shredi knight
Power User
I've been struggling with my patches that use the USA Lead amp models (Mesa Boogie Mark IV - not the IIc+) since the release of firmware 11.00. I've gone back & forth between 10.12 & 11.03 several times now, but I can not get these patches to sound like they used to, or even good at all. Though they have a lot of gain, with 10.12 these patches were very tight sounding and very clear with no mud. After 11.00, they are a loose, flubby, over-distorted, muddy mess. These models all seem to have been irreparably changed, though according to Cliff, they are among the amp models that were supposed to have been the least affected by the new firmware.
I've re-tweaked till I was blue in the face, reset the amp block, put the amp sim's bass control at 0 & taken out any low-end that was being added (and these patches aren't bass/low-end heavy at all). Raising the low cut worked on getting the flub under control, but only with extreme settings and then it sounded and felt weird. I just can't seem to get rid of this flubby/muddy/bassy/dark character the amp sims now have. And this is with one of the Drive pedal sims in front of the amp block as a clean boost. The Drive sim is supposed to be making what should already be a tight sounding amp even tighter (The Mark IV is known for being a very tight sounding amp). It's almost as if the Drive sim is adding bass instead of cutting it and making it tighter. These same patches in 10.12 sound less flubby without a Drive sim in front of the amp than they do in 11.03 with one.
The point is, I don't understand why I need to apply such extensive re-tweaking (that isn't working) to amp sims that weren't supposed to have been that greatly affected by the firmware update. So that has me wondering if that maybe there is something wrong with the USA Leads. The USA IIc+ amp models (which were tweaked some by Cliff right after the release of 11.00) don't suffer from this problem. Settings that sound dark and flubby with one of the USA Leads sound very present and tight with the USA IIc+'s. Before 11.00, using the same settings on these amp sims garnered similar results.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Maybe Cliff will take a look at those amp models and see if there is a problem. For the time being, I'm staying on 10.03. The USA Lead sims are primarily what I use in the Axe-Fx and they are useless to me in their current state.
Thanks.
P.S. Cliff, if you do see this, why does the power tube bias in all (I think it's all anyway) the USA Lead/IIc+ amp models default to 0.500 since 11.00? Mesa's Mark amps are known for having a very cold bias - around 0.200. Why the change to such a hot bias setting?
I've re-tweaked till I was blue in the face, reset the amp block, put the amp sim's bass control at 0 & taken out any low-end that was being added (and these patches aren't bass/low-end heavy at all). Raising the low cut worked on getting the flub under control, but only with extreme settings and then it sounded and felt weird. I just can't seem to get rid of this flubby/muddy/bassy/dark character the amp sims now have. And this is with one of the Drive pedal sims in front of the amp block as a clean boost. The Drive sim is supposed to be making what should already be a tight sounding amp even tighter (The Mark IV is known for being a very tight sounding amp). It's almost as if the Drive sim is adding bass instead of cutting it and making it tighter. These same patches in 10.12 sound less flubby without a Drive sim in front of the amp than they do in 11.03 with one.
The point is, I don't understand why I need to apply such extensive re-tweaking (that isn't working) to amp sims that weren't supposed to have been that greatly affected by the firmware update. So that has me wondering if that maybe there is something wrong with the USA Leads. The USA IIc+ amp models (which were tweaked some by Cliff right after the release of 11.00) don't suffer from this problem. Settings that sound dark and flubby with one of the USA Leads sound very present and tight with the USA IIc+'s. Before 11.00, using the same settings on these amp sims garnered similar results.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. Maybe Cliff will take a look at those amp models and see if there is a problem. For the time being, I'm staying on 10.03. The USA Lead sims are primarily what I use in the Axe-Fx and they are useless to me in their current state.
Thanks.
P.S. Cliff, if you do see this, why does the power tube bias in all (I think it's all anyway) the USA Lead/IIc+ amp models default to 0.500 since 11.00? Mesa's Mark amps are known for having a very cold bias - around 0.200. Why the change to such a hot bias setting?
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