Fractal Audio FM3 vs AX8 | Raw Amp Comparison

It's kinda ridiculous to keep trying to put distance between yesterday's box and the shiny new one today.

If the Axe Ultra smoked the Standard, and then the II smoked the Ultra,
II Mark II > II
XL > Mark II
III > XL
.....

The Fractal Axe Standard must have sounded pretty bad in hindsight, right?
We all know that's not true so ya, the improvements in sound/feel with each new iteration must be minimal.

I just bought a III. For the last ten years I have been using an Ultra. After a bit of tweaking, I can say that the III does in fact smoke the Ultra. Not that the Ultra sounds bad, but what I'm getting out off the III is much better.

It may just be that the III is so easy to dial that I'm getting much better tones out of the III in a month than I could figure out how to get with the Ultra in ten years, but either way, the III rips.
 
Seems like a nice guy but this video is silly. Every time he switches between the units they are at a different angle and the whole sound of the room is different and way tinnier. This doesn’t show the difference between the units at all...why bother doing this?
 
Seems like a nice guy but this video is silly. Every time he switches between the units they are at a different angle and the whole sound of the room is different and way tinnier. This doesn’t show the difference between the units at all...why bother doing this?
What? There's no sound of the room, everything is recorded direct as stated in the OP
 
Thx for posting the Raw Amp comparisons. Love to hear how the guitar actually sounds/reacts with the differing amp/cab combos. Way too many demos feature way too much delay in them for my tastes. And tbh when I hear them I have no clue what the FM 3 Amp/Cab sims sound like cause of the delay settings peeps are using. Thx again. I am definately hard leaning towards the FM3.
 
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Nice video.

The difference between the two boards is significant, and impressed me, because your captured AX8 sounds are what I encountered; more thin than I wanted. The FM3 sounds more like I'd expect guitars to sound when miked through their various amps.

I'm looking forward to getting my invite for the FM3. With these days of "social distancing", being able to practice at volume with headphones while my wife is sleeping is going to be a luxury.
 
The Axe FX III (in this case, the FM3) sounds beefier, alive and the response under the fingertips was just awesome, the AX8 on the other hand felt thin, brittle and not as '3D'.

That was my experience with the AX8 also. I was using a Yamaha powered monitor that was supposed to be FRFR and the sound I got never sounded full. It was probably something I was doing wrong, but when I sold the AX8 to a friend, who plugged it into two Headrush FRFR cabinets and got a stunning sound, well, I was a little shocked. He loves the sound, I think it sounds amazing and I'm happy for him. I'm looking forward to the FM3 because it's the feature set and size I wanted and with what sounds like a more-full sound, it should be just right for me.
 
I am not saying the AX8 cannot sound great. The AX8 can sound amazing, i know that because i listened to zillion of clips before buying an axe fx 2.

But the comparison results here are pretty straightforward and the FM3 wins by a far margin on the first listen, so i tried to go a little deeper.
I could think of two main reasons:
  • factory presets being much, much better on the FM3
  • huge amp modeling improvements in the past months on the FM3/AXE FX-3

After listening carefully again using my AudioTechnica ATH-M50X this morning, I thought the biggest difference was in the LOW end, as many of you said.
Seemed that the clips on the AX8 are brutally cut in almost all the presets using a sort of High Pass Filter.

So i have dowloaded a FLAC file from youtube using an online converter and analyzed the spectrum on cubase using SPAN Voxengo, and this absolutely confirmed my guessing. The clips on FM3 have a much more extended low end.
I am sure this can be obtained as well on the AX8 as generating low frequencies has never been a problem using this unit.

Moreover: after watching this video , youtube opened the following comparison by Leon Todd:


The differences here are much, much smaller...almost indistinguishible.
I feel better now :)


Hi, thanks
 
Cool song. I like it.

Found the drum track online. I chopped it into obvious sections and then wrote the parts to the drums.
Did a whole album with the AX8. Buddy sent me this backing as a challenge - it's a Kie$ha song :confused:
Took a while to figure out what to do with it. Was actually really fun in the end.

Loved the harmonizer on the AX8! Wah is a Mission EXP.

 
Something seems incorrect with this comparison. I have watched so many videos that compares the AX8 vs the AXE Fx III but never this big of difference. Usually 95% same sound. This one is around 70% different. After I see tone and volume pots different I don’t trust this as being accurate.
 
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Hey @FSM, thank you for putting together such a great video, your playing is second to none as always!

What is that clean piece you placed on the 5F8 Tweed please? I recognise the tune but I just can't place it. Stunningly played!!

5F8 Tweed
 
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I do think this is more of an exercise in the speculation for many of us AX8 users as to whether or not the FM3 is significantly better enough to warrant the switch...they all sound good. We all know that any two amps of the same model will likely sound slightly different, maybe not better but different-which is the real question here as to what that difference might be in the struggle to make that decision. At the end of the day, until each of us has a chance to try compare for ourselves both side by side it will always be just speculation...the sad truth is you audience doesn't know or really care as long as you are bringing it.
 
@FSM Can you answer to your tone and volume settings being different on the guitar, and whether there was any global EQ/high pass filtering happening?

Dude, I played my AX8 for 4 years now - live and for recording sessions all over the world...I love that unit. I would never do it badly. It's still an awesome piece of gear.
As I already mentioned, I just loaded the factory amp models (nothing tweaked) and used the same IR’s (Factory Cab) on all sounds (that’s what people asked for).
Maybe some amp - cab combinations are unfavorable and make the sound in the AX8 thin, or the opposite way, make the sound in the FM8 fatter. Either way, both units are fantastic and you know that both can sound fabulous with the right settings.
In this video the AX8 sounded more scooped and sometimes I prefer that. Some amplifiers (ODS, AC-20) sounded extremely thin, but I do not know why. It is of course obvious that that the algorithms have changed/improved significantly over the last 4 years. This is the only way I can explain the massiv difference. For sure you can adjust the presets of both units to sound pretty close - that’s what my new video is about.

About the tone/vol pots:
I'm sorry I changed the vol and tone button from time to time. I'm so used to it and I do it all the time (and not even notice it). But honestly - what happens when you turn your guitar volume from 10 to 9? And what happens if you turn your tone pot from 10 to 8? Does your guitar get less bass? BTW...my guitar has a treble bleed - that means that it sounds the same at any volume. The story with the different pot settings is ridiculous. It can’t make the AX8 sound thinner.

Here's another video comparing the Fractal Audio FM3 vs AX8 using my own custom presets.
I tried to adjust the presets of both units to sound pretty close - that’s what my new video is about.


Love to hear your opinion on that one.

Cheers Frank 🤘
#staysafe
 
Seems like a nice guy but this video is silly. Every time he switches between the units they are at a different angle and the whole sound of the room is different and way tinnier. This doesn’t show the difference between the units at all...why bother doing this?
I used 2 cameras - one filmed from the right and one from the left.
There's no sound of the camera or room, everything is recorded direct.

Cheers, Frank
 
Hey @FSM, thank you for putting together such a great video, your playing is second to none as always!

What is that clean piece you placed on the 5F8 Tweed please? I recognise the tune but I just can't place it. Stunningly played!!

5F8 Tweed
The song is called Misty by Erroll Garner.

Cheers :)
 
Thank you for taking the time to do another video....they were very similar indeed I could only say the FM3 was just a bit smoother to me than the AX8 on your Gilmour patch. I love my AX8 and just got an invite for the FM3 and it' nice to see your perspective. Thanks Frank!
 
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