Does FM3 sound better in live use than AX8?

J

Jani

Member
I have had AX8 about 2 years now. I joined the FM3 waitlist to have upgrade to my AX. Im playing with my ax at the moment and started to wonder is FM3 really that better, do i need it, is it really a big upgrade? Can you get the same sounds out of ax by little tweaking? I use my ax8 mainly in live and practicing at home. Feels like at home you can get any sounds you like out of it, but in live use its harder to get that massive/full sound. So mostly im interested how does the FM3 sounds in live use compared to AX8?
 
Explain your live setup.
Do you go straight from Ax8 to mixer or do you mic up?
Is there another guitarist?
What sort of music do you play?
 
If you're missing "balls" with FRFR, sometimes don't hesitate to push a bit the proximity parameter of your cab using a null mic. Also a slight compression and distortion, speaker page your amp, and pushing time constant to 200ms will take out some rigidity.
 
Rex said:
Dial in your tones at gig volume. You'll discover a whole different world when playing live. Until you do this, you won't be satisfied with any modeler.
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Totally this. Before pushing the proximity, dial in at gig level, if not "strange things will happen".
 
On smaller bar gigs, I think, a real cab is essential. Any band that has a real amp+cab setup, will make your amp modeller + FRFR sound tiny.
I am sure, that an FRFR will never be the same experience as a real 4X12.
So, why not use that?

Get yourself a transparent amp, and use it to power your FM3 to a real cab, and you'll have all the balls in the world.
Not as important on Arena gigs and the like.
 
I use ax8 straight to mixer and i have dialed my setups at gig volumes. My point was that does FM3 do even better your basic guitar tone than ax? Does it have more balls or that "oomph" than AX8? Does it have more that real amp feel? Just wondering do i stick with my ax, or get that fm3.
 
I think you’re asking a question only you can answer.

Look at it another way, if this was an amp and pedals. New versions of those come out. Would you change because of that?

The FM3 has a lot of benefits - channels instead of X/Y which is massive for playing live I think (four amps instead of two) etc.

In terms of sound - I was very happy with the gig level sounds into FRFR with my AX8, no amp put me in the corner!

Will the audience notice the difference? Likely not. But I really think you will, the level of dynamics, touch, compression and oomph is night and day better to me.

As I said I was very happy with my AX8, but the III and now FM3 I’ve had since then are just better. Not maybe for the audience on some nights but absolutely for the player
 
Clockwork Creep said:
On smaller bar gigs, I think, a real cab is essential. Any band that has a real amp+cab setup, will make your amp modeller + FRFR sound tiny.
I am sure, that an FRFR will never be the same experience as a real 4X12.
So, why not use that?

Get yourself a transparent amp, and use it to power your FM3 to a real cab, and you'll have all the balls in the world.
Not as important on Arena gigs and the like.
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I'd never use a 412 cab in a small bar...for getting a decent sound you'd have to push your amp and not sure this will be appreciated. Really, a good FRFR with a well tweaked preset will do the job. Too many people tweak at low levels, which will result in hard and desequilibrated sound when playing at real volume.
 
While I very much agree about dialing in tones at gig levels, another factor is the size of the room you are sitting in. I have found that my studio is too small for a good sound dispersion. I'm having to move to a larger space for better results. MHO
 
Well.....I am going to weigh-in......just my opinion.....

I have owned and gigged with the AX8 pretty significantly. Towards the end of last year, I sold my AX8 in preparation for getting the FM3.....got the FM3 early in 2020. I have not gigged with the FM3 due to all the shut-downs, but I have used it considerably in practice at volume through a PA with a full band.

In my opinion, both the AX8 and the FM3 sound very good through a PA, and if I was blind-folded, I probably could not determine which of the two units I was playing through. In both cases, there is a learning curve, and developing competency with whatever unit one is using is much more important than just having the latest device. That’s my two cents.
 
