Official Axe-Fx Q&A thread!

[RevDrucifer]

Man, I almost want to complain that it’s getting too easy to dial shit in. In direct opposition of my post above about not finding good IR’s for Dual Recs, I got the YA DV77 cab pack and started making some DR presets with them. I’ve got an Orange Vintage and a Red Modern that are both stock settings (everything at noon) and they sound killer.

What’s funny is last week I was saying that no Recto should sound good with everything at noon because that’s now how they sound in real life and now I’m eating my words.

It’s entirely possible that the absurd amount of IR’s I own is lending itself to this; but the amount of amp block tweaking I’ve done since Cygnus has come out has dropped by way more than half. 9x out of 10, I’m finding an IR and hitting the Save button because it’s done and ready to go.

Last night I made a JTM45 preset, spent 4 minutes looking for an IR and then I was done. Everything is at noon and I’m not sure I can make it sound any better, but merely make minor adjustments to fit into a specific mix.

As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the tweaking and “Aha!”, moments when finding something interesting, as silly as it sounds, there is a part of me that’s kind of bummed by not having to work for the tones I want.

Ah….just had an “Aha!”, moment while typing that; pretty sure that’s my self-sabotage kicking in that’s preventing me from completing my goal of finishing my fucking album.

 

[budda]

I had a band pal that had a 2ch dual and his live and recorded tone was an SG standard with amp knobs at noon. Sounded wicked for the hardcore he played .

 

[cardinal]

Man, I almost want to complain that it’s getting too easy to dial shit in. In direct opposition of my post above about not finding good IR’s for Dual Recs, I got the YA DV77 cab pack and started making some DR presets with them. I’ve got an Orange Vintage and a Red Modern that are both stock settings (everything at noon) and they sound killer.

What’s funny is last week I was saying that no Recto should sound good with everything at noon because that’s now how they sound in real life and now I’m eating my words.

It’s entirely possible that the absurd amount of IR’s I own is lending itself to this; but the amount of amp block tweaking I’ve done since Cygnus has come out has dropped by way more than half. 9x out of 10, I’m finding an IR and hitting the Save button because it’s done and ready to go.

Last night I made a JTM45 preset, spent 4 minutes looking for an IR and then I was done. Everything is at noon and I’m not sure I can make it sound any better, but merely make minor adjustments to fit into a specific mix.

As someone who thoroughly enjoyed the tweaking and “Aha!”, moments when finding something interesting, as silly as it sounds, there is a part of me that’s kind of bummed by not having to work for the tones I want.

Ah….just had an “Aha!”, moment while typing that; pretty sure that’s my self-sabotage kicking in that’s preventing me from completing my goal of finishing my fucking album.

Ive had such a hard time dialing in the Recto1 sim, but I have a really old Tremoverb with me and I think I figured it out. Running all the controls around noon-ish except the Fractal master is super low (I have it around .75). Rolled up the input low cut to around 80. Impedance curve to Loadbox-uk was working best.

That for me is really sounding like this Tremoverb with the same settings (other than the master volume) into the same cab. And like the real amp, Orange Modern is where it's at.

 

[The Thing Upstairs]

I just copied the settings from my Roadster with a recto model on the AF3 and it is more than close enough. Very pleased with it - so much so, the Roadster hasn't been used since I bought the AF3. It has become ridiculously easy to dial in (I am using eh Gaza TAE as a power amp into the cab).
What time I have spent using my A7X monitors, using IRs takes a little longer but there are so many decent IRs our there again it's not too much of a hassle. I just prefer the sound of my cab when playing home alone.

 

[DropTheSun]

I almost let the FM3 train to pass me. I had pre-ordered it, then the release went how it went (super long delay) and while waiting, Neural DSP announced the Quad Cortex.


Luckily I decided to give the FM3 a try…


I’ve had FM3 now about two weeks. I updated the Firmware to FW4 beta the first thing I got it and loaded the latest Factory presets in and was so happy how it sounded. Easily the best first experience with any unit, that I’ve had.


