Axe Efx 3??

My brother’s band members have the Kemper and axefx xl, and mixed together live sound good, Kemper sounds a little more real to me, but the axe has a little more sustain, but also a little more modeler muffled. Not a lot. Just a hair. How my ears hear it.

I’d take either, in fact was thinking of a helix for 4 cable method with my EVH, but on the fence with that.
 
Nice! Time to get an axe fx 2 for 500$ haha... I just found out the 3 has just been released, I was like wtf! I thought they were suppose to keep the 2 for long. I guess they needed some money! I wonder if the sound quality has been improved that much... So damn expensive at the moment. You can either pay 2499$ or skip the wait time for 3499$ that is outrageous. Well at least technology is pushing further
 
So I was a bit unclear about what exactly the "chirp" was, but it was said its similar to what you are hearing on the earlyVH albums, so I'm much more clear at this point as to what was being described. I've actually tried to find settings on my Marshalls that would somewhat mimic that pick attack, but I never really found it and decided my amps were more compressed in the preamp section than his and part of it was the way he was hitting the strings. Who knows??
So, I'm back to being indecisive.... :LOL: :LOL:
Gonna try the Kemper, there are some close by I can get hands on with, but I'm still interested in the AX3, Ive heard some huge tones that came out of them, Mark Day seems to have no problem getting monster tones, everything I hear him do on them sounds amazing, Some clip I heard him doing the other night had some of the Queensryche Mindcrime tones absolutely nailed down, some of my fav tones ever
 
danyeo":1otei5aj said:
I have found that when a Fractal is doing something weird it was always something I was tweaking weird. It can be a pain with so many parameters to tweak so I found downloading a known good sounding patch helped then tweak from there. Save the original patch though so WHEN you screw it up just start over. And I myself much tube power amp sections to FRFR...YMMV.
So your using it with a tube power amp and regular cabs? Thats how I intended on running it (I already have them) any regrets??
 
amiller":qyl37py6 said:
This is MY personal experience.

I have never owned an Axe Efx product so I can't directly speak to the "chirp" sound regarding any of those units. However, I am a Kemper owner and had an issue with the dreaded chirp from the Kemper that took me a while to sort out. The chirp IS related to volume and gain as Cliff described. Here's the thing, in a "bedroom studio" you really can only crank the volume and gain to a certain point before it becomes a squealing an uncontrollable mess. With recording with a Kemper via your DAW you can crank the gain beyond a usable and controllable point and then just simple turn down the track volume to make it manageable, however, since the gain is still up too high you'll notice the chirp more and more. In other words, recording direct to a DAW and bypassing your real cab allows you to set a "profile" or amp model beyond what would be controllable in the real world.

So, I backed down the volume and gain of my profile and suddenly the chirp sounds like the normal chirp from a real amp.
Thanks, thats good info, I have not ruled out a Kemper at all, but what you've stated makes perfect sense
 
controlled_voltage":3a5dokzs said:
damm
this is a big can of worms
i was getting ready to throw down for the 3
so the kemper doesn't chirp?
i CAN most def hear the chirp on VH1 and i like it
i always referred to it as the 'clank' in my mind
now i am gonna go drive myself crazy and listen to 1000 fractal videos
it always sounded good to me before i learned about the chirp [SUBLIMINAL-DE-ADVERTISING ]COURTESY OF MY RIG TALK BROS
tee hee
:LOL: :LOL:
Agreed, Ive listened to a ton of them also. Apparently, they can both chirp, but more folks running the fractal are experiencing it in a negative way. I would not mind having some patches that enabled me to get that sound, I kinda like it on those early VH albums, but I dont want to hear it when I dont want to hear it. I know a guy with a Kemper who has some early VH tone patches that do have the chirp, but I dont hear it on other patches, so it is apparently dependent on the settings, at least with the Kemper.
Jeesh.. My head is starting to hurt :LOL: :LOL:
 
glpg80":3ovr67zi said:
JTyson":3ovr67zi said:
Ok, thats good enough for me, that would drive me crazy trying to go into settings and fix that, when you can't really fix it. Thanks for the honest answers, Ill just stick with what I have, which has been pretty good for me.
Carry on gentlemen :rock:

We keep it real. Reminds me of the shitstorm I accidentally started by pointing out the disappearing trick Herbert's can do in a live situation. That thread got so bad pappa himself had to step in :LOL: :LOL:
:LOL: :LOL:
I remember that!
 
live4metal":zsv4kqwu said:
I just found out the 3 has just been released, I was like wtf! I thought they were suppose to keep the 2 for long

AFX2 was announced May 2011 & was released around Sept 2011........7 years ain't long enough? :confused:
 
JTyson":2gfiqkgs said:
danyeo":2gfiqkgs said:
I have found that when a Fractal is doing something weird it was always something I was tweaking weird. It can be a pain with so many parameters to tweak so I found downloading a known good sounding patch helped then tweak from there. Save the original patch though so WHEN you screw it up just start over. And I myself much tube power amp sections to FRFR...YMMV.
So your using it with a tube power amp and regular cabs? Thats how I intended on running it (I already have them) any regrets??


