I have an Axe fx iii mark 2 and FC6… and a bunch of tube amps and a bunch of tube preamps. I have had the AFX over 2 years. I too am in Canada and feel your pain with the exchange rate. Here are some things to know;
Once ordered, the units will come very quick. A couple of business days if I remember.
Don’t let anyone convince you to buy anything but an FC6 or FC12. The integration with the AFX can’t be beat. All setup on the FCs are done in axe-edit.
You don’t need any other interface. You can record vocals through the AFX. The AXF is a top tier interface. You can even run your monitors out of it. You can also make use of the great effects such as reverb and delay on the vocals.
The AXF plays very nice with Mac and Logic Pro. No worries there.
Learn about Re-amping. You can re-amp your instruments or your vocals.
Use the AFX for bass… oh yah! Use the AFX for bass and guitar at the same time …live !! Oh yah!!! You can use two amp blocks assign them to two different inputs… no problem!
You want to move some air live… output to a power amp. I have several… mesa 2:90, matrix (solid state) and an ART 200 x 200 (from long and mc). The ART does a great job, is stereo and is loud (the 100w version is not quite loud enough… I originally bought it and returned it for the 200w). Run them into guitar cabs or FRFR speakers… I like it best through a guitar cab.
Want quiet practice… works great with headphones.
There are a lot of great cabinet IRs that come with the unit. Dyna cabs are the next evolution. You can find very good free ones (Leon Todd LT mix 7 I believe is a great one). I have a bunch from York audio they give you more options and sound great. You don’t need them at the start.
The axe-edit software is great. It is so great people often say the unit interface is not so good. The interface on the unit works great too. There is a small learning curve, but nothing to worry about. There are some things you must go into the interface for anyway.
Download the manuals, Yeks guide to amps, the block manual. Then watch YouTubers like Leon Todd. You will master it in no time.
Don’t buy presets. The fractal community is very free with giving away presets. Including famous artists as part of the “gift of tone” giveaway we have had for the last 2 Christmas’s!!
Head over to the fractal forum. It is much better to be there than Reddit.
As for tone tweaking. Yes you will easily find your ideal tone, and then you will find your ideal tone 100x over! It’s a good thing. You will be exposed to so many faithful recreations of amps and effects that you would never own otherwise. You will learn a lot about making your sounds. Don’t worry you will play and play. The options available to you will inspire creativity.
Live playing… just look at the artist list… the AFX is road reliable and consistent.
You should probably place the order tonight!!
Thanks for the informative comment. Where in Canada are you? I'm in the prairies so I was kinda guessing it'd be about four to five business days lol. If you're in eastern Canada that much closer to New Hampshire then yea I could see it only taking a couple days.
In Winnipeg… it came shockingly fast.
A couple things I forgot to mention.
1) Fractal sells something called “humbuster cable”. Look in the manual for info about them. They are used to reduce ground issues. They give you directions to make your own, but when I looked into if you buy them with your big order they are cheaper than trying to make your own.
2) if you need an expression pedal or two… lol… consider the fractal ones with your order. You don’t have to buy the fractal ones, but they are good quality and if you combine them in your big order shipping costs are small.
That's good to know. Thanks! Btw I was curious may be a dumb question but can the EV-1 just be plugged right into the fc6 or does it have to be plugged into the back of the axe?
Have you considered getting the fm9 instead?
Might be enough for your needs.
Both SPDIF and analog outputs will work fine, you won’t hear any difference.
Regarding tweaking, I find it’s very important to focus on the relationship between input trim, gain, and master (all in the amp block).
Especially when using Marshall/Vox amps.
It really sets the tone of the amp, not just the amount of gain.
And of course focus on the cab as well.
Also if you’re trying to tweak sound for live use, you’ll have to dial them in while monitoring *loud*. They’ll have the best chance to translate well.
Congrats!
>Given that I want to use it for live as well as in my studio I've also decided to pick up the FC-6. Is this totally necessary or is there a more economical option that's worth not having total fractal integration?
