# Axe FX 3 vs Bias FX



## hodorcore (Aug 30, 2018)

Hello There

I'm wondering, how big is the difference between the two? 
I am mainly a studio musician, i don't really play live. I make covers and demo's of my own songs at home using the Bias FX as a plugin. I used to own an Axe Fx 2xl + but i got rid of it when I heard that the Axe 3 was coming out. 
The bias fx seem to be getting the job done, but all the comparisons i hear between the two of them really make the axe fx sound much better. Is that really the case for studio sounds and recording? 
I'm not sure wether to invest in an AxeFx 3 or try to get by with the Bias Fx, since it's a hefty price and the bias is not too bad. 
I'd really like your input about this. 
I'm aware that kemper has an alternative too, but since it's getting old I'm very hesitant to buy one at this stage and I would rather wait for an update to the Kemper. 
The Axe Fx 3 would also be a better Interface than my ux2 but i don't think that's really a good enough reason. Maybe there are better alternatives to Bias that are cheaper than the axe fx but are a significant improvement on the tone.

I'd be nice to have some inside from people more experienced than me 

Cheers

Niko


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## Masoo2 (Aug 30, 2018)

There's a HUGE middle ground you're missing of plugins and modelers that are leagues ahead of BIAS yet cost nowhere near that of an Axe FX 3

Helix Native, Thermionik, TSE X50, S-Gear, Mercuriall, Mooer, etc


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## LeviathanKiller (Aug 30, 2018)

The Axe-Fx 3 is wayyyyyyyyyy better than Positive Grid BIAS.
There's a huge difference that cannot be ignored.
That said, is there a huge difference between the Axe-Fx III and other plugins and hardware like those mentioned in the post above? Not near as much as when compared to BIAS. Axe-Fx III trumps all for me personally, but there's plenty of things out there for about the same price as BIAS that are way better than BIAS.


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## Flappydoodle (Aug 30, 2018)

BIAS doesn't even *sound* bad really. You can easily get a perfectly good sound that your listeners would never know the difference.

However, the company are scumbags, and their business model should not be supported.

I'm puzzled though. You have BIAS already. And you sold your Axe-Fx II in anticipation of a III. So, having owned both, surely YOU are perfectly capably of deciding whether the difference is worth the price. Bear in mind that the III sounds 99% the same as the II. Would you buy a II again to replace BIAS? If not, you shouldn't buy a III.

For anybody else reading this, I'd highly recommend Thermionik plugins ($8 each) and Ownhammer impulses ($10 per pack). For less than $100, you can have pretty much infinite tonal options. Your DAW will have reverb, delay, chorus and other basic effects built in. For home recording, that's all you need.


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## WarMachine (Aug 30, 2018)

I have BIAS, Thermionik, Guitar Rig 5, TSE X50 and a few other plugins. Like it's been said, the BIAS can sound really good with the right tweaking, Thermionik and the TSE X50 sound VERY similar, at least with the 5150 sims. BIAS to me has the upper hand on effects, TSE has the upper hand IMO for the overall better package. The amps feel more realistic sounding, it has a few dist/OD's/noisegate, reverb and tempo sync'd delays built in. But then again like Flappydoodle mentioned, i'm sure these effects are already in your DAW. If you plan on playing out, an Axe would be the way to go, but if you're going to stick with home recording only, you could use the extra coin on a nice guitar


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## Masoo2 (Aug 30, 2018)

Flappydoodle said:


> BIAS doesn't even *sound* bad really



ehh, I'd disagree with that, and I started on JamUp on iOS as my first amp modeler (early days all the way to BIAS integration) and have used most of everything outside of higher end hardware units and the Eleven Rack plugin with Pro Tools. BIAS really just isn't that good. Even POD Farm is _leagues_ ahead and is capable of some outstanding album-worthy tones.

I do agree with everything else though. Especially on the part about selling the II and utilizing other plugins within the DAW to make the tone.


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## hodorcore (Aug 30, 2018)

wow a lot of responses  thanks for that

Which plugin would you recommend for me? I mainly use high gain tones and maybe some reverb and delay for leads. 
I saw the JST richardson plugin but i assume that it isn't very versatile and considering the options there are more flexible plugins for 100 bucks.

I sold the axe 2 because i really expected the axe 3 to be on a new level. It did sound extremely awesome in my studio but i felt stupid for having it bought 2 months before the axe 3 was announced so i sold it in anticipation for something much better. 

leviathan i like your sig and the family picture, nice collection there


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## hodorcore (Aug 30, 2018)

i also have an ENGL e670 but i can't really get the tones i want from it. It sounds very massive but it just isn't giving me those awesome tones that i got from the axe fx 2.


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## fob (Aug 30, 2018)

hodorcore said:


> wow a lot of responses  thanks for that
> 
> Which plugin would you recommend for me? I mainly use high gain tones and maybe some reverb and delay for leads.
> I saw the JST richardson plugin but i assume that it isn't very versatile and considering the options there are more flexible plugins for 100 bucks.
> ...


If you have the funds and basically had a mistep in timing then I say go for the Axe 3. You can’t compare it’s versatility to most of these plugins and plus if you EVER decide to play live with a band, the Axe 3 seems like a solid choice for that.


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## hodorcore (Aug 30, 2018)

fob said:


> If you have the funds and basically had a mistep in timing then I say go for the Axe 3. You can’t compare it’s versatility to most of these plugins and plus if you EVER decide to play live with a band, the Axe 3 seems like a solid choice for that.



i believe you have a point there 
actually i already made the payment for the axe 3, the money should arrive in their account today and it should be shipped today or tomorrow. but i'm really on the fence ugh haha


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## Bentaycanada (Aug 30, 2018)

Forget BIAS, try out some Thermionik (like $8 per amp, super basic), and if that doesn't do if for you, then Mercuriall ($70-90 per plugin, but comes with a hell of a lot of features). They're my two favourite.


