Axe-FX (A Love Story?) Rd.1

[la szum]

Not saying it would work for everyone, but I wanted to be able to leave multiple
devices/instruments plugged in, active, and ready to go with minimal fuss and muss.
It also gives me manual EQ control on each channel (not that I use it a lot, as I tend to
EQ in the DAW and leave the Mixer mostly flat).

Since it is 12 channels and each is recognized in the DAW I can select in the DAW
what channel from the Mixer I want sent into the DAW to record. And then my playback
is direct monitoring from the DAW back to the Mixer and then into Studio Monitors.

 

[Frodebro]

I‘m pretty sure that’s Cliff’s reaction for 20% of laxu’s posts…

 

[fazer]

Is it me or is it easier to just record with plugins?

And then re-amp with the FM3 once the song is fully tracked.

You could run into latency issues that way. External boxes aren’t relying on your computer’s resources.

 

[Whizzinby]

You could run into latency issues that way. External boxes aren’t relying on your computer’s resources.

I haven’t ran into any serious latency issues using plugs, now that I have a somewhat more firm grasp on buffer settings when tracking vs mixing.

But I don’t plan on using any amp sims on the computer after I’ve tracked. That’s where the FM3 comes back in, reamping the DI track.

I’m just trying to find an easy way to track and playback during that process, without committing to a “final” processed signal. That seems to be the strength of using plugs, at least from what I’m finding at the moment.

 

[Whizzinby]

Was finally able to modify amps on device.

Laxu’s guide to the galaxy really helped.

I thought I was hot shit, but then ran into the cab block. I figured out how to change from factory to user cabs, but I was unable to page through my user cabs. I literally pressed every button and couldn’t scroll through them. lol

That’s the last barrier to me attempting to build a preset from scratch on the device, which is about as far as I want to go without using FM3 Edit.

Wrecker preset on Rocket, has become a bit of a favorite for some muscular mid gain dirt goodness. (Which I only play because it one of the three default presets that’s comes up on the thing and I don’t have to attempt to page around )

 

[Mongillo19]

Was finally able to modify amps on device.

Laxu’s guide to the galaxy really helped.

I thought I was hot shit, but then ran into the cab block. I figured out how to change from factory to user cabs, but I was unable to page through my user cabs. I literally pressed every button and couldn’t scroll through them. lol

That’s the last barrier to me attempting to build a preset from scratch on the device, which is about as far as I want to go without using FM3 Edit.

Wrecker preset on Rocket, has become a bit of a favorite for some muscular mid gain dirt goodness. (Which I only play because it one of the three default presets that’s comes up on the thing and I don’t have to attempt to page around )

I am not nearly as detailed as Laxu but try hitting enter on the name of the cab. Should bring up an entire list

 

[la szum]

I am not nearly as detailed as Laxu but try hitting enter on the name of the cab. Should bring up an entire list

Yup. You can scroll to and fro and unless you press Enter it won't engage the new Preset/Block/Effect/Type... what have you?

 

[Whizzinby]

I am not nearly as detailed as Laxu but try hitting enter on the name of the cab. Should bring up an entire list

I’d have to turn it on, but the name of the cab is above the scrollable area in blue. There are two columns (so you can load two cabs) with the cab names above it, but you can only move the cursor around for the stuff below the name of the cab. (Where you can change it from factory or user cab, mute change pan settings etc)

 

[la szum]

Page over to Perform- PP. Press E to Enter Cab Block. Should take you Cab page with Cab 1 and Cab 2. Make sure area in
blue is in the bank type and then use scroll wheel to get to User cabs.

 

[Whizzinby]

Figured it out. The “Number” row is what you have to change to cycle cabs.

 

[la szum]

Ok, you got that far.

Nav down to Number and then use Scroll Wheel to pick amongst your User cabs.

 

[la szum]

Dang.... must be picking up on my Telepathy.

 

[Whizzinby]

Would probably be a little more intuitive if instead of Number that row was called “Cab” and instead of having a numeric value next to it, have the name of the cab listed. You’d know to go to that row to cycle stuff.

 

[la szum]

I don't question it. It would just confuse me even more.

 

[SwirlyMaple]

Welcome to the world of inconsistency in Fractal operation.

