How is the rotary in Axe Fx 3?

[Ant Music]

I’m still rocking my Axe Fx 2 and loving it but I’m wondering if there have been any updates to the Rotary blocks on Axe FX 3?

I like the rotary in the Axe Fx 2 but I hate the drive parameter on it. It’s perfectly useless. Does almost nothing and when you turn it up to 8 or 9 and you can hear it, it sounds like shit.
I’d love to hear sound sound samples for the rotary in Axe Fx 3 if anyone is happy to post them.

 

[iaresee]

I’ve quite literally replaced large Leslie setups of touring artists with Axe-Fxes. Complete success and happiness in all instances.

The rotary block sounds phenomenal. But it did in the II as well.

 

[pauly]

Hi @Ant Music ,

Yes they are great, however don't underestimate the amazing leaps and bounds the firmware has had in other areas since the AF3 release. The amp modelling is now waaaay better than when it was released, at which time it was already an improvement over the AF2. I had a couple of AF2s but sold them as soon as the 3 arrived. If you're on the fence - do it & thank me later
Thanks
Pauly

I’m still rocking my Axe Fx 2 and loving it but I’m wondering if there have been any updates to the Rotary blocks on Axe FX 3?

I like the rotary in the Axe Fx 2 but I hate the drive parameter on it. It’s perfectly useless. Does almost nothing and when you turn it up to 8 or 9 and you can hear it, it sounds like shit.
I’d love to hear sound sound samples for the rotary in Axe Fx 3 if anyone is happy to post them.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

I have a Rotary block in a lot of my presets. I wanted to have the slow, fast, and brake settings available but didn't want to take up extra switches.

Finally I figured out I could set the speed using three different channels, then set the hold function for my Rotary bypass to increment the channels on that block. A is slow, B is fast, C is brake, the next long press rotates back to A.

If I want to go from fast to slow I have to step through the brake, but that works fine since it takes the rotary a couple seconds to slow to a stop, so it's not obvious it's braking.

 

[ModelGuitarist]

Burgs uses the Rotary a bit in most of his Gilmourish presets.
Hard to find lengthy isolated clips; can't record my own atm.

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

If I want to go from fast to slow I have to step through the brake, but that works fine since it takes the rotary a couple seconds to slow to a stop, so it's not obvious it's braking.

That's the way the speed control switch works IRL, actually....

Been spinning the Leslie sims since the Quadraverb GT back in the early '90s. I use 0.8Hz (48 rpm) for slow and 6.8Hz (408 rpm) for fast on mine, with a 0.833 multiplier for the rotor. Just recently dropped the rotor time constant, which makes the slow-down/speed-up 'chaos' closer to what I am used to hearing....

Since I don't use the brake, I just have bypass and slow/fast, but I have a pair of switches set up - one momentary, one latching - that work together like the two switches at either end of a hall or stairway. Momentary control of slow/fast lets me time the switching more accurately with less effort. I use the speed control quite a lot, actually....

 

[Piing]

How is the rotary in the Axe Fx 3?

 

[Sleestak]

One of the last pedal hold-outs on my old board was a Strymon Lex. One of the FW updates (quite a while ago) reworked the Rotary block, and I sold that pedal. I think the Fractal rotary is really great. I use an expression controller for the rate. Yes, I know that's not how a real Leslie works, but why be constrained by reality when it's so awesomely fun to sweep the rate in real time?

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Chorale ^^^^

Tremolo vvvv

 

[sprint]

I love the Axe3 rotary but struggle a bit setting up more driven rotary tones to sound exact to my ear's ideal driven rotary guitar tone (Frampton). Lately, instead of having the rotary block in series to the main amp block within the signal path (before or after amp block depending on tone preference for the patch), I've been experimenting with routing rotary in parallel (split off at input to rotary and mixed back onto the main path near the end just before reverb (like Frampton does it live irl?, maybe the typical way back in the heyday of guitarists using real leslie cabs?, (maybe best practice in Axefx and I missed the memo - lol!) and trying to match the rotary's drive to match/blend to the main guitar/amp tone. The rotary block drive control, though I think it could be improved to be shapeable and have more gain range, seems to perform much better running parallel this way to my ear (logically I guess since the rotary's drive represents the leslie amp circut (122,147...)? that, in series, gets clobbered by the amp block?)., but I'm still searching - next stop is to run parallel as above, but, instead of using the rotary block drive, route the rotary through its own dedicated amp (or drive) blocks (would need 2 for stereo) to get a more shapable driven rotary tone. For this I'd use my AxeII in the Axe3 loop to blend in a rotary (or 2) into 2 dedicated rotary amp blocks back into the main Axe3 signal. Last stop is to try routing the rotary signal out to separate studio monitors (I added a 2nd pair to my interface outputs yesterday with thoughts of trying this - side note: Apple's spatial music (Atmos) sounds crazy awesome through quad config'd monitors!) and have something set up to vary the Axe2 stereo rotary signal front to back to get a full 3D circling rotary effect.

Fun stuff!

