Question about Axe FX III and beyond

The Raven

The Raven

Inspired
Hopefully, this question doesn't seem trivial, but its been on my mind for a while, so I figured I'd ask:

With the release of the Axe Fx II XL , and all the new components incorporated into it, i was just wondering if there were plans to make these new features (more storage, outputs, etc.) come stock in the next iterations of the Axe Fx, or will the Axe Fx III (or Ultra 2.0, whatever it is dubbed) have "standard" and "XL" versions as well?

I own the Mark I Axe Fx II and the older MFC model, and am more than happy with what I have, and I'm well aware that it may be a LONG time before the next iterations of Axe's are out, but I'm just curious. The price difference between the Mark II and the ultra is negligible for what you get, and part of me is REALLY wanting to get an XL and new MFC.

The other part of me, however, wants to wait for whatever the next stage in the process is, as I have no problems with my Axe setup now, I just think the XL looks freaking awesome. This probably sounds stupid, but I'm the guy that always buys the newest Apple product and then, a week later, they release the next iteration of that product. Not saying Fractal has a habit of doing that, and firmware updates negate that problem for the most part, but if I could save up for the next few years or whatever, I could get the same (or better) features as the XL in whatever amazing product comes next from Cliff's amazing business.

Sorry if this has been discussed elsewhere or if its a crappy question. I know everybody at Fractal works like crazy, and its for that reason that I only want to spend what otherwise would have been "amplifier" funds on Fractal products (and Matrix poweramps, more guitars, etc.)

Thanks in advance
 
I don't really think that none of this matters...

Anyway, Cliff could have released an Axe FX3 already, but that's why he's awesome. I Spent 2300 Euros in a product that Is still upgrading towards its maximum potencial. When we get there, maybe an Axe FX3 will make sense. Axe FX3 shoudn't be a matter of "features and chiches", should be about SOUND, that an Axe FXII couldn't replicate.
 
It's pretty much a guessing game but as far as previous form goes, referring to the step up from the Standard to the Ultra, and then the Ultra to the II, the next incarnation will incorporate some requested features, and a lot of features that will surpass expectations.

I'm not counting the XL in this as the step up from the II to the XL was more of an expansion of the II than a redesign.

It's also a guessing game. I genuinely can't see where FAS can go next with the Axe FX in it's current form.
 
Well I think that the first gen were the building blocks and the II was the refinement of the hardware and addition of the features that seemed to be the most requested/logical. The XL is probably driven mostly by IR's becoming extremely instrumental to the way that patches are made and with literally unlimited IR combinations possible thanks to the libraries, user base and IR mixing tools it just makes sense to add more slots.

But the other thing that drove the move from the first gen to the II was that more processing power was needed to do what Cliff wanted to implement for the amp modeling. Now he could come up with another idea and bunch of code, but if memory serves correctly he is still using the same DSP because of the low latency and processing power. Unless there is a new DSP which is not only faster, but has the same or lower latency than he's still going to be stuck with the same DSP. And don't forget that DSP's are not the same as CPU's or even GPU's where the market is constantly kicking out new and faster every month; the TigerSHARC is still so far beyond what most hardware requires that the development is probably slanted more towards cost reduction than improving performance. Case in point, the new line of DSP's had faster clocks, but had poor latency and I believe they had skimped on some other areas, but the tell tale sign was the price is about 1/10th of that of the TigerSHARC.

So from a purely 100% speculation based perspective as someone who has no idea what Cliff is doing or where he is going I can't say anything for certain, but I would think that it would come down to two factors; 1. an advance in DSP performance, 2. Cliff has one of his epiphanies and comes up with a whole new way of modeling that requires more power.
 
Cliff is always coming up with epiphanies and ideas about how to make the modelling better. Some of these probably need more computations than previous firmwares.

I imagine that when the hardware in the II/XL starts running out of horsepower, that's when we'll see the III.
 
I'll comment while I move this (and all 'when is the Axe III coming out from people who are considering an upgrade...)

I would say most players use 50-60% of the CPU capabilities AT BEST. We have power users who make these uber-presets who bump up those numbers. And people are always coming up with new an innovative ways to meld all these things together. But the bottom line is that the Axe II is WAY more than the majority of the population uses (remember the days when people would buy a new PC because of advertised CPU speeds, and do nothing more than use it as a racy picture viewer and a deck of cards?)

I'm sure there's a percentage of Cliff's skull that is pondering a situation where CPU is not an issue, and code is not limited by hardware. But even if this were so, can you imagine things being significantly better than they are now?

My opinion is that refinement of the present product is more important than developing a shiny new box that will only feed the 'I need the biggest and best' crowd. I've made comments regarding how the IR's can be...quirky. How it can be difficult to wade through the boggling amount of IR cabs trying to find the right one for that amp. This is one product that I can honestly say that it has improved with *almost* each update (that *smooth* one I thought was a step back....) Sometimes the pace of improvement makes it very difficult to keep up with each new development, and adjust accordingly, but this is a personal choice, not something I would want to restrict Fractal on.

It's a credit to the company that people keep asking for an Axe III. That they so believe in a vision that Fractal might have that would be better than what exists. And willing to pay for it before it ships.
 
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