Here's a crash course:

• Edit button almost never does the thing it says on the label.
  • The layout grid is the only exception where Edit = Edit block.
  • Anywhere else it's a shortcut for "Go edit the last block you had open."
  • When inside a block, it's "Go to next block".
  • Double clicking Edit when inside a block means "Go to previous block."
• Enter button opens things.
  • The exception is the layout grid, where Enter = connect/disconnect blocks or create a shunt on an empty grid slot.
• Nav buttons mostly move the cursor around or switch rows of controls.
  • In list views (e.g Amp block Advanced page) the Left/Right buttons jump to next/previous 5 params, mapping them to the A-E knobs.
  • In the Amp block Output EQ page, Up/Down changes the graphic EQ type. Of course the Graphic EQ block does not work like this.
• Big knob adjusts the currently selected parameter.
  • In layout grid view it changes the block in the currently selected slot.
  • In preset/model/cab list it scrolls through the items.
  • On Axe-Fx 3 this knob has a button on it you can assign to go to Layout grid. Why this does not exist on FM3/FM9? No idea. I've also requested that this could be mapped to more functions but of course Fractal hasn't implemented it.
• A-E knobs have a button you can press. The function is what is shown above the button.
  • When in Home view (any page), you can double-click these to quickly go to the most common blocks:
    • A = Amp
    • B = Drive (Boost)
    • C = Cab
    • D = Delay
    • E = REverb

My approach to editing on the onboard UI is to avoid the Layout grid like the plague and just use the Edit button to cycle through blocks. This keeps the process more consistent as you don't hit that "Enter does not do the thing you think it would" inconsistency.

It was so much worse before the "Go to previous block" double-click Edit function was implemented. You had to Exit to the layout grid, cursor over to the previous block, remember to hit Edit instead of Enter and then edit the block. Then do that all over again whenever you needed to go to a previous block.

The cycling order of the Edit button is row->column, instead of e.g "next connected block or next block in parallel". This is generally fine on the FM3 where your signal path is most of the time just a straight line, but can be annoying on the FM9/Axe-Fx 3 with more complex signal paths.

Great list! My delivery landed in the nest yesterday. I spent about an hour with it last night straight out of the box for some initial “how intuitively does this work for a new person” impressions, before I RTFM (as I always do. I’m weird. I enjoy reading manuals.)

My first thoughts:

• Everything everyone has said over and over about the onboard UI is painfully true. It’s the inconsistency of it that makes it hilariously obtuse. I did manage to mostly figure things out on my own in that hour of use, but even after doing so I had to keep re-figuring them out because you have to memorize the inconsistencies. (Major props to @Digital Igloo here. I always liked the Helix UI, but it really drove home how well thought-out it is after using the FM9.)
• Build quality feels fantastic. Extremely solid all around.
• Does it immediately sound significantly better than my Helix Floor, without comparing them side by side in an A/B? Nope. The most noticeable thing to me is a slight difference in the attack, sustain and decay of amp distortion. It’s a bit smoother than Helix, and the decay of distortion on held notes tapers off in a more cohesive way. On some Helix amp models, the decay kinda hits a point where it falls off and gets brittle, making the “warts” sound more disconnected (e.g. ye olde squirrels of yore).
• Marshalls do sound nice. The kerrang is there. Bright caps help!
• Most clean Fender amps don’t sound better than Helix to me at first crack, and Helix’s Hot Springs reverb blows all of the current FM9 spring verbs out of the water. I’m glad Cliff is revamping the spring verb because you can’t really get any of the FM9 verbs to “drip.” The best you can do is an odd artificial-sounding boinggg that does not sound like a Fender reverb tank.
• Other reverbs sound nice. Better-sounding than the newer Dynamic Reverbs in Helix? I don’t really think so, but the Fractal ones are more fine-tunable, so if you want to treat it like a mixing engineer and really shape the reverb EQ around each tone, you can. Built-in ducking is a high-end feature for sure.
• Level meters per-block is a neat visual ref, even though you shouldn’t really need it. Real pedals don’t have it, and it takes some pretty silly gainstaging to drive the floating point math in modern modelers into digital clipping.
• Room mic settings in Dynacabs is nice to have. I think the Dynamic Ambience reverb in Helix gets you there too though, and I’m suspicious that the FM9 “room mics” are also just reverb, since you can specify it as Hall or Room shaped.
• I probably just missed it, but I don’t recall seeing a 45-degree off-axis option for the Dynacab mics. Mic options are a lot more limited than Helix’s. I’ll need to compare the sound quality of the DynaCabs vs. Helix cabs, but at first blush I think the Helix offers more variety here with essentially the same implementation and capture processes.
• Still need to test out the drives and fuzzes and see if they’re noticeably better than Helix.

