Axe FX III - the Blog

WiresDreamDisasters · September 2021

Roland said:

He doesn’t come across as angry. More that he’s pleased to discover what he sees as a flaw with a competing product.

My take is that it depends how the human ear perceives the even harmonics. We used to say that transistors produced odd harmonics, but valves were less harsh because they produced more even harmonics. So whilst, according to Cliff, the Quad Cortex is producing more even harmonics artefacts than the AxeFX, that doesn’t tell me which sound I would prefer.

It’s a question where @WiresDreamDisasters, who has experienced both, might have a view.

I've not tried the Axe III yet. In fact that is a bit of a lie; I saw one in Tokyo when it first came out, and I touched the knobs on the front of it and browsed the menus. But I didn't hear it. It seemed easier to navigate and look at than the Axe II though.

My view is that aliasing is often overstated. It *can* be a problem yes, but isn't *always* a problem and often times people chasing stats and figures can miss the forest for the dropbears. People will corksniff about anything it seems and you very quickly reach a saturation point of how useful that analytical approach is.

The golden rule is: AS LONG AS IT SOUNDS GOOD.

Cliff would be better off spending time developing products and updates that cater to the people who want to buy his products. If he wants to open up markets and or maintain market dominance, he should do something different to what he's done before - that's my personal view informed by experience.

10 years ago people ranted and raved about how much better the Axe FX II was versus the Kemper. I remember Cliff analysed the Kemper file-format and made some claims that Christophe Kemper said were incorrect. In any case... the Kemper is still here, and it is still successful.

At the same time, in those early Kemper days, people mentioned how fizzy the unit could sound. This resulted in Kemper fixing some oversampling issues that were resulting in aliasing. And you could quite easily hear the aliasing prior to that update, when doing unison bends high up the fretboard.

Sometimes the user isn't best equipped to articulate why they perceive something a certain way, and you need a techy DSP nerd to validate and QA their concerns.

And in that thread, it might not even be the Quad Cortex he's talking about. Could be the new Boss unit, or Headrush unit. Who knows.

WiresDreamDisasters · September 2021

@Roland ;

How has your FC12 been recently??

Roland · September 2021

@WiresDreamDisasters Replacement FC12 works perfectly.

I don’t know whether the problem with the first one was hardware or firmware. G66 thought hardware. The replacement came with the latest firmware, and I notice that it includes a bug fix. Since the switches were failing in sequence, a different one each day, it’s easy to suspect firmware.

WiresDreamDisasters · September 2021

@Roland ;

Can the AxeIII/FM9 cover these ugly-but-pretty delay fuzz wall oscillations; like these:
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiestholes/truth-oscillation
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiest.../world-inside-oscillation

I remember reading about improvements to the delays in firmware 16, but have only heard a few clips.

And can the Axe III do this kind of fuzz tone:
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiestholes/postsynaptic-fuzzwall

?

Roland · September 2021

@WiresDreamDisasters. It’s not something I’ve looked at. So far I’ve focused on what I need for my pop covers band.

paulmapp8306 · September 2021

WiresDreamDisasters said:

@Roland ;

Can the AxeIII/FM9 cover these ugly-but-pretty delay fuzz wall oscillations; like these:
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiestholes/truth-oscillation
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiest.../world-inside-oscillation

I remember reading about improvements to the delays in firmware 16, but have only heard a few clips.

And can the Axe III do this kind of fuzz tone:
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiestholes/postsynaptic-fuzzwall

?

never tied to generate that oscillation. id be surprised it the AFX COULDNT do it - but may take some working out.

The fuzz - no problem I dont think, though as always depends how picky you get about a perfect clone.

WiresDreamDisasters · September 2021

Roland said:

@WiresDreamDisasters. It’s not something I’ve looked at. So far I’ve focused on what I need for my pop covers band.

You don't use a screaming banshee of delay feedback in your pop covers band!?! What is the world coming to!!

WiresDreamDisasters · September 2021

paulmapp8306 said:

WiresDreamDisasters said:

@Roland ;

Can the AxeIII/FM9 cover these ugly-but-pretty delay fuzz wall oscillations; like these:
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiestholes/truth-oscillation
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiest.../world-inside-oscillation

I remember reading about improvements to the delays in firmware 16, but have only heard a few clips.

