Honest Thoughts On Axe-Fx III, II and AX8?

I loaded the same amp models into my ax8 and III, used an aby box, and it was pretty much as simple as select a 100watt plexi and just hit an A chord with various levels of picking on bothz. Ax8 was put into the box and listed for sale about 5 minutes after that.

Make no mistake the ax8 sounded great, but flipping back and forth there was no differences. The ax8 sounded like a great model of the amp and the III sounded like the best hand tweaked plexi I’ve ever played.

It’s like playing an American standard Strat and playing a custom shop Strat where every part is selected to your preference. Both are good, both sound similar, but the custom shop is just going to feel “right”(er)
 
It's definitely the feel is there. I've had the 2 the mark 2 , xl, xl+, ax8. This is the Best . Cliff you're a GENIUS.
 
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I don't know anyone who has an Axe FX III, so there's no way I can get my hands on one to try out. I know that I love the XL+ and like it a little more than the AX8. Granted, there's hardly a difference in tone and feel, but there is a difference and enough to make me like the XL+ just a little more. However, I don't want to invest $1700-1800 (whatever Fractal is clearing them out for) in something being replaced by something newer. The screen on the III is a BIG plus for me because I hate that little screen on the XL+, but whether it's really worth it for me to spend the extra $800 -- not being a professional player or anything -- well, that's something I'm going to have to think about.
 
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Played outside yesterday in 95 degree weather in the sun. The III worked great. Sounded awesome. No regrets selling my XL+ and jumping to the III.
 
Played outside yesterday in 95 degree weather in the sun. The III worked great. Sounded awesome. No regrets selling my XL+ and jumping to the III.

Good to hear. One thing I've really liked about Fractal and Kemper are live sounds. I could never get a good live sound out of Line6, but never tried the Helix. What did you use, a portable PA or power amp + speakers or something?
 
Good to hear. One thing I've really liked about Fractal and Kemper are live sounds. I could never get a good live sound out of Line6, but never tried the Helix. What did you use, a portable PA or power amp + speakers or something?

Here is the info on my Axe-Fx III rig: #16

For this gig our drummer has his own PA. I plug the Axe-Fx direct to the PA (left out only). I get a monitor mix from the sound folks for the rest of the band (minus myself). This plugs into the Rolls mixer (mono). The Axe-Fx also plugs into the Rolls mixer in stereo. The output of the Rolls goes to my Shure PSM 900 for my IEM's (UE 10's). I can then hear myself in glorious stereo and control the levels between myself and the rest of the band for my IEM mix via the Rolls mixer. The nice thing is, my guitar ALWAYS sounds exactly the same to myself no matter what the gig is. And it sounds exactly the way it does to me when I'm practicing at home. What they do at FOH is beyond my control so I don't worry about it. I just split the signal chain so Out 1 is FOH, Out 2 is my IEM's and I can adjust those independently. I have received compliments from several sound guys now though. Also during sound check, I'll take my ears out for a minute and hear it through the PA which has a huge sound to it. I just have to use ears all the time to avoid any further hearing damage.
 
Here is the info on my Axe-Fx III rig: #16

For this gig our drummer has his own PA. I plug the Axe-Fx direct to the PA (left out only). I get a monitor mix from the sound folks for the rest of the band (minus myself). This plugs into the Rolls mixer (mono). The Axe-Fx also plugs into the Rolls mixer in stereo. The output of the Rolls goes to my Shure PSM 900 for my IEM's (UE 10's). I can then hear myself in glorious stereo and control the levels between myself and the rest of the band for my IEM mix via the Rolls mixer. The nice thing is, my guitar ALWAYS sounds exactly the same to myself no matter what the gig is. And it sounds exactly the way it does to me when I'm practicing at home. What they do at FOH is beyond my control so I don't worry about it. I just split the signal chain so Out 1 is FOH, Out 2 is my IEM's and I can adjust those independently. I have received compliments from several sound guys now though. Also during sound check, I'll take my ears out for a minute and hear it through the PA which has a huge sound to it. I just have to use ears all the time to avoid any further hearing damage.

How do you get more of that cutting punch with your live setup? With my Kemper, it's very amp-like and has a very tube amp kind of punch to it using the built-in power supply or power amp. My tube amps, of course, no problem. I could never get Line6 to sound right in a live mix where there was a good midrange and low end punch. My AX8 is much better in that regard, but not sure what I need to tweak to get the same punch-through as my Kemper. I don't know if I'm using the right terms here but there's something more concentrated in the low mids that sounds thick but doesn't come through in a mix. My AX8 has a nice low end so that's no problem, but something in the midrange isn't quite there. I'm not saying it's not there, just I'd like that lower mid punch to come through a little bit more without becoming muddy. What should I tweak to improve my live sound (using a power amp or portable PA)?
 
