[Solved] Do I even need an Axe-FX?

If you can afford it, whatever that means to you, a hardware unit will be more straightforward and reliable in use, especially if you gig or jam out of the house, or think you might want to.

Between the III and the FM3, the III has fewer limitations; both will sound excellent. The III will probably want a footswitch, probably one of the FCs or an RJT, to take advantage of all that the III can do. You may or may not want a footswitch with the FM3, easier for live use, but less compact.

I enjoyed plugins for a fair while, but eventually I did want a more jamable/gigable rig, first a Helix, then a III. I don't regret any of those upgrades at all. Playing through the III gives me lots of joy, and much to explore.

You know all this.
You just have to make up your mind :)
 
ZaleekX said:
Well I’ll revise my question by saying that “I do want either the Axe III or the FM3. But for my specific use case, which would I find more beneficial?”

How about that?
Click to expand...

I'm only using like 5% of what the III can do, same thing I did with the II and the Ultra way back when. With the FM3, you'll get the same amp and drive tones (after upcoming firmware, anyway) as the III but it'll cost you a lot less. If you can live without the extremely elaborate presets some people make (which skate punk and hardcore don't call for anyway), I don't see a downside to this approach.

I don't see the dual amp capabilities as being particularly useful to you for recording. And the presets are cool but IMO it's better just to start scratch when it comes to amp tones. Using other people's presets for heavy rhythms has never worked out well for me. The preset creator will always be using different a instrument with different pickups compared to whatever you have...plus it's tweaked to their tastes, not yours.

Also, I've tried a lot of the Neural stuff and the feel just isn't there for me. Even my Axe-FX II way back when felt better to play though.
 
Depends on your expected use. I chose the FM3 because it's compact, built like a tank, and easy to transport to rehearsals and gigs. I don't need more than 3 foot switches at home or at gigs. Match it with a really good FRFR and there ya go! :)
 
I had my axe fx3 for probably 6 to 8 months before I tried recording acting with it. I used to record a lot and find out most convenient to just use in the box amp sims but I found it took lots is tweaking. I hardly ever record anymore but I received a request to lay down some guitar tracks on someone else’s project. I’d never tried recording with the axe fx but figured I love the way it sounds in my live rig and I was kind of excited to give it a try. The results were beyond my expectations and more importantly pretty much plug and play barely had to tweak at all. It just sounded like I’d recorded an amp. Just for fun and curiosity I tried the re-amping process ad that was always my argument for using in the box sims. I have to say… while it’s a little more prep than in the box, i figured it out just by reading the manual and the results were worth the extra effort. As far as choosing between axe fx 3 and fm3, that’s a hard call. I like to have more than I need. The thinking is, maybe I can’t foresee every possible situation or maybe in the future I’ll widen the scope of what I need this for. But for just recording straight up guitar tracks one at a time, I’m sure FM3 would also be great!
 
Hard call is right.

I've already got an AxeFX2 in a rack and all the trimmings it uses (MFC101 controller, Matrix Power amp, expression pedals etc) it's still enough to keep me satisfied and suppress (most of) the desire for an AxeFX3 tempting as it is. But I'm seriously considering getting the FM3 as well. Part curiousity/desire to use the latest firmware but also practical for slimming down the load for live use. I'm sure it could replace my AxeFX2 for home use too ... but I'm bad about letting old friends go!

Any 'live use' presets I've ever set up on the AxeFX2 will be easily reproductible on the FM3 and the lack of having a second amp block (which I used on the AF2 to switch between a clean amp and gainy amp via scenes) is not a problem now with the FM3 having channels to do the same thing.

If however I'd not already owned the AxeFX2 and this was my first foray into the Fractal gear I'm sure I'd be sorely tempted to aim high and go for the AxeFX3 over the FM3 ..... simply because 'more' would seem better. I suppose, logically thinking, it actually is 'better' because of the extra functionality, however the engine providing the tones of the 2 units is exactly the same .... and the AxeFX3 is considerably more expensive (and might require buying a midi foot controller too depending on your needs).

For your use in your home studio only I think the FM3 would be absolutely fine - if it's main use is for recording then you'll likely be already be planning to double track, layer, add some external post recording FX via your favourite plugins etc. so you'll never be stuck ....... you'd very likely be doing the exact same thing with the AxeFX as well!

I think it's only natural you're probably always going to wonder if you'd have been better to go with the big brother simply because it exists. But either unit will be very competent when it comes to convenient, real time editable and authentic sounding recording.

