# Did I buy an AxeFX III at the wrong time (Quad Cortex release)



## 777 (Nov 4, 2020)

I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that my axe is gona be obsolete...


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## budda (Nov 4, 2020)

It most definitely wont.


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## MaxOfMetal (Nov 4, 2020)

These aren't gaming computers that won't be able to play fancy new games in a year or two. They'll sound just as great as they do now, almost forever...well, at least as long as we'll likely live. 

Given what I've heard thus far of the QC, you have nothing to worry about.


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## mikah912 (Nov 4, 2020)

777 said:


> I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that my axe is gona be obsolete...



Yeah, nothing is making that obsolete (and I'm buying a Quad Cortex, BTW). The Quad Cortex is simply the currently most-powerful floorboard around while the Axe-FX III is the most powerful guitar processor...period. 

Also, the Quad Cortex is struggling just to get released, and it'll take time to build out a comparable set of models via firmware updates.

Rest easy, bro.


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## Bearitone (Nov 4, 2020)

Go read the Quad Cortex thread and i think you’ll be happy you got the Axe III.


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## budda (Nov 4, 2020)

The axe fx 2 isnt even obsolete.


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## technomancer (Nov 4, 2020)

The Axe is totally obsolete, I'll give you tree fiddy for it


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## Lemonbaby (Nov 4, 2020)

Eeeeeaaasy, bro. It's not the processing power, it's the know how that sets Fractal apart from the competition. The new Xbox will have a lot more processing power - doesn't mean you'll get a single tone out of it...


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## budda (Nov 4, 2020)

technomancer said:


> The Axe is totally obsolete, I'll give you tree fiddy for it



Tree fiddy you ess dee? *Does conversion to CAD*


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## technomancer (Nov 4, 2020)

budda said:


> Tree fiddy you ess dee? *Does conversion to CAD*



That's $1 billion Canuckistany


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## budda (Nov 4, 2020)

technomancer said:


> That's $1 billion Canuckistany



Might be worth my while, except my home studio is built around it


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## Mr_Marty (Nov 4, 2020)

Lemonbaby said:


> Eeeeeaaasy, bro. It's not the processing power, it's the know how that sets Fractal apart from the competition. The new Xbox will have a lot more processing power - doesn't mean you'll get a single tone out of it...


The Axe-Fx is way more powerful than the QC. Neural is just being sneaky in their marketing.


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## Deadpool_25 (Nov 5, 2020)

technomancer said:


> The Axe is totally obsolete, I'll give you tree fiddy for it



How about two fiddy?


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## SamSam (Nov 6, 2020)

In terms of processing power nothing comes close to the Axe 3. I believe the Axe 2 might even have more power than the QC? 

A floor unit will not be able to compete on those terms for a while, they are too small to allow adequate cooling.

The FM3 has enough power for me, the Axe 3 will probably still be considered pretty powerful in an decades time.


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## mpexus (Nov 6, 2020)

So far que Cortex is basically "Vaporware". Apart from some scarce videos no one has access to it and there's really no final release date. I'm not saying its not getting made I'm just saying its impossible to get or know anyone that has one. 

Also haven't heard anything that would made my head spin coming from the Cortex demos, but keep hearing amazing tones from the Fractal (FM3 or AXIII) weekly by Leon Todd. 

I'm on the FM3 waiting list (Europe) since February I think. Still no news but even the Quad was released today I would still (from what I heard so far) bet on the FM3 for my Bedroom playing.


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## diagrammatiks (Nov 6, 2020)

it's always the wrong time to buy technology.

never do it.


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## Demiurge (Nov 6, 2020)

You're just going to drive yourself nuts chasing the new thing. Let your needs- and not the trends- guide your purchases.


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## Lorcan Ward (Nov 6, 2020)

Nolly's Axe-Fx 1 clips on the BKP site still sound better than most people's tones from the Axe-fx II + III or similar products. The III still has years of updates left in it.


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## 70Seven (Nov 6, 2020)

777 said:


> I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that my axe is gona be obsolete...



Nope, the cortex looks nice, but remember, its basically trying to be an AxeFX. Right now, unless I see/hear more about the Cortex I'd buy a AxeFX or even a Helix over the Cortex.