And can the Axe III do this kind of fuzz tone:
https://soundcloud.com/sloppiestholes/postsynaptic-fuzzwall

?

never tied to generate that oscillation. id be surprised it the AFX COULDNT do it - but may take some working out.

The fuzz - no problem I dont think, though as always depends how picky you get about a perfect clone.

I think they added some features to the delay blocks in firmware 16 that mean getting those dirtier tones is easier.

Roland · September 2021

One of the benefits of taking a week away from the guitar is that you come back with fresh ears, and ready to try new things. Over breakfast this morning I watched a video of Guthrie Trapp playing his new Two Rock amp. It reminded me of how I used to like the 50w Two Rock, an amp I was introduced to by Matt Schofield when he played a local village hall.

You can guess where my evening went. That was only with the front panel. Tomorrow I’ll connect up a laptop with AxeEdit and create a proper Two Rock preset.

On a different topic, I decided that my 450mm 4U rack sleeve is too big and heavy. It isn’t stable on my amp stand. Instead I’ve ordered a 4U case with a 300mm sleeve. The measurements say that everything will fit.

FarleyUK · September 2021

Aaaaand they've released an 'upgraded' Mark 2 with an optional turbo chipset for 25% increased CPU power:

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

DefaultM · September 2021

I've not been on the fractal forum in years cos it's full of tossers, but in my opinion Cliff always made the axe fx ii sound absolutely dreadful.
There'd be a massive post with technical details about how the new firmware made this the best ever and it was better than so and so, then a soundclip that made your teeth itch.

Roland · September 2021

FarleyUK said:

Aaaaand they've released an 'upgraded' Mark 2 ....

Like all technology, you buy want you want at the time you want it. I suspect that this might not be a planned upgrade, but that the latest shipment of chips has a different spec to the last shipment.

DefaultM said:

I've not been on the fractal forum in years cos it's full of tossers, but in my opinion Cliff always made the axe fx ii sound absolutely dreadful.
There'd be a massive post with technical details about how the new firmware made this the best ever and it was better than so and so, then a soundclip that made your teeth itch.

I learned a long time ago that different people listen out for different things in any guitar sound. There have been firmware changes which fan boys raved over, and I thought “what’s the fuss about?”. Then came an upgrade which I thought revolutionary, and many fan boys were complaining about it being a retrograde step.

There are tossers on every forum. Until I bought the AxeFX III I hadn’t been near the Fractal forum in ages. Someone would post here about there being a firmware upgrade, which thankfully became fewer as the product matured. I’d wait at least two weeks for the dust to settle. Then, when I had a gap in my diary, I’d upgrade.

Roland · September 2021

Firmware 17 is about long tailed IRs, which bake in some of the reverberation from the room they’re recorded in. I guess that a lot of people don’t notice the natural reverb around them. Last night we watched Ray. Ray Charles was quoted as always wearing hard soled shoes so that he could hear the difference in sound as he walked past an open doorway.

Somewhere on YouTube there’s a video of a chamber orchestra playing in a church, then in a studio with reverb added. The latter is awful. The string players play to the sound of the room they’re in. They’ll hold or curtail a note depending on the natural reverb.

It irritates me when the players in a band use different reverb settings, especially bedroom levels on a live stage. My guitar needs a touch of reverb to prevent it being too dry. If I want it echoing around then I’ll use echo, nowadays known as delay with diffusion. For years I’ve been using the same settings, a medium room reverb set around 15%, with nothing in the 45 to 120ms range. Sound travels at 330 metres per second. That’s about 1 foot per millisecond. So in a domestic 12 x15 ft setting early reflections from floor, ceiling and walls are going to be less than 25ms. In a small hall it would be longer. After that the sound becomes more complex with multiple reflections. For clarity I like to chop out the complexity at 45ms, which is about the size of a small hall. With the AxeFX III I’ve been experimenting with the new reverb types. They’re nice as effects. IMHO very little different from the big name reverbs. At the same time there’s something cartoonish about the sound when compared with the long tailed IRs I’ve heard this week.

Am I going to experiment with long tailed IRs? Of course. Will I use them? Probably not, but I might turn up the level of my <45ms early reflections.

mrkb · September 2021

If you practice with headphones on, as I do for 80% of my playing, there is no natural reverb.... just use the tools you need. I never use parking assist in my car, but can understand why someone who parallel parks on narrow city streets into small gaps would.

