What advice would you give me as I will get my Axe-Fx III in a few days?

skunc nailed it. Spend at least a few days on just amp and cab, and really pay attention to the cabs you like. The more I use this, the more I realize the cab is at LEAST as important as the amp block, possibly more. All eq choices seem to stem from the feel of the cab(s)
 
You can cover a lot of ground with the first 10 factory presets (assorted basic Fender, Vox, Marshall). I think they sound good, and they are a good place to start when learning how the Axe Fx works. When you create your own, I would suggest starting simply with an amp and cab block, and learn the basic knobs on those first, before adding effects or going to the advanced tabs. The Axe-Fx sounds great in stereo, and has lots of ways to intentionally or unintentionally incorporate stereo, but often you may only have a mono feed, so that is something to consider with Axe-Fx when making your gig presets.

I agree on exploring the cab block IRs with your ears. Use Axe Edit to scroll through them while listening. Mark the ones that you like with the colored highlight feature in Axe-Edit.
 
GuitarDojo said:
Get Cooper Carter's class on the Axe III


https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...with-cooper-carter-v3-0-available-now.139623/
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I could not agree more. You just spent serious money on the unit. For $120 more you are going really learn how to use it and SAVE SO MUCH TIME. You can watch videos and read forum discussion and that is all helpful but it will take weeks/months to learn how to get the most out of the unit. With Cooper’s class you will have great foundation and have confidence that you can build great presets.
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
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A whole lot can also be done (and smoother than a baby's bottom) with controller pedals like the EV1/EV2 or similar other-brand units.
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Cat and LED pedal lighting not included.
 
As far as the sound of the unit and presets, if you don’t need anything really complicated and just want good amp and effects presets, you should be able to just audition and then arrange your favourites with some minor tweaking for levels. It‘ll get you out the door, you can perfect things over time.

With regard to footswitch depends what you need. If you just need something to choose some presets and turn effects on and off I would say FC-6 or 12 if you need lots. If you have a more complicated rig and need to control than just the axe FX I would go with the RJM mastermind GT. This is the route I went because I need to control my iPad as well as a vocal processor and the axe FX. If you’re just looking to control the axe FX, the mastermind is overkill.
 
Neill00 said:
... the mastermind is overkill.
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A really, really nice form of overkill. If you enjoy using the very best then it could be right up your alley. I use an MMGT-16 to control just my AFX3 and I love the way I can make them do simply anything, simply — and the large totally-programmable color LCD’s over each button make it all so usable, even for an Old SoundMan like me.
 
Hi David,
Welcome - you are going to enjoy this unit.

I’ve always approached the axe fx as if I was looking down on a stage. Using axe edit (the editor software for the axe fix) I put an amp, and a cab somewhere in the middle...and a reverb last (just to emulate the room I want to pretend I’m in), and connect it all together....then I’ll listen to it, and maybe change the amp or cab until the sound is closer to what I’m chasing, then start tweaking the amp controls until I have a good raw sound that sort of is what I’m chasing. From there, I’ll add (say) a drive, maybe a rotary or chorus etc.... as if I’m plugging effect pedals iinto my signal chain on the stage.
Also... get The @austinbuddy gold preset pack (at least). From there, you’ll have a whole bunch
of ‘default’ rigs that already sound like the real thing - want a Marshall sound? Choose one of the Marshall presets.

Make sure your monitors are great quality - this is fundamental to enjoying such a quality piece of gear. If you’re using crap monitors, you’ll be setting up presets to sound good on them, and that rarely translates to a good sound elsewhere, either live or in recordings.

Oh - and make sure your coffee machine has a good load of beans, as you’re going to have some late nights ;-)

Remember - this unit can be as simple (load up a preset and play), or as complex (tweaking the amplifiers advanced power supply parameters to get more sag) as you choose - perhaps, at least initially, take the simpler route and just enjoy the plethora of sounds you can get.

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts.

Thanks
Pauly



David777 said:
Hopefully my FX III will arrive this week. I am super stoked to try it out. I actually have gigs on the calendar and hope to use it on 3 gigs in early February.

That being said, here is my profile in a nut shell...
  • I've been playing guitar, lap steel, fiddle, and keys over 50 years. At times did music full time, playing thousands of gigs. Wrote a jazz guitar book that was used at Berklee for awhile. etc.
  • I'm much better at playing my instruments than I am at turning knobs on electronics
  • I'm the kind of guy who will read the entire 114 page manual and make notes - and then likely use the factory pre-sets
As the FX III is a major investment for me, I want to really utilize it's capabilities - mostly for live gigs and for recording (directly into my computer - I'm using a Fireface UC directly into Logic). A lot of my live gigs are solo guitar, and/or solo lap steel. Other gigs (pre-COVID and hopefully post-COVID) are will full bands.

Do you have any advice for me as to where I should begin in exploring the capabilities of the AXE III? I'll probably start out trying out the myriad of pre-sets.

But I'm really curious about the best way to....
  1. Create your own settings
  2. Find and use patches created by others
  3. Saving my top 10 settings so that I can get to them quickly. Guess I'll need a foot controller to change settings mid-song. Which controller?
  4. Best way to connect to computer for recording (I have a Fireface UC & Logic). Should I connect XLRs into the Fireface? USB?
  5. For gigs with full bands, I'm thinking I'd go out the Axe III in stereo straight into the board via a couple direct boxes, and also run out in stereo to a couple Bose SP1's that I'd use for monitors. Going direct into the board I don't trust the sound men in some of the venues I play to get my volume up in my monitor to where I can hear myself.
  6. For my solo gigs I use a couple big Mackie powered monitors with Bose SP1's for monitors. How big of a difference will it make to replace the Mackie's with FRFR speakers?
Anyway, thanks in advance for any advice you can give an old relic like me who has spent more time turning tuning keys vs. turning knobs on electronic processors!

David
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