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I'm a super critical person, feel free to check the forum for previous posts. I run the III through the QSC PLD 4.2, and to me, there is a HUGE difference in the feel and sound. People keep talking about how the tone is about the same as the II but a little better- it's not. It's significantly better. It's more immediate, there's more substance to it, it's much more full. I thought the II had some "crispiness' to it that didnt feel "real" enough to me in my setup. The III fixed that. It fixed all my issues with the II, pretty much. I'm hyper-sensitive to stimulus and fine details, and in terms of tone and feel this thing checks out in evey way as far as I'm concerned. The Axe FX III is everything the Axe FX II wanted to be.
 
I'm a super critical person, feel free to check the forum for previous posts. I run the III through the QSC PLD 4.2, and to me, there is a HUGE difference in the feel and sound. People keep talking about how the tone is about the same as the II but a little better- it's not. It's significantly better. It's more immediate, there's more substance to it, it's much more full. I thought the II had some "crispiness' to it that didnt feel "real" enough to me in my setup. The III fixed that. It fixed all my issues with the II, pretty much. I'm hyper-sensitive to stimulus and fine details, and in terms of tone and feel this thing checks out in evey way as far as I'm concerned. The Axe FX III is everything the Axe FX II wanted to be.

God man you're going to make me spend a fortune and get an Axe FX III.
 
God man you're going to make me spend a fortune and get an Axe FX III.
As long as the unit holds up over time, you'll seriously never need another processor. People said the Axe FX II couldnt be improved upon tonewise, and I disagreed. I always said there were things missing. The III isnt perfect, but damn is it close. And with the amount of room they left for improvement in terms of the hardware and what its physically capable of, I have no conceivable idea why they would ever need to make a IV. I'm sure one day they might and it will have more inputs and be smaller or something but I could live with this single unit and be happy forever. Dont take my word for it though, just play the two side by side and you will immediately feel a difference. Especially with the cleans and the mid gain boutique stuff, it just shines man. I always tell people the exact same thing when they ask what gear they should buy, like when they think about saving money and sparing expenses. Just buy the best. Buy quality that you can feel good about every day without fail. Really, Ben franklin said it the best-

"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten”

And that's why you buy Fractal.
 
How do you get more of that cutting punch with your live setup? With my Kemper, it's very amp-like and has a very tube amp kind of punch to it using the built-in power supply or power amp. My tube amps, of course, no problem. I could never get Line6 to sound right in a live mix where there was a good midrange and low end punch. My AX8 is much better in that regard, but not sure what I need to tweak to get the same punch-through as my Kemper. I don't know if I'm using the right terms here but there's something more concentrated in the low mids that sounds thick but doesn't come through in a mix. My AX8 has a nice low end so that's no problem, but something in the midrange isn't quite there. I'm not saying it's not there, just I'd like that lower mid punch to come through a little bit more without becoming muddy. What should I tweak to improve my live sound (using a power amp or portable PA)?
I play strictly live and loud. With that said, I had a Kemper to test for a week. I did not like the way it sounded in live applications. It was too fake sounding. With that said, I'm not your normal user. I run the modelers through a Mesa 2:50 power amp into a Mesa 4 x 12 Standard cab loaded with Celestion Creamback 65s. But comparing the 2, the AXE FX III does the job perfectly live and the Kemper sounded like a modeler. Of course our ears make a huge difference in what we hear. Comparing to the II XL+, for me, the III is a huge jump.
 
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How do you get more of that cutting punch with your live setup? With my Kemper, it's very amp-like and has a very tube amp kind of punch to it using the built-in power supply or power amp. My tube amps, of course, no problem. I could never get Line6 to sound right in a live mix where there was a good midrange and low end punch. My AX8 is much better in that regard, but not sure what I need to tweak to get the same punch-through as my Kemper. I don't know if I'm using the right terms here but there's something more concentrated in the low mids that sounds thick but doesn't come through in a mix. My AX8 has a nice low end so that's no problem, but something in the midrange isn't quite there. I'm not saying it's not there, just I'd like that lower mid punch to come through a little bit more without becoming muddy. What should I tweak to improve my live sound (using a power amp or portable PA)?

