Axe-Fx II Firmware 17.04 Released

17.04 feels quite stiff to me so far. Suggestions?
What kind of tones do you play? If you run with a ton of gain, you might find that the extra dynamics are pushing even harder on a tone without much room for dynamics to begin with. That could increase compression. Either that, or you're running at very low volume.

Outside of that, I can't imagine finding 17.04 anything other than bouncier.
 
Yes, this is a good description of what I noticed. There is also more dynamic responsiveness. I'm getting a wider range of tone and breakup just by adjusting my picking position and technique.

I'm liking it actually cos I don't like my cleans to be too clean..
a hint of grit makes them sparkle a little more but they retain their body..
the new 65 Bassman Normal has now become my new clean amp of choice..
it's super flexible..
 
not sure if I'm hearing things right..
has 17.04 pushed the mids a bit more?
and do the power amps get a little dirty a little sooner??

not a prob at all.. just asking as I'm re-dialling in to this one..

I spent a LOT of time dialling in a couple of high gain presets with 17.03 so I was really happy with them.

I upgraded to 17.04 and felt that they were squishier, more mid heavy and a little rough sounding. I immediately downgraded back to 17.03...

I thought the same as you regarding the mid heaviness and power amp interaction.

Of course, this isn't to say that 17.04 isn't a great improvement (I love that cliff improves the minutiae in the algorithms, as that's where the magic is) it's just I didn't have the time to dial the presets back in from scratch.

Once I do this I'm sure my patches will sound great, with 17.04!
 
OK, so somebody needs to make a video in regards to this new Mic + DI technique...
This is exactly the time when I wish Chris K. was here.
He typically made excellent videos and made new concepts very understandable with examples of how you would use/do it.
Maybe G66 will have something soon..
 
This is exactly the time when I wish Chris K. was here.
He typically made excellent videos and made new concepts very understandable with examples of how you would use/do it.
Maybe G66 will have something soon..

Where is he?
 
I haven't had a lot of time to really play my Axe-FX since 17.04 came out because I just bought an MFC-101 and have been consumed by getting that happening.

But when I do play I really think I notice a much more realistic-tube-amp-attack now.
There's a really tube-y kind of spank to the attack now.
This is mostly on my clean tones that I've noticed this.
I often used to still feel like the attack wasn't all there to me, as far as it being completely like playing a real tube amp.
It never bothered me much because some of my favorite rigs have been built around ss amps and the Axe still sounded better to me than most of the real tube amps I'd owned.

But now it seems like it's even more tube-y, in a good, really musical way.

What a product.
What a company.
What an engineer.
 
17.04 feels quite stiff to me so far. Suggestions?

Turn up the Master Volume perhaps? The higher the MV, the spongier things get. If it gets too spongy you can reduce the Supply Sag.

MV is the one knob that everyone should master (pun not intended). It sets the amount of power amp drive which, in turn, controls how much current is drawn from the power supply which causes the supply to sag. The trick is to find the sweet spot. Too much MV and it can get too compressed. To little and the amp will be stiff and too scooped. The MV works just like a real amp's MV except it won't get deafeningly loud if you turn it way up.
 
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Turn up the Master Volume perhaps? The higher the MV, the spongier things get. If it gets too spongy you can reduce the Supply Sag.

MV is the one knob that everyone should master (pun not intended). It sets the amount of power amp drive which, in turn, controls how much current is drawn from the power supply which causes the supply to sag. The trick is to find the sweet spot. Too much MV and it can get too compressed. To little and the amp will be stiff and too scooped. The MV works just like a real amp's MV except it won't get deafeningly loud if you turn it way up.

Do you have any tips for setting the MV? i.e. Do you set the drive first and then set the MV, or the other way around? Reason I ask is, the two work in symbiosis with each other so it's often hard to know where to start with certain amps.
 
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Do you have any tips for setting the MV? i.e. Do you set the drive first and then set the MV, or the other way around? Reason I ask is, the two work in symbiosis with each other so it's often hard to know where to start with certain amps.

With high-gain amps I start with the MV very low, say 2.0. Dial in the tone and gain and then bring the MV up until you hit the sweet spot. Back off the gain a bit if it's too gainy at that point.
 
With high-gain amps I start with the MV very low, say 2.0. Dial in the tone and gain and then bring the MV up until you hit the sweet spot. Back off the gain a bit if it's too gainy at that point.

