Axe-Fx IV release estimate?

understood but it is a business and businesses have timelines. Do those timelines change? Absolutely, but if you don't think Cliff had a number of years in mind for the AXEIII then you are crazy OR he is bad at business. Just saying...I don't know all the models and the dates they were released so I figured id ask here to see if anyone has these time lines written and maybe we could estimate.

The only one crazy in this thread is you. Just sayin...
 
I know this is a loaded question that we just may not know but has there been any pattern to how often Fractal is releasing new units? I want to invest into a Fractal but do not want to buy something which will be replaced in a year. I know FM3 was just announced so likely that isn't getting replaced anytime soon but my real interest lies in the full AXE-FX units in this case the III...when do we guestimate the IV will come? Thanks!

I get both sides of this argument and just to be sure I understand yours.

It sounds like you are saying that jumping into a product like this at the end or close to the end of lifecycle means that you have the least opportunity to influence changes made to it as support would likely be dropped or deprioritised. That deprioritisation increases the risk of the purchase as it shortens its support life, it also immediately puts a massive hole in its resale value. It also detracts from it if you are looking to profit off its "newness" i.e. if you are looking to make videos on the internet about it.

All of these things can pretty much be evaluated as some sort of financial preoccupation. There is nothing wrong with that but I think all the people that find this contentious are thinking of it in the way I probably feel about it too. i.e. that it's a tool.

And in that spirit the value of a tool is entirely utilitarian. It's in how well it functions and continues to function. If the axe fx 3 does all or more than you currently need or are likely to ever need. Then excusing a firmware update changing that or it breaking ... that isn't going to change. At least not with regards to the units competence ... only your needs.

i.e. It will always do at least what it does at the time of purchase. That much is a constant and trying to evaluate future unknowns and mediate your current purchases in order to satisfy them is tantamount to madness.

I suggest maybe trying to think of it like a hammer instead of like a financial investment. When you go to buy a hammer you check that it's got a comfortable grip, that it's made well, you swing it about and check that it has the features you need i.e. a claw for removing nails or a peen for rounding metal, and then you buy it.

You don't agonise about it as an investment even if it technically is one, because you know that it will be good for that job for as long as that job exists.
 
I don't foresee a new unit for at least a few more years. Heck it's only over a year old. This industry is not like high-volume consumer products. We don't release new versions every year or two.
It was great planning to put so much headroom in the III. Congrats.
 
I suggest maybe trying to think of it like a hammer instead of like a financial investment. When you go to buy a hammer you check that it's got a comfortable grip, that it's made well, you swing it about and check that it has the features you need i.e. a claw for removing nails or a peen for rounding metal, and then you buy it.

You don't agonise about it as an investment even if it technically is one, because you know that it will be good for that job for as long as that job exists.
Perhaps it helps to think of all of those guitars and amps built in the late 50s and 60s. The '59 Les Paul was not obsoleted by the PRS was it? Yes, there are new products today that have new capabilities and features, but the old ones still do what they were intended to do, and many of them do it just as well as a newer one.
 
wow these answers baffle me. Are none of you part of a business? Where I work, when we release new products we always guestimate at a lifecycle. Pretty much all businesses do this and im 100% certain Cliff at fractal does the same. Often you can look at their release history to get a guestimate. Do things change...YES, but it doesn't hurt to be informed before buying. Just doing my homework. I have a Helix and it is serving me ok...and if there was a likely hood the AXE IV would come out this year then id hold off but if it is very unlikely then im jumping in.
You are getting these answers because:

A) we've been through this before and you could have found the historical timeline and prior discussions with a simple search,
2) you'll never get the answer you really want 'cuz it's a well kept secret
.D) the III is relatively new and it's awesome, buy one already!!!
 
wow these answers baffle me. Are none of you part of a business? Where I work, when we release new products we always guestimate at a lifecycle. Pretty much all businesses do this and im 100% certain Cliff at fractal does the same. Often you can look at their release history to get a guestimate. Do things change...YES, but it doesn't hurt to be informed before buying. Just doing my homework. I have a Helix and it is serving me ok...and if there was a likely hood the AXE IV would come out this year then id hold off but if it is very unlikely then im jumping in.

That is called Planned Obsolescence. That is unethical, immoral, unsustainable, and a threat to the environment. Unfortunately, it is the current trend in most business. Fractal Audio is an exception. If you know a little bit about the story of Cliff Chase, you will learn that he is doing this because he loves to design these toys for the guitar, not as a greedy business. That is corroborated by the abundance of free firmware updates that are not just for correcting bugs, but for bringing improvements and new features to the current product. They only release a new product when they have really exhausted the possibilities of the hardware. They put everything they got into the current product, and the new releases of the same product (e.g.: Axe-FX III Mark II) are small improvements in the production, probably introduced thanks to the price drop of the memory, displays and other components.

If they were greedy, the Axe-FX 3 Mark II would have been named Axe-FX 4, and the Axe-FX 3 would already be obsolete and non-compatible with future firmware releases.
 
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It will be released 2 weeks after OP buys version III. :p Personally, I hope AxeFX III sticks around for a very long time. There really isn't any viable competition for it anyway. And in the unlikely event a competitor does arise, that'd be a good time to release AxeFX IV.
 
I wish the next Axe-Fx is a VST plug-in

That is all.
Why?

I can think of about a dozen reasons that the current hardware platform is a great product, and about a dozen reasons that I would not ever use a PC-based product in a performance situation (many of these coming from real-world experience).
 
That is called Planned Obsolescence. That is unethical, immoral, unsustainable, and a threat to the environment. Unfortunately, it is the current trend in most business. Fractal Audio is an exception. If you know a little bit about the story of Cliff Chase, you will learn that he is doing this because he loves to design these toys for the guitar, not as a greedy business. That is corroborated by the abundance of free firmware updates that are not just for correcting bugs, but for bringing improvements and new features to the current product. They only release a new product when they have really exhausted the possibilities of the hardware. They put everything they got into the current product, and the new releases of the same product (e.g.: Axe-FX III Mark II) are small improvements in the production, probably introduced thanks to the price drop of the memory, displays and other components.

If they were greedy, the Axe-FX 3 Mark II would have been named Axe-FX 4, and the Axe-FX 3 would already be obsolete and non-compatible with future firmware releases.
I hate to rain on your parade but the person you’re providing all of this wisdom to hasn‘t been on the forum since September 2019. :p

Not that it isn’t all true...
 
Wondering when the next Axe-FX is coming out is why Glenn Fricker finds it so easy to rage bait Axe-Fx owners. Because once the next best thing comes along our expemsive shiny black boxes become obsolete and lose value. Like all obsolete technology does, especially computers. Whereas the tube amp maintains and might even grow in value. Depending on the model and whichever famous guitar player used them for his signature sound of course. Or if they were made in China or not. And not discontinued and replaced by a better voiced amp with better features.

What if they already have the Ax-Fx XX and they release a slightly less dumbed down version every few years:flushed:

An Axe FX-XX is maybe too much, but I wouldn't be surprised if they have a prototype IV at the ready. And I dare say the chips being discontinued that were in the II was probably the main reason the III got released. If those chips were still in production I doubt the III would have been released. There is after all still no competitor for the II. Helix doesn't come close, Line 6 seems content to want to focus on the lower end of the market, and Kemper does its own different thing. There was really no pressing reason to release the III other those chips going out of production. And maybe Cliff wanting to do something else for a change.
 
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