Axe FX III for modern church music without strymon pedals?

Question for the longtime axe fx users out there. I'm buying all new gear after spending some time away and I need some advice. I kept my guitars but need a new modeler and effects system. I don't want to have to buy any pedals though...

I understand the axe fx III's amp sims are the best out there, but honestly how capable are the effects? I'm trying to match the sound that church worship artists can produce (which typically involve a few thousand dollars of strymon pedals, octave generators, overdrive pedals etc...) For those familiar with church music, think hillsong or bethel music style.

For those that truly care, I can't post a link to a youtube video, but the video called
"King Of My Heart - Bethel Music // Electric Guitar Tutorial"
shows a typical worship guitar setup and what it sounds like. 17 second in, you can see his pedal board.

I understand one of the benefits of the fractal ecosystem is the firmware updates in the future to stay up to date and get the latest improvements. Because of this, I really feel the axe fx III is my best option. However, if I go with the III, I don't have money for pedals. The III also has more CPU power for thicker reverbs and more rich sounds as far as I have read, although I don't have first hand experience to know if I need this much.

Does anyone out there have examples of the axe fx II or III pulling this sound off flawlessly? I know axe fx can handle all the metal and prog rock tones I want, but honestly I'm not convinced that it can handle the church tone as well as the guys with pedal boards. Can anyone help convince me with some examples or experience? I'm slightly concerned that an axe fx III might not be a one stop shop for the sound I want here. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and if it only sounds 8/10 as good, then I might do the whole pedalboard route and go with an AX8 (however this doesn't sound as ideal to me as I don't like investing in something that will be out of date comparatively soon).

Thanks guys! This is my first post and I appreciate the assistance. I've read a good deal on the forums but haven't been able to grasp if this is a good fit for me.
 
Yes you can! But you must spend the time to learn it and don’t expect to find the perfect patch for the sounds you want. The tones are in there. I play in church with my AX8 as I am waiting for a foot controller for my III.

The III is beyond powerful and once the edit sw is out I planing on making some stuff for church. I usually play acoustic but get lead electric every now and then so I like to have things ready.
 
Yes, absolutely! There are a lot of users here that use Ax8, Axe II and now the III for worship. Some super specific stuff might be more difficult to understand because they are combinations of reverb and delays together, etc. However, there have been some new features added over the last year or so like diffusion inside the multi-delay blocks which makes things even easier today.

@fremen used to have some really cool presets. Honestly, I'd search for exactly what you are looking for more than likely it's already been posted or very close that might require you tweaking it.

I think the reality is you can probably create way more complex stuff on the Axe II and now the III than you can with a typical worship pedal board. /duck
 
I just watched the video on YouTube.



You can do that tone easily with the AX8.

As the previous poster said, for super specific stuff you may need/want a specific pedal. I use the AX8 weekly in worship with a lot of ambient tones. I don’t typically get too hung up on trying to sound exactly like the recording, and sometimes managing the CPU on the AX8 requires making choices like lowering the reverb quality. But I also have an AxeFX III and I can tell you that you will have absolutely no problems getting these types of tones with the III.
 
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I get a lot of mileage at church out of the ambient factory presets. Favorites for me are Rainbow Splash, Crystal Echoes, Velvet Sun, Ganymede, and Desert Breeze.
 
Question for the longtime axe fx users out there. I'm buying all new gear after spending some time away and I need some advice. I kept my guitars but need a new modeler and effects system. I don't want to have to buy any pedals though...

I understand the axe fx III's amp sims are the best out there, but honestly how capable are the effects? I'm trying to match the sound that church worship artists can produce (which typically involve a few thousand dollars of strymon pedals, octave generators, overdrive pedals etc...) For those familiar with church music, think hillsong or bethel music style.

For those that truly care, I can't post a link to a youtube video, but the video called
"King Of My Heart - Bethel Music // Electric Guitar Tutorial"
shows a typical worship guitar setup and what it sounds like. 17 second in, you can see his pedal board.

I understand one of the benefits of the fractal ecosystem is the firmware updates in the future to stay up to date and get the latest improvements. Because of this, I really feel the axe fx III is my best option. However, if I go with the III, I don't have money for pedals. The III also has more CPU power for thicker reverbs and more rich sounds as far as I have read, although I don't have first hand experience to know if I need this much.

Does anyone out there have examples of the axe fx II or III pulling this sound off flawlessly? I know axe fx can handle all the metal and prog rock tones I want, but honestly I'm not convinced that it can handle the church tone as well as the guys with pedal boards. Can anyone help convince me with some examples or experience? I'm slightly concerned that an axe fx III might not be a one stop shop for the sound I want here. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and if it only sounds 8/10 as good, then I might do the whole pedalboard route and go with an AX8 (however this doesn't sound as ideal to me as I don't like investing in something that will be out of date comparatively soon).

Thanks guys! This is my first post and I appreciate the assistance. I've read a good deal on the forums but haven't been able to grasp if this is a good fit for me.

