Axe FX 3

Aidanspaghetti

Haven't been over to TGP but are they all collectively shitting on their as yet undelivered best new amps/fx units?

gibsongretschfan

Isn’t the Axf2 already the most powerful modeller out there by quite some distance? Why make it even more powerful when the major sticking point for most was price then availability? Make it cheaper and not look like an early 90’s rack mount sampler and you’d sell a shit ton more

sgosden

gibsongretschfan said:ì

Isn’t the Axf2 already the most powerful modeller out there by quite some distance? Why make it even more powerful when the major sticking point for most was price then availability? Make it cheaper and not look like an early 90’s rack mount sampler and you’d sell a shit ton more

Progress I guess? 

I would guess helix has taken over the slightly lower price point market. 

Maybe they'll still sell the fx2 for a bit less? 

There is a large army of fractal fans that will upgrade asap.

guitarfishbay

gibsongretschfan said:

Isn’t the Axf2 already the most powerful modeller out there by quite some distance? Why make it even more powerful when the major sticking point for most was price then availability? Make it cheaper and not look like an early 90’s rack mount sampler and you’d sell a shit ton more

Right but it still has some limitations. Some users have not been able to create the patches they need with the 2 - Devin Townsend for one had to simplify his ambient delay/verb chain on the 2. Pretty sure @Clarky has patches that push the 2 to its limits as well.

Fractal aren’t a high volume/low price kind of company and I don’t think they have any intention to become one either. 

On spec alone this thing is incredibly powerful.

DavusPG

Stuck myself on the G66 waiting list earlier and Sussi reckons it'll be about €2800 depending on the exchange rate at the time. 

I'm guessing at least €500 for the foot controller too depending one which one you go for?

I'd love one but realistically can't justify the increase over my AX8, not for now anyway. 

Specs are impressive though.

guitarfishbay

Some more info on the switches - 

"The FC series are like 12 foot controllers in one. The FC foot controllers feature 12 "layouts". Each layout has a unique, user-assignable set of switch functions. For example Layout 1 could have five preset switches, five scene switches and two switches assigned to bank up/down. Press and hold the bottom right switch and the then tap the switch above it and you enter Layout Select mode. Then tap a switch to select a new Layout. This new layout could have six channel switches and six bypass switches. Etc."

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/fc-footswitch.134773/#post-1592898

joeyowen

Blimey, the state of the Kemper Facebook page since the lack of namm news and now this. It's embarrassing on there. Im close to leaving it

Freebird

joeyowen said:

Blimey, the state of the Kemper Facebook page since the lack of namm news and now this. It's embarrassing on there. Im close to leaving it

The Kemper is still ok for a thing that makes amp type noises 

joeyowen

Freebird said:

joeyowen said:

Blimey, the state of the Kemper Facebook page since the lack of namm news and now this. It's embarrassing on there. Im close to leaving it

The Kemper is still ok for a thing that makes amp type noises 

I still love my Kemper for sure. I have always hated the argument though.  Too much time spent arguing about quality when I'm convinced that most people can't actually hear the difference isolated,let alone in a mix

guitarfishbay

Thing is it can actually be better for some sounds. Keith Merrow has said in interviews that he often prefers his tweaked Kemper profiles to the actual amps.

Clarky

guitarfishbay said:

gibsongretschfan said:

Isn’t the Axf2 already the most powerful modeller out there by quite some distance? Why make it even more powerful when the major sticking point for most was price then availability? Make it cheaper and not look like an early 90’s rack mount sampler and you’d sell a shit ton more

Right but it still has some limitations. Some users have not been able to create the patches they need with the 2 - Devin Townsend for one had to simplify his ambient delay/verb chain on the 2. Pretty sure @Clarky has patches that push the 2 to its limits as well.

Fractal aren’t a high volume/low price kind of company and I don’t think they have any intention to become one either. 

