Axe Fx III and FM 3

    Quote from BB2019

    To hell with everyone. I going back to my old Korg Pandora Silver. ?

    THAT IS THE SPIRIT ! :D i swear one day i'll buy the worst modeler out there, maybe some chinese fake pod and record a song with it :D most complaints are on very high niveau of course most of the competition is simply great stuff but talking about details is also fun ^^

    Quote from Bommel

    THAT IS THE SPIRIT ! :D i swear one day i'll buy the worst modeler out there, maybe some chinese fake pod and record a song with it :D most complaints are on very high niveau of course most of the competition is simply great stuff but talking about details is also fun ^^

    Exactly! Lol. I actually made some good track recordings back in the day with the Pandora. I still own it, just don't remember where it is. Might make some profiles with it. Lol

    Quote from V8guitar

    Seems like another " watch me get them wound up"...


    Not worth responding, if you are happy with what you have, great...


    I had a Pandora....

    Yes..this forum lost like a hundred nice & friendly members but at least we have such threads like this one here..that's something too I guess..

    I have spent a full day with my kemper and an axeIII. while both sounded good, the KPA was vastly superior in it's ability to get to.a great tone fast. Axe will surely get there ..... Eventually.

    I think that people who just want to get great tones an then simply focus their time on playing and enjoying their music, the KPA is unrivalled.


    A small and lower pri

    ced floor unit is a very good idea though. If you are only able to Shell out 1k, Kemper has nothing for you ....... At this time.

    Quote from OneEng1

    I have spent a full day with my kemper and an axeIII. while both sounded good, the KPA was vastly superior in it's ability to get to.a great tone fast. Axe will surely get there ..... Eventually.

    I think that people who just want to get great tones an then simply focus their time on playing and enjoying their music, the KPA is unrivalled.

    While I love the KPA and think profiling is fantastic, the Axe-Fx II and III's Tone Matching feature can often clone a tone faster than the time it takes to profile and refine an amp, albeit without gain or compression matching, and one big advantage of Tone Matching is that you're not limited to amps and cabs, but rather you can use any live or recorded source. The KPA with EQ matching would be deadly.

    Quote from OneEng1

    I have spent a full day with my kemper and an axeIII. while both sounded good, the KPA was vastly superior in it's ability to get to.a great tone fast.

    This is pretty much the last word in it all IMHO. one thing I and many from the 80’s absolutely grew to hate was ‘tweaking’. In the quest for ultimate tone, we had amps and racks that could do anything and took more time tweaking than playing.


    I remember when everyone just said screw it and we all ditched the monster tech and went back to simple amps and a few pedals. AHHHH.... PLAYING AGAIN....


    The Kemper for me I can pretty much plug in and play. I rarely feel I have to tweak anything. In the old days of pre amps and such, you spend a day tweaking, sounds great, then the next day you hate it and back to tweaking. Kemper doesn’t give that.


    Thinking about tweaking every aspect of an amp, from input to output, every little thing to find a tone makes me think back to my Eventide days and wanting to pull my hair out, haha...


    I don’t want a processor with 1000 gears to shift through, I just want to turn the key and step on the gas and GO —->.

    Undoubtedly a lot of people spend more time tweaking vs. playing because they're always searching for the ultimate tone, however that obsession is a mental thing, and if they don't learn to control their impulses, they'll end up trading an obsession twisting knobs for an obsession finding the perfect KPA profile. At some point you just have to stop questioning your tone and accept that it's good enough to start making music. If you can do that, it doesn't matter whether the gear has a million buttons or knobs.

    Quote from ColdFrixion

    Undoubtedly a lot of people spend more time tweaking vs. playing because they're always searching for the ultimate tone, however that obsession is a mental thing, and if they don't learn to control their impulses, they'll end up trading an obsession twisting knobs for an obsession finding the perfect KPA profile. At some point you just have to stop questioning your tone and accept that it's good enough to start making music. If you can do that, it doesn't matter whether the gear has a million buttons or knobs.

    Totally agree! I keep coming back to a handful of profiles. When I'm feeling adventurous, I try out another profile, play it a day or two and then come back to my favorite five. But the Kemper makes things very easy for me. I play more than I tweak. And if I want to change something in a profile, there are only very few tweaks needed (definition, some eq, a bit of verb and voilà).

    Boom! 100%

    Quote from ColdFrixion

    Undoubtedly a lot of people spend more time tweaking vs. playing because they're always searching for the ultimate tone, however that obsession is a mental thing, and if they don't learn to control their impulses, they'll end up trading an obsession twisting knobs for an obsession finding the perfect KPA profile. At some point you just have to stop questioning your tone and accept that it's good enough to start making music. If you can do that, it doesn't matter whether the gear has a million buttons or knobs.

    Quote from ColdFrixion

    Undoubtedly a lot of people spend more time tweaking vs. playing because they're always searching for the ultimate tone, however that obsession is a mental thing, and if they don't learn to control their impulses, they'll end up trading an obsession twisting knobs for an obsession finding the perfect KPA profile. At some point you just have to stop questioning your tone and accept that it's good enough to start making music. If you can do that, it doesn't matter whether the gear has a million buttons or knobs.

    Totally agree!

    Kemper+axeFx3 (splawn nitro)...Hey listen to this..if you have any questions if axe fx3 sounds better than a kemper this is the answer!...and also find my thread " kemper+axefx3=..?"..Accidentally I found a rig in rig manager, a rig made profiling an AxeFx. I was a little jealous about the "dry" sound that has the AxeFx 3 and after a video that I saw in YouTube comparing the two units I just tried to match the sound. So the revelation came to me...when I used rigs made of AxeFx3, I had exactly this sry sound that has the AxeFx3..Maybe we didn't take seriously that Kemper could sound exactly like AxeFx3 if you profile it. So now I feel that I have everything with my Kemper..my Kemper is also an AxeFx3..listen above my sample. The rig you can find it in rig manager, find it in my thread. I hope someone will make lots of profiles from AxeFx3...

    Tone, convenience and interface preferences are pretty subjective and personal taste, so go for what makes you happy and covers your needs.

    Pricing is about facts, offer/demand.


    Kemper retail price positioning ($USD), since I recall, has always been below Fractal’s.


    Now, with the Stage, you get a full Remote functionality+full Profiler features with same processing power as the head unit and extra I/Os for retail price $1.7K. ($1.8K head or rack version without Remote) vs a new AXE III $2k. (without foot controller). Maybe with the FM3 you will get a full featured AXE III for $1K. with less processing power, less I/O and less foot switches to start with. It is not apples to apples, though.

    Right now, according to Reverb’s price guide, an average of used and new actual selling street prices, Kemper head street prices have dropped by 13%, from average $1.5K in 2017 to $1.3K. 2019. While AXE III head prices dropped by 35% from average $2.7K in 2018 to $2K. in 2019. During the same period Kemper rack version street prices dropped by 10% from average $1.55K in 2018 to $1.4K 4Q2019.


    Personally, I don’t think about resale value when I buy music gear, because I am not in the trading business, I prefer to enjoy gear that last as long as possible, like a great vintage guitar.


    The Kemper OS is older than new AXE III for sure, but not older in what it delivers. I appreciate that Kemper’s business model has not factored planned obsolescence by design and we enjoy the same ”older” unit with new features every year. I’ve lost the count of AXE iterations, a great device, too, but hope this time they keep this new version longer than the previous ones, it is a great unit for sure.