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## Thrashman (Nov 6, 2020)

To answer the OP: No. Not really. The QC is all marketing for now. Nothing has me believing that it'll be an Axe killer. 

Not saying it'll be shit (cough headrush cough) but it won't be the unicorn and/or item that turns you into an instant rockstar like some believe.


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## mikah912 (Nov 6, 2020)

SamSam said:


> In terms of processing power nothing comes close to the Axe 3. I believe the Axe 2 might even have more power than the QC?.



I think they're roughly neck-and-neck (The QC and the Axe-FX II). Fractal's own calculations place the AX8 as just slightly less than half the CPU of the Axe-FX II. The FM3 has a smidge more processing power than the AX8. The QC is running two of the chipsets that power the FM3.

But horsepower is only part of the story. The rest is how optimized and detailed your algorithms are, and we have no way of knowing what that is for the QC. They're super light on details, have missed several deadlines and really seem to be struggling to get that last 5 percent done to get this to release. It's essentially a hypothetical at this point against a known, real quantity.


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## Mathemagician (Nov 6, 2020)

Just another voice chiming in. I have a Quad on order and I would tell you the Axe is straight up amazing. It just is. It’s already proven itself so you have nothing to worry about.

At this stage with high end modeling it is closer to comparing USA made guitars by different brands than comparing an ibanez Gio to a J custom. It’s just not that drastic. And the QC isn’t even out there with real world testing done.


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## nickgray (Nov 6, 2020)

777 said:


> I have this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that my axe is gona be obsolete...



Dude, if the worst comes to worst, I'll take it off your hands for free, no questions asked. And I'll even pay for the shipping! You can always count on your fellow sevenstring members.

Seriously though, people used old PODs in actual studio records with really good results, what on earth are you worried about? It's just GAS talking, calm down.


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## thebeesknees22 (Nov 6, 2020)

some of the QC market kills me. "most power bestest thing ever since sliced bread in the whole universe and space and time!" 

.... 
and then when I hear clips it doesn't sound any better than anything else currently on the market. 

That style of market is just a turnoff for me. As soon as something says anything remotely close to "best most powerful blah on the planet" I just start to tune out... 

the whole page here:
https://neuraldsp.com/products/quad-cortex

Just make me want to yell "horse shit!" and spit and walk away.


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## Mathemagician (Nov 6, 2020)

thebeesknees22 said:


> Just make me want to yell "horse shit!" and spit and walk away.



You can just DO that you know. You don’t even need a permission slip or nothin. It’s not illegal.


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## mikah912 (Nov 7, 2020)

thebeesknees22 said:


> some of the QC market kills me. "most power bestest thing ever since sliced bread in the whole universe and space and time!"
> 
> ....
> and then when I hear clips it doesn't sound any better than anything else currently on the market.
> ...



Well, objectively it is the most powerful floorboard released to date. Why would they be quiet about that fact if they had the engineering savvy to put that much horsepower in a small floorboard? That's a legitimate feat worth bragging about.

Unfortunately, it's also in the running with the Fractal FM3 for most delayed product too, and they're way past the point where they could point fingers at COVID for their inaccurate estimates.


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## nickgray (Nov 7, 2020)

thebeesknees22 said:


> some of the QC market kills me



Their 2ghz figure is hilarious - it's a quad core 500mhz processor, so naturally, 4 * 500 = 2000. Makes sense.


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## MaxOfMetal (Nov 7, 2020)

mikah912 said:


> Well, objectively it is the most powerful floorboard released to date. Why would they be quiet about that fact if they had the engineering savvy to put that much horsepower in a small floorboard? That's a legitimate feat worth bragging about.



There's not much to brag about yet. 

Right now it's the pickup truck pulling three mobile homes up a mountain in a commercial.


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## Mathemagician (Nov 7, 2020)

MaxOfMetal said:


> There's not much to brag about yet.
> 
> Right now it's the pickup truck pulling three mobile homes up a mountain in a commercial.



I preordered one of those too! Got a low serial #.


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## laxu (Nov 8, 2020)

It depends on what metrics you compare.

