Thinking of buying a III or possibly FM9 Turbo as an upgrade for my II - Curious what folks think is most improved.

[vangrieg]

It

Send a single value on separate CC#'s and Play and Stop work as expected. The trick is to send only the "On" value for the button or switch on press and no "Off" value on release.

doesn’t matter what you send. What it does depends on previous state. There’s no on or off value. That was the reason why I ended up not using Axe-FX III live.

On Axe-FX II this worked properly, there was an on and off value.

I think that even the third party MIDI spec for the III states that the SysEx commands don’t set the state but rather simulate footswitch press event.

 

[vangrieg]

Axe owns tempo/guitar tone, DAW owns show timeline.

Whatever it is, it’s the only modeler I ever had trouble with when trying to incorporate into a band automation setup. Line 6, Boss, any nameless crap, or previous gen Fractal - everything worked as expected and was easy to set up. Both for receiving command and launching external stuff.

The rest in current gen is stellar. MIDI has been a constant stream of frustration.

 

[TG3K]

Well at least I can afford to hold onto the II for a bit and see if some of the settings can be used to get in the ballpark...

You (or any hired gun experts) will likely spend more time trying to use your AFX II settings as a starting point to get where you want with the III. I'll echo the suggestion to just start from scratch. I'm willing to bet you'll arrive at the sound you're looking for much quicker with the III than you ever did with the II. The III is remarkably easy to dial in compared to the II. Using the II presets as a baseline for new presets on the III will be an unnecessary loss of time, IMO.

 

[mr_fender]

Some of the effects settings might be close, but I'd start from scratch with the amps and drives. Those have changed quite a bit.

 

[jesussaddle]

Fingers crossed.

 

[Lolo-G]

Can’t really tell much about the Axe II, but the III turbo was the best purchase I made the past 20 years - amp wise at least. Never liked modelers a lot except for convenience and I was a die hard tube amp guy ever since. The Axe III made me sell most of my amps. Stuff feels super authentic and pleasing, amps I love for specified qualities in sound and feel behave the same on the Axe III. Amps i don’t like due to their feel I don’t like in the axe, too - but the Axe III lets me correct that if I want.

Imho it cures GAS and instead of buying new equipment all the time, I finally spend time enjoying playing and practicing. Also got rid of some guitars and kept only very specific ones to achieve certain sounds because a LP simply doesn’t sound like a single coil equipped Strat. No matter what tone I might be digging at the present day, I grab the appropriate guitar, load an appropriate amp for the job and end up having fun all evening.

Interesting feedback. The usual criticism leveled at complex modelers, in the sense of having many available options, is that you spend all your time trying to adjust settings rather than actually playing.
I agree with you; once you've mastered the hardware, you have a goldmine to explore. Beyond the excellent quality of Fractal's modeling, what I particularly appreciate is the ability to tweak the system to suit your needs. The power of the controllers combined with the scenes and channels on the blocks is simply brilliant. I don't think there's anything comparable among the competition.