Switched from Helix to Axe Fx III

[Tremonti]

Nah I have an AX3 and FM3 and the Stomp gets used, Size, ease of use, quick adjustments, 4 cable method with a great head...it’s a very useful tool.

Can't beat the size

 

[FXFanatic1!]

Quite some time ago I let a friend of mine know about the Fractal products as he had bought a Helix and wasn't completely happy with it. It wasn't that it was particularly bad, and in fact he quite enjoyed it, but he just felt there was something missing. Hence he bought into the Fractal family and at this time owns both an FX3 and also a FM3 and feels like nothing is now missing.

FM9 Turbo!

 

[Steve T]

I went from kemper for 8 years, bought an axe 2 recently, didn't think it was as good as the kemper, sold it, bought an axe fx 3 now the kempers going.
Sounds strange but to my ears the axe 2 was more transparent than the kemper, with much more touch dynamics, and it actually made my playing sound completely shit.
I've been a rack guy for 20 years and the axe fx 2 reminded me of when I just had a marshall, kind of lo fi sounding. I didnt like the noise gate either.
The kemper was more studio sounding but lacked in other areas.

The 3 sounds like a cross between the kemper and the 2. I love it.

Its so much better sounding than the 2.

 

[Steve T]

For us in the UK and AxeFx3 with an FC12 is nearly 3 times the price of a Helix Rack and Board, plus you get excellent deals throughout the year, this has a massive impact when going Fractal here no matter how much better the Fractal stuff is

Agreed.
I must say I'm shifting my kemper to claw some money back that I spent on the 3.
But then again I had the kemper 8 years and reckon il get 1400 back with the foot controller.
I think I paid 1600 all told and ive had it 8 years.
Damn good investment but the tech is too old and slow now.
I'd get the 3 anyway. Resale value is good.
I will get the 4 if and when it comes out.
I'm saving already.

 

[Bruce Sokolovic]

Agreed.
I must say I'm shifting my kemper to claw some money back that I spent on the 3.
But then again I had the kemper 8 years and reckon il get 1400 back with the foot controller.
I think I paid 1600 all told and ive had it 8 years.
Damn good investment but the tech is too old and slow now.
I'd get the 3 anyway. Resale value is good.
I will get the 4 if and when it comes out.
I'm saving already.

Move that kemper before that IK plugin drops. That can’t be good for profiler resale prices. Good luck.

 

[diegoos]

Hello, after hearing so many good comments, I decided to pull the trigger and buy the FM9. The sound of the amps and cabs is definitely better, however I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but the Helix effects seem much better (reverbs, delays, etc) (v3.15). any advice?, I thought to sell my Helix after receiving the FM9 but I'm not so sure anymore, I also use it with my Marshall JVM (4CM) using only the effects.

 

[sick pickle]

Hello, after hearing so many good comments, I decided to pull the trigger and buy the FM9. The sound of the amps and cabs is definitely better, however I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but the Helix effects seem much better (reverbs, delays, etc) (v3.15). any advice?, I thought to sell my Helix after receiving the FM9 but I'm not so sure anymore, I also use it with my Marshall JVM (4CM) using only the effects.

Interesting - I would say that the effects sound just as good as anything on Helix - especially the reverb - so much more lush and realistic IMO.
Had a Helix for 6 years

 

[Bruce Sokolovic]

Helix fx are good but the ones in the fractal are equally as good. Learn to make yourself both series and parallel chains, you may get better results.

 

[chris]

Hello, after hearing so many good comments, I decided to pull the trigger and buy the FM9. The sound of the amps and cabs is definitely better, however I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but the Helix effects seem much better (reverbs, delays, etc) (v3.15). any advice?, I thought to sell my Helix after receiving the FM9 but I'm not so sure anymore, I also use it with my Marshall JVM (4CM) using only the effects.

Describe “seems much better” and we can help you better.

 

[diegoos]

Hello, I was able to improve the sound of the delays and revebs, in the FM9 it seems that it is necessary to increase the mix (80 - 90%) and compensate with the level, I still miss some effects such as multipass delay and univibe of the helix. As for the helix shimmer, I have been able to achieve something similar with capricorn and gemini. Some delays have distortion in the repetitions, is it normal? I must say that I miss the helix user interface, with helix I never had to use the PC editor, with the FM9 it is essential.

I leave you a comparative photo.

I'm impressed with everything I can put in a single preset

 

[diegoos]

Describe “seems much better” and we can help you better.

the delays are lost in the mix, I have improved that by increasing the mix to almost 90% and compensating with the level. The FM9 delays sound very high definition, it lacks a bit of that analog character that I hear with the helix.

 

[fcs101]

Hello, I was able to improve the sound of the delays and revebs, in the FM9 it seems that it is necessary to increase the mix (80 - 90%) and compensate with the level, I still miss some effects such as multipass delay and univibe of the helix. As for the helix shimmer, I have been able to achieve something similar with capricorn and gemini. Some delays have distortion in the repetitions, is it normal? I must say that I miss the helix user interface, with helix I never had to use the PC editor, with the FM9 it is essential.

Sounds like you are just having normal "growing pains" of adjusting to a new system.

