TL;DR - Outstanding beta release! Very happy!
I've been critical in the past about delays in firmware releases, so it's only right to be equally vocal when things go VERY well.
First and foremost, releasing the beta on the Wednesday before (US) Thanksgiving was a STELLAR decision from a customer perspective! With a 4 day holiday for many people, there was a lot of time to play around with the new firmware. I know (firsthand) how tough it can be for developers with that type of release. The last thing
I would have wanted to do was monitor a work situation over the break.
Forget everything else - the release date speaks more than anything else the firmware delivered. It goes a long way toward rehabbing my confidence in the FM3. Simply an amazing customer-first decision and one for which I am very thankful.
As for the beta itself, I've been VERY happy so far. All of the following have caused issues at one time or another in 1.06, but I've experienced NO similar issues in 2.0b (macOS Catalina):
- I tried "accidentally" pulling out the USB cable - no lockup
- I reinserted the USB cable - it reconnected without issue
- I paused communications in FM3-Edit and then un-paused them - no issue
- I closed FM3-Edit, opened Fractal-Bot, connected, closed Fractal-Bot, re-opened FM3-Edit - no issues connecting at all
- I quickly tapped footswitches multiple times (OMG-9 layout) - no issues/freezes
- I switched presets and scenes, on device and via footswitches - no issues experienced
- Maybe I'm just in a turkey haze, but I don't think I experienced as much lag between FM3-Edit UI and device UI. That was consistently an issue in the past - not terrible - but definitely noticeable. Seemed improved in this beta.
I did experience the issues with the Archon that have been reported ad nauseum. Only thing I can add is that I was switching between the various models and I don't believe I was using the Fat switch when I got the drop out. I was however using the Bright and Cut switches. I got the drop out when switching back to the clean model.
IIRC, when I got the 2nd audio drop out, I
think I was able to restore audio by resetting the channel.
That's long enough for now. Will report more if I experience any issues. I'm exceptionally happy with what I've seen. This looks like an outstanding beta so far!