AXE-FX II vs FM 9

P

pwlankford1

New Member
What's the difference between the AXE-FX II and the FM 9. Is it worth upgrading to the FM 9. Looking at simplification, better sounds and less to carry around. Recording and some light gigs. Thoughts on Helix or others are welcome. Thank you
 
I keep mine as a back up because is a top Level unit to worlk with but the cignus and Dyna-Cab (fm3 owner) is another planet so i guess the fm9 must be superior and you will feel and “hear” the diference. And you wil hace al the future upgrades
 
I just got a call from a customer. He is totally thrilled with his FM9.
He said: "Now I can finally sink my Helix in the river Rhine".
I hope he doesn't mean that literally.
 
I moved to FM9 from an AXE FX IIXL+. The amp models and overall tones are WAY better. I was underwhelmed moving from real amps to the AXE II live, but am over the moon with the FM9. There are far more flavors of effects available for the FM9, more (and better IMO) cab IRs. It's a completely new platform.
 
As someone who used an Axe II for years and recorded two albums with it, and now uses an FM9 and is currently recording an album with it, I think I can speak with some degree of credibility on this. The Axe II sounded great, but having now spent some time with the FM9 I'd say it is a significant upgrade in tone - I primarily use Fender and Marshalls for clean to fairly overdriven blues/funk/rock/twang tones. If you are just playing live, maybe it's not AS big a deal in that context, but especially if you are recording, it's a really significant upgrade. I can get tones I've been chasing for years out of the FM9 that I simply couldn't completely nail out of the AXE II. Spend some time with it and it really is "WOW". Also, I don't know if they've included all the factory IRs from the latest gen to the older units, but there are some major improvements there as well.

Aside from the sound - for live it is much less to carry as you mentioned, and the flexibility of the footswitch assigning and routing is incredible. They did some really smart things that are incredibly handy for those of us slugging it out in the gigging trenches. The I/O routing is enough for pretty much any live situation too, as far as providing separate level controls/signals to FOH vs. onstage monitors etc. It's also WAY easier to use the front panel controls on the FM9 than the Axe II! Also more storage space for user IRs I believe, which you can use up pretty quickly!

So yeah, I would 100% make the switch - well I did, but I would again :p

The major drawback I've found is it sounds so damn good I often just start playing and burn through a couple hours when I should have been writing or recording or booking gigs! So from that perspective, Fractal is sabotaging my career :tearsofjoy:
 
Many nights I get stuck on a factory preset, while hoping to audition a bunch of them.
Really enjoying the FM3, FM9T & Axe3T
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom