Comparing the Axe-Fx III to the Axe-Fx II

The information on this page supplements the official manuals.

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