Unofficial First Impressions Thread

I've had a couple days with mine so far and I couldn't be happier. The noticeable standouts for me so far are the Cab block and mixer, the pitch block (I was BLOWN away at how accurate and smooth it handled dropped pitches), the reverbs, and the channel feature. I spent a few hours setting up live patches for my band yesterday. Me and the other guitar player are both running through the Axe 3 with independent signal paths. It was a breeze to setup and get functioning properly (aside from having to manually copy settings from one path to the other but that'll be easily fixed when Axe-Edit releases). With 2 Comps, 2 Drives, 2 Amps, 4 Delays, 2 Reverbs, 2 Filters, and 2 Cab blocks, I was sitting right around 90% CPU usage...amazing! The tuner is also much improved and I love how it has the input selector now so both of us can easily tune right from the unit without having to switch cables.

And I haven't even talked about how great it sounds! The first Heavy Rhythm patch I dialed in was a TS 808>FAS Modern>4x12 Djent cab and 4x12 Orange cab blend. Took me about 15 mins to dial in and I'm happier with that tone than I was any tone I had on my Axe II (and I LOVED my Axe II) All in all, Fractal hit a homerun with the Axe III and it's only FW1.03. I can't wait to see where this thing is 2 years from now!
 
zionplayer said:
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.
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For me, channel switching is so fast that I don’t even think about it anymore. That’s huge.
 
1) Right out of the box many of the presets are very usable without much tweaking (except for specific guitar variables). Several presets that I didn't warm up to on the XL+, like 59 Bassguy, I will now get a lot of use out of. I don't know if it is due to the new power of the FX III or the presets were tweaked or both, but they are great.
2) The front panel interface is wonderful - a big upgrade.
3) Using decent headphones, I am hearing a fuller sound - more refined in a good way, less artifacts, and a better tactile-auditory connection between the dynamics of what I am playing and what I am hearing. One word. Fantastic!!
 
I've had mine for two days. The built in cab-lab is awesome. I dialed in a my first custom cab with ease. You could get lost for days with all the cab options. Biggest thing I'd point out is I had to back down my input1 (using a my PRS custom) from default of 50 to 40.7. It was coming in too strong. Ouput1 by default is -10db. I have a Matrix GT800FX amp into passive XiTones and felt the +4db setting more appropriate.

I find this much easier to edit and won't be leaning on Axe-Edit nearly as much as I did with my II.
No screen plastic! - You no longer have to suffer between deciding to remove the plastic or keeping it on.
Definitely worth the upgrade and cannot wait to see what future firmware upgrades will have to offer.
 
finny47 said:
I've had mine for two days. The built in cab-lab is awesome. I dialed in a my first custom cab with ease. You could get lost for days with all the cab options.
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I was thinking the same thing. Just going through and trying to pick one of the many great sounding IR's is challenge enough. Then realizing you can mix in three more...
 
Blown away by the III. The front panel is just awesome. So easy to get around and create presets with. As previously mentioned the built in Cab Lab is one of the coolest features. I didn’t think my gigging presets could sound much better but after building one on the III I stand corrected.
 
So I received my III yesterday and hunkered down in my music room with my "guitar tech" (my cat, LOL) and dug into it. This is one amazing piece of engineering/technological magic! The front panel is so intuitive and user friendly now. I still am eagerly awaiting the new Axe Edit, but you can do anything you want from the front panel very easily. The color display is fantastic as well. I have only barely scratched the surface and only had enough time to audition factory presets, but WOW! The sound is so incredible. I was auditioning through my headphones which are good headphones, but by no means are they $1000 studio quality. However the sound is stunning! The best way I can describe it is this: have you ever been to a concert by your favorite artist and after they clear the support act's equipment off stage the guitar tech comes out and strums a few chords as a last minute check? That sound that just makes you go wow, this is great? That's what it sounds like. It is truly a professional, high quality sound. No fizzy, mushy "digitally" sound.

@FractalAudio please accept my hearty congratulations on this massive step forward in guitar technology! Please pass those congratulations on to all your staff, technicians, code writers and sales staff as well. I have never been so "sonically satisfied" in my life. If anyone out there in Fractal Land is still on the fence about the Axe III, jump in and buy it now! It is everything you ever dreamed and more!!!
 
bishop5150 said:
Blown away by the III. The front panel is just awesome. So easy to get around and create presets with. As previously mentioned the built in Cab Lab is one of the coolest features. I didn’t think my gigging presets could sound much better but after building one on the III I stand corrected.
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Yeah that cab lab built in is Ah-ight...ain't it...
 
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