Always consult the official Owners Manuals first
Comparing the Axe-Fx III to the Axe-Fx II
The information on this page supplements the official manuals.
Contents
Migrating from the Axe-Fx II
For more information, read the Owner's Manual.
What's new or changed
Hardware:
- The unit is taller, at 3U instead of 2U, but shallower, at 11.5” deep instead of 12.9”.
- 8x8 USB Audio.
- faster MIDI-over-USB.
I/O:
- There are 4 independent stereo outputs instead of 2, plus auto-switching front/rear instrument input and 3 stereo inputs. INs and OUTs can be used in the usual ways, or paired to insert outboard gear in up to 3 stereo loops.
- The red LEDs in the front panel meter bridge now light at -1 dBFS.
- Inputs 2, 3 and 4 support guitars.
- The nominal output level can be switched between -10 and +4.
User interface:
- Instead of a RECAll screen, the Axe-Fx III has a HOME button. The new Home menu provides access to preset and Meters pages, with soft-button access to the tuner, layout, controllers, and setup menu.
- Instead of a LAYOUT button, the Grid is accessed from a soft-button in the Home menu, or by pressing ENTER or VALUE while on the Home page. The Grid has new features like Zoom, CPU meter, and a mini tuner.
- You can use old familiar workflows with the NAV buttons and VALUE wheel, but you’ll move much faster through editing if you try to use the five Push-knobs under the display.
Effects:
- New blocks: Plex Delay, Ten-Tap Delay, Multiplexer, Realtime Analyzer.
- Authentic Tri Chorus type in the Chorus block.
- 4 instances of Drive.
- 4 instances of Delay.
- 4-voice Pitch block.
- Improved Reverbs.
- More Looper time.
- Tone Matching in UltraRes.
- Tuner: improved tracking, works on any input.
Presets, scenes, blocks and channels:
- The grid is now 14x6.
- 512 preset slots.
- More CPU available per preset.
- Inputs and Outputs must be placed on the grid as blocks.
- Each Scene now has its own name.
- The number of Scene Controllers has been doubled to 4.
- Up to 4 Channels per block.
- To control the bypass state of a block using a modifier, you no longer modify the Bypass Mode parameter, but a dedicated Bypass parameter.
- Presets no longer default to Scene 1 but now load whichever scene was selected when you saved them.
Amp and Cab modeling:
- "Ares" amp modeling adds some parameter changes and adds Input EQ.
- It mixes up to 4 different IRs at once.
- Mic modeling has been removed, but "Proximity" remains.
- There are now Factory 1, Factory 2, User 1 and User 2 banks, each with 1,024 IRs, and a Legacy bank containing all 189 IRs from the Axe-Fx II, and 16 Scratchpads.
Editors and foot controllers:
- Editor software and foot controllers share control, updating each other seamlessly without re-sync issues or paused communications.
- FASLINK II connects the Axe-Fx III to the new FC controller(s).
- Axe-Edit III scales to hi-res displays.
MIDI:
- Up to 8 MIDI PCs or CCs can be transmitted upon scene changes.
- A PC can be transmitted upon preset changes.
- The "Send realtime SysEx" parameter is gone.
- A PC can be sent through the MIDI OUT port upon preset changes.
Computer:
- No driver required for Mac computers.
What's gone
- X/Y switching.
- Swapping presets locations on hardware.
- Recall Effect.
- Global blocks.
What's more
- All of Axe-Fx II's amp models and factory cabs appear in the Axe-Fx III.
- All of the effects have been either ported directly or improved upon.
- All existing Cab-Packs and user cabs are 100% compatible.
- Windows: driver, Mac: not
- easier reamping
- Damping
- 4 controllers
- 4 scene controllers
Comparing the blocks
Comparison of available effects in each device.
The Axe-Fx II and Axe-Fx III cannot share presets electronically, but you can transfer sounds by re-creating them on the grid and entering parameter values, which match up identically or very closely.
Comparing sound quality
”Everything sounds better. I think a big part of it is the quality of the I/O. The I/O measures flatter and less distortion than my $2000 interface.” source
"It actually does sound a little better. The extra DSP horsepower means that we didn't have to make compromises in some of the algorithms. The amp modeling algorithm is very similar but there's a few places on the II where we had to make compromises to get the algorithm to run within the allotted time. Also the III has a higher internal oversampling rate and a higher bit depth on some calculations (64-bit vs. 40-bit)." source
"Better algorithms, higher upsampling, better analog I/O design."
More ...
(about heat) "Less than an Axe-Fx II." source