As for your question about distortion in the delay, the delay block will repeat whatever is put in. So, if you are sending a distorted signal, then you'll get distorted delay trails. If you're hearing that with a clean signal, then I'd suspect you're using some sort of bit reduction to get a lo-fi delay sound.

If you want clean delays with a distorted signal, then you need to experiment with placing the delay in parallel as opposed to serial.

Good luck!

 

[Paulzx]

Hello, after hearing so many good comments, I decided to pull the trigger and buy the FM9. The sound of the amps and cabs is definitely better, however I don't know if I'm doing something wrong but the Helix effects seem much better (reverbs, delays, etc) (v3.15). any advice?, I thought to sell my Helix after receiving the FM9 but I'm not so sure anymore, I also use it with my Marshall JVM (4CM) using only the effects.

Interesting to hear, would you say the amp sims on the FM9 are much better or not much in it?
The FM9 is tempting but I've come to the conclusion reading a lot of these posts where people are less blown away than they were expecting,
that there really can't be much in it between the top modellers anymore, not enough to be night and day difference or really obvious.

The Helix interface can't really be beaten, everyone struggles with that when they move, I think the fractals have deeper set of tuning variables if you can spend the time looking at that. The Helix has a big update coming which has been described as a game changer so that will be a good time to do a comparison to the FM9.

 

[diegoos]

Interesting to hear, would you say the amp sims on the FM9 are much better or not much in it?
The FM9 is tempting but I've come to the conclusion reading a lot of these posts where people are less blown away than they were expecting,
that there really can't be much in it between the top modellers anymore, not enough to be night and day difference or really obvious.

The Helix interface can't really be beaten, everyone struggles with that when they move, I think the fractals have deeper set of tuning variables if you can spend the time looking at that. The Helix has a big update coming which has been described as a game changer so that will be a good time to do a comparison to the FM9.

I'm not sure if the amp simulations are better or it really is the cabs but they certainly sound better in the FM9. however the variety and quality of effects (drives, delays, mods, reverbs) appear to be better in Helix and definitely don't require as much editing to sound good. In general terms I think FM9 is better than Helix but it requires a lot more editing. If line6 manages to improve cabs it could beat fractal .

 

[diegoos]

I'm not sure if the amp simulations are better or it really is the cabs but they certainly sound better in the FM9. however the variety and quality of effects (drives, delays, mods, reverbs) appear to be better in Helix and definitely don't require as much editing to sound good. In general terms I think FM9 is better than Helix but it requires a lot more editing. If line6 manages to improve cabs it could beat fractal .

if you want to have the best of the best you could use an FM3 with an HX effects in the effects loop.

 

[diegoos]

About the FM9's user interface, it's not as bad as people say. It's intimidating at first, however after a week I can already create presets without using the pc editor and without even reading the manual, surely it can still improve, but it's not that bad.

 

[diegoos]

I finally sold my Helix LT unbelievably pretty much for what I paid for it 4 years ago, kept the backpack for the FM9, my FM9 sounds a little better and after almost 8 years Helix may be at the end of its cycle. I hope line6 has something new for January in namm.

 

[rog]

About the FM9's user interface, it's not as bad as people say. It's intimidating at first, however after a week I can already create presets without using the pc editor and without even reading the manual, surely it can still improve, but it's not that bad.

My number hasn't come up on the wait list, yet, so I'm still using my Helix. As a Helix user, were you a big user of snapshots? And if so, how do you feel the Fractal system of scenes compares? I feel like snapshots are the best part of the Helix, and I feel like I have to be ready to have something that doesn't function in quite the same way in order to have that extra 5% amp sound and feel that fractal users are always talking about - a sacrifice that I'm prepared to make.

 

[diegoos]

My number hasn't come up on the wait list, yet, so I'm still using my Helix. As a Helix user, were you a big user of snapshots? And if so, how do you feel the Fractal system of scenes compares? I feel like snapshots are the best part of the Helix, and I feel like I have to be ready to have something that doesn't function in quite the same way in order to have that extra 5% amp sound and feel that fractal users are always talking about - a sacrifice that I'm prepared to make.

yes, use snapshots a lot, scenes are way behind in comparison. for example, in Helix I could use a single amp per preset and change the gain, volume and EQ settings for each snapshot and get clean and distorted sounds, in the FM9 it is impossible so I use two amps for that and change them per scene, fractal also has channels for each block but these generate gaps when changing scenes so for me they are unusable. Generally speaking scenes allow you to turn blocks on and off, snapshots also allow you to change every parameter of every block (hundreds of parameters per snapshot).

 

[rog]

yes, use snapshots a lot, scenes are way behind in comparison. for example, in Helix I could use a single amp per preset and change the gain, volume and EQ settings for each snapshot and get clean and distorted sounds, in the FM9 it is impossible so I use two amps for that and change them per scene, fractal also has channels for each block but these generate gaps when changing scenes so for me they are unusable. Generally speaking scenes allow you to turn blocks on and off, snapshots also allow you to change every parameter of every block (hundreds of parameters per snapshot).

Yeah, that was my understanding, but wanted to get the opinion of someone who very recently used the Helix. Hope it's worth it, for both of our sakes!