I Can't Get Past Enjoying How Great The Axe Fx III Sounds To Go Any Further Learning More About It!

TSJMajesty

Fractal Fanatic
So I've had mine for a full 6 months now, and I play it every single day, at least for a couple hours (much to the detriment of other things), and I'm still so content with how it sounds to do much more than find a factory preset I like, tweak it maybe just a little, play that for a few days, find another, lather, rinse, repeat. Jeez this is an absolutely amazing piece of gear!

My guitar playing has improved more in that time than in the last 10 years, I'm quite certain. I'm working on building some cabs for the Celestion F12-X200 speakers, and once they're done, I truly expect to sell my Mesa amps & cabs and the other misc effects I have. It is that satisfying.

The effects give me the fullest, most spacial, stereo experience I've ever heard, and the various amp tones are so diverse & full-bodied..., there's just not enough adjectives in my limited vocabulary to describe how tickled I am with owning a piece of gear like this!

If ANYONE is on the fence about buying one, stop contemplating, and go read the reviews on their website. If that doesn't get you to fork out the 3 grand for it and an FC controller and an expression pedal, then go watch some videos while considering this: Just one, high-end amp of the caliber in the Axe Fx III can easily set you back that amount, and even if it's a great, versatile, channel-switching amp (which it should be for that amount of money) that can get you all the tones you want, you still won't have any effects, let alone studio-grade ones, and a lot of those amps' versatility can still only be tapped by twisting knobs or changing EQ's, so you'll still be limited to whatever the footswitch that comes with said amp can do, in a live setting. Which means its versatility is still light years behind the Axe Fx III. AND, you'd still need aNOTHer amp to play in stereo!

For these reasons, this is not only the most inspiring music gear I've ever purchased, it's also actually the cheapest!! To me, it's a no brainer! GAWD I LOVE this thing!!!
 
Just wait until you get those cabs built, crank it up, and start pushing some air. Nothing like a couple 4x12s but it's still very cool
 
I'm with you,

I'm sort of hoping that Firmware updates (for a while at least) are all around things other than amp modelling as it's now so damn good! Cygnus has made the sounds I was chasing (for both guitar and bass) possible and doable. Before, I was struggling to get a good bass sound - now, it's easy!

Thanks
Pauly

So I've had mine for a full 6 months now, and I play it every single day, at least for a couple hours (much to the detriment of other things), and I'm still so content with how it sounds to do much more than find a factory preset I like, tweak it maybe just a little, play that for a few days, find another, lather, rinse, repeat. Jeez this is an absolutely amazing piece of gear!

My guitar playing has improved more in that time than in the last 10 years, I'm quite certain. I'm working on building some cabs for the Celestion F12-X200 speakers, and once they're done, I truly expect to sell my Mesa amps & cabs and the other misc effects I have. It is that satisfying.

The effects give me the fullest, most spacial, stereo experience I've ever heard, and the various amp tones are so diverse & full-bodied..., there's just not enough adjectives in my limited vocabulary to describe how tickled I am with owning a piece of gear like this!

If ANYONE is on the fence about buying one, stop contemplating, and go read the reviews on their website. If that doesn't get you to fork out the 3 grand for it and an FC controller and an expression pedal, then go watch some videos while considering this: Just one, high-end amp of the caliber in the Axe Fx III can easily set you back that amount, and even if it's a great, versatile, channel-switching amp (which it should be for that amount of money) that can get you all the tones you want, you still won't have any effects, let alone studio-grade ones, and a lot of those amps' versatility can still only be tapped by twisting knobs or changing EQ's, so you'll still be limited to whatever the footswitch that comes with said amp can do, in a live setting. Which means its versatility is still light years behind the Axe Fx III. AND, you'd still need aNOTHer amp to play in stereo!

For these reasons, this is not only the most inspiring music gear I've ever purchased, it's also actually the cheapest!! To me, it's a no brainer! GAWD I LOVE this thing!!!
 
I'm running an FM3, but have not even made it through 10% of the presets yet.
The bare bones tones are so F'ing great that I get sucked into them. Maybe someday
I'll get to the icing on the cake. :)
 
For these reasons, this is not only the most inspiring music gear I've ever purchased, it's also actually the cheapest!! To me, it's a no brainer! GAWD I LOVE this thing!!!
There's a lot of truth in this statement. I went from this rig:

Bogner XTC head
4x12 cabinet
Wedge monitor (vocals & acoustic instruments)
Rack w/mixer, tuner, loadbox/IR, power conditioner & multi-FX (x2)
MIDI pedalboard
Amp pedalboard (XTCs footswitch unit is comprehensive)

To this:

Wedge monitor x2
MIDI pedalboard
Rack w/ power conditioner and Axe-FX 3

That dropped about 150 pounds, got a lot smaller, fewer cables to run and connections to make, and a lot less $$$ being hauled around.
 
Last edited:
So I've had mine for a full 6 months now, and I play it every single day, at least for a couple hours (much to the detriment of other things), and I'm still so content with how it sounds to do much more than find a factory preset I like, tweak it maybe just a little, play that for a few days, find another, lather, rinse, repeat. Jeez this is an absolutely amazing piece of gear!