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## Masoo2 (Aug 30, 2018)

If you already have an Axe FX III on the way then I'd stick with it for a bit to see how you like it.

If not, I DEFINITELY wouldn't recommend JST Jason Richardson. By far the worst JST/Toneforge plugin there is. Toneforge Menance and Ben Bruce are pretty alright though.


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## Deadpool_25 (Aug 30, 2018)

I’ve been listening to Project Az (Nick Azurin) a bit lately and really dig it—sounds very good to me. I looked into it, expecting it to be Axe FX but apparently Nick used BIAS. I think we’ve perhaps come to the point where even “lower” tech is often so good, the most noticeable differences are usually due to the user. /shrug


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## LeviathanKiller (Aug 31, 2018)

hodorcore said:


> i believe you have a point there
> actually i already made the payment for the axe 3, the money should arrive in their account today and it should be shipped today or tomorrow. but i'm really on the fence ugh haha



I didn't expect the Axe-Fx III to have any kind of tonal improvement over the II, but it does. Even though they are in the early stages of taking advantage of the new architecture, it sounds fuller than the II did even though the II was fine imo. I am very very happy with my III. Thanks for the compliment too


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## hodorcore (Aug 31, 2018)

Okay i think that for now I'll just wait and see if I really like the axe 3 as much as I would hope. 
It's certainly great to know I have an amp with all my tones ready to go. I would just need to figure out how to run it live. 
Maybe get the matrix poweramp? Running it through my ENGL's FX Loop would kind of defeat the purpose of having a "do it all" unit like the axe 3.


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## hodorcore (Aug 31, 2018)

LeviathanKiller said:


> I didn't expect the Axe-Fx III to have any kind of tonal improvement over the II, but it does. Even though they are in the early stages of taking advantage of the new architecture, it sounds fuller than the II did even though the II was fine imo. I am very very happy with my III. Thanks for the compliment too




I'm glad to hear that, makes me eager to try it out.
It will be nice to see how much it will develop with time. I started out late with the Axe 2 so I never really witnessed the extent of the upgrades and tonal improvements over the axe 2's lifespan.


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## Andrew Lloyd Webber (Aug 31, 2018)

+1 to this:



Flappydoodle said:


> the company are scumbags, and their business model should not be supported.
> 
> I'm puzzled though. You have BIAS already. And you sold your Axe-Fx II in anticipation of a III. So, having owned both, surely YOU are perfectly capably of deciding whether the difference is worth the price. Bear in mind that the III sounds 99% the same as the II. Would you buy a II again to replace BIAS? If not, you shouldn't buy a III.



I also agree with this:



Flappydoodle said:


> BIAS doesn't even *sound* bad really. You can easily get a perfectly good sound that your listeners would never know the difference.



I have the same emotion-grounded complaints against Positive Grid that many do: The company sucks, and the only marketing they can ever seem to come up with is to bribe YouTubers with subscriber numbers specifically one tier above Headrush/Danelectro-level to claim that their products punch above their weight. But PG also has this disturbing, hand-to-mouth timeline in which they drop all support (much less enthusiasm) for _current _products once the next NAMM-announcement is _teased_. 

I can still use Bias Amp and FX in a mix as I would any multi-FX amp modeler from the past, but it simply isn’t as gratifying to tweak or hear as many competing products are.


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## Deadpool_25 (Aug 31, 2018)

hodorcore said:


> Okay i think that for now I'll just wait and see if I really like the axe 3 as much as I would hope.
> It's certainly great to know I have an amp with all my tones ready to go. I would just need to figure out how to run it live.
> Maybe get the matrix poweramp? Running it through my ENGL's FX Loop would kind of defeat the purpose of having a "do it all" unit like the axe 3.



I used mine with a Matrix GT1000FX for a while (granted it was at home and not live but I turned it up to live levels sometimes lol). I know others have used that combo live.

Another option (of many) is the Seymour Duncan Power Stage. Plini was using the big one (700?) when I saw him live. That was for stage volume though, as he was running a feed straight to FOH as well.

If I still had my Axe FX, I’d try it through either a standalone tube power amp or through an amp FX loop (I actually may get whatever the next iteration of the AX8 is and try it that way). That wouldn’t defeat the purpose for me, but for me the purpose of those units is variety of tones with great built in effects and cool routing options (parallel, etc). Since I’m not playing out I’m not worried about portability so using a tube amp with a modeler is still viable.


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## Andromalia (Sep 1, 2018)

I'm an axe III owner. I've had it for two weeks and didn't have the time to really dig in yet, but as a longtime Fractal user I knew the ropes already.
I also own the first BIAS plugins.

The main thing with the axe III is actually twofold:
-I'm getting tones in 5 minutes.
-The 8 way USB routing is stupidly useful and powerful. You can reamp in the mix without needing any other form of hardware. (Doing that with the 2 required a separate sound card)
And, less useful for the studio but very for the gigging dude, you can now use channels to have the same blocks with different settings rather than just on/off through scenes like the axe II.
Another useful note: the axe II was way too sensitive to guitar changes and required a patch/guitar approach. This is less acute with the III, of course the sound changes but a good tone will just reflect your guitar instead of becoming muddy or unusable because you decided to try it in another tuning/string gauge with another guitar.

Bias isn't even close. (which, related to price, makes sense, but I never liked how Bias sounded to begin with, on PC at least)
If you're a pro, it's a worthwile investment. Don't take my word for it, go try it somewhere.


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