And it probably goes without saying ..., but for Non-MV amps I usually start at the opposite end of the spectrum ( ie; 10 ) and then work my way back .... :shock :D ;)
 
starting with the MV low on hi-gain amps makes the most sense because the power amp will be clean..
so it'll be easier to hear when the change in power amp characteristics begin to take effect as the MV increases
 
I played a gig this weekend with the new firmware and didnt have time to test it beforehand. I too experienced a very different feel and tone but some amp models like the mesa boogie sound much better but my higher gain marshall tones for the Journey songs feel squishy and kinda dead. I am going to try what cliff just suggested. Also my main clean tone isn't jumping out and cutting like it was. I am sure it is just a tweak here and there away. Now just to be clear everything still sounds amazing and I am not complaining in the least bit. The axe fx 2 is absolutely incredible.
Cliff I believe I read somewhere a little while back that there were new factory presets being created for the newer firmware. If I read that correctly is there a rough estimated date for them?
 
I played a gig this weekend with the new firmware and didnt have time to test it beforehand. I too experienced a very different feel and tone but some amp models like the mesa boogie sound much better but my higher gain marshall tones for the Journey songs feel squishy and kinda dead. I am going to try what cliff just suggested. Also my main clean tone isn't jumping out and cutting like it was. I am sure it is just a tweak here and there away. Now just to be clear everything still sounds amazing and I am not complaining in the least bit. The axe fx 2 is absolutely incredible.
Cliff I believe I read somewhere a little while back that there were new factory presets being created for the newer firmware. If I read that correctly is there a rough estimated date for them?

Keith, one thing I have noticed (also being a Marshall user in the AxeFx) is Cliff really got it close. So close in fact that it's squishy and sort of dead like a Marshall unless you use one of those JVM models which to me sound like the newer more modern Marshalls with the beefed up pre-amp.

But if you are using say, the Brit 800 or the Brit Mod like I use, this new update made it more realistic....and that means, it actually takes away from whatever you may have had before in MY opinion. Sometimes "more realistic" in this modeling business...can go against us. But that's not a bad thing. Here's what I do....which in MY case, the new "Cliff mod" didn't effect my sounds.

Ok, if you are not using any pedal distortion or something to slightly beef up the Marshall pre-amp side, it's going to sound dull. So try putting a distortion pedal before the amp. I use a t-808 od before the amp. Now the key here is to not run much of the pedal....you just want to drive the amp a bit so it doesn't sound so dull. My settings are:

Drive - 2.78
Tone - 6.00 (this in my opinion is what makes the amp come to life and pulls out some of the dullness)
Level: 7.98 (controlling this via expression pedal with all the above settings will keep your tone and just lower your gain if need be)
Mix - 100

Next page...not sure these are altered from some stock sound many FW versions ago...but this works for me.

Low cut: 700 Hz
High cut: 800 Hz
Clip type: SI Diode
Slew limit: 477
Bias 0.010

All the other pages in the pedal are unaltered.

As for my amp setting, not sure it will help you because I don't know what version of the Marshall you are using. But I use the Marshall mod.

Input drive: 6.04
Input trim: 1.200 (might be a bit hot for you. I use a drop tuning down to C so I need a little more gain due to the slack. Try from 8.00 to 1.000)
Bass (no cut) 8.42
Mid (no fat) 5.92
Treb (bright on) 6.81
Bright : 0.00
Pres: 2.47
Depth: 0
Tube Type: EL 34/6CA7
Neg FDBK: 2.00
MV: 3.5
Out LV: -10.5

All my other stuff I messed with deals with tweaking my tone match for the most part. I'm not even sure any of those settings above will help you...but it may get you closer to what you are looking for.

Also, before the drive pedal, I have a compressor using Pedal comp 2 for a little more push and tightness. You may or may not need that....but it tightens things up for me just having it on a little bit. I use a lot of high gain tones. Probably too nuts for what you may be looking for (Journey) but this works for me.

This is me just going through a few patches of my high gain stuff using the Marshall 800 mod amp with the settings I mentioned above. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4909348/AxeFxII_Drive_SoundTest.mp3

Quite a bit of this sound is probably due to my tone match setting which comes from me literally tone matching one of my old tones and then sweetening it up with the AxeFx. It brings my annoying pinch harmonics out a little more resembling my 12AX7 pre-amp characteristic. You know...that sort of starved plate sound. For recording this tone works really well with a little low passing to remove some of the sizzle in the high end. For live, I low pass it even more and it really sounds nice through 25 watt Greenback Celestions. Anyway, I hope some of this helps you. Just juice up the amp you are using a little bit with a distortion and a compressor and it should come right back to life for you. :) Good luck!

-Danny
 
I'm liking it actually cos I don't like my cleans to be too clean..
a hint of grit makes them sparkle a little more but they retain their body..
the new 65 Bassman Normal has now become my new clean amp of choice..
it's super flexible..

All the clean amps sound and respond great with FW17.04. Lead amps too! :D
 
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