Sleestak
Power User
I've been an Fractal user for many years, starting with an AxeFX II + MFC 101, then upgraded to the AxeFX III, and I also have an AX8. Every year during the holidays, I back up all my presets, then DELETE them from the AxeFX, and start completely anew, rebuilding every patch from the ground up. I do this because I am always learning new ways to use the AxeFX, and more importantly, with the firmware updates that occur throughout the year, it's almost guaranteed that some amp / cab combination has been sprinkled with magic Fractal dust, and would be a better choice for a given preset.
About a week ago I started this process, and have finished rebuilding the first 50 of my presets. One of my bands is a David Bowie tribute, and for that setting, I use one preset for each song. I need to recreate the idiosyncratic tones (and playing styles) of a wide variety of players, across a large catalog of material. It's easiest for me to organize the songs individually, so that I can adjust the preset as necessary. Then of course, I have to volume-level them (WISH LIST ITEM: auto-level function on the output, to adjust presets while editing).
With FW 11, my presets sound better than ever. I think the amps sound tighter, and more responsive than ever. It's interesting that I am making fewer adjustments to the amp tone stacks, or to the advanced parameters; this tells me that the amps are behaving in a nearly ideal voice at their default setting. Also, the amps are much more dimensional, and require a lot less adjustment in the mic placement.
Today I was happily noodling around on a few of my new presets, and my neighbor (also a guitarist) popped over to share a holiday beer. He played on several amp models in FW11 and was speechless. He's a die-hard tube guy (his home theater uses tube amps), and he couldn't believe what he was hearing was coming out of the black box on my desk. He's now convinced I am a witch. So I have that going for me. Which is nice.
Seriously. as a guitarist, I have never been more pleased with my tone. The AxeFX III is the best gear purchase of my career. It just keeps getting more amazing with every FW release, and inspires me to be a better player. A big tip-o-the-fez to the Fractal crew for their fine work!
About a week ago I started this process, and have finished rebuilding the first 50 of my presets. One of my bands is a David Bowie tribute, and for that setting, I use one preset for each song. I need to recreate the idiosyncratic tones (and playing styles) of a wide variety of players, across a large catalog of material. It's easiest for me to organize the songs individually, so that I can adjust the preset as necessary. Then of course, I have to volume-level them (WISH LIST ITEM: auto-level function on the output, to adjust presets while editing).
With FW 11, my presets sound better than ever. I think the amps sound tighter, and more responsive than ever. It's interesting that I am making fewer adjustments to the amp tone stacks, or to the advanced parameters; this tells me that the amps are behaving in a nearly ideal voice at their default setting. Also, the amps are much more dimensional, and require a lot less adjustment in the mic placement.
Today I was happily noodling around on a few of my new presets, and my neighbor (also a guitarist) popped over to share a holiday beer. He played on several amp models in FW11 and was speechless. He's a die-hard tube guy (his home theater uses tube amps), and he couldn't believe what he was hearing was coming out of the black box on my desk. He's now convinced I am a witch. So I have that going for me. Which is nice.
Seriously. as a guitarist, I have never been more pleased with my tone. The AxeFX III is the best gear purchase of my career. It just keeps getting more amazing with every FW release, and inspires me to be a better player. A big tip-o-the-fez to the Fractal crew for their fine work!
I replaced a pair of mid-line reference monitors with these during a studio upgrade earlier in the year. They Focal monitors are incredible, but they take 100+ hours of break-in to really achieve their ultimate voicing. Most manufacturers recommend playing a variety of music through them at normal listening level for a few days. I played the entirety of the Wagner Ring Cycle (18 hours), then set my iTunes library on shuffle for about five days...