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8 BLOCKS GUIDE
THE CAB BLOCK
The Speaker Cabinet simulator, or Cab block, recreates the tonal characteristics of any number of speaker cabs. The
block also recreates the sound of various mic preamps, room reverb, “air”, "proximity", and simulates millimeter-
resolution “mic distance” for accurate inter-microphone phase effects.
Speaker simulation is performed using our exclusive UltraRes™ impulse responses (IRs) with 2,048 factory cabs
to choose from, plus a “Legacy” bank with all 189 factory cabs from the Axe-Fx II. UltraRes enhances the spectral
resolution of an IR without extreme CPU burden or intolerable latency.
Factory content includes selections from the best of today’s IR producers and artists including Fractal Audio,
AustinBuddy, Celestion, ML Sound Lab, Ownhammer, Chris Broderick, John Petrucci, Chris Traynor & James
Santiago, Valhallir, York Audio, Dr. Bonkers, and more.
An additional 2,048 “User Cab” memories allow you to load our Cab Packs (including any of those compatible
with our previous products) or 3rd party IRs, and a built-in utility allows you to capture and save your own speaker
IRs —now with 16 “Scratchpad” locations!
The Cab block in the Axe-Fx III features a four-channel mixer based on our popular Cab-Lab software. It provides
the capability to mix and remix IRs on-the-fly as you would do with real mics on a real speaker cabinet.
If you are new to the Cab block, you may enjoy reading
“The Sound of IMPULSE RESPONSES” on p. 68
before
jumping in.
Cab 1
STEREO MI
XER
Cab 2
Cab 3
Cab 4
PREAMP SIM
Cab 1
STEREO MI
XER
Cab 3
Cab 2
Cab 4
PREAMP SIM
AIR + ROOM SIM
AIR + ROOM SIM
BLOCK DIAGRAM
Mono Input Modes
Stereo Input Mode
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CABS PAGE
The Cabs page allows you to select up to four different IRs, with a full column of parameters for each one. The
names of currently selected IRs are shown at the top of the page. Each of the following parameters is available for
every IR.
Bank
– Selects from the various banks containing cabs. The available banks are:
Factory 1, Factory 2: Two banks of 1,024 built-in IRs contain a wealth of selections from the best or today’s
IR producers and artists, including many taken from Fractal Audio Cab packs produced prior to March 2018.
User 1, User 2: Two banks of 1,024 IRs are blank until you load them yourself.
Learn more about User Cabs on
p. 68
.
Legacy: This bank contains all 189 factory cabs from the Axe-Fx II XL+.
Scratchpad: The 16 Scratchpad locations are designed to allow you to “audition” cabs
before committing them to a User Cab slot. This capability is especially useful when
capturing IRs or using Cab-Lab (
https://www.fractalaudio.com/cab-lab-3
). Please note that
the contents of the Scratchpads are cleared every time you restart the Axe-Fx.
CAB
2 Blocks, 4 Channels