Roland · October 2021

For several weeks I’ve been wanting to re-work my acoustic guitar simulation. This morning on my YouTube feed there was a new G66 video from Cooper Carter explaining how he processes his acoustic guitar. I don’t use a acoustic live. They’re fragile, and they’re prone to feedback. I also dislike having to change guitar mid set because it interrupts the flow. Instead each patch has an acoustic simulation scene.

There are three elements to the simulation. A multiband compressor which tries to reduce the sustain of an electric guitar to be closer to an acoustic. A homemade IR in the CAB block which matches my acoustic to the neck pickup on my Tele. There’s also a PEQ because the sound I actually need is not the same as my acoustic produces. Most acoustic guitars in a recording, or in a live mix, are heavily EQd.

This morning I duplicated my Acoustic scene to provide an A:B comparison. Then I played around with the MBC, and took out 3dB from the middle band. Rather than increase the block output level I put in an AMP block set to Tube Pre because I thought that I might want to change the EQ as well. At this point I haven’t changed the EQ, but might when I listen back tomorrow. I’m also using mic proximity of 2.5 in the CAB block to add warmth.

Grabbing an idea from Cooper Carter I set up a channel in the Chorus block with 10% depth, 100% mix, and 15% level. This adds a touch of brightness and fullness. Chorus is switched by a button on the FC12, so try it out in a band mix without having to stop playing.

TeleMaster · October 2021

FarleyUK said:

Aaaaand they've released an 'upgraded' Mark 2 with an optional turbo chipset for 25% increased CPU power:

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

Their product cycle is so short it seems. I’ve no use for this in any case.

FarleyUK · October 2021

So I had a rehearsal last night with a new band (see the post in 'Need to vent'.....) and tried my two new Laney LFR112 cabs with the AFX3 for the first time.

They sounded awesome at high volumes; no harshness or shrillness, just a lovely smooth tone. Easily the best speakers I've tried so far with the AFX3! Also great that they have their own hi-cut filters available on each of them as well.

Roland · October 2021

TeleMaster said:
Their product cycle is so short it seems...

That’s the way electronics goes in the modern world. A printer can last you five years or more, but as a sales product it is often superseded in less than a year.

The people who post frequently on the Fractal forum are often chasing the latest thing for its own sake. A lot of working guitarists who tour with Fractal gear are probably still on the AxeFX II.

exocet · October 2021

Roland said:

TeleMaster said:
Their product cycle is so short it seems...

That’s the way electronics goes in the modern world. A printer can last you five years or more, but as a sales product it is often superseded in less than a year.

The people who post frequently on the Fractal forum are often chasing the latest thing for its own sake. A lot of working guitarists who tour with Fractal gear are probably still on the AxeFX II.

I think Fractal are pretty bad with this....if you enter their world with anything other than the flagship product.

I started with the FX8, didn't want to move away from amps at that time but liked the idea of MultiFX. I bought it late (2017) but basically no more firmware was released because it appears that a key individual left the organisation and that individual knew the FX8 architecture..

Then I bought AX8 - I liked it a lot but it too reached end if line after 18 months ownership. There were cryptic messages on the forum alluding to a possible release of ARES modelling but it never happened and the FM3 was released.

So, I sold AX8, bought FM3. More spendy than AX8 and needed FC6 to give decent live switching options. Within 2 years of release in Europe, it too appears to be heading for the bin due to lack of horsepower....enter FM9.

I could have gone down the Helix route when I got the FX8, it would still be being supported...

That said, I do like the FM3!

mrkb · October 2021

FarleyUK said:

So I had a rehearsal last night with a new band (see the post in 'Need to vent'.....) and tried my two new Laney LFR112 cabs with the AFX3 for the first time.

They sounded awesome at high volumes; no harshness or shrillness, just a lovely smooth tone. Easily the best speakers I've tried so far with the AFX3! Also great that they have their own hi-cut filters available on each of them as well.

So you found the Laneys better than the Redsound RS-LG12S? That’s interesting.

FarleyUK · October 2021

mrkb said:

FarleyUK said:

So I had a rehearsal last night with a new band (see the post in 'Need to vent'.....) and tried my two new Laney LFR112 cabs with the AFX3 for the first time.

