dupere11497
Experienced
So my new Axe fx III arrived this afternoon. For the record, I'm quite familiar with almost all Fractal's product. I had a Standard, an Ultra, then the II when it came out, the XL and the AX8. So, I have good references to compare this big guy with. Have I've been a loyal Fractal's customer over the years? No! I confess!
I had a Helix for a couple of days. I absolutely hated it. For the last 6 months, I had a Kemper which was honestly pretty good.... but only for certain things. The amps sounds good, but there's a kind of signature sound you can hear and feel no matter what profile you use. And the effects are obviously the weak point of the Kemper.
So, with fresh ears, being away from an Axe fx for a couple of months, after listening to some clips here on the forum and on Youtube, I've decided it was time to give this new baby a try.
Out of the box, the AF3 looks fantastic. As expected, it's rock solid. The screen is really cool. I'm use to work with the front panel as I've almost never use Axe edit with my other Axe fx before so I was not lost over the process.
I have several guitars, but when testing a new unit, I always use my USA Fender Strat with a Dimarzio super distortion in the bridge. I'm only playing at home in my small home studio through Pressonus Sceptre S6 monitors. I always go first for the Plexis models. So I went with the 70, choose a 4X12 cab, the Angle (2-382) and BAM!!! It hit me right in the face!!! What the hell happen?? That was IT!!! The tone I had in my head for all those years that I was never completely able to achieve was there, on this machine. Wait a minute. It can't be! So I give the Friedmans a try! Same things! It smokes!!! I can almost smell the heat of the burning tubes inside!!! Yeah, there must be tubes in there, this has to be the secret from this evil Cliff!! So next, I choose an amp model I didn't like in the XL, but I wish I'd like, the Cameron CCV. Guess what? Yeah, it's jaw dropping!!! Thight, mean, and agressive like the real thing.
I am in shock! I mean how can it be? This is just a bigger version of the II right? With more RAM and power but still it's almost the same modeling......NOT!!! No placebo effect here, I swear! Like I said, I know how an Axe fx sounds and feel and this is by far the best experience I had pluging my guitar in a processor ever, period!!
Don't get me wrong, it's not a night and day compare to the XL. The amps sounds similar, but to me the big difference is on the frequencies precision. On the XL or the AX8, I had to low pass and High pass a big deal of frequencies on all my patches. So far, on the AF3, I have not touch any EQ in the cab section. I like to test a patch playing over a backing track to see how well it sits on the mix. Well, I have to say it sits damn well! All it needs is some tweaking on the amp eq and that's it. The lows are tight, not flubby at all. And the highs are silky smooths, it was a struggle with my XL, not anymore.
The effects are stellar, especially the reverbs, they sound big and natural. This was the weakest part of the Kemper. The pitch shifter sounds awesome too. I love the tri-chorus being a 80's die hard fan regarding guitar tone.
The clean tones are amazing! The high gain tones are to die for. There's so much things inside that box I don't think I will live long enough to explore them all! It's the beginning of a great journey and I know, as perfect this unit sounds and feel for me right now, that M.Chase will somehow find a way to improve it yet again.
It's truly a great era to play guitar. A big thank you to the Fractal team. You hit it out of the ballpark with this one! You will make a lot of guitar players happy! Cheers!!!
I had a Helix for a couple of days. I absolutely hated it. For the last 6 months, I had a Kemper which was honestly pretty good.... but only for certain things. The amps sounds good, but there's a kind of signature sound you can hear and feel no matter what profile you use. And the effects are obviously the weak point of the Kemper.
So, with fresh ears, being away from an Axe fx for a couple of months, after listening to some clips here on the forum and on Youtube, I've decided it was time to give this new baby a try.
Out of the box, the AF3 looks fantastic. As expected, it's rock solid. The screen is really cool. I'm use to work with the front panel as I've almost never use Axe edit with my other Axe fx before so I was not lost over the process.
I have several guitars, but when testing a new unit, I always use my USA Fender Strat with a Dimarzio super distortion in the bridge. I'm only playing at home in my small home studio through Pressonus Sceptre S6 monitors. I always go first for the Plexis models. So I went with the 70, choose a 4X12 cab, the Angle (2-382) and BAM!!! It hit me right in the face!!! What the hell happen?? That was IT!!! The tone I had in my head for all those years that I was never completely able to achieve was there, on this machine. Wait a minute. It can't be! So I give the Friedmans a try! Same things! It smokes!!! I can almost smell the heat of the burning tubes inside!!! Yeah, there must be tubes in there, this has to be the secret from this evil Cliff!! So next, I choose an amp model I didn't like in the XL, but I wish I'd like, the Cameron CCV. Guess what? Yeah, it's jaw dropping!!! Thight, mean, and agressive like the real thing.
I am in shock! I mean how can it be? This is just a bigger version of the II right? With more RAM and power but still it's almost the same modeling......NOT!!! No placebo effect here, I swear! Like I said, I know how an Axe fx sounds and feel and this is by far the best experience I had pluging my guitar in a processor ever, period!!
Don't get me wrong, it's not a night and day compare to the XL. The amps sounds similar, but to me the big difference is on the frequencies precision. On the XL or the AX8, I had to low pass and High pass a big deal of frequencies on all my patches. So far, on the AF3, I have not touch any EQ in the cab section. I like to test a patch playing over a backing track to see how well it sits on the mix. Well, I have to say it sits damn well! All it needs is some tweaking on the amp eq and that's it. The lows are tight, not flubby at all. And the highs are silky smooths, it was a struggle with my XL, not anymore.
The effects are stellar, especially the reverbs, they sound big and natural. This was the weakest part of the Kemper. The pitch shifter sounds awesome too. I love the tri-chorus being a 80's die hard fan regarding guitar tone.
The clean tones are amazing! The high gain tones are to die for. There's so much things inside that box I don't think I will live long enough to explore them all! It's the beginning of a great journey and I know, as perfect this unit sounds and feel for me right now, that M.Chase will somehow find a way to improve it yet again.
It's truly a great era to play guitar. A big thank you to the Fractal team. You hit it out of the ballpark with this one! You will make a lot of guitar players happy! Cheers!!!