Thanks for good answers! I do like how AX8 sounds too, and i dont use that much effects, dual amps etc. so i manage with ax's cpu fine. First i was definitely going to get FM3, but as i wait my turn on waitlist i'm not so sure anymore do i need it. Of course AX is now a legacy product so there's not probably going to be any firmware updates. Well i think maybe i still have to get it when my time comes on the waitlist and do some kind of comparison, then sell the "loser" or keep backup:)
 
Probably can dial AX8 and FM3 to “sound” very, very close to each other in a mix, however, believe the FM3 does “sound” better, actually a lot which you may notice for instance if you use in ears, but the big game changer, really big, is the feel which is MUCH better. Will your audience here these things, especially feel......no.

But you will be playing better, having more fun and playing more confidently and your audience will “hear” that.
 
Just the basics work here, like not overloading the gain on your presets, raising your midrange, cutting bass etc.
Hell, I got a good punchy sound with my Atomic Amplifire. You can get a great live tone with almost any modeler if you dial it in properly.
 
Going from the ax8 to the fm3, for me . I think the fm3 sounds better no matter how you run it .😀
 
I switched to an FM3 after 4 years of ax8 and 4 years of axefx2.

It took me about 3 weeks now to really "get" it. At first i thought, damn ill never be able to get use out of just 3 switches. So i got a FC6. Then once i got into the minutia of programming those 3 switches and how much you can do with the hold functions i did on my AX8 as well the the new views feature, i tried to go with just 3 and a mosky 2 switch to page the views. I contemplated sending back the fc6 but kept it just in case. Then i started digging more into the channels of the amp block, i never used it before just because it didnt make much sense for me.

At this current point I think the FM3 and FC6 has become the greatest unit ive ever used. Ive got more flexibility than ever and the tone sounds a lot more...authentic? Granted my 4 year old ax8 patch had been tweaked off and on to suit a live PA so maybe it had more cuts and carves than i do now with my fm3 patch, but i have no regrets.
 
"Better" is so subjective. That said, I used the AX8 live for a couple of years, now the Axe III and FM3. Live or at home, the Axe III and FM3 have the upper hand as far as tone goes. However, dialing in tones that translate the way you want them to is a matter of figuring out what seems to be missing.

It's very easy with a modeler to have too much high end; sounds great through monitors at lower volumes, may even sound good at moderate volume. But when you get on a PA system, it becomes thin and harsh. I found this out the hard way.

The trick and what worked for me was to take an amp I wanted to use and find a matching cab, leave everything default and get used to that tone. At first, it was dark and mid heavy, but when I took some time with it, it seemed as though I finally heard the tone that was intended. It sounded like a guitar amp. Once I became comfortable with the tone, I used it live and the result was incredible, I finally had the live tone I wanted. It sounded huge!

Now I create a baseline preset for any amp I use and reference them from time to time to make sure I don't stray too far from the desired tone.
 
JoKeR III said:
"Better" is so subjective. That said, I used the AX8 live for a couple of years, now the Axe III and FM3. Live or at home, the Axe III and FM3 have the upper hand as far as tone goes. However, dialing in tones that translate the way you want them to is a matter of figuring out what seems to be missing.

It's very easy with a modeler to have too much high end; sounds great through monitors at lower volumes, may even sound good at moderate volume. But when you get on a PA system, it becomes thin and harsh. I found this out the hard way.

The trick and what worked for me was to take an amp I wanted to use and find a matching cab, leave everything default and get used to that tone. At first, it was dark and mid heavy, but when I took some time with it, it seemed as though I finally heard the tone that was intended. It sounded like a guitar amp. Once I became comfortable with the tone, I used it live and the result was incredible, I finally had the live tone I wanted. It sounded huge!

Now I create a baseline preset for any amp I use and reference them from time to time to make sure I don't stray too far from the desired tone.
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This. The defaults for most any Fractal block are wildly useful.
 
I am very happy with my AX8 gigging tone. So much so that I basically copied the tonal characteristics for the FM3. Where the FM3 excels for me is channels and minimizing (essentially eliminating) the drop between clean and dirty channels. Everything else is icing on the cake. +1 to setting up your patches at gigging volumes. Fletcher Munson is a bitch..... 😎
 
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