Thinking of upgrading…need advice

D20

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I’m currently using an AX8 for recording and live but need more power. I’m thinking of upgrading but I’m struggling to throw down on an axe 3. Is it REALLY night and different from a 2 xl+? I just want to financially make the right move as axe 2 and MFC are pretty cheap at the moment. I mainly play funk metal to praise and worship stuff.

Just kinda needing some help as to what I might gain with a 3 besides more power?

anyone else been in my position?
I should note that I’ve owned a 2 before and last time I bought one a few months later the 3 came out. 🤦🏻‍♂️
I know that is the way of technology though. Lol.
 
I can't speak for the gen 2 models, as my first Fractal was the III.

But holy hell it's amazing. Zero complaints, it's easily worth 10 times what it sells for. Ares was ahead of the pack in terms of sound, and now Cygnus widens the lead so much I have no idea how anybody else can come close to competing. The thing that Cygnus nailed is the feel. When you record Ares and Cygnus side by side, you might think "no big deal", but when you actually play them, it's night and day.

I honestly have no desire to ever own another tube amp, honestly.

Oh also, the III has way more power than any other Fractal unit they've ever made. I'd say go for it, and if you end up thinking it's not worth the money you can always sell it for a decent amount (the resale value is pretty high at the moment).
 
I’m currently using an AX8 for recording and live but need more power. I’m thinking of upgrading but I’m struggling to throw down on an axe 3. Is it REALLY night and different from a 2 xl+? I just want to financially make the right move as axe 2 and MFC are pretty cheap at the moment. I mainly play funk metal to praise and worship stuff.

Just kinda needing some help as to what I might gain with a 3 besides more power?

anyone else been in my position?
I should note that I’ve owned a 2 before and last time I bought one a few months later the 3 came out. 🤦🏻‍♂️
I know that is the way of technology though. Lol.
Yes, it is.
i had everything since the Standard, with the exception of the FM3.
Axe3 is light years away.
 
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Keep in mind you can buy a 3 but youll need some sort of foot controller whether its the FC6/12 or some other 3rd party, so that adds to the cost.

I used an ax8 for the last like 4 or so years. then bought a kemper, then went back to the ax8, then got a fm3/fc6 last year and just bought a 3. The 3 to ax8 is a large step in sound not only from the new drives/delays/other effects models but the amp models sound a bit more polished. Its not Night and Day like a kidney bean line 6 pod to a AF3 but its an improvement. The biggest improvement for me was getting the brains off the floor. My ax8 is drenched in beer and liquor and other things, granted it never once stopped working, but its some piece of mind knowing the real money is safe/safer behind me.
 
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I recently upgraded from an Axe-Fx II with MFC-101 to an Axe-Fx III with FC-12 (and there is also an FM3 on the way now). Although I am not much into praise and worship music, I feel like our approach to sound might be quite similar because I am mostly into post-metal. So, I combine high-gain sounds with lots of textures and effects.


I am immensely happy with the upgrade. The amps in Cygnus are wonderful, but the biggest difference for me personally are the effects and routing options. The reverbs alone are worth it to me.
 
but need more power.
In what way? Don’t discount the FM3. It’s surprising what sounds it can create. Between Cooper Carter, Burgs, Andy Woods and Leon Todd you can get a really good idea of the sounds the FM3 can generate in the videos.

I have both the FM3 and the FX3 and, yeah, the FX3 can handle huge presets but a lot of times I can take them apart and reduce them to the essential sound I want in that preset and it will run on the FM3 nicely.
 
I have both the FM3 and the FX3 and, yeah, the FX3 can handle huge presets but a lot of times I can take them apart and reduce them to the essential sound I want in that preset and it will run on the FM3 nicely.
I spent all of Saturday doing this. I had about 17 or so presets that I boiled down to work well on the FM3. It was fun; I figured out basically that I had a ton of superfluous blocks so I ended up RE-porting them back to my Axe III. It's easy to waste DSP when you've got as much to spare as the Axe III gives you. Hopefully there won't be any issue with Cygnus taking up more DSP, though, because that would be a bummer if it came at the cost of 5-10% of available DSP on the FM3.
 
Rumor is that Cygnus is less CPU-intensive than Ares, so the FM3 should see a decent performance boost.

