Bought an FM3 and compared it to my Axe-Fx 3; huge difference

AdamL1112

Member
Hi Everybody,

Like the title says I recently bought an FM3 for the portability and to use as an effects processor with my bass rig and I was shocked at the quality of the presets out of the box and after only a day tinkering was getting some monstrous guitar tones. Awhile back I had posted here because I was very unsatisfied with what I was getting out of the Axe-Fx 3----- This was the post https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/year-and-half-later-still-not-happy-with-axe-fx-3.162046/ )

Long story short the community was very helpful and after getting some different IRs and lots of tinkering I got it to an ok place that I was somewhat happy with. Also tech support said everything seemed normal so I kind of forgot about it until now.

Now I think I have a much better idea of what's going on. When compared to the FM3 all the tones for the Axe-Fx 3 are significantly darker (or lacking punch) . Over the last year I've adapted to this and was able to record things ok by quad tracking guitars.

Here are two examples of recent works using the Axe-Fx 3 for guitars and Bass---

---- A black/power metalish thing that actually seems to work well with a darker guitar tone.

A full cover of the song Somewhere Out in Space by the Power metal band Gamma Ray

I haven't gotten the chance but I have another song in the pipeline but that'll be a little while until I get a full mix done with FM3 to see the whole picture.

Doing my best with my ear and knowledge I put together two different guitar tracks based around a tube screamer-ed ENGL Powerball- Same guitar on an Ibanez RG Prestige with a Tone Zone passive pick-up to compare the two tones and they are significantly different. Recorded with the same signal chain through a Scarlett 2i2; The tone problem is apparent via headphones so I've ruled out any issues with the Scarlett. I tried my best to record them as close to the same level as possible- like that touching the red level.

The Axe-Fx3---

The FM3-------

I'm still looking for two matching presets (Or close as I can) on both units I could use as a proof; If anyone has a good suggestion I can put together a couple tracks to compare those.

From what I can figure all the Global/ I/O settings are exactly the same; I've hunted high and low and I can't think of anything to fix it.

I'm pretty sure this unit is defective in some way and it explains so much about people being stoked about their Axe-fx 3 right out of the box because that was not my experience a couple years ago. Thankfully I got that with the FM3 and it was super cool.

So basically does anyone have any ideas? I may contact tech support again and see if I can send it in. or just sell it, but then I might just be passing on the same problem.

Thanks for reading, Very interested to hear your takes and suggestions.

-Adam
 
What version of the firmware are you running on the FM3 and the FX3? What are the system settings on both? Attach a backup of those and the preset you're using so we can set up identical systems and compare them. Without that we can only take wild guesses what could be wrong.

Sound recordings let us hear the difference but we can't see the settings and that's more important.

I have both an FM3 and an FX3 and when they're both on Ares (3.02 on the FM3 and 15.1 on the FX3) using the same preset they sound identical, just like they're supposed to.
 
To me, the Axe FX III sounds better with exactly the same preset. Most likely due to the Cygnus modeling b
 
Which is what I said.

The first sentence of the statement is not technically precise. And then it says "Most likely due to the Cygnus"; that "most likely" leaves room to interpret that there could also be a hardware factor. Just language nuances ;)
 
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The first sentence of the statement is not technically precise. And then it says "Most likely due to the Cygnus"; that "most likely" leaves room to interpret that there could also be a hardware factor. Just language nuances ;)
While I agree that my language left room for there to be other factors, my first sentence was completely accurate. I A/B’d the same preset and to me, the Axe FX sounded better.
 
I'm still looking for two matching presets (Or close as I can) on both units I could use as a proof; If anyone has a good suggestion I can put together a couple tracks to compare those.

Audio tracks tell us little. Do this instead:

Install versions of Ares on both modelers: 15.1 on the FX3 and 3.03b on the FM3. (You want 3.03b so it will have the updated drive blocks to match what are in 15.1.)

Export the preset from the FM3 and import it into the FX3. Do not adjust the presets in any way from this point.

Make backups of both modelers, then reset the system settings so they’re back to factory specs.

Set the output volumes of both devices to the same level. Compare the sound. They should sound identical.

If they don’t, attach the exported preset and both system+fc backup files to the original message so we can all see the settings on both systems. At that point we will all be able to work from exactly the same firmware, preset and settings with very little guessing.

It’s important to note that the amp model you are using has been totally reworked per @yek’s comment above, and odds are good you have a mismatch there causing the problem. Using the exact same system versions as mentioned previously, it might help switching to a different preset with a different amp for your comparison of the two modelers, but be sure to share that preset with us.

Debugging these sort of problems require a lot of changes to normalize and match all our systems, but that’s the only way to remove differences that can affect the sound and identity the problem.

Once we’ve figured out the problem you can reimport your system+fc backups if you want to revert to your old settings.
 
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