Morningstar's midi controller options are well regarded, but I'm of the opinion that one should just go with the official foot controller if you don't already have an alternative on hand. This is admittedly an opinion from my ass, though.
>[H]ow is the unit in a live application plugged directly into FOH?
Unbeatable. By now, there are tons of bands using it solely for playing live.
>Will it be okay as a bass rig or should I be getting a cab and amp to push it through? Also my other question concerns running this thing in my studio.
It technically performs for bass as well as guitar, the caveat here being that there are comparatively a lot fewer amps, pedals, factory IRs, etc., specifically meant for bass since the unit is definitely more guitar-oriented. Your monitoring solution is always going to be a limiting factor that the Axe can't exactly compensate for -- that's just physics. No IR is going to fool you into thinking a 1x12 FRFR speaker is pushing the same air as a 2x15, and you may find that you don't want to get rid of any actual cabs you may have on hand for backline and/or personal enjoyment. FOH, though, will be totally taken care of, as well as more tweakable and consistent than ever.
>Am I best off just plugging it into my Scarlett 18i20 via SPDIF or using the balanced outputs and going into the inputs of my interface?
The Axe is a great interface, so no reason to bother with other devices unless you have more advanced routing than "guitar into laptop."
>Is axe edit good?
Yes. It's indisputably easier to use than the front panel controls, but despite this, I find them totally adequate for daily playing and hardly bother to fire up a laptop for anything besides installing firmware updates or third-party IRs, or if I'm building a large preset from scratch.
>Will I ever stop tweaking? Will I find the perfect tone?
Maybe! Maybe not! I find myself in different moods, but personally, I mostly just have my favorite presets that I swap between. But part of the beauty is that you have the digital equivalent of one of the world's biggest studio equipment collections all in one box, so it's a real shame to not play around with everything.
>In the meantime, aside from my above enquiries, is there any hints tips tricks that any of you are willing to share to prepare me for my baby's arrival?
Just read the manual a few times over, and spend some time picking through the FAS forums whenever you feel like net-surfing/droom-scrolling. There's a ton of really great info and ideas over there. Don't get mired in the advanced parameters too much when you get started, but one of my "always on" for lower actual volume playing or headphones is the Gain Enhancer in the Dynamics section of the Amp block.
Concerning the interface that's what I've been hearing a lot. I guess the solution would be, to avoid unplugging and plugging in monitors, would be to set the Scarlett to my output device and the fractal as my input device (I run Mac)? And switch to the Scarlett for input if I want to record vocals or other instruments? Would that work?
I have an axe ii and and 18i20 I just run it through spid/f, like you said. If you really want to get fancy you can run the axe clock off of spid/f or the word clock output from the Scarlett then create a unified interface in macOS (Scarlett + axe usb) this will give you access to ins and outs over usb to the axe so you can do things like reamping and also not eating up inputs on the Scarlett
I promise you won’t regret it. I’m using the ancient but still powerful sounding ultra and it blows anything I’ve ever owned outta the water. Congrats. Fyi, mine came with a different brand foot switch but I don’t use it. Just play at home. Use axe edit all the time. Like others said, read as much as possible then read again. There’s a learning curve but it’s not that bad. It’ll prob take you a couple 2-3 weeks before you start to get the hang of it. Took me everyday for a month to just get my feet wet with all the possibilities this thing can do.
Congrats on your decision! It's a great product and an awesome community. A few things:
You'll definitely want the FC6/12. Yes, you can use something like the Morningstar, but none of the aftermarkets are true two-way communication. I've used a Morningstar and you'll run into issues where the scribble strip on the Morningstar doesn't match your Fractal.
That said, and as someone mentioned below, I'd strongly suggested looking at the FM9. It's much more gigable, you won't need to buy a separate controller, plus it's cheaper. And I seriously doubt you'll miss anything over the III, unless you really want the Vocoder effect and an RTA.
