Axe III - Kemper - Tone Master Pro- Synergy - Real Amps-OX

[Hi_Anxiety]

Having some fun today comparing the new Fender unit with my other stuff. I'm not by any means an authority so take my opinion for what it's worth but I do like new technology and chasing tone. It is fun to get to compare each side by side. I would still pick the fractal Axe FX III over any of the options as I think it is the best on the market which is not a surprise to anyone. For me the routing options, huge array of amps/cabs and the quality of effects make it an easy choice for me. I have some cool old amps that I run through an OX or Captor X with some of my favorite pedals that kind of set the benchmark for how I compare. I have a 1992 Matchless C-30 that I love and it is a really good example of that sound. A couple Friedman's, mesa Triaxis through a 2:90, a Mesa Studio Preamp a Bad Cat Black. Cat 30, and believe it or not a really good JCM2000 DSL 100 with a mercury magnetics upgrade and the later version PCB that I think sounds great. Anyway, for those interested, the new Fender tone master is worth checking out. I found it significant that an iconic amp maker and huge company saw how this market was going and entered like they did. My take is:
1. The clean versions of their own amps really do sound good. From the models I have had over the years it feels and sounds like their amps.
2. Licensed 5150 sounds great
3. Other generic offerings like Vox, Marshall and Mesa don't sound great to me. fizzy and muffled based on how the settings are adjusted.
4. Computer interface is fast and straight forward but routing options and amps/cabs are very limited at the moment.
5. Effects are not on par with Fractal or even Kemper at this point.

For my comparison I was playing a 68 Landau custom shop today so was feeling a neck pickup burning room type sound. I have some presets I got from John, one of the members here, that sound great to me on the Axe. I was able to get really close on a Two Rock snapshot on the Kemper and I thought it was very usable. The fender tone master amp sim that I chose was close but the cab offerings on the base unit and the quality of the modeled drives, reverbs. delays, etc are not in the same realm in my opinion. In fairness, I believe Fender will update with additional features as time goes on and the unit will get better but I don't see them targeting the same customer base as Fractal. The products when compared don't really overlap that much. If it were the only modeler I had I would put a loop of of actual pedals in front of the amp and time based effects after the cab and only use the switching and amp models from what I have heard the last couple of days having the unit. Hope this helps someone looking.

 

[moshwitz]

Nice rig.
I'll take that Carvin Quad-X please.....lol I kinda miss mine,, I had the very first unit to go out to the public, should have never sold it
MOSHON
DAVE

 

[Hi_Anxiety]

Nice rig.
I'll take that Carvin Quad-X please.....lol I kinda miss mine,, I had the very first unit to go out to the public, should have never sold it
MOSHON
DAVE

It really does sound good I think. I should just practice more and stop tone chasing. It's nerdville gear syndrome way too much in my world. I did just land a really nice TC1210. Those are getting hard to find.

 

[dean701]

I have been watching from a far. Ola said the same thing about the high gain amps. As well, the amount of blocks seems limited as per a John Cordy video. He maxed out the cpu quite easily. Regardless, it's nice to see everyone taking a kick at the can. It only pushes everyone else to work harder. Eventually, there will be no discernible differences.

 

[Jarick]

That's cool feedback, thanks for that!

I find myself with a pile of modelers and agree the Axe FX 3 is the top of the heap. There's really nothing it can't do and the amps/effects to me sound the richest and most 3D.

That said I tried a couple others like the Kemper and the Boss GT-1000 to have a more plug and play experience. Those actually ended up being more frustrating due to limitations or subpar effects. I also have Line 6 gear and like the effects but not the amp modeling.

Picked up the Friedman IR-X preamp pedal a couple weeks ago and I think that scratches the itch for simple plug and play better than other modelers. In the modeling game overall Fractal is top, but the Friedman is analog and tube so it's a little different. They actually sound and work great together, using effects from Fractal and MIDI switching.

I've been curious about the Neural DSP and the Fender TMP, but it doesn't seem like they are going to be any kind of improvement over the Axe FX 3. Just a different interface at best.

I will say that I would love to see a version of the Fractal that has more knobs and less screens, like some kind of way to create physical pedal controls or something. That's an area I miss when using the Axe FX, being able to twist a delay mix knob or amp gain or reverb delay time. There's the perform screen but five knobs isn't quite enough.

 

[Hi_Anxiety]

I am probably the only one that has done this but after I figured it out it made a huge difference in plug and play for me. I always keep up with new updates to the firmware but somehow I missed or didn't load the latest presets when that patch came out in March of 2022. When I figured out I hadn't done this and loaded the latest presets it made a huge difference on just scrolling through the factory presets. All of them sound refined verses the others and require very little to get a great sound.

 

[BBN]

I've been curious about the Neural DSP and the Fender TMP, but it doesn't seem like they are going to be any kind of improvement over the Axe FX 3. Just a different interface at best.

Let me save you some time and money (on one of those) - the Neural products are not as good as the Fractal. I would even take an Axe 2 over the Quad Cortex.
The UI is decent on the QC, but the Amp tones have this high end irritation with my ears. I don't know how to describe it other than, every time I'd play the QC thinking - hey it sounds great.....I'd jump over to my Axe 3 and it was like - oh wait, this is so much smoother on the top end.
I could not go the reverse direction. If I played the Axe, then flipped over to QC...it sounded gross. Like going from a CD to a .mp3. Literally.
Clarity is gone, it's less 3D, and something about the high end is just harsh. Selling the QC was a happy day for me. (I tried many of the Neural Plugins too...they're just ok. They all sound the same to me)

 

[Jarick]

Let me save you some time and money (on one of those) - the Neural products are not as good as the Fractal. I would even take an Axe 2 over the Quad Cortex.
The UI is decent on the QC, but the Amp tones have this high end irritation with my ears. I don't know how to describe it other than, every time I'd play the QC thinking - hey it sounds great.....I'd jump over to my Axe 3 and it was like - oh wait, this is so much smoother on the top end.
I could not go the reverse direction. If I played the Axe, then flipped over to QC...it sounded gross. Like going from a CD to a .mp3. Literally.
Clarity is gone, it's less 3D, and something about the high end is just harsh. Selling the QC was a happy day for me. (I tried many of the Neural Plugins too...they're just ok. They all sound the same to me)

Yeah I haven't been close to tempted to buy one. With a lot of modelers I feel like they are a bit blurry or congested sounding, not as open and clear. Fractal is kind of too open and clear (gets to be bright) but the cab smoothing seems to tame it back down.

I like the NDSP plugins for recording, but they are kind of one dimensional. I can get maybe one good sound per amp. And I don't like how you are locked into the effects they have for each plugin. If I could mix and match in a single plugin that would be awesome.

I've said before but I wish I could get the Fractal effects in a plugin format. I have been recording basically "dry" guitars from the Fractal into the DAW, then adding post effects in the mix. I set up a few aux effects for delay, reverb, etc. Helix Native works well for that, but would be cool to get the Fractal stuff in there for variety!