AXE-FX III Unanticipated Benefits

wtfoley3

wtfoley3

Member
New Fractal user since December arrival of my AF3 and loving it, of course. Major upgrade from my old Line 6 Vetta rig, which was great in the day but with which I had grown "ear tired". The AXE has provided many delights but two particularly unexpected. Firstly, I'm playing and practicing LOTS now! I find that I just love dialing up a tone and playing ANYTHING because it just sounds so good. While I'm leaning toward some "favorite" presets as we all do, I'm finding that many nights, I just pick something new/different and play that for an hour or so, which usually leads me to broader horizons. Second benefit is my guitars. I have a 1997 Strat Ultra for which I never really liked the Lace pickups so I upgraded to Dimarzios and still never loved it. I also bought an Eric Johnson signature Strat years ago that just sounded dead through my Line 6 Vetta. Through the AXE-FX, these have become two of my favorite guitars to play - dial in a nice Fender Combo, Dumble or even Marshall and they really chime! Anyway, just more praise for Cliff and his great team at Fractal for their great work. Inspirational in so many ways, including a couple I hadn't anticipated. Cheers and Rock on!
 
Welcome! There are a lot of benefits to an Axe rig, some of which you've already mentioned- and I'm sure that you'll find many other advantages of having everything in just one box- for me, I've become a more creative player with effects and setups, as I'm no longer restricted by what pedals and amps I have on hand. There's unlimited potential for creativity here!
 
Welcome! The Axe-Fx is an INSPIRING piece of gear, and you've touched on something I find all the time. There are so many side-benefits that are well beyond the hardware itself. It's a great creative platform - and community as well.
 
What finally made me jump from the afx2 to a 3 is actually the io section.

I can have a dedicated stereo line used in a send/return from my interface (when at home) and use the fx on my synths.

Could do that in mono on the 2, but had to re cable every time. The 3 means I can just leave it plummed in. World class fx... the reverb and modulations on synths are mind blowing.
 
I think I mirror you in that I’ll often just try a random amp out I‘ve had no interest in to see where it goes. Every guitar/amp makes me play a little differently and that almost always leads to something interesting or creative happening. That’s a huge benefit. I do the same thing with Simeon’s synth presets when I’m not feeling as inspired; a cool synth sound from a guitar or one of the VST’s I have is always good to make me want to write.

I definitely didn’t intend on using Axe-Edit like I do currently and it’s been a huge benefit- I record DI’s for all my tracks, when it’s time to mix, I’ll play the track while a DI is routed into the AxeFX and I’ll tweak the preset in Axe-Edit until it‘s fitting perfectly in the song. I no longer EQ anything in post for guitars or bass.

I’ve been running other instruments through it, vocals, keys and drums, just to see if I can find something different/interesting to layer in a mix. I put a bunch of cymbals through some huge reverbs, recorded that, then reversed the track and lined it up with the rest of the drum kit so it was all in time. Old trick, but I don’t hear many people doing stuff like that these days and while I could have done it just as easily with plugins, it was a bit more fun this way.

I’m always trying to get the prefect distorted organ and before I had the AxeFX, I’d rely on Logic’s Amps and Pedalboard for the distortion. No more of that! I treat it the same way I treat a guitar DI.

I definitely didn’t think I’d be using it as much for getting sounds with other instruments, nor did I think it’d be that handy in the mixing phase.
 
I think people forget - or were never aware, that the original concept Cliff had was as a pure FX processor... Something the quality of eventides but much easier to program (cos theys a bitch at times).

When the amp sims were added (before the release of the standard of course) - it was less about getting exact amp models and more about giving you the deep edit tools to create your own - using some real amp modells to get you in the right starting place. Bias voltages, swapping tune types, mixing tone stacks etc.

The FX and the "virtual amp modding" is what brought me to Fractal back in 2008. it has kind of evolved as the AFX has become more mainstream, and the processing power and storage has allowed many many amps and cabs BUT thats not where it started. Going back to "using the tool to create your won sound" is very much where I still live.
 
I’m 10 years, and six different FAS products, in and it’s still the gift that keeps on giving. I was blown away by the Axe Fx when I first got it; really took a while to wrap my head around everything it could do, and do well. Every incarnation has been a leap past what was already the best.

But, in a decade’s worth of experience now, what I’ve most come to appreciate is the constant support and upgrades after the sale. Fractal Audio is in a class of their own on that point and everything they offer a user (including this forum!) completes the experience in a way you simply won’t find anywhere else.

Quality comes from quality, and it lives here.
 
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