Now FM3 has Officially released FW4 and the new Factory Preset Banks. This might be the perfect timing to own this unit. All of the earlier bugs have been fixed and great features have been added and now with FW4 this unit sounds better, than ever!


Here is one of my own presets in action.(5153 Blue 50W)


https://soundcloud.com/mediumplayer...%2Fmediumplayer%2Ffractal-fm3-5153-citrus-50w


I really enjoy using this unit. The amps sound really REALLY good and the footswitch layout system works so great, that I don’t miss any external switches with FM3.

 

[RevDrucifer]

Ive had such a hard time dialing in the Recto1 sim, but I have a really old Tremoverb with me and I think I figured it out. Running all the controls around noon-ish except the Fractal master is super low (I have it around .75). Rolled up the input low cut to around 80. Impedance curve to Loadbox-uk was working best.

That for me is really sounding like this Tremoverb with the same settings (other than the master volume) into the same cab. And like the real amp, Orange Modern is where it's at.

That Orange Modern is sick! Though from what I remember, the Vintage sounded pretty damn modern as well, but that could have been my IR.

Definitely gotta watch the Master on those are it’s shit city. What surprised me the most was I didn’t need to turn the bass down at all. My normal shtick with Mesa’s is to just drop the bass all the down in the pre-amp and then use the Output EQ/Impedance Curve to fine tune it, but those DV77 IR’s did all the work for me.

 

[Stephan]

Hey guys and girls. Any of you know that if I transfer the new presets from fractal (block A,B,C) via the fractal bot - will it automatically delete all the presets that are currently on the unit? I just want to make sure I don‘t waste any memory capacity or delete presets I‘d like to keep. Thanks!

 

[budda]

Hey guys and girls. Any of you know that if I transfer the new presets from fractal (block A,B,C) via the fractal bot - will it automatically delete all the presets that are currently on the unit? I just want to make sure I don‘t waste any memory capacity or delete presets I‘d like to keep. Thanks!

It will replace whatever is in those slots currently. It will also ask before proceeding. Always back up before making any major changes .

Anything you have in bank D wont be touched.

 

[budda]

FW17.00 is live.

 

[fremen]

And a new version of the Axe-fx III MK II : Turbo, with 25% more clock speed for the CPU

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/axe-fx-iii-mark-ii-turbo.177098/

 

[budda]

FullRes is here for Mk1 owners. New pitch-shift reverb types, new megatap delay types, it's just a good time.

 

[budda]

FW17.01 is live.

Axe-Fx III Firmware Release Notes

17.01


Added 10 FullRes IRs to the Legacy bank provided by Valhallir and York Audio. These are at the end of the bank. These can be loaded into the IR Player blocks or into Slots 3 and 4 of the Cabinet blocks. Note that Slots 1 and 2 of the Cabinet blocks do not support FullRes.

Adjusted Looper behavior so that when reaching the maximum recording time the behavior switches to that defined by Record 2nd Press ONLY on the first pass of a new recording.

Added dedicated Pitch Shifting to the Reverb block. This can be used to create “Shimmer Reverbs” easier than using separate Pitch and Reverb blocks (and with less CPU usage). Several new types are included to demonstrate the capability.

The Pitch Direction parameter controls the direction of the pitch shifters. FORWARD runs both shifters forward. REVERSE runs both in reverse. FOR/REV runs Voice 1 forward and Voice 2 in reverse. REV/FOR runs Voice 1 in reverse and Voice 2 forward.

The Pitch Position parameter controls the location of the pitch shifters. INPUT locates the shifters at the input of the block. MATRIX locates the shifters inside the reverb matrix. FEEDBACK locates the shifters in the matrix feedback loop. MATRIX and FEEDBACK can yield more intense effects and also helps the reverb “stick” to the notes better. FEEDBACK builds slightly slower than MATRIX. CAUTION: The MATRIX and FEEDBACK positions can cause instability at high values of Pitch Mix and Pitch Feedback. In general Pitch Feedback should be low or zero when using MATRIX or FEEDBACK.

Overhauled the Megatap block. See the updated Blocks Guide for details.