Allegedly...
Whoa! That would be great news. I wonder, then; I suppose we could check this with the Axe Fx III; load up an old FW and compare DSP usage with Cygnus' DSP usage. Eh. Too much work. I'll just be surprised when it comes :)
 
Keep in mind you can buy a 3 but youll need some sort of foot controller whether its the FC6/12 or some other 3rd party, so that adds to the cost.
That's something I never thought about before taking the jump. I knew they were there, but didn't realize how much I would miss having FC. Even just for home use and practice.

The other thing was monitoring, but OP has that covered already. For me it was something I hadn't ironed out and in the end is quite expensive, short of going the Alto/Headrush route.

The 3 is my first foray into FAS, and it is inspiring. No lack of tools on board.
 
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In what way? Don’t discount the FM3. It’s surprising what sounds it can create. Between Cooper Carter, Burgs, Andy Woods and Leon Todd you can get a really good idea of the sounds the FM3 can generate in the videos.

I have both the FM3 and the FX3 and, yeah, the FX3 can handle huge presets but a lot of times I can take them apart and reduce them to the essential sound I want in that preset and it will run on the FM3 nicely.

I will say if I take the plunge I'll definitely get an Axe 3. I think I'll run into the same issue I have now with my AX8. Not enough power to run multiple reverbs, delays, drives, etc.

I already at church have to not use effects in my chain that I'd like to or have to build a preset that is dumbed down so to speak. I always find myself going...well, I'm out of CPU so scratch that idea.

You guys are making it really easy for me to get pushed towards the Axe 3 though! :laughing:

I have a recording setup that I use for building presets too so I'm covered in that area. Also have a Yamaha DRX-10 that I use for cranking it as well. :)
 
Whoa! That would be great news. I wonder, then; I suppose we could check this with the Axe Fx III; load up an old FW and compare DSP usage with Cygnus' DSP usage. Eh. Too much work. I'll just be surprised when it comes :)
You can't compare Cygnus CPU usage to what Ares had and extrapolate that to the same sort of savings when Cygnus hits the FM3. Part of the Cygnus porting process to FM3 is sure to be optimization. Once it's landed and been through several revisions and they're happy with the optimizations they'll probably push those back to the FX3. At least that's what I'd want to do if I was involved.
 
Honestly I think all of us have been in your position. I struggled with do I need an XL when I had my Ultra and whether I needed the III when I had my XL. I have never regretted the upgrades. Ease of use has been the biggest step up impacting me.
 
I spent all of Saturday doing this. I had about 17 or so presets that I boiled down to work well on the FM3. It was fun; I figured out basically that I had a ton of superfluous blocks so I ended up RE-porting them back to my Axe III. It's easy to waste DSP when you've got as much to spare as the Axe III gives you. Hopefully there won't be any issue with Cygnus taking up more DSP, though, because that would be a bummer if it came at the cost of 5-10% of available DSP on the FM3.
There's only been one preset I couldn't figure out how to shoehorn into the FM3, and it had dual amp blocks of the same amp with all four channels in each block being used. If we had eight channels/block or could use eight scene controllers I could have done it, or I could have split it into two presets on the FM3, but I didn't like the preset that much.
 
I should note that I’ve owned a 2 before and last time I bought one a few months later the 3 came out.
I will say if I take the plunge I'll definitely get an Axe 3. I think I'll run into the same issue I have now with my AX8. Not enough power to run multiple reverbs, delays, drives, etc.
Sounds like you've probably already talked yourself into getting the III (and FC6 probably) - but it's slightly disturbing that you're seemingly doing so believing it will still not be 'enough'?

I've no doubt each successive product upgrade offers something 'more' than it's predecessor but if the fundementals are still not going to be enough to suit you I'm baffled to why you'd even consider buying it.

If you know you definitely want a Fractal modeller then I'd say the only logical solution would be looking more at planning your presets a bit more - mix up those big over-crowded presets into multiple presets that can cater for multiple songs ...... songs (or in in the style of) A, B, C, F, G can be played using preset 1 and songs in the style of D, E and H can be played with Preset 2 etc. That allows you to cut the unneeded FX type blocks out and double up on options for the ones you want/need.
 
...I'd say the only logical solution would be looking more at planning your presets a bit more - mix up those big over-crowded presets into multiple presets that can cater for multiple songs ...... songs (or in in the style of) A, B, C, F, G can be played using preset 1 and songs in the style of D, E and H can be played with Preset 2 etc. That allows you to cut the unneeded FX type blocks out and double up on options for the ones you want/need.
That was what I thought too.
 
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