SOAWM
Inspired
For the last 8 years, I have been using an Axe-FX II. After a while, mostly because I found it too cumbersome to constantly move my rack between my home, our rehearsal place and shows, I went back to playing live with tube amps (VHT Ultra Lead and pedalboard). As a guitar player, I am mostly focused on genres as post-metal, atmospheric black metal and other kinds of heavy music (LINK to my band as reference)
Since the whole covid-19 crisis made it impossible to tour and rehearse, I have started to school myself on recording, mixing and mastering. The past few months have been really fun in that regard. Currently, I am working on preproductions for my band and this sparked my interest in upgrading to the Axe-FX III to easily re-amp in the mix over USB and hopefully use these tools to record the guitars for our future releases ourselves.
To be honest, I still feel that I have only scratched the surface of the Axe-FX II and notice that I am not the kind of person that has the knowledge nor the ear for deep-diving into the advanced settings and recreating the sounds I hear inside my head or on albums of bands I enjoy. I often witness myself spending more time adjusting settings (both in the FXII and in my DAW) and this is decremental to my own creativity.
So, I am curious whether upgrading to the Axe-FX III (with the current firmware) would feel as a major step up in terms of basic amp sounds? On a technical level, the I/O flexibility to re-amp in the mix over USB and the possibility to connect two guitars at once (for jamming and recording with other band members) sound like things I would really enjoy.
To be transparant, I have also started to contemplate whether it would be a better option to keep the Axe-FX II and add a (powered) Kemper to my toolbox. The Kemper is less about tweaking and more about finding the right profile, which will possibly help me to find mix-ready tones more easily. This option would also provide me with a lightweight alternative to my current live rig for those instances when it is impossible to bring our full backline on tour. If I buy the Axe-Fx III it would remain in my home studio.
So, I am really curious about your perspective on this? I have read countless threads in multiple message boards, but most of the comparisons between the II and III seem to be from a while ago.
Thanks and sorry for writing half a novel here...
Didier
Since the whole covid-19 crisis made it impossible to tour and rehearse, I have started to school myself on recording, mixing and mastering. The past few months have been really fun in that regard. Currently, I am working on preproductions for my band and this sparked my interest in upgrading to the Axe-FX III to easily re-amp in the mix over USB and hopefully use these tools to record the guitars for our future releases ourselves.
To be honest, I still feel that I have only scratched the surface of the Axe-FX II and notice that I am not the kind of person that has the knowledge nor the ear for deep-diving into the advanced settings and recreating the sounds I hear inside my head or on albums of bands I enjoy. I often witness myself spending more time adjusting settings (both in the FXII and in my DAW) and this is decremental to my own creativity.
So, I am curious whether upgrading to the Axe-FX III (with the current firmware) would feel as a major step up in terms of basic amp sounds? On a technical level, the I/O flexibility to re-amp in the mix over USB and the possibility to connect two guitars at once (for jamming and recording with other band members) sound like things I would really enjoy.
To be transparant, I have also started to contemplate whether it would be a better option to keep the Axe-FX II and add a (powered) Kemper to my toolbox. The Kemper is less about tweaking and more about finding the right profile, which will possibly help me to find mix-ready tones more easily. This option would also provide me with a lightweight alternative to my current live rig for those instances when it is impossible to bring our full backline on tour. If I buy the Axe-Fx III it would remain in my home studio.
So, I am really curious about your perspective on this? I have read countless threads in multiple message boards, but most of the comparisons between the II and III seem to be from a while ago.
Thanks and sorry for writing half a novel here...
Didier