On spec alone this thing is incredibly powerful.

yes I've managed to push the Axe-II to it's limits..
not just CPU but also stored preset size
that said, what I have managed to get it to do, nothing else is able to get close to it

the Axe-III I'm thinking will [for me] be more of the same but with a lot more elbow room
it means I'll be able to rationalise don't to a fewer number of presets cos I'll be able to squeeze more functionality in..
however, I only have 5 presets for a gig right now so I'm not exactly struggling..
tone wise the Axe-II is hitting the spot for me..
functionality wise it does everything I need it to do and some..
and at a time when I'm looking to make my live rig physically smaller / lighter, the Axe-III is bigger
so... right away I'm figuring that the spend is simply not worth it just yet for me..

that said... would I like to have one? absolutely... I know I'll get one when the right combination of reasons emerge
specifically enough disposable dosh coupled with some feature / capability in the Axe-III that I know will become a serious need for me..

Jonathanthomas83

That's my thoughts too. I was playing all night on my 2 XL last night and it sounds great and ticks all of my boxes at the moment. I do like the fact they've increased loop time to 5 minutes, that's a selling factor for me. But not quite worth the outlay alone. 

For me, I will upgrade one day, maybe I'll wait for the new version of the AX8, maybe I'll get the Axe3, I'm unsure. But right now, I'm VERY surprised that I have a piece of gear here that I am happy enough with to not want to upgrade to the latest and greatest (just yet)...that, coming from me, is surely a testament to how great I think this thing is. 

ToneControl

basically, with AxeFx you're buying a DSP platform for the next X years of free updates
so although it will make a difference immediately to get a Mk3, you're really buying an entry ticket to the next few years of features

My name is on the list

FarleyUK

The FaceBook pages have pretty much exploded...! There's also talk that the firmware updates for the FXII will now stop - personally, i don't see that, as they would be crazy to stop supporting what was their flagship product.

Very interested in getting one, but it's a stupid amount of money, for not much of an improvement over my AX8.

Jonathanthomas83

FarleyUK said:

Very interested in getting one, but it's a stupid amount of money, for not much of an improvement over my AX8.

I'm not sure it's not 'much of an improvement'. As @ToneControl ;says, it's not an improvement yet, but will be over coming years. Whether of course you use the extra horse power, is a different story, in that case it may not be an improvement at all. Which is kind of where I'm at. I rarely use full power on my XL, I just find myself wanting when it comes to looping and a few other bits. But that won't warrant the outlay at the moment. When they model an Electric Mistress or better the already awesome DMM, or create some amazing reverb that I won't be able to get with my measly XL...that's when I'll be wanting the upgrade.

DavusPG

Channels and seamless switching are the most tempting features at the moment for me, but not enough to fork out over £3k just yet, so although my name is on the list I'll probably stick with my AX8 for now... unless I have an unexpected windfall between now and then.

Eventually I'll get the 3 and as has been said it'll be the platform for many years of updates, especially with the amount of processing power they've put into it - over 5 times as much as the AX8 looking at their graph in the blurb

Now they've addressed gapless switching plus the sheer volume of effects you can have, I can't honestly think what else I'd want it to do, so am viewing it as a purchase that'll keep me going for a long time.

The FX8 & AX8 are still the biggest GAS killing purchases I've ever made, which still surprises me as someone who was very sceptical about Fractal for as long as I was. 

Jonathanthomas83

DavusPG said:

The FX8 & AX8 are still the biggest GAS killing purchases I've ever made, which still surprises me as someone who was very sceptical about Fractal for as long as I was. 

I too was a long time sceptic. But since taking the leap, the Axe FX has pretty much killed all my gear gas except for guitars.

DavusPG

Jonathanthomas83 said:

I too was a long time sceptic. But since taking the leap, the Axe FX has pretty much killed all my gear gas except for guitars.

Yup - if I manage to sell some of my guitars then that could pave the way for an Axe 3

Only last night I was questioning how many of my guitars I "really" need....although I've been asking myself that for years 

Clarky

I'm wondering what the price of a used Axe-FX II will be in 6 months..

DavusPG

That's a good point....

On the subject of pricing, the mark up for us Europeans is a bit annoying.

In the US the 3 will be the same price as the 2XL which is $2499

On G66 the 2XL is currently €2299, yet when I asked yesterday they reckoned it's likely to be €2800?

Supply and demand I guess