Unofficial First Impressions Thread

I had to fix my new AxeFX III right out of the box. Disappointing. :( Was able to fix it, the memories will remain forever.

axefxiii.jpg

Only spent a few minutes with it. Would have spent more if I hadn't had to make it look right. Front panel nav is much easier than ever before. And before it was never bad. The extra I/O is going to come in handy.
 
Well it's here! Now to find out what this enormous leap of faith has gotten me. After a few hours of playing with my unit....

A comparison with the II that it's sitting on is prima facie unfair. Factory presets vs extensively tweaked choices made over the course of years of use....that said, there are some real gems in the factory set. 'Petrucci Rig' comes to mind. Wouldn't be surprised if it was the real thing (or at least based very closely on the real thing).

I keep seeing the words clarity and detail used to describe how the III sounds. I'm not sure what words I want to use yet, but I understand why people are using those. It's too soon to actually pronounce judgement, but this is a first impressions thread, after all.

I dug into the footswitch section as much as I could, and I think I know where it's going. It looks enormously flexible and powerful. Named scenes seem like such a minor thing, but if the names appear on the scribble strips, it will be HUGE. I hesitate to talk about it at length because I know it's still subject to change. One thing I might have a gripe about is that it looks like the colors can only be assigned to categories of switching functions (Preset, Scene, etc.) At least from what I can access without the pedal connected, I can't find the ability to assign...say....green to overdrive and blue to chorus for example. It may be completely premature to bring that up....

Being able to mix IRs in place is sooo much fun!

Bottom line, I'm happy with what I see and hear. I won't get serious with it until the edit program is available, but it sure seems like a winner.
 
So tonight I recorded a little clip with my AX8 using a patch that I thought sounded pretty massive. I decided to duplicate the patch on the AXE III just to see if I could hear any difference. ... just... wow... to me, it’s like the difference between streaming a song you love vs listening to an actual CD of the same song. The basic sound is still there (which sounds great), but the III gives you this added tonal depth that feels nonlinear, three dimensional, and extremely responsive. It compresses when you dig in and stays crystal clear and articulate when you play lighter. Holding out a big chord gives you this swirling harmonic movement that’s just fantastic. Simply put, it feels more alive.

Can you post the two samples?
 
I did that. There's simply too much dynamic range. If the faceplate is exposed properly the display is completely blown out. If the display is exposed properly the faceplate is black.

Shoot 5 bracketed frames and process them in this freeware Picturenaut (which is amazing software, particularly if you like 'natural' HDR images):

http://hdrlabs.com/picturenaut/

I love Picturenaut; I've used it for many interior photographs with sunlight/windows backlighting everything and it creates fantastic, natural looking tonemapped HDR images.
 
Don't have mine yet but...
I'm hoping that at some stage, the brightness of the logo can be varied within firmware. On many of the photos I've seen, the bright blue is just too bright and overshadows everything around it. Just not elegant. :) wow it's good to have such issues.
Thanks
Pauly
 
Don't have mine yet but...
I'm hoping that at some stage, the brightness of the logo can be varied within firmware. On many of the photos I've seen, the bright blue is just too bright and overshadows everything around it. Just not elegant. :) wow it's good to have such issues.
Thanks
Pauly
It looks great in person. Camera doesn't so it justice and doesn't have the dynamic range to show it off right. Either the lights show too bright, or the faceplate is too dark.
 
I’m a professional photographer. Put a lot of light on the front of the unit to try to lower the dynamic range difference between the display and the front panel and/or multiple exposures about 1 stop apart from each on a tripod then combined to make an HDR image is the only other option. The first being the easiest. Could try next to a window perhaps.
 
3 pages in and no discussion on gapless switching... thought that was a big interest for some? I’ve learned to work with my FX II so the switching is not noticeable to the crowd, but do look forward to not even thinking about it during changes. Or maybe we need the footswitch to really feel the similar change in a live setting, so discussion may be premature anyway.
 
I’m a professional photographer. Put a lot of light on the front of the unit to try to lower the dynamic range difference between the display and the front panel and/or multiple exposures about 1 stop apart from each on a tripod then combined to make an HDR image is the only other option. The first being the easiest. Could try next to a window perhaps.
I think the issue for me is I can’t get ISO 100 on the screen itself at f/5.6, 1/125 or similar. Maybe 400 or more is acceptable but I’d rather get as low as possible. I can light the metal, front panel etc for ISO 100 easily, but the screen doesn’t get ridiculously bright - again talking strictly photography, not viewing when playing.

For my videos, I think I was at 1.8, 1/50, ISO 400? Something like that. The 1.8 is great for the style of video I did, but I’d want at least f/4 for a proper photo.
 
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