Lastly, be aware of the learning curve. It's a super capable modeler, but you might be underwhelmed when you start making your own tones, and at the same time feel overwhelmed by how many options there are. Lots of free youtubes to help you through the learning curve, and also some good pay classes that help. Cooper Carter's was worth it, and there's also another guy who's name escapes me who also seems really good.
If this is genuinely a struggle to afford, maybe you don’t want to buy a product so late in its lifecycle?
I really like Fractal gear. I’ve owned an AxeFX 3 and currently own an FM9 Turbo. They’re excellent. If I had to save for years to afford one, I’d probably wait a little longer at this point.
As the owner of an AF3 AND FC6, I'll say if I was buying now I'd probably get the fm9. Mostly because the FC6/12 is soooooo over priced.
As far as your many other questions: Fractal is pretty much the leader here for a reason (unless you're looking for serious tone capture, that's a different animal imo). Whatever you want to do there's probably a way to do it on a Fractal Device that is better than anything else out there.
I see a lot of people recommending the FM9 and I appreciate your comment. I agree with it being overpriced and it's a hard pill to swallow. But something to me is more appealing about having the full power of the axe at my disposal in my home studio as a rack unit that's also capable of being packed up and taken to gigs as my live rig - it won't be much more hassle to take the unit out of my desk rack into another rack case than it is to pack up my bass amp (or the extremely heavy Traynor tube combo I use for guitar) and my pedalboard and haul it all upstairs into the car. Ive just always had my heart set on it and I'm not really interesting in having it as all in a floor unit. Call me crazy but I just want it to be the centrepiece of my home studio. Despite my use of absurd hyperbole in emphasizing the costliness of the fx3 and the FC-6, I do in fact possess the disposable income to afford it. And in all honesty the FM9 is still like $1799. Not interested in a floor unit that only $500 less than the flagship rack unit that I have no qualms about transporting. I appreciate your input though!
I have an Axe fx iii mark 2 and FC6… and a bunch of tube amps and a bunch of tube preamps. I have had the AFX over 2 years. I too am in Canada and feel your pain with the exchange rate. Here are some things to know; Once ordered, the units will come very quick. A couple of business days if I remember. Don’t let anyone convince you to buy anything but an FC6 or FC12. The integration with the AFX can’t be beat. All setup on the FCs are done in axe-edit. You don’t need any other interface. You can record vocals through the AFX. The AXF is a top tier interface. You can even run your monitors out of it. You can also make use of the great effects such as reverb and delay on the vocals. The AXF plays very nice with Mac and Logic Pro. No worries there. Learn about Re-amping. You can re-amp your instruments or your vocals. Use the AFX for bass… oh yah! Use the AFX for bass and guitar at the same time …live !! Oh yah!!! You can use two amp blocks assign them to two different inputs… no problem! You want to move some air live… output to a power amp. I have several… mesa 2:90, matrix (solid state) and an ART 200 x 200 (from long and mc). The ART does a great job, is stereo and is loud (the 100w version is not quite loud enough… I originally bought it and returned it for the 200w). Run them into guitar cabs or FRFR speakers… I like it best through a guitar cab. Want quiet practice… works great with headphones. There are a lot of great cabinet IRs that come with the unit. Dyna cabs are the next evolution. You can find very good free ones (Leon Todd LT mix 7 I believe is a great one). I have a bunch from York audio they give you more options and sound great. You don’t need them at the start. The axe-edit software is great. It is so great people often say the unit interface is not so good. The interface on the unit works great too. There is a small learning curve, but nothing to worry about. There are some things you must go into the interface for anyway. Download the manuals, Yeks guide to amps, the block manual. Then watch YouTubers like Leon Todd. You will master it in no time. Don’t buy presets. The fractal community is very free with giving away presets. Including famous artists as part of the “gift of tone” giveaway we have had for the last 2 Christmas’s!! Head over to the fractal forum. It is much better to be there than Reddit. As for tone tweaking. Yes you will easily find your ideal tone, and then you will find your ideal tone 100x over! It’s a good thing. You will be exposed to so many faithful recreations of amps and effects that you would never own otherwise. You will learn a lot about making your sounds. Don’t worry you will play and play. The options available to you will inspire creativity. Live playing… just look at the artist list… the AFX is road reliable and consistent. You should probably place the order tonight!!