For software features and number of simultaneous fx blocks the Axe-Fx 3 wins, they have more than a decade of development behind the units.

Soundwise it remains to be seen. But I doubt the QC will top Fractal amp modeling. Like say Line6 Helix or Kemper I will expect it to be close enough that most people won’t care if it’s 98% vs 100% accurate in sound and control behavior.

Where the QC will significantly outperform Fractal is usability. It has far better switching on the hardware than the FM3, it has far more knob control thanks to the combined switch/knob controls. It has a touchscreen that puts all the competition to shame as you no longer have to move a cursor around to select things. This will be a huge benefit for things like their parametric EQ and cab block mic positions.

That said, there is a good bunch of stuff that will not be present at release like the computer editor. The mobile apps at release also seem to be mainly for preset management and won’t support editing. So while wireless connectivity is a great feature it will take a while before it’s an actual workflow option. I expect the QC will be in a better spot about 6-12 months after release.


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## ElRay (Nov 10, 2020)

laxu said:


> ... Where the QC will significantly outperform Fractal is usability ...


That's what piqued my interest; mainly the stereo inputs that can handle balanced/unbalanced TS/TRS/XLR inputs.


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## laxu (Nov 10, 2020)

ElRay said:


> That's what piqued my interest; mainly the stereo inputs that can handle balanced/unbalanced TS/TRS/XLR inputs.



I can't really see many situations where you would actually benefit from using TRS or XLR balanced signals instead of TS for guitar. Most setups have short enough cables that noise from the cable is not a concern.

I have mostly used balanced outs and XLR cables into my Genelec studio monitors and have never been able to tell any difference vs short unbalanced RCA cables (my monitors support both XLR and RCA inputs).

But I guess you mean using them as a single cable stereo input? I have no idea if it supports that and the website does not say either, just says that it allows for TS/TRS/XLR.


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## mongey (Nov 10, 2020)

Yes. You should have bought a tube amp.


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## budda (Nov 10, 2020)

mongey said:


> Yes. You should have bought a tube amp.



This post does not say "just buy a 5150" so it's not as good.


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## Jon Pearson (Nov 10, 2020)

How much more useable can a product be? The Axe III is hella easy as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it's because I came up trying to set up those old school Digitech RP units, but the Axe III is a joy. Definitely more parameters than I will likely ever use, but that's okay because I don't need those parameters to get good sounds.


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## ElRay (Nov 10, 2020)

laxu said:


> I can't really see many situations where you would actually benefit from using TRS or XLR balanced signals instead of TS for guitar. ...


For a sub-$1500 floor unit, there aren't a lot that have the inputs or the capability for four signal chains. The dual inputs are useful even with a non-stereo output because I have kids and my venerable Crate Gfx-50 Two-Tone is reaching the end of it's life. The inputs can be used with a mic (vocals/non-guitar) - even a mic that requires phantom power). I have pickups that are rail/pole combos (SD P-Rails & Entwistle Nemesis) that I'm thinking of wiring up with balanced-out and a switch that will give me Neck and Bridge or Inner (Poles) and Outer (Rails) into the dual inputs.

That, plus my background has a lot of signal acquisition/instrumentation amplifiers work and I've done too much in electrically "noisy" environments, so there's always the draw to balanced whenever it possible.


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## budda (Nov 10, 2020)

So in short, most people wont use the dual inputs unless they are using it as a bass DI + guitar rig.


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## Shask (Nov 10, 2020)

Jon Pearson said:


> How much more useable can a product be? The Axe III is hella easy as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it's because I came up trying to set up those old school Digitech RP units, but the Axe III is a joy. Definitely more parameters than I will likely ever use, but that's okay because I don't need those parameters to get good sounds.


Younger iPad generation. Can't find shit unless it is one shiny icon the screen with no options.


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## kisielk (Nov 10, 2020)

They just released the III Mk2 like last month, so that means there's probably at least 2 years worth of updates still to go. Given the pace at which Fractal adds new features to their products, that's a *lot* of potential for new stuff coming.


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## Jon Pearson (Nov 10, 2020)

Shask said:


> Younger iPad generation. Can't find shit unless it is one shiny icon the screen with no options.



