recording in Logic, or playing through a PA system!

I quickly got lost in the impressive number of parameters on this machine, the impulse responses and everything else, to the point of forgetting to play!…
Which didn't exactly help me become a better guitarist at first. But I learned a lot about sound techniques, specific to guitar in the studio and live.

Then, in 2019, I bought the Axe-Fx III, this incredible tool for guitar/bass...and more... music! Then an Axe-Fx III Mark II in 2021, and an FC12 Mark II in April 2025…
I finally sold my old Marshall JMP 2203 and its cabinet !!

And now, I just play guitar, pure and simple, with pleasure, with a killer great sound :)

Thank you Mr. Chase and the entire Fractal team!

Merry Christmas to you All!
 
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Nice to hear others, that are as enthusiastic about all this.

I´ve got my first FAS gear in oct 2016.
Back in those days, i was gigging with my Boogie mkv, dual rectifier and my little Engl Ironball.
I was always drawn to multi fx units. In the 90s, when i started playing guitar, i found a used Korg A4. I loved all the possibilities back then. For me it was a whole new world of tone opening up. The A4 broke down on me and i got the ax30g.
Around that time, i got my first real tube amp. It was a Hughes&Kettner Triamp Stack. Back then, the looks of that amp impressed me more than the tone. Back then, the Digitech Stuff was getting great and i ended up buying a Digitech RP14d, since i couldn´t afford a 2112. You know, all my money went into the Triamp. I ended up playing the rp14d right into my Triamps poweramp.
Then, finally, i got myself a Digitech 2112, a Marshall 9200, a few little rack gadgets and a Marshall 412. I loved that rig, even though, it was complicated to set up. That what i played for a whole while.
In the meantime, Line 6 was getting big and i got myself a pod2 with its floorboard. That was kind of the start of having a unit, that sounded fine at home, at practice, live and so on. Back then, it sounded great to me. I loved having a consistent tone.
Then i got rid of all the rack stuff and got myself a peavey 6505+ and later a Mesa cab. The pod remained as my "home setup". Later the plugin thing got big and i strated using plugins like pod farm and bias fx at home and for recording.
In my band at the time, i was playing straight up metal. no BS, just wall of sound from the peavey. There was no need for additional stuff.
Then the metal thing ended and i got back into more prog stuff and switched amps again. This time, it was a mkv, a tc electronics rack unit for fx, a few single pedals like compressor, ts9, a voodoo lab gsx switcher and floorboard. I loved the boogie, but hated, that the tc electronics was sucking so much tone. Plus, programming everything all together was a total pain in the behind! I got rid of the "rack stuff" and used single pedals.It was ok to use, sounded great but something was missing. I was looking for a all in one unit, that would switch my amps channels, do nice fx and so on. I was actually eyeballing the tc electronic g system, but something kept me from pulling the trigger.
I was aware of the Axe Fx at the time, but didn´t wanna spend that kind of money. Then the FAS FX8 and AX8 came out. I was actually going to buy the FX8, because i wanted to stay with my amps. In oct 2016 i did buy the Ax8 and a little voodoo lab switcher since the Ax8 couldnt switch my Boggies channels. The idea about getting the Ax8 instead of the Fx8 was to have backup, if my amp craps out. The mkv gave me lots of trouble at first.
When the Ax8 finally came, i checked out the amps in it and had a "oh...ok!" moment. For the first months i was quite hesitant to rely only on the Ax8, but i did play a few gigs with it and it went great.
My amps left my house less and less. I think, it was 2017, we had a gig on a friday and saturday..... I used to have a BMW Z4 Coupe. That thing could not haul a stack of course! :D We also had a. little waggon back then. Friday the waggon was availible, so i played my rectifier stack on saturday my dad needed the waggon so i ended up driving my Z4 with my Ax8 to the gig.
All i´m trying to say is, i had to gigs back to back. One with a real recto, one with the FAS recto and i was blown away, that the feeling was identical. that was the last time, i played that amp live. It ended up staying coverd in my house. In the meantime, i´ve sold all the other amps. Then the Axe Fx3 came out, i sold my recto stack, got an Axe Fx3, FC12 and was happy. Later Fm3 blablabla

Long story short...i am very thankful to be able to have such a piece of equipment. Yes, i can really go down the rabbit hole with settings, but i love doing that too.
But i can also just bring up my main preset and just play and don´t worry about anything. Its been consistent, stress free, handy, portable and just awesome sounding....always.

Thx Cliff and the whole FAS Team to make such a product!!! I do believe, that you know, that lots of us are very very very appreciateing it.
 
Fretboard-Racer said:
Nice to hear others, that are as enthusiastic about all this.