Added modulation to Diffusers in the Delay, Multitap and Megatap blocks.

Improved Auto-Swell type in Volume block. Added S-Taper to taper selections.

Added Modern Gate type to Gate block. This type is similar to the Classic Gate except the gate opens in a constant linear-in-dB manner. This naturally makes the attack slower as the gate first opens and can be used for both traditional gating and for special effects like audio swells.

Increased maximum sustain for the applicable types in the Compressor block. Existing presets are automatically updated.

Added new types to the Multitap Delay block.

Added new types to the Plex Delay block.

Added LFO for filter in Plex Delay block.

Added new types to Flanger block.

Improved accuracy of Master Volume in Amp block for low settings.

Improved accuracy of Drive block Drive control for low settings.

Fixed wrong resistor value in Solo 88 Lead input circuit. Impact is probably negligible.

Fixed wrong resistor value in USA Pre LD2 overdrive circuit. This increases gain slightly. You may need to audition any presets using these models and adjust gain accordingly.

Fixed Multitap block bandpass filters not being disabled if Master Q set to minimum.

Fixed block input not muting in bypass if Bypass Mode is Thru.

Fixed Chorus block left delay line getting unsynchronized when switching between types.

Fixed pressing Tuner button in Axe-Edit brings up Reverb UI.

Fixed Amp block power tube “kvb” not being set correctly in rare circumstances. This caused the output level of the amp block to change depending upon the previous preset used.

Fixed wrong B+ voltage for Temolo Lux amp model.

Fixed IR Capture not saving correctly if IR Type set to UltraRes.

Improved CPU usage.

Various other fixes and improvements.

 

[Kyle Jordan]

Any of you long time Axe owners have any experience using other preamps with the Fractals? I had planned on nabbing a few heads to compliment the III, but the fact is I've become spoiled by the ability to manipulate parameters to get exactly what I want. I also miss my old preamps and preferred preamp/poweramp/racks over heads, so adding a few very specific preamps appeals more to me now.

I've seen Leon Todd's video and read much on the Fractal forum, but would like to hear from others with first hand experience.

 

[fremen]

I've tried Synergy preamps (Engl Savage, Vai, Friedman BE) with the Axe, it wasn't worth the effort compared to just using the Axe 3 models.

 

[Kyle Jordan]

^Great demos and tones! Thank you for sharing. Especially the Savage comparisons as the Severe has become one of my go to models in the III, and the Synergy module and used 570/580 are high on my list of preamps that I'm looking at.

If I decide to still look in to this, I may stick with really rare or odd preamps or stuff not offered in the Axe like the old VHT GP3 or Synergy Ultra Lead. Loved the clarity of the Axe tones you got.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

Just curious if anyone here has managed to get a Neo Vent or H&K Rotosphere rotary sim sound from their Axe 3/FM3/FM9/whatever? Tried messing around with the rotary speaker and there's so many settings that I'm not sure what to do.

 

[cardinal]

Full release 18.00 is out. I updated from 16.04 today. Sounds the same to me with my basic guitar patches; just had to re-level some things.

Apparently the compressors were redone, so I'll need to actually play some bass again to see how it is now (only use a compressor with my bass patch).

 

[Kyle Jordan]

I’ll probably update in a couple of days. I just spent the past week going as deep and crazy asI could with the USA Pre/Triaxis models and I have never been happier with a piece of gear. Plus, I found a great bonus by screwing around with a model I hadn’t touched before. The Triple Crest/Mesa Triple Crown. Both models are AWESOME!

I hadn’t paid attention to the actual amp but I’ve been watching lots of videos about it since Thursday. Sounds unique. I thought it was supposed to be like the Stiletto and Trans Atlantic, but doesn’t sound like that to me. Cliff mentioned the Fender Tonemaster in his writings, and that’s when it clicked. The TC reminds me of the Fender Prosonic and Supersonic. Really liked both of those.

The Axe just keeps giving.

 

[budda]

Finally someone other than me posted about fw updating

 

[TedEH]

I've been watching the firmware threads 'cause I'm hoping that the global speaker curve thing makes it over to the FM3.