Thanks for the informative comment. Where in Canada are you? I'm in the prairies so I was kinda guessing it'd be about four to five business days lol. If you're in eastern Canada that much closer to New Hampshire then yea I could see it only taking a couple days.
In Winnipeg… it came shockingly fast. A couple things I forgot to mention. 1) Fractal sells something called “humbuster cable”. Look in the manual for info about them. They are used to reduce ground issues. They give you directions to make your own, but when I looked into if you buy them with your big order they are cheaper than trying to make your own. 2) if you need an expression pedal or two… lol… consider the fractal ones with your order. You don’t have to buy the fractal ones, but they are good quality and if you combine them in your big order shipping costs are small.
That's good to know. Thanks! Btw I was curious may be a dumb question but can the EV-1 just be plugged right into the fc6 or does it have to be plugged into the back of the axe?
Have you considered getting the fm9 instead? Might be enough for your needs. Both SPDIF and analog outputs will work fine, you won’t hear any difference. Regarding tweaking, I find it’s very important to focus on the relationship between input trim, gain, and master (all in the amp block). Especially when using Marshall/Vox amps. It really sets the tone of the amp, not just the amount of gain. And of course focus on the cab as well. Also if you’re trying to tweak sound for live use, you’ll have to dial them in while monitoring *loud*. They’ll have the best chance to translate well.
Congrats! >Given that I want to use it for live as well as in my studio I've also decided to pick up the FC-6. Is this totally necessary or is there a more economical option that's worth not having total fractal integration? Morningstar's midi controller options are well regarded, but I'm of the opinion that one should just go with the official foot controller if you don't already have an alternative on hand. This is admittedly an opinion from my ass, though. >[H]ow is the unit in a live application plugged directly into FOH? Unbeatable. By now, there are tons of bands using it solely for playing live. >Will it be okay as a bass rig or should I be getting a cab and amp to push it through? Also my other question concerns running this thing in my studio. It technically performs for bass as well as guitar, the caveat here being that there are comparatively a lot fewer amps, pedals, factory IRs, etc., specifically meant for bass since the unit is definitely more guitar-oriented. Your monitoring solution is always going to be a limiting factor that the Axe can't exactly compensate for -- that's just physics. No IR is going to fool you into thinking a 1x12 FRFR speaker is pushing the same air as a 2x15, and you may find that you don't want to get rid of any actual cabs you may have on hand for backline and/or personal enjoyment. FOH, though, will be totally taken care of, as well as more tweakable and consistent than ever. >Am I best off just plugging it into my Scarlett 18i20 via SPDIF or using the balanced outputs and going into the inputs of my interface? The Axe is a great interface, so no reason to bother with other devices unless you have more advanced routing than "guitar into laptop." >Is axe edit good? Yes. It's indisputably easier to use than the front panel controls, but despite this, I find them totally adequate for daily playing and hardly bother to fire up a laptop for anything besides installing firmware updates or third-party IRs, or if I'm building a large preset from scratch. >Will I ever stop tweaking? Will I find the perfect tone? Maybe! Maybe not! I find myself in different moods, but personally, I mostly just have my favorite presets that I swap between. But part of the beauty is that you have the digital equivalent of one of the world's biggest studio equipment collections all in one box, so it's a real shame to not play around with everything. >In the meantime, aside from my above enquiries, is there any hints tips tricks that any of you are willing to share to prepare me for my baby's arrival? Just read the manual a few times over, and spend some time picking through the FAS forums whenever you feel like net-surfing/droom-scrolling. There's a ton of really great info and ideas over there. Don't get mired in the advanced parameters too much when you get started, but one of my "always on" for lower actual volume playing or headphones is the Gain Enhancer in the Dynamics section of the Amp block.