I could go on for a while but I’ll stop there for now. My first-impressions summary is: if I tried the FM9 in isolation, without the Helix beside it to directly compare tones and split hairs, would I take it over the Helix? The honest answer for me right now, is no.

It may have a slight edge in sound quality/feel/response/decay, for some of the amp models. It has a lot more audio engineering-level tweakability to some of its blocks. It has more amp and reverb models, but less variety in most everything else like drives and other pedals.

I’ll dig in more this weekend and really learn it, and see if any of my first impressions change. I expect that some will, and maybe the differences will grow more obvious as my ears get more familiar with the Fractal.

 

[la szum]

Cool!


Yeah, those Spring Reverbs were kind of ...... .... or in the FM3/9 are still very much that.

I hadn't tried them in depth until last night and was like, ewww..... nothing like an actual tank.

The other big thing I see here and resonated with personally is this .....

• Does it immediately sound significantly better than my Helix Floor, without comparing them side by side in an A/B? Nope. The most noticeable thing to me is a slight difference in the attack, sustain and decay of amp distortion. It’s a bit smoother than Helix, and the decay of distortion on held notes tapers off in a more cohesive way. On some Helix amp models, the decay kinda hits a point where it falls off and gets brittle, making the “warts” sound more disconnected (e.g. ye olde squirrels of yore).

I have an abhorrent reaction, and am emotionally triggered by artificial attacks/decays.... especially with regards to
amplifiers/pedals/modeled amps and pedals. I just can't unhear it. Iit sticks in my craw, and then lingers in the back
of my mind when I am not thinking about it. It all becomes a barrier to enjoyment. For me.

Yeah, that is mostly a personal hangup.... but hey... we all have our hangups. :lol Some people
get hung up on UIs and not tones. I am sort of the opposite. I can live with a clunky UI and some barriers to how
Fuzz Pedals sound when modeled (nothing like the real thing, Baby!).... but if there is even an hint of brittle
top-end on the decay of distortion, or it gets too granular (and is not a fuzz!) then I am out. Just. Can't.

I sure do look forward to more thoughts, pros, cons, and comparisons.

Enjoy the bounty!

 

[Whizzinby]

Everything everyone has said over and over about the onboard UI is painfully true. It’s the inconsistency of it that makes it hilariously obtuse. I did manage to mostly figure things out on my own in that hour of use, but even after doing so I had to keep re-figuring them out because you have to memorize the inconsistencies. (Major props to @Digital Igloo here. I always liked the Helix UI, but it really drove home how well thought-out it is after using the FM9.)

That’s a great summation, “memorize the inconsistencies”.

I thought it would be something where you just have to learn some “advanced” control system with a steeper learning curve, but that it would make sense after putting in the work. But, there are a lot of controls that don’t make any sense beyond that just being the way you have to do it. So it’s just a memorization game largely.

The editor is the saving grace, because it’s a goldmine of high quality tones otherwise.

 

[jellodog]

But, there are a lot of controls that don’t make any sense beyond that just being the way you have to do it.

 

[texhex]

You know you all start using the controls and you starting saying to yourself… “Think like Cliff, think like Cliff!” and you still can’t figure it out and you hit Enter again and your Block starts blinking off and on… again.

 

[la szum]

I think the notion of "intuitive" is overrated and overstated. I can't think of a single thing
we ever learn in life "intuitively." Walking? Nope. Have to do it and flail and fall.

If walking is not "intuitive" and "natural," then what in life is? Breathing?

My experience is that becoming proficient at anything requires repetition and that we
learn by doing.... not by something "coming natural" for us. Fractal UI is no different
than moving to a new town and learning the lay of the land. A few wrong turns and a
couple of dead ends later and you suddenly are not getting lost anymore.

Mental mapping for the win!