 

[Piing]

I love the Axe3 rotary but struggle a bit setting up more driven rotary tones to sound exact to my ear's ideal driven rotary guitar tone (Frampton). Lately, instead of having the rotary block in series to the main amp block within the signal path (before or after amp block depending on tone preference for the patch), I've been experimenting with routing rotary in parallel (split off at input to rotary and mixed back onto the main path near the end just before reverb (like Frampton does it live irl?, maybe the typical way back in the heyday of guitarists using real leslie cabs?, (maybe best practice in Axefx and I missed the memo - lol!) and trying to match the rotary's drive to match/blend to the main guitar/amp tone. The rotary block drive control, though I think it could be improved to be shapeable and have more gain range, seems to perform much better running parallel this way to my ear (logically I guess since the rotary's drive represents the leslie amp circut (122,147...)? that, in series, gets clobbered by the amp block?)., but I'm still searching - next stop is to run parallel as above, but, instead of using the rotary block drive, route the rotary through its own dedicated amp (or drive) blocks (would need 2 for stereo) to get a more shapable driven rotary tone. For this I'd use my AxeII in the Axe3 loop to blend in a rotary (or 2) into 2 dedicated rotary amp blocks back into the main Axe3 signal. Last stop is to try routing the rotary signal out to separate studio monitors (I added a 2nd pair to my interface outputs yesterday with thoughts of trying this - side note: Apple's spatial music (Atmos) sounds crazy awesome through quad config'd monitors!) and have something set up to vary the Axe2 stereo rotary signal front to back to get a full 3D circling rotary effect.

Fun stuff!

I also use the Rotary in parallel with the signal, and I add a CAB block after it

 

[sprint]

I also use the Rotary in parallel with the signal, and I add a CAB block after it

Which cab selection / Ir do you use?

 

[Greg Ferguson]

That's the way the speed control switch works IRL, actually....
View attachment 84940
Been spinning the Leslie sims since the Quadraverb GT back in the early '90s. I use 0.8Hz (48 rpm) for slow and 6.8Hz (408 rpm) for fast on mine, with a 0.833 multiplier for the rotor. Just recently dropped the rotor time constant, which makes the slow-down/speed-up 'chaos' closer to what I am used to hearing....

Since I don't use the brake, I just have bypass and slow/fast, but I have a pair of switches set up - one momentary, one latching - that work together like the two switches at either end of a hall or stairway. Momentary control of slow/fast lets me time the switching more accurately with less effort. I use the speed control quite a lot, actually....

My block channels would be Chorale, Tremolo, Stop, but it'd be easy to swap them.

What would be nice would be if the channel increment/decrement had, in addition to "Wrap", a "Reverse when the limit is reached" setting, which would allow emulating the real Leslie control.

ooOOO I see an enhancement request coming up!

 

[Greg Ferguson]

One of the last pedal hold-outs on my old board was a Strymon Lex. One of the FW updates (quite a while ago) reworked the Rotary block, and I sold that pedal. I think the Fractal rotary is really great. I use an expression controller for the rate. Yes, I know that's not how a real Leslie works, but why be constrained by reality when it's so awesomely fun to sweep the rate in real time?

The Lex is an awesome pedal. It's one of the few pedals I sold, then immediately regretted and bought again, and that pedal, and the El Capistan, are must-haves on my "old-hotness" pedal board. I'm very happy with Fractal's versions of those two block types but haven't convinced myself that it's time to divest myself of the pedal board.

 

[Piing]

Which cab selection / Ir do you use?

I am currently using these two, hard panned (remember to change Input Mode to Stereo):

• Factory2 #522 4x12 Brit 70s GB 121A
• Factory2 #552 4x12 Brit 70s GB 121G

But to be honest, I did not spent time selecting them. It was a quasi-random choice.

You can fine-tune with the CAB preamp Tone Controls and Filters

 

[jefferski]

I’ve quite literally replaced large Leslie setups of touring artists with Axe-Fxes. Complete success and happiness in all instances.

The rotary block sounds phenomenal. But it did in the II as well.

Nice Roggae drop in there ;-)

I almost always have a Rotary in my presets; in fact I prefer it over Chorus for just about any subtle modulation sounds.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Personally, I like the fast speed in the Axe, but slow, which is majestic IRL, sounds artificial to me, phase-y. Haven't tried the Strymon, Ventris, Eventide, or Leslie versions.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

Personally, I like the fast speed in the Axe, but slow, which is majestic IRL, sounds artificial to me, phase-y. Haven't tried the Strymon, Ventris, Eventide, or Leslie versions.

I boosted the rotor length parameter to 50%, which I think made the horn have a bit more throb like I've heard from the real cabinets at slow speed. At high speed I think 40%-ish works nicely.

 

[sprint]

I am currently using these two, hard panned (remember to change Input Mode to Stereo):

Factory2 #522 4x12 Brit 70s GB 121A
Factory2 #552 4x12 Brit 70s GB 121G

But to be honest, I did not spent time selecting them. It was a quasi-random choice.

You can fine-tune with the CAB preamp Tone Controls and Filters

View attachment 84943

Thanks for sharing - sounds good. Cab is definitely needed after a rotary with a higher drive setting.

Below is a sample of my preferred routing with rotary bypassing main line amp/drive/cab.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

I looked through the various FX3 factory presets in the Wiki that mention using a rotary. On the FX3 all but one, "Ham & Cheese", have the rotary after the Amp/Cab blocks. That one has a split between the Amp and Cab that feeds many other blocks including the rotary.

The factory preset's numbers are not necessarily correct because of the 0 or 1-based preset setting, plus some might have moved around during the recent preset changes. Their names are:

• 049 - CAROL ANN OD-2
• 030 - OCTOPLEX' GARDEN
• 040 - CENTRIFUGE
• 044 - U-VIBE AND ROTARY
• 054 - DREAM SEQUENCES
• 127 - HAM & CHEESE // HAM & FM3
• 009 - ROTARY SCENES
• 036 - ROTARY TAPEVERB
• 090 - SEA OF TRANQUILITY

Maybe @FractalAudio can chime in with some insight into whether the model was designed with a particular position in a preset in mind. I'm sure that the real determining factor is what our ears tell us.