This thing is a beast!

DLC86

Fractal Fanatic
Hi all, time to post my review of this beast.

I've been "Fractalized" for almost 5 years now (Axe II and then AX8), a couple weeks ago I found a nice deal for a lightly used axe fx III and finally decided it was time to sell my ax8 (I felt the smell of a new floor product coming) and upgrade.

I was hesitant to spend all that money with the fear that the improvement in tone would be marginal and all I would have gotten was a colour screen and more processing power that I'd never use.
Long story short, received the axe 3 days ago and I'm glad I did it, I was so wrong!

The improvement is not marginal at all, the video comparisons on youtube don't make it justice.
Compared to the ax8 I immediately noticed a deeper bass response that never feel congested and a total absence of fizz even on high gain settings. The highs are smooth and never fatiguing, the lows are thunderous and so clean, round, dynamic and percussive that palm mutes could easily compete with a kick drum.

But the major difference is something hard to describe, the sensation under the fingers is outstanding, it makes you play more fluidly without the need to dig in with the pick and the notes you play stand out more than the rest of the "noise" you produce, it's almost like the fundamental frequencies received a volume boost.
At first I thought that maybe I had accidentally engaged a mid boost but that wasn't the case, it's definitely something the modeling does.

I had a confirmation of this yesterday while rehearsing with the full band: I set my volume exactly as I usually do but when I was playing I thought several times I was too loud; the VU meters on the mixer didn't agree with me though.
That impression was solely given by the fact that the tone was a lot more intelligible, punchy and dynamic that it cut thru the mix better than ever, just like a good real amp does.

I can already hear someone asking "so you're sayin' the ax8 does not sound like a real amp"?
Nope, it does and quite well too, but with the ax8 I had to tweak quite a bit to (partially) replicate those behaviours and it always felt like my settings were a precarious balance, any slight change in gain or eq could compromise those qualities and fuck up my tone.
On the axe III almost any setting sounds good, it's basically impossible to make it sound bad, or at least it's a task that would require some serious dedication!

I talked about the amp block only till now but if I had to list all the improvements and new features of all the blocks and UI i could write a novel, better check the manual and the wiki for those. ;)
The drive block deserves a special mention though, the improvements there are even more substantial and have taken it to another planet. Now all the drives have that nice compression and juiciness that you'd expect from boutique stompboxes, my beloved muff sounds like a real muff, finally!


So, to sum it up, do I think it's worth to upgrade from previous generation? It's a big resounding YES.
If you're a guitar tone lover you can't miss what Fractal has brought to the table this time around, the numerous improvements done and those that will come are definitely worth the expense.
If you can't afford it wait for the FM3, if it really sounds the same it will be a huge hit and Fractal would sell tons of them.

Kudos to Fractal team and Cliff, the Leo Fender of our days, for providing us such inspiring tools.

Cheers!
 
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Yes! It's an absolute monster. I totally re-designed my presets and went back to the tried and true simplicity of stomp-box style mode for more spontaneous playing. I loved my II and my AX8, but I felt like I was always juggling blocks because of CPU constraints. I haven't had a need yet to do any of that on the III. My presets hover just under 70% and that's with multiple delays, multiple plex's, multiple reverbs. The beast is alive!
 
The way you described the amp feedback and tonal response along with the fluidity of attacking is the same impression I had. It’s as if I’ve never heard my guitars , and as a result myself, sound that good.

My technique and ability didn’t change, but I can finally hear how good I am. This machine is so amazing, I hope they really stick with developing and pushing this to the limits before anything else is in the works (meaning aside from the FM3, which is part of the 3.

Congrats
 
Yeah, it’s very strange coming from a great piece of kit like the AX8 to the 3. The AX8 is Great. It just is. But this AXE-III is just insane!

...playing clean, yesterday I found myself just listening to the details of the notes in arpeggios. Each note is more defined and full bodied over the AX8. Hard to explain. That massive amount of processing power maybe? Next level top tier modeling aside, the 3 takes signal and seems to apply incredible amounts of processing to every aspect of it? Whatever they did, the results are spectacular.

Well done, FAS! If I had a cake, you could take it. :0)
 
Jumping in at the AxFX3, I have no reference to the earlier ones to compare. I am sure they were all good, though, because the 3 could not be as completely mind-blowing as it is without that.
 
Yeah, it’s very strange coming from a great piece of kit like the AX8 to the 3. The AX8 is Great. It just is. But this AXE-III is just insane!

...playing clean, yesterday I found myself just listening to the details of the notes in arpeggios. Each note is more defined and full bodied over the AX8. Hard to explain. That massive amount of processing power maybe? Next level top tier modeling aside, the 3 takes signal and seems to apply incredible amounts of processing to every aspect of it? Whatever they did, the results are spectacular.

Well done, FAS! If I had a cake, you could take it. :0)
Similar experience here. Had the AX8 and wasn't expecting too much of a difference with the III since the AX8 sounded quite spot on. But after a month of playing with the AXE 3, the tones just seem so much more defined and magical, not something that is just "brighter" or some eq difference. And the icing on the cake is that these tones are achievable with minimal tweaking ... just a good cab, a bit of BMT and I'm in tonal nirvana.
 
Yepper I’ve got to say fxiii is Awesome I’m working with it with as much time as I can spare I think I’ve got the sound dialed in for the first gig with the band looking foward to it for sure and I’m loving AustinBuddy Naked amp pack it’s great!
 
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