I´ve got my first FAS gear in oct 2016.
Back in those days, i was gigging with my Boogie mkv, dual rectifier and my little Engl Ironball.
I was always drawn to multi fx units. In the 90s, when i started playing guitar, i found a used Korg A4. I loved all the possibilities back then. For me it was a whole new world of tone opening up. The A4 broke down on me and i got the ax30g.
Around that time, i got my first real tube amp. It was a Hughes&Kettner Triamp Stack. Back then, the looks of that amp impressed me more than the tone. Back then, the Digitech Stuff was getting great and i ended up buying a Digitech RP14d, since i couldn´t afford a 2112. You know, all my money went into the Triamp. I ended up playing the rp14d right into my Triamps poweramp.
Then, finally, i got myself a Digitech 2112, a Marshall 9200, a few little rack gadgets and a Marshall 412. I loved that rig, even though, it was complicated to set up. That what i played for a whole while.
In the meantime, Line 6 was getting big and i got myself a pod2 with its floorboard. That was kind of the start of having a unit, that sounded fine at home, at practice, live and so on. Back then, it sounded great to me. I loved having a consistent tone.
Then i got rid of all the rack stuff and got myself a peavey 6505+ and later a Mesa cab. The pod remained as my "home setup". Later the plugin thing got big and i strated using plugins like pod farm and bias fx at home and for recording.
In my band at the time, i was playing straight up metal. no BS, just wall of sound from the peavey. There was no need for additional stuff.
Then the metal thing ended and i got back into more prog stuff and switched amps again. This time, it was a mkv, a tc electronics rack unit for fx, a few single pedals like compressor, ts9, a voodoo lab gsx switcher and floorboard. I loved the boogie, but hated, that the tc electronics was sucking so much tone. Plus, programming everything all together was a total pain in the behind! I got rid of the "rack stuff" and used single pedals.It was ok to use, sounded great but something was missing. I was looking for a all in one unit, that would switch my amps channels, do nice fx and so on. I was actually eyeballing the tc electronic g system, but something kept me from pulling the trigger.
I was aware of the Axe Fx at the time, but didn´t wanna spend that kind of money. Then the FAS FX8 and AX8 came out. I was actually going to buy the FX8, because i wanted to stay with my amps. In oct 2016 i did buy the Ax8 and a little voodoo lab switcher since the Ax8 couldnt switch my Boggies channels. The idea about getting the Ax8 instead of the Fx8 was to have backup, if my amp craps out. The mkv gave me lots of trouble at first.
When the Ax8 finally came, i checked out the amps in it and had a "oh...ok!" moment. For the first months i was quite hesitant to rely only on the Ax8, but i did play a few gigs with it and it went great.
My amps left my house less and less. I think, it was 2017, we had a gig on a friday and saturday..... I used to have a BMW Z4 Coupe. That thing could not haul a stack of course! :D We also had a. little waggon back then. Friday the waggon was availible, so i played my rectifier stack on saturday my dad needed the waggon so i ended up driving my Z4 with my Ax8 to the gig.
All i´m trying to say is, i had to gigs back to back. One with a real recto, one with the FAS recto and i was blown away, that the feeling was identical. that was the last time, i played that amp live. It ended up staying coverd in my house. In the meantime, i´ve sold all the other amps. Then the Axe Fx3 came out, i sold my recto stack, got an Axe Fx3, FC12 and was happy. Later Fm3 blablabla

Long story short...i am very thankful to be able to have such a piece of equipment. Yes, i can really go down the rabbit hole with settings, but i love doing that too.
But i can also just bring up my main preset and just play and don´t worry about anything. Its been consistent, stress free, handy, portable and just awesome sounding....always.

Thx Cliff and the whole FAS Team to make such a product!!! I do believe, that you know, that lots of us are very very very appreciateing it.
Click to expand...
Hey! Bro..
I feel the same way!
I 've also tried the Digitech 2101studio tube, TC G system, the G Force, with pedals and all that, and it was very good too, but nothing compares to the Fractal systems!

In the end, the only thing that really matters, is motivation, the enjoyment we put into music. I've never had as many song ideas as when I only had a 4-track Fostex cassette recorder, and now that I have over 100 with Logic Pro X, all the equipment I dreamed of back then, it seems much less impressive in the end...

The equipment is certainly not the purpose of the journey; the music is the only worthwhile goal, and we can all achieve it, and together, it's much better.

Happy Christmas season 8)
 
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I'm on 11 years now. This was my first unit, my princess was 5.

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Here since Sept 2008. Started with Ultra, then AX8. Upgraded to III when it came out, then bought FM9. Also, bought the VP4 for my analog rig. I know when Fractal releases a product that it’s gonna be top tier no question!
 
2010! So happy I talked myself into the ultra. Taught me a lot about fx in general and MIDI too. It was fun back then too because people were so curious what fractal was. Now they are exponentially more known and out there of course.
 
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