Stereo effects are great, but amp tones sound and feel plastic, and Fractal Audio is acting like tyrants towards any dissenters. AVOID!

I was able to...well, forced, really, to downsize my rig from Strymon's and line mixers into a Fractal, mainly because I was facing a lot of stress due to the patch cable blues. And so many people told me to give Fractal's amp modelling a try as well.

I will say, this thing is packed with a LOT of features – In addition to the usual suspects such as the MIDI I/O, AES, SPDIF and FASLINK, you also get a plentiful amount of audio I/O jacks – 1 instrument in, 3 stereo in and 4 stereo out’s! Seriously, why don’t other modellers provide these flexible routing options?!

The built-in tuner is nice, and I also love the fact that delays and reverb can actually spillover from preset to preset, thanks to the 8 scenes that you get per preset. In addition, as of the recent 19.06 update, Fractal also allows you to program songs and setlists within the modelling unit. There’s also a computer editor, which is the Axe-EDIT III, that you can use to edit your presets with ease with tons of parameters to go through, and it can also be used as an audio interface in itself.

My suggestion: Get a Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 Mark III instead. It’ll serve a far better purpose as an audio interface.

Now, let’s cut the bullcrap, the only thing I’m interested in is how well the tones inside the Fractal fare against a typical analog rig, and I will say that the front-end effects are good, but not great. Don’t even bother with the pitch effects unless you’re sticking to the Dual Detune for the 80’s chorus, ‘cause the Virtual Capo and Advanced Whammy have terrible latency issues. If you want to use high-resolution delay and reverb effects, the Virtual Capo produces a terrible digital artifact!

WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?! Yeah, there’s design blunders, and then there’s Line 6 levels of design blunders. This is extra-super-special far-beyond-the-sun level STUPID! It’s right up there with Line 6 Relay G10’s batteries prone to catching fire, as well as the Spider V’s not being able to use the USB connection and mobile app at the same time. And while the past firmware notes claim to have solved this issue, it’s clearly apparent that Fractal didn’t do enough. WAY TO SUPPORT YOUR CUSTOMERS, FRACTAL AUDIO!

So yeah, because most of the pitch effects are far more useless than four bass players trying to play to a click track, you’re gonna have to set aside some budget towards a dedicated pitch shifting unit such as a Digitech Whammy V, Ricochet, or an Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork Plus. OR, you’re gonna have to shell out an additional 250 USD for a version of the Axe-FX III that has TURBO DSP. But yeah, if you’re spending that much money towards a modelling unit, I highly recommend that you go for real tube amps instead, so that you can AVOID ALL THE DIGITAL LATENCY ISSUES!

Like wow, I’m just so dumbfounded here, how the hell could Fractal Audio fuck this up so badly…

So once the presets are dialed in, we can finally get to hear what the amp tones sound like. What I really love about Fractal is that you can actually skip the factory presets and load up your own IR’s, which I highly recommend if you want to get a guitar tone that’s actually palatable. ML Sound Labs makes Axe-FX cab packs, and for Ownhammer users, Fractal recently updated their firmware to allow importing of .wav files for cab IR’s.

To my ears, the Fractal doesn’t do too bad when it comes to the clean tones. In fact, this is probably the only modeller that has clean tones that actually sound like a real amp, not thin, clippy shit. However, when it comes to the high-gain tones, I can’t say I’m too impressed. Yes, third party IR’s make most amp sims sound great; however, if you’re used to playing tubes like me, don’t expect Fractal to give you the similar results because you will eventually catch on to the digital high-end that will screw up your guitar tone. Fractal’s amp tones do sound more hi-fi; however, it does come at a compromise of the digital high frequencies that are difficult to work with, so choose wisely.

The mid-gain and high-gain tones feel like playing through plastic. Coming from someone who used to use line mixers to preserve the analog dry of the guitar sound, the amp tones inside Fractal feel too good to be true. And especially with mid-gain tones, I find that I have to crank up the drive harder than what I normally use on the Friedman BE/BB just to be able to get a usable bluesy edge-of-breakup tone. If you’re a djent fanboy who doesn’t care about mid-gain tones, this is a non-issue for you. However, if you play ballad music like me, you’re pretty much fucked.

Now, there is the option of going 4-cable method with the Synergy SYN-2. I have tried it, and while the double ADA conversion isn’t as bad as I would’ve expected, I do NOT recommend this setup. Why? Because you will run into the annoying background hiss even with the noise gate block engaged, and if you try to use a hardware noise gate such as the ISP Decimator ProRack G, you will experience a really bad gain loss. Humbuster cables do help reduce the hum to tolerable levels, but it won’t be the magic solution you’re looking for.

Oh, and don’t expect Fractal to be able to give you an ENDLESS amount of FX routing options, because your vision of a perfect preset is limited by the DSP power of the Fractal, and it’s very easy to push the processing power into the red’s if you’re not careful. Choose your effects wisely.

In my opinion, the Axe-FX III has some major flaws. Besides the idiot level one million “can’t use pitch effects and high-resolution time-based effects at the same time without terrible digital artifact”, the fatal flaw is that the built-in amp models feel very plastic, no matter HOW you set it up!

Now, because Digitech’s future is uncertain with the brand no longer being supported by Harman, so I do understand if the Whammy V is beyond your reach. However, if you’re looking to replicate their classic pitch shifting effects on Fractal, don’t hold your breath.

If you’re looking for amazing tube amp sounds that won’t bust your budget, Synergy’s lineup of tube preamps will give you a huge variety of preamp modules to choose from that’ll blow the doors off this thing. And if you REALLY don’t want to take chances on tubes, then there are class AB solid-state amps that will actually sound great for not too much money, such as the Orange Super Crush 100 or Boss Katana 100. If you’re looking for something that sounds GREAT and not just plain plastic, start by looking into those options instead.

Having said all that...the Axe-FX III does have its own redeeming factors. The stereo chorus, detune and time-based effects are a godsend. I can FINALLY tweak my own time-based effects to my liking that was never thought possible with Strymon's or Eventide. The cross-feedback delays, the shimmer reverb, Nimbostratus reverb, tri-chorus, etc. the list goes on and on.

And that's what I love about Fractal - amazing stereo effects with ADA converters that are transparent and hi-fi.

Having said that, Fractal Audio, just like Lionheart Guitars, Mesa Boogie and Gibson, act like tyrants towards anyone who gives their products a bad review. Instead of taking upon the criticisms, they've decided that threatening others and bullying people into submission is the way to go.

As such, for the love of my own life, I cannot recommend the Axe-FX to anyone. Avoid the Fractal brand as a whole. You'll be saving yourself a lot of stress and grief in the long run.