They sounded awesome at high volumes; no harshness or shrillness, just a lovely smooth tone. Easily the best speakers I've tried so far with the AFX3! Also great that they have their own hi-cut filters available on each of them as well.

So you found the Laneys better than the Redsound RS-LG12S? That’s interesting.

Yep - but bear in mind it might be 'new gear bias'. However, I found I no longer needed the drastic EQ cut around 1400hz to tame the barkiness.

Roland · October 2021

Roland said:

.. I decided that my 450mm 4U rack sleeve is too big and heavy. It isn’t stable on my amp stand. Instead I’ve ordered a 4U case with a 300mm sleeve. The measurements say that everything will fit.

The AxeFX IIII and its cables do fit. The wireless receiver didn’t at first. The aerials stuck out too far for the lid to close. So I mounted the wireless from the back which gives an extra half centimetre clearance, the depth of the rack nuts.

The SubZero midi merger and the 4-way mains block now hang from the top of the box, held by Velcro. I had been thinking of getting a proper rack power strip, but am glad I didn’t because it wouldn’t have left enough space for the SubZero.

Roland · October 2021

When I started this thread it was with the expectation that I would be using the AFX3 to configure effects that I couldn’t achieve with the AFX2 because of processing capacity limits. So far most of my effort has gone into replicating what I previously had. At last I’m branching out into new territory.

Superstition has been in our Set List for as long as I can remember. I use a Wah to provide the narrow bandpass filter that’s characteristic of Stevie Wonder’s clavinet. It’s a Crybaby Wah model with a high Q, and a bottom end that’s matched to the low Eb in the riff. As I play I track the note with the Wah treadle. I’m not trying to simulate the Mutron effect which Wonder used on songs like Higher Group, just move the bandpass filter frequency.

With the AFX3 I want to make the sound more like that of a clavinet. This could mean working with lower gain to reduce sustain, or using a Compressor to cut the volume of each note after several 100ms. It could mean introducing synth voices for more of a non-guitar sound.

There’s something else I need to do. With the wrong shoes on, or if I get tired towards the end of a gig, my foot tracking goes awry. Not so much timing as moving the treadle too much, or not enough. Last weekend we auditioned a couple of drummers. I found it difficult to turn and look at the drummer whilst working the treadle correctly.

Enter pitch tracking. In the past I’ve used envelope tracking and ADSRs, but pitch tracking is new to me. Surprisingly it worked first time. With AxeEdit open I was able to dial in the exact start setting I need for the low Eb, and set the slope and range to track the higher notes.

Now on to the Clavinet. I’ve done the obligatory Google searches to find what other people have tried. None seem particularly close. I’m open to ideas. Suggestions on a postcard please.

Roland · October 2021

Back to square one. Pitch tracking worked flawlessly. I just realised that it didn’t give the vocal quality that I’m after. After the first verse I switched back to manual control.

Incidently, I see that firmware 17.1 has just been released. I’ll give it a couple of weeks before upgrading in case anything crawls out of the woodwork.

WiresDreamDisasters · November 2021

Well....

I have one now.

I just went straight to 17.1 and started playing with delays.

Honeymoon Hog Heaven is what I shall call it.

Roland · November 2021

There didn’t seem a lot of anguish on the Fractal forum, so I went to 17.1 over the weekend. Since then I’ve been listening to the new extra long IRs when combined with the cabinet IRs I already know. Yes, the IR rabbit hole. I still don’t think I’ll use long IRs live, but they remind me of how unnatural the algorithmic reverbs sound in isolation.

There’s so much that can be done with the new delays that I’ll leave that box closed for a while.

Roland · November 2021

Here are some of the things that delay can do (not my video)

https://youtu.be/yOkAAw6QCis

WiresDreamDisasters · November 2021

I'm gonna post more at some point, but this thing is frickin' amazing.

Jonathanthomas83 · November 2021

In very eager to hear your thoughts on this. I had a feeling you'd like it. It's come on so much since you last had one.

Roland · November 2021

I’m waiting for @WiresDreamDisasters to tell us that it’s better than Strymon.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories

In this Discussion

Become a Subscriber!

Axe FX III - the Blog

Comments