Best practices for making the move from Axe 2 to 3

Velokki

Inspired
Allrighty. A Turbo-enhanced black box is awaiting at my UPS pickup point. Today or tomorrow I'll have time to go down the rabbit hole!

I'm coming from Axe FX 2 Quantum which I dearly love... ahh, you've served me so well :hearteyes: (literally 0 problems with hardware and I don't remember it EVER freezing!)

I'd like to get my basic presets and settings in as quickly as possible.
To those who made the move, what would you recommend? Are there any I/O settings that should be taken into consideration, literally anything related to making the jump?

Is the best option just to create every patch from scratch with ears? I have 20 or so patches that I frequently use, my "go-to" arsenal if you will.

Can't wait to make the jump!
 
Yep as has already been stated, start from scratch. As good as this thing is now, you’ll have your presets done in no time.
 
Yeah, that makes sense, and was thinking the same. I guess I just wanted reaffirmation :laughing:
Also, this is probably a great time to edit the patches to be better in some ways, since my ears have developed quite a bit. And the unit should sound better by default!

Aah, hot damn, can't wait to open up the cardboard and fire the unit up!
My most intensive work days of the month are today and tomorrow, so I can't afford to open the box just yet, otherwise I would get fired :laughing:
 
Great advice here...Starting from scratch.

I had the AX8 prior to the III. I bought a vendor's presets, which were extremely helpful. Basically every one of my patches was a variation of those presets.

When I got the III, I took the same approach - purchased a preset pack from the same vendor and used those as the foundation for my presets. After a month or two, I realized that the III is so much easier to dial in. And I don't even dig into the deep editing, just eq, drive, mv, etc.

Since then, I've started mostly from scratch several times for firmware updates and all. I'll probably do so again when the next fw release is posted. I like to shake things up / keep it fresh.
 
Last edited:
Latest factory presets on Cygnus are terrific.

As others said, build your own presets - it’s a new world/day!
 
From the experiences others have shared when trying to port their old presets over, you’re better off starting from scratch. The models have changed and the controls react differently in them, so the old settings won’t sound the same and you will have to tweak everything anyway. Like Cliff says, use your ears, not your eyes when adjusting.

Like others said, the factory presets sound really good, and are well worth investigating and using as a basis for your own presets. It’s a regular occurrence for someone to post that an amp model they never liked before now sounds amazing and they love it. One of my favorites is the Mesa Mk IV, which works great with all my guitars, and reminds me of my old Mesa Mk IIb.

Have fun!
 
Coming from Quantum on an AxeFX II you know what you are doing. In the same position I jumped straight in, and replicated a couple of my existing patches from the II. The biggest difference for me was that I switched from using the front panel to using AxeEdit To do the configuration. All the blocks, apart from the Amp, were a direct transcription. You've got to do the Amp blocks by ear.

Having got a foothold within the first hour, and being amazed by the clarity, I’ve then spent three weeks sorting out operational factors ready for its first gig. https://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/212278/axe-fx-iii-the-blog

Since then it has all been about investigating the new features.
 
Migrate signal path, but reset blocks and start from scratch from that perspective.
Yes... I was about to suggest you use FracTool to "migrate" your presets so you have the "structure".

Things have progressed a lot since the Axe Fx III was released. In the early days when I got mine, many of the blocks translated over with little to no tweaking. Now that many blocks have been revamped and overhauled, that's less likely the case.

If you keep both units you can always A / B your blocks.
 
Be mindful if you did any mods to the amp...such as changed (selected) different Tube Types that you may prefer over the default (stock) settings
 
I'll echo the advice to start from scratch. I started out converting everything with Fractool, but in the end it was faster (and better) to just re-do everything. I'd also recommend buying Cooper Carter's Master Class. Even though I felt pretty confident about my knowledge of setting up my Axe-Fx, Cooper's class was a great investment. It saved me a ton of time and was a great example of "you don't know what you don't know".
 
Back
Top Bottom