My guitar playing has improved more in that time than in the last 10 years, I'm quite certain. I'm working on building some cabs for the Celestion F12-X200 speakers, and once they're done, I truly expect to sell my Mesa amps & cabs and the other misc effects I have. It is that satisfying.

The effects give me the fullest, most spacial, stereo experience I've ever heard, and the various amp tones are so diverse & full-bodied..., there's just not enough adjectives in my limited vocabulary to describe how tickled I am with owning a piece of gear like this!

If ANYONE is on the fence about buying one, stop contemplating, and go read the reviews on their website. If that doesn't get you to fork out the 3 grand for it and an FC controller and an expression pedal, then go watch some videos while considering this: Just one, high-end amp of the caliber in the Axe Fx III can easily set you back that amount, and even if it's a great, versatile, channel-switching amp (which it should be for that amount of money) that can get you all the tones you want, you still won't have any effects, let alone studio-grade ones, and a lot of those amps' versatility can still only be tapped by twisting knobs or changing EQ's, so you'll still be limited to whatever the footswitch that comes with said amp can do, in a live setting. Which means its versatility is still light years behind the Axe Fx III. AND, you'd still need aNOTHer amp to play in stereo!

For these reasons, this is not only the most inspiring music gear I've ever purchased, it's also actually the cheapest!! To me, it's a no brainer! GAWD I LOVE this thing!!!


I'm surprised you found any presets you liked, I dont think I found a single one. To be perfectly honest though thats pretty normal, I am pretty fussy and its the same story with almost all the gear I use, especially ones with an extensive preset library.

The reason I bring that up is because I strongly believe that the presets don't do it justice. They aren't even 1% as good as the unit can sound so definitely peel yourself away and get stuck in. Its very rewarding!
 
oh and regarding:

My guitar playing has improved more in that time than in the last 10 years, I'm quite certain.

AND

For these reasons, this is not only the most inspiring music gear I've ever purchased, it's also actually the cheapest!! To me, it's a no brainer! GAWD I LOVE this thing!!!

Absolutely agree.
 
Last edited:
I actually set out to audition to all the factory presets without any other playing or practice.
It took me 4 days. I color coded each preset that I liked. Clean, Crunch, Lead, Special Effect.
This box is truly amazing, and the good people behind the box are even more amazing!

I'll say it again. Fractal gear has been the best gear I have ever purchased.
This forum and the people here are one component that make the experience SO great!

Thanks Team FAS!
 
I used to set aside days to just tweak tones/mix my album, post-Cygnus all I'm doing is recording the final versions of the songs from their demo form. No more searching for tones; everything I need/want is good to go.

I'm at the point where this thing could stop receiving modeling-based updates and I'd be perfectly fine with that.
 
The reason I bring that up is because I strongly believe that the presets don't do it justice. They aren't even 1% as good as the unit can sound so definitely peel yourself away and get stuck in. Its very rewarding!
I'll may get there, but even guys who have been using Fractal gear for awhile have said they never cared for factory presets until Cygnus. I'm really content, so far. And that inspiration the Axe Fx has given me, that I mentioned, is translating into spending most of my time improving my chops. So the deeper tweaking isn't enough of a priority right now.
Also, I'm pretty certain I find the factory presets so good, because I came directly to the AFIII from basic Boss stompboxes. Never even owned a high-quality multi-effects unit. (But I do now!!)
 
I'll may get there, but even guys who have been using Fractal gear for awhile have said they never cared for factory presets until Cygnus. I'm really content, so far. And that inspiration the Axe Fx has given me, that I mentioned, is translating into spending most of my time improving my chops. So the deeper tweaking isn't enough of a priority right now.
Also, I'm pretty certain I find the factory presets so good, because I came directly to the AFIII from basic Boss stompboxes. Never even owned a high-quality multi-effects unit. (But I do now!!)
Thats a great point I havent actually revisited any of them since the update. I will do that once I have finished redecorating and my axe is setup again. Thanks for the nudge.
 
Thats a great point I havent actually revisited any of them since the update.
I'd say that's pretty important. I only got my III last December, so my ears didn't really get "burned in" to how the Ares FW sounded before Cygnus came along, and then the fully re-worked presets, but I even noticed a big difference in not just the sound, but also the factory presets.
 
I'm at 16.0. Is there a good reason to update?
I think there were a few re-re-worked factory presets (Limelight may have been one) that got redone around 16.03, or thereabouts, and they won't work on anything newer. That was the reason I updated beyond Cygnus, but there's other reasons, some of which may be important to you.
To find out what all was changed, read the release notes. They're in the Wiki.
 
Well said man. For me, getting the Axe III was a moment of finally realizing the “sound in my head”. I was never quite satisfied before. This was a couple years ago and initially I did not vibe with the factory presets but spent some time learning how to tweak. Not deep editing but getting educated enough to understand the key parameters. I’m glad I did but now with the updated factory presets and resources like fremen’s stuff I just pick up and play, occasionally turn a few knobs. Never been so satisfied with any gear purchase in the past.
 
Back
Top Bottom