I had an AX8, sold it but will get another modeler. Not sure about getting another AX8 since it doesn't take much for it to hit the CPU limit. But I used it by itself through JBL monitors, or with amps as a pedalboard or into the FX return of a tube amp using the AX8 as a preamp. Through FX return it sounds like an amp. You can tweak yourself to death to get it to sound exactly like your amp if you choose, or at least tweak in the ballpark and treat it as it's own thing.
 
I'm running my ax2 with an ancient Marshall 9000 (50x50, EL34) power amp into 2 4x12 cabs. I leave the power amp modelling on. I turn it up and its pretty badass.
At low volumes its buzzy like any tube amp rig is.

This 'chirp' business is news to me. I like a snappy pick attack.
 
BYTOR":2ax2loar said:
live4metal":2ax2loar said:
I just found out the 3 has just been released, I was like wtf! I thought they were suppose to keep the 2 for long

AFX2 was announced May 2011 & was released around Sept 2011........7 years ain't long enough? :confused:

Really?! I thought it wasn't more than 4-5 yrs ago lol. My bad.. time goes fast. But from what I've heard on the few youtube clips it didnt seemed better in sound quality than the axe 2. Hard to judge with videoclips anyway. Maybe time will tell. Until then I will sit comfortably with my tube amps and wait in the next few years what the consensus is about the new axe
 
ROfCmPS.jpg
 
I've not read this thread in detail, but I don't remember much of a chirp with my Axe FX II XL. It was a great unit. But I sold it recently to fund a III, but I'm in Europe, so that wait is long. Long story short, I bought a Kemper to try (with the view of handing it back within my returns period) before the Axe III became available - I'm now not buying an Axe FX III, nor am I returning the Kemper. It's hands down, the best piece of gear I've ever bought - and that's including the Axe FX II XL.

Kemper just sounds right to my ears and for my use case - which is heavy rock, metal, atmospheric rock, blues and clean stuff - so a wide range.

My advice, try a Kemper, then never let it out of your sight!
 
jonthomas83":ubwj07bo said:
I've not read this thread in detail, but I don't remember much of a chirp with my Axe FX II XL. It was a great unit. But I sold it recently to fund a III, but I'm in Europe, so that wait is long. Long story short, I bought a Kemper to try (with the view of handing it back within my returns period) before the Axe III became available - I'm now not buying an Axe FX III, nor am I returning the Kemper. It's hands down, the best piece of gear I've ever bought - and that's including the Axe FX II XL.

Kemper just sounds right to my ears and for my use case - which is heavy rock, metal, atmospheric rock, blues and clean stuff - so a wide range.

My advice, try a Kemper, then never let it out of your sight!

I just picked up a Kemper Power Head and 1x12 Friedman closeback cabinet. If you haven't tried it through a power amp and real cabinet you should give it a try.
Turn off the cabinets on the front panel. Sounds fantastic.
 
All this and one simply asked for a clip of the so called chirp? Unreal. Maybe that is a word I am unfamiliar with.
Chirp" means a kick ass tone in a studio or live setting as posted and proven by Victim5150? Chirp that! As much as I could not bond with an axe I can't mention any chirp I ever heard and hearing it live is about as good as one could hope for. If my rig chirps* like that I may get high school blisters on my palms again.
 
Beandust":mlk0au8a said:
All this and one simply asked for a clip of the so called chirp? Unreal. Maybe that is a word I am unfamiliar with.
Chirp" means a kick ass tone in a studio or live setting as posted and proven by Victom5150? Chirp that! As much as I could not bond with an axe I can't mention any chirp I ever heard and hearing it live is about as good as one could hope for. If my rig chirps* like that I may get high school blisters on my palms again.

I'm not denying that the chirp is bad overall - but with an actual tube amplifier, you get it by digging in on lower gain settings. The Axe II and III both do it on light picking, high gain/saturation settings, on solos, alternate picking, it does it everywhere which simply is not how a real amplifier works. On top of that, it over-accentuates how loud it actually is compared to real tube amplifier settings and does not change with loudness based upon gain settings like in a tube amplifier.

I've actually heard it in boss GT8 guitar processors too - so it's not something Cliff is only responsible for. Over-accentuating that effect is more common than people think, it just occurs so quickly that most people don't recognize it on their modelers and are paying attention to the tone/sound coming immediately after it.

Honestly, it sits before every note, and either you hear it or you don't. It's not easy to catch and based upon Cliff's post it deals with the master volume and gain settings of the AxFx units. The fact that you cannot remove it at all is what kills me - my ears gravitate towards it like nails on a chalkboard and is the exact reason I won't be owning an AxII, AxIII, or any boss processor either. I haven't done any research on the new Boss GT1000 unit yet though, and I don't hear it on kemper profilers.
 
Can't remove or post it? I simply would like to hear it if it is something the human ear can detect. I see tons of post and no proof. At some point it needs to be posted or the thread should end if there is no evidence.. Kind of like that bigfoot thing after a while
 
Beandust":3m5y8b71 said:
Can't remove or post it? I simply would like to hear it if it is something the human ear can detect. I see tons of post and no proof. At some point it needs to be posted or the thread should end if there is no evidence.. Kind of like that bigfoot thing after a while


Here's an example that I can find. Not only is it over-accentuated to the point that it sounds like a pinch harmonic, but it's even on parts of his alternate picking on the chugging which is NOT where that effect should be showing. It's all over this entire video :doh: :LOL: :LOL:

 
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