Honestly I'm not sure other than maybe low cuts and boosting mids. I've been fortunate that the sound guys are both really good at what they do, and also, some are guitar players that use modelers, they just seem to dial things in perfectly. I don't know anything about adjusting PA sounds :(

I've also used IEM's for over 10 years now (UE 10's). So I've always been used to how I sound that way vs amp in the room, stage volume, etc... However, in my ears, I hear a good punch. I will say there has been a noticable improvment in how I sound to myself ever since I started running my Axe-Fx directly into my IEM system and then feeding the rest of the band into it. Vs what I sound like when my IEM mix is first processed via the mixer (FOH?) and then sent back to me (if that makes sense). I am not at the mercy of whatever they do to my signal for my monitor mix.

I had a Pod HD500X for a while before moving to the Axe-Fx. Direct it sounded ok. For a while I would run it into a Deluxe Reverb and mic that which sounded pretty good. But ever since going to the Axe-Fx, no issues. I do low/high cut my cab block to remove more of the low end which I think helps reduce muddiness I've always read to adjust patches at gig volume. I have a QSC K10 at home that I've stuck in the other room and cranked to very high levels to see how things sound. So far I have never made any tweaks once at the gig (other than cutting out some reverb due to a venue sounding like an echo chamber). I think it's due to sending separate signal to FOH, and then having my own mix I can deal with via the Axe's additional outputs.
 
I play strictly live and loud. With that said, I had a Kemper to test for a week. I did not like the way it sounded in live applications. It was too fake sounding. With that said, I'm not your normal user. I run the modelers through a Mesa 2:50 power amp into a Mesa 4 x 12 Standard cab loaded with Celestion Creamback 65s. But comparing the 2, the AXE FX III does the job perfectly live and the Kemper sounded like a modeler. Of course our ears make a huge difference in what we hear. Comparing to the II XL+, for me, the III is a huge jump.

That's interesting because I've been using my Kemper with a couple of different tube power amps and think it sounds more natural with powered speakers because the power amp modeling is so good. The profiles of various amps that have EL34, EL84, 6L6, etc. power sections really comes through well with the Kemper. I wish I would have gotten one with the built-in power amp because I think that sounds great through guitar cabs, but through a portable PA I think it sounds better than with a tube power amp... at least what I've tried so far. My AX8, on the other hand, seems to benefit a little from the warmth of the tube power amp. When I switch to the neck pickup on the Friedman preset, it sounds ridiculously close to the real deal. Just my observations at this point, but I have a LOT more experimenting to do.
 
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That's interesting because I've been using my Kemper with a couple of different tube power amps and think it sounds more natural with powered speakers because the power amp modeling is so good. The profiles of various amps that have EL34, EL84, 6L6, etc. power sections really comes through well with the Kemper. I wish I would have gotten one with the built-in power amp because I think that sounds great through guitar cabs, but through a portable PA I think it sounds better than with a tube power amp... at least what I've tried so far. My AX8, on the other hand, seems to benefit a little from the warmth of the tube power amp. When I switch to the neck pickup on the Friedman preset, it sounds ridiculously close to the real deal. Just my observations at this point, but I have a LOT more experimenting to do.
Hey, can you post some comparison clips/videos you've been listening to? Not sure why I keep getting ignored here, not playing a gotcha game, I'm genuinely curious on what you're listening to that gave you your impressions on the III. Should be pretty easy to post some links. Thanks.
 
One thing I failed to mention. I bought the naked amp pack from @austinbuddy when I had my XL+. I have been using one of his patches from that pack ever since. Totally worth the $$$ for tweaked and leveled amps. The patch was ported over to the III. I then accidentally pointed the cab block to a @fremen IR that was loaded from one of his preset packs. End result is a great sound that I would not have come up with on my own. That makes a big difference as these guys know what they are doing. I do not. ;).
 
Hey, can you post some comparison clips/videos you've been listening to? Not sure why I keep getting ignored here, not playing a gotcha game, I'm genuinely curious on what you're listening to that gave you your impressions on the III. Should be pretty easy to post some links. Thanks.

I'm not necessarily trying to ignore you. I just don't want to revisit that B.S. all over again. It doesn't matter because the more intelligent portions of this discussion have been very helpful and informative.

One thing I failed to mention. I bought the naked amp pack from @austinbuddy when I had my XL+. I have been using one of his patches from that pack ever since. Totally worth the $$$ for tweaked and leveled amps. The patch was ported over to the III. I then accidentally pointed the cab block to a @fremen IR that was loaded from one of his preset packs. End result is a great sound that I would not have come up with on my own. That makes a big difference as these guys know what they are doing. I do not. ;).

Unfortunately there are not discounts or anything even for forum bros, so I won't be able to buy the Austin Buddy pack, but I did find a few commercial packs for around $15-$25 that sound real good. I'm going to buy one of those and see if I can learn something from the way they set them up.
 
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