No character, these youngsters. They'll never know struggling through those old digital units just to get something passable.


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## Mathemagician (Nov 10, 2020)

Shask said:


> Younger iPad generation. Can't find shit unless it is one shiny icon the screen with no options.





Jon Pearson said:


> No character, these youngsters. They'll never know struggling through those old digital units just to get something passable.



I just wanna “ok boomer” this whole comment chain, lmao.


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## laxu (Nov 10, 2020)

ElRay said:


> For a sub-$1500 floor unit, there aren't a lot that have the inputs or the capability for four signal chains. The dual inputs are useful even with a non-stereo output because I have kids and my venerable Crate Gfx-50 Two-Tone is reaching the end of it's life. The inputs can be used with a mic (vocals/non-guitar) - even a mic that requires phantom power). I have pickups that are rail/pole combos (SD P-Rails & Entwistle Nemesis) that I'm thinking of wiring up with balanced-out and a switch that will give me Neck and Bridge or Inner (Poles) and Outer (Rails) into the dual inputs.
> 
> That, plus my background has a lot of signal acquisition/instrumentation amplifiers work and I've done too much in electrically "noisy" environments, so there's always the draw to balanced whenever it possible.



I guess because I am used to my Helix Floor having pretty much all that since it has a lot of I/O including a mic in I am not all that impressed by the QC in that regard. It's a lot more compact for sure tho.

That's an interesting idea regarding the pickups. I have been dreaming of a bass/guitar split setup for my 8-string where I could run the 2-3 lowest strings into a bass amp model on my Helix and the other strings through a guitar amp. I have been trying to use a frequency crossover split for this but it does not work that well. I wonder if instead using different coils wired to separate outputs (or a TRS out) would do the trick? I would love a setup that does this without physically trying to cram in a bass pickup in the thing as doing any mods to the top would be a shame.


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## laxu (Nov 10, 2020)

Jon Pearson said:


> How much more useable can a product be? The Axe III is hella easy as far as I'm concerned. Maybe it's because I came up trying to set up those old school Digitech RP units, but the Axe III is a joy. Definitely more parameters than I will likely ever use, but that's okay because I don't need those parameters to get good sounds.



Honestly, a lot. Axe-Fx units are a "built by engineers for engineers" type power user product where they plaster everything in view and don't put much effort in figuring out how to make things easier and faster to operate. If we take something like the cab IR blend features that already has a lot more "fun factor" to it on the QC where you move a virtual mic around with your finger almost like a DJ scratching records. Meanwhile doing that on the Axe-Fx is like operating an Excel spreadsheet, painstakingly selecting the exact mic type/position/distance/angle IRs you want from a list and adjusting their levels etc.

There's a lot of low and high hanging fruits in digital modelers to make their complexity more palatable by abstracting away the underlying functionality. While anyone can learn to use an Axe-Fx device just fine, it's not going to be as snappy as editing a preset on Helix or Quad Cortex.


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## Jon Pearson (Nov 10, 2020)

laxu said:


> Honestly, a lot. Axe-Fx units are a "built by engineers for engineers" type power user product where they plaster everything in view and don't put much effort in figuring out how to make things easier and faster to operate. If we take something like the cab IR blend features that already has a lot more "fun factor" to it on the QC where you move a virtual mic around with your finger almost like a DJ scratching records. Meanwhile doing that on the Axe-Fx is like operating an Excel spreadsheet, painstakingly selecting the exact mic type/position/distance/angle IRs you want from a list and adjusting their levels etc.
> 
> There's a lot of low and high hanging fruits in digital modelers to make their complexity more palatable by abstracting away the underlying functionality. While anyone can learn to use an Axe-Fx device just fine, it's not going to be as snappy as editing a preset on Helix or Quad Cortex.



Engineer: guilty as charged. And maybe it is just my bias, I tend to forget that not everyone likes that type of "let it all hang out" style GUI. I guess my point was that I don't think the Axe III is so difficult to drive that it would push me to something else that had inferior sounds or options otherwise. Having owned a Helix, I much prefer the Axe III, even if it does let all the nuts and bolts show.


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