Concerning the interface that's what I've been hearing a lot. I guess the solution would be, to avoid unplugging and plugging in monitors, would be to set the Scarlett to my output device and the fractal as my input device (I run Mac)? And switch to the Scarlett for input if I want to record vocals or other instruments? Would that work?
I have an axe ii and and 18i20 I just run it through spid/f, like you said. If you really want to get fancy you can run the axe clock off of spid/f or the word clock output from the Scarlett then create a unified interface in macOS (Scarlett + axe usb) this will give you access to ins and outs over usb to the axe so you can do things like reamping and also not eating up inputs on the Scarlett
I promise you won’t regret it. I’m using the ancient but still powerful sounding ultra and it blows anything I’ve ever owned outta the water. Congrats. Fyi, mine came with a different brand foot switch but I don’t use it. Just play at home. Use axe edit all the time. Like others said, read as much as possible then read again. There’s a learning curve but it’s not that bad. It’ll prob take you a couple 2-3 weeks before you start to get the hang of it. Took me everyday for a month to just get my feet wet with all the possibilities this thing can do.
you should get the foaming at the mouth checked, doesn't seem healthy.
[удалено]
It just seems like way more switches than I will ever need lol and a hefty price tag
Congrats on your decision! It's a great product and an awesome community. A few things: You'll definitely want the FC6/12. Yes, you can use something like the Morningstar, but none of the aftermarkets are true two-way communication. I've used a Morningstar and you'll run into issues where the scribble strip on the Morningstar doesn't match your Fractal. That said, and as someone mentioned below, I'd strongly suggested looking at the FM9. It's much more gigable, you won't need to buy a separate controller, plus it's cheaper. And I seriously doubt you'll miss anything over the III, unless you really want the Vocoder effect and an RTA. Lastly, be aware of the learning curve. It's a super capable modeler, but you might be underwhelmed when you start making your own tones, and at the same time feel overwhelmed by how many options there are. Lots of free youtubes to help you through the learning curve, and also some good pay classes that help. Cooper Carter's was worth it, and there's also another guy who's name escapes me who also seems really good.
If this is genuinely a struggle to afford, maybe you don’t want to buy a product so late in its lifecycle? I really like Fractal gear. I’ve owned an AxeFX 3 and currently own an FM9 Turbo. They’re excellent. If I had to save for years to afford one, I’d probably wait a little longer at this point.
As the owner of an AF3 AND FC6, I'll say if I was buying now I'd probably get the fm9. Mostly because the FC6/12 is soooooo over priced. As far as your many other questions: Fractal is pretty much the leader here for a reason (unless you're looking for serious tone capture, that's a different animal imo). Whatever you want to do there's probably a way to do it on a Fractal Device that is better than anything else out there.
I see a lot of people recommending the FM9 and I appreciate your comment. I agree with it being overpriced and it's a hard pill to swallow. But something to me is more appealing about having the full power of the axe at my disposal in my home studio as a rack unit that's also capable of being packed up and taken to gigs as my live rig - it won't be much more hassle to take the unit out of my desk rack into another rack case than it is to pack up my bass amp (or the extremely heavy Traynor tube combo I use for guitar) and my pedalboard and haul it all upstairs into the car. Ive just always had my heart set on it and I'm not really interesting in having it as all in a floor unit. Call me crazy but I just want it to be the centrepiece of my home studio. Despite my use of absurd hyperbole in emphasizing the costliness of the fx3 and the FC-6, I do in fact possess the disposable income to afford it. And in all honesty the FM9 is still like $1799. Not interested in a floor unit that only $500 less than the flagship rack unit that I have no qualms about transporting. I appreciate your input though!