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
- Inputs and Outputs must be placed on the grid as blocks.
- The Axe-Fx III features up to four Channels per block. Like X/Y, Channels give you multiple sound settings from a single block, but they change much more quickly. Change a block’s channel with dedicated buttons revealed when you press the MORE button (Push-knob E) from any Edit menu.
- Each scene now has its own name.
- A new architecture allows multiple clients such as foot controllers or editor software to share control, updating each other seamlessly without re-sync issues or paused communications.
- FASLINK II connects the Axe-Fx III and the new FC controllers.
- Axe-Edit III scales to hi-res displays.
What's changed
- Hardware:
- The unit is taller, at 3U instead of 2U, but shallower, at 11.5” deep instead of 12.9”.
- 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.
- 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.
- Presets and blocks:
- The grid now 14x6.
- More CPU available:
- The number of Scene Controllers has been doubled to 4.
- 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.
- Cab:
- 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.
- Other:
- The tuner works on any input.
What's gone
- X/Y switching.
- Swapping presets locations on hardware.
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.
- Ares modeling, parameter changes, input EQ
- 512 preset slots
- 4x Drive, 4x Delay
- new: Plex, Ten-Tap, Multiplexer, RTA
- Tri-chorus
- 4-voice Pitch
- improved Reverb
- more Looper time
- UR TMA
- improved Tuner
- 8x8 USB Audio
- faster MIDI-over-USB
- Scene MIDI
- Preset MIDI
- FASLINK II, FC
- Comms between editor, FC and III
- high-impedance inputs
- no Recall Effect
- no global blocks
- Windows: driver, Mac: not
- easier reamping
- Damping
- 4 controllers
- 4 scene controllers
- nominal +4/-10
- no Send realtime SysEx
- I/O: Send MIDI PC
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