Been using my Axe II since the mark II first came out for worship. I have wondered the same thing as you. About 6 months ago I decided the only way I could know and put it to rest was try it for myself. I went all in buying a great tube amp with drives and Strymon pedals. I still had my axe FX II at that point and then A/B tested it. After not much debate, over about a week period to not rush the process, I firmly decided to return all the gear and stick with the Axe FX. People are different so I cant speak for you but from someone who has wondered the same thing and tested it, I can confidently say I would recommend going the axe fx route.
 
Thanks everyone! You all have more than answered my question. I’m really impressed with the help fullness of this forum in general. Definitely a tight community and that alone almost solidified my purchase. Now I just have to wait till my name pops up on the waitlist. Luckily I signed up the first day at ~6PM so I shouldn’t have to wait too much longer. I’ve been waiting to join in this ecosystem until the III came out for years... haha. I almost lost hope.

Yesterday I did some further studying of famous worship lead guitarist pedalboard and totaled up some costs. Their pedal boards range from $3000-$5000 worth of gear at times and that doesn’t include the amps. This is more than double what I expected. Furthermore, the complexity of physically routing the pedal combinations is ridiculous. The effort of digitally moving around and tweaking blocks in the Axe FX makes so much more sense to me. People on this forum often say that dialing in the right sound takes a good amount of time but I can’t imagine it being more tiring than buying pedals, figuring out how to hook them in on the pedalboard, tweaking, rearranging everything... selling pedals you don’t actually like... etc.

I started my career with a boss gt8 which I always disliked and then a pod hd500 which only seemed to be able to make a few sounds I liked. I’m hopeful that the Axe FXIII will live up to the hype in my mind.

My favorite guitarists all use axe FX (plini, angel Vivaldi, polyphia) etc. The idea that I can go from their prog tone to playing rich textured cloud reverb swells at church with a single button switch seems too good to be true. It sounds like the added CPU power of the III will finally fully enable enable all possible genres to be covered without bogging down on thick effects. Maybe we are at a stage in technology where for the first time all guitar genre signature sounds can be created well by a single unit? This all seems too good to be true honestly.
 
I think there's like 12 delays available per preset, with 4 channels each. :p

Plus two of those are plex delays with up to 8 delay lines each - plus two reverbs - plus two quad voice pitch shifters - plus modulation and filters of every kind - plus multiple drives and on and on :)

Soon I think players will start asking if strymon, eventide etc... can be made to sound like FAS gear :)

If we get polyphonic pitch detection someday I don’t be there’s anything out there that couldn’t be approximated with the III! At least guitar wise imo
 
I play my Axe II at church all the time, in exactly the style of music you're referring to, and the Axe handles it all perfectly. Realize it'll take a little time to set up a couple of presets that you like, but the presets that come with the Axe are great, and if you use them as a guide to see how to add in shimmer effects, delays, verbs, and the like, then you'll be off and running in no time. Personally, I think it's the ideal tool for church playing. You won't go wrong with an Axe- and there are some good presets from some church players around here as well.

Edit: there are a bunch of Axe Fx II patches here- the III just came out, so it may take a little while to start seeing a lot of other user made patches. @jlynnb1 plays in church- might want to check out some of his posts- he very kindly uploaded his church patch for the AFII a little while back, and it sounds great.
 
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I would encourage finding your own sound with the Axe Fx and learn how to apply it in the context of worship songs. I play in a house of prayer and have for over a decade but the current trend is make guitars and keyboards sound alike. I love Hillsong, Bethel, John Mark McMillian, etc. but I also like the guitar playing of George Lynch, Steve Vai, etc.

But to everyone else who has chimed in, the axe fx is easily capable of creating ambiance, gorgeous delays, chorus effects, compressors, etc. without having to add lots of extra pedals.
 
I would encourage finding your own sound with the Axe Fx and learn how to apply it in the context of worship songs. I play in a house of prayer and have for over a decade but the current trend is make guitars and keyboards sound alike. I love Hillsong, Bethel, John Mark McMillian, etc. but I also like the guitar playing of George Lynch, Steve Vai, etc.

But to everyone else who has chimed in, the axe fx is easily capable of creating ambiance, gorgeous delays, chorus effects, compressors, etc. without having to add lots of extra pedals.


Bravo!! Mr.LukeCooper, bravo!! Well said, bro!! We're compelled to use the individual talent HE personally bestowed upon each of us!! My team prefers my own tone -- described as a smooth mahogany mix between Doug Aldrich and Randy Williams (Jeremy Camp's former guitarist). Worship music CAN get boring when everyone wants to sound like one or two guitarists!! :)
 
Yeah, been using my AxeFx in church for years. Have converted all but one of our team to Ax8's and am in the process of moving all of our campuses to Ax8's for backline. (I should be getting commission by this point, lol)

Here's a run-down I did of my template back in February...it's dated in some areas (drive section is different, as is the cab section) but it's my approach.

 
This is easy with the axefx, then when you consider it's lighter and simpler to set up with as little stage volume as you want? Scenes that handle multiple changes with one button? There's no better choice
 
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