As for the 'really nice presets' you mention, I know there's a lot of AxeFX3 made presets with loads of blocks taking the CPU over the FM3 limit out there as well which will be added temptations - but not all third party presets are going to sound like they do on YT etc. Some might work well straight away for you but most will need a bit of a tweak here and there to suit your own monitoring, guitar and playing style. There are a good few native FM3 designed ones too though.

I'm not trying to say all third party presets are completely useless or anything but the good ones are certainly good starting points ... you will probably need to do 'something' to them to make them 'yours' so don't base your decision on what you hear on YT entirely as plug'n'play.

So my recommendation would be FM3 -
  • It's a cheaper option for you to introduce yourself to the Fractal modelling experience.
  • It may have some things missing that the AxeFX3 has but I doubt they'd make much difference to the average home player.
  • It has footswitches built in with plenty of layouts available to set up and access different things but it's also expandable using either a FC controller or a midi controller by another manufacturer.
  • If you like what you hear and feel the need to change to the AxeFX3 down the line you should have no difficulty selling the FM3 on.
 
Out of your post, the only thing that stuck out to me was:

"Mercuriall's Spark, Neural's SLO-100, or Neural's Corey Wong archetype for the funky cleans (for bass I use the PA Ampeg sims)"

Get better stuff in one place. The answer is yes.
 
ZaleekX said:
Well I’ll revise my question by saying that “I do want either the Axe III or the FM3. But for my specific use case, which would I find more beneficial?”

How about that?
Click to expand...
Would you really be here if you didn't want it?

To take a slightly different perspective from others here... there are many times I've been been very happy with my gear, yet had that itch or thought that maybe there is something better out there, whether it's a new modeler, amp, guitar, pickups, etc. I can't say I've ever regretted acting on that, least of all with Fractal products.
 
I don't have a clue; but I stopped playing with a rock cover band band that imagines itself playing "muse and similar bands" covers after 2 rehearsals....The main guitarist definitely could have benefit from a Fractal. Playing f****ng loud with a 15 W tube amp sounding like a shit and staccato when lowering input drive, (as I told him the singer would maybe like to hear herself a bit), no compressor no noise gate only reverb and some stomp boxes harsh thin and loud....add to that infinite pleasure a drummer floating at least 10bpm every 30 seconds....I ran away...not possible.
 
Just got my AxeFX 3 mk2. Here’s my 2 cents. It doesn’t matter wheather you use 3 or 300 different amps. You want the “right” tone. What does that mean? It’s personal, obviously. There are many good options out there today, and plugins are some of them. I did check out the Neural plugins and some of them sounded very good to me, but they’re kind of limited and pretty CPU heavy. If you’ve got some screaming overclocked PC and don’t run much else, maybe you’re done. Do they sound as good as the Fractal? I don’t think so, but they can sound good.

Before I got the AxeFX 3, I had an OG Kemper. Frankly, I absolutely loved that thing. Sure, it looked like a hospital’s ultrasound machine, but with the right profile installed, it sounded amazing. I didn’t ditch it because I was unhappy with the sound. (Though with the Kemper it’s all about how good the profile is.) I ditched it for two reasons. First, I missed my dual amp rig of the 90s. I’d use to stereo chorus amps to get really lush tones and sometimes I’d do high gain out of one and clean out of the other for very interesting effects. Sometimes one amp would be squeaky clean and the other laden with effects form a Digitech 2120. Fun. I saw that the Quad Cortex would allow that and it got me interested. I actually had one on order but it was over a month late and I started hearing about issues. When my brother asked if I could do some recording for him, I thought it was a perfect excuse to cancel my order and get the Fractal. The second reason was that I missed the way you could tweak an amp that isn’t quite the same with the Kemper. While the Kemper is tweakable, the parameter are nothing like a real amp. Third reason was... I was ready for a change.

Anyway, I’m only one day into it, but I really love it. The sound is pretty phenomonal. The software makes it very easy to put a patch together very quickly. It’s much better than Kemper’s editor, IMO. I say, if you have the money, why not buy the best thing you can afford? You only go around once.
 
So despite everyone’s advice. I took the plunge and bought an Axe-FX III MK II. If I don’t like it, I’ll sell it, but I figured this will have me set when it comes to recording guitars into a computer for life (or until a better one comes out...hopefully not soon). I like having more processing headroom if I ever need it in the future. I might never need the extra power, but I’ll have it if I ever do and for what I spent ($2074.99) I feel like that’s worth it to me.

Thank you for all of the posts guys, now back to practicing.
 
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