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
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