NMD: Axe-Fx III MK II Turbo (J.F)

[James Freeman]

 

[James Freeman]

At lower Master Volume they are pretty much identical, when I start to turn it up all the extra Speaker parameters start to affect the tone a lot.

 

[Rock Chalk]

but have you taken a moment or two to simply kick back and enjoy playing your new device today?

I was curious about this as well. Does she sound good?

 

[Mongillo19]

I was curious about this as well. Does she sound good?

Do we really need James to tell us the Axe Fx sounds good to make it so?

 

[James Freeman]

I was curious about this as well. Does she sound good?

Yes. :)
When comparing apples to apples it's not light years ahead of other good modelers like many people like to believe, but the sheer variety of amps and advanced settings allow to sculpt far more tones and tweak for days on end.

 

[0XI0]

it strikes me as a really weird flex to delete them first thing out of the box

when the modeling sweet spot is like 30% of the control range and outside of that range the device doesn't behave like the modeled gear of course the presets sound good, they're made to. anybody that knows the gear and wants to actually use it outside of the modeled sweet spots knows what behavior/sound they're looking for, cause they know how the real gear behaves and knows what it's supposed to do. when allowed to actually talk about it is when it gets attention

 

[Stone]

+1.

For anyone who isn't yet Team Fractal, this really deserves to be emphasized. The factory presets are all very good, to the point that it strikes me as a really weird flex to delete them first thing out of the box.

I still remember working my way thru them and loving all the amp tones....and then hitting the FX-oriented presets and being astonished.

Yes they are good for sure, everyone has different needs and ways

 

[MirrorProfiles]

+1.

For anyone who isn't yet Team Fractal, this really deserves to be emphasized. The factory presets are all very good, to the point that it strikes me as a really weird flex to delete them first thing out of the box.

I still remember working my way thru them and loving all the amp tones....and then hitting the FX-oriented presets and being astonished.

Depends on the user and their needs. I have absolutely zero interest in presets on any modeller, be it Helix/Fractal/Neural DSP etc. Presets aren’t made for my tastes/gear, they’re just an assortment of tones that mean nothing to me.

It’s good they’re there for users that like working with them or get benefit from it, but I can totally understand working from a clean slate.

 

[Stone]

Yes. :)
When comparing apples to apples it's not light years ahead of other good modelers like many people like to believe, but the sheer variety of amps and advanced settings allow to sculpt far more tones and tweak for days on end.

True James but also the Modeler is only as good as the engineer behind it, A lot of very experience and Knowledge users can pretty much make anything sound great, because they know what this does and what that does and how to dial it in
Since Im on the Fractal eco system I've learnt a lot more and I find it much easier to dial what ever tone im looking for
and im really only scratching the surface

 

[laxu]

Yes. :)
When comparing apples to apples it's not light years ahead of other good modelers like many people like to believe, but the sheer variety of amps and advanced settings allow to sculpt far more tones and tweak for days on end.

People focus way, way too much on the amp sims in all of these boxes. That's completely ignoring what you can get out of the Dyna-Cabs and especially the effects, which IMO are a step above the competition.

 

[Stone]

Its the sum of all things in the chain

 

[Foxmeister]

For anyone who isn't yet Team Fractal, this really deserves to be emphasized. The factory presets are all very good, to the point that it strikes me as a really weird flex to delete them first thing out of the box.

When I had my FM3 and FM9, I really didn't care for the factory presets at all, so it's all entirety subjective.

 

[FractalAudio]

when the modeling sweet spot is like 30% of the control range and outside of that range the device doesn't behave like the modeled gear of course the presets sound good, they're made to. anybody that knows the gear and wants to actually use it outside of the modeled sweet spots knows what behavior/sound they're looking for, cause they know how the real gear behaves and knows what it's supposed to do. when allowed to actually talk about it is when it gets attention

Not sure what you're implying but we don't model "sweet spots". We model the amps over the entire range of all controls.

 

[eggpl@nt]

When I had my FM3 and FM9, I really didn't care for the factory presets at all, so it's all entirety subjective.

I agree, for my personal needs. I mainly flipped through the usual suspects for high gain, and I wasn't grabbed by any of the presets.

Now... The "weirdo" presets are incredible and really showcase the funky stuff modeling enables. I vividly remember how mind-blowing the Warped Vinyl preset was to me years and years ago.

It's not one of the aforementioned weirdo presets, but the Studio Clean is also

But yeah, in general, there's a very short list of factory presets in any unit I like. I'm with @JiveTurkey as part of the clean slate club.

 

[Bob Zaod]

CONGRATS!!

 

[JiveTurkey]

Does anyone run a JCM irl with the master that low though?

I agree, for my personal needs. I mainly flipped through the usual suspects for high gain, and I wasn't grabbed by any of the presets.

Now... The "weirdo" presets are incredible and really showcase the funky stuff modeling enables. I vividly remember how mind-blowing the Warped Vinyl preset was to me years and years ago.

It's not one of the aforementioned weirdo presets, but the Studio Clean is also

But yeah, in general, there's a very short list of factory presets in any unit I like. I'm with @JiveTurkey as part of the clean slate club.

There is some neat stuff in there. But if I were to do presets for a array of tones across various amps purposes; I'd grab the Austin Buddy stuff.

 

[Gearzilla]

Yes. :)
When comparing apples to apples it's not light years ahead of other good modelers like many people like to believe, but the sheer variety of amps and advanced settings allow to sculpt far more tones and tweak for days on end.

I found the III to be a bit more sensitive to picking dynamics and the volume knob at the guitar. Harmonics, note decay, gain thresholds, etc….

I find it much easier to dial what ever tone im looking for
and im really only scratching the surface

This 100%.

 

[GTR37]

Does anyone run a JCM irl with the master that low though?

There is some neat stuff in there. But if I were to do presets for a array of tones across various amps purposes; I'd grab the Austin Buddy stuff.

the thing I found most helpful outside of great tone and matched cabs was the time AB spends a lot of time setting the levels , its really good you can go through his presets and very rarely get a sonic blast , its great for users new to the platform or that need to get gigging quickly

 

[Bob Zaod]

but the sheer variety of amps and advanced settings allow to sculpt far more tones and tweak for days on end.

This was why I sold my FM3. For me if it's there, I will use it and I spent hours and hours tweaking stuff. Thats all well and good if you don't have 18 songs you agreed to work up in a week and aren't a chronic ADHD sufferer.

 

[FuzzyAce]

But yeah, in general, there's a very short list of factory presets in any unit I like. I'm with @JiveTurkey as part of the clean slate club.

Yep. Although some factory presets are nice if there is a routing chain you weren't thinking about.