Man, I could not be more impressed

Rick

Rick

Axe-Master
You know, I played on quality gear for a long time and I am pretty used to decent customer service, but Fractal Audio, Cliff and all the people who have a hand in their gear are just a cut above.

I've read this forum daily for a long time now and it often amazes me how much folks expect from FAS, and how some express their expectations in the most thankless of ways. But what I have noticed is that this update addresses pretty much every well put suggestion, frustrated outburst, and outright thankless bitch I have heard on here. Who does something like that? And for free? Insanely good of these guys to sift through the carnage, pick out what folks want, and even add in some stuff most of us didn't know to ask for...

AWESOME new tones
Totalsync matching between Axe and MFC (kicks ass, by the way)
A freakin' metronome.. didn't see that one at first.
And on, and on, and on... I will be weeks finding it all.

Another subtle thing I noticed was that (as requested by some here) all the basic amp tones (50 of them, no less) are grouped at the front with the freakier, extreme, or effects laden presets grouped thereafter. That's right... someone suggested, FAS listened. Again. That just says something to me.

I have not even gotten to the tone matching... just listened to Dojo's Andy Summers stuff. That's just crazy good. Can't wait. And as Cobbler pointed out elsewhere, the whole update downloaded and installed with very little effort (except the parts where I didn't read the install notes first). IF or WHEN you could ever get updates from other manufacturers, they were never this complete, never this easy to install, and rarely or never free.

Thank you to Cliff, Matt, the beta testers, and everyone who worked on this update (Axe/MFC/Axe Edit). Job very well down does not begin to express how impressed I am with you and your work. I may be out of pocket for a while...

ADDED: Just noticed the tuner! You guys kill me. Awesome!
 
What if you slid in a 5 dollar bill and it returned a 100? huh? huh? I bet you would be more impressed! :)

I didnt know we got a metronome either. Sweeeet!
 
cobbler said:
What if you slid in a 5 dollar bill and it returned a 100? huh? huh? I bet you would be more impressed! :)

I didnt know we got a metronome either. Sweeeet!
Click to expand...

Tap the tempo button! Outputs on Channel 1... insane. Where is the dollar slot??? It's worth a try!
 
Cliff, that tuner is a monster. I love it. Although you might have to explain quadrature demodulation, it just flat looks cool and it really quick to tune with.
 
FractalAudio said:
Finally someone commented on the tuner. That was a lot of work. The tuner is now a "quadrature demodulator".
Click to expand...

I was just coming here to ask the question. First I was like WTF is going on here and why is this one eyed monster spinning his eyeball at me? I know my guitar was out of tune but....

Epic!
 
Thanks again to everyone at FAS :)

I think the world at large can learn an important lesson from FAS - take the time to LISTEN to your customers and you will make them happy. FAS should be one of those companies that people write those management type books on IMHO
 
FractalAudio said:
Finally someone commented on the tuner. That was a lot of work. The tuner is now a "quadrature demodulator".
Click to expand...

Hi Cliff,

Could you explain what "quadrature demodulator" does.

The manual also says "As of firmware version 6.0, the Axe-Fx tuner can be used to tune droptune or bass guitars as well", is that due to this new feature?

Thanks again for this wonderful v6 update.
 
I get the idea from the tutorial that they use the known pitch frequency as the baseline, and the rotation clockwise or counter clockwise is reflecting the deviation from base either higher or lower. That's my "Idiot's Guide" version. Obviously, I am less than expert on it! ;)

Whatever it is, I am seeing left to right on the line tuner display, seeing signal below the display, and the 8 ball rolling around is a really close fine tuner. From what I tested, when that ball stops rolling on all strings (or as close as I could get it with a trem guitar) the guitar was exactly in tune. Great for playing, but I immediatley think of setting intonation and such, which will be easier to tweak with this sort of display.

That they spent time to improve something few were complaining about says a lot. It could be improved, so they improved it. That midset echos an interview I read where Cliff was stating why the Axe Fx is built like it is... Buy it right, buy it once. Buy it cheap, buy it again.

Cheap? Obviously not. But is it a bargain at the price. Oh yeah.
 
My story: I've had a bad cold for a few days, woke up this morning with a pounding headache and a gig to do tonight. Felt a bit better by lunchtime, browsed the net and found version 6 is out. I know it's been well tested and didn't see any serious problems reported, so why not? Loaded it on, dialled in my 8 main patches in under 30 minutes - reset the amps but mostly kept the same models, just dialled in drive and tones. Feeling pretty confident with these new patches.

Off to the gig, and ... wow! My new ver 6 patches just smoked the ones I used before. Star performer from the night was the JCM800 sim. Bassguy 65 was a close second :)

Just want to say a massive thanks to Cliff & the team. I know you've put in a huge effort on this and it shows. I'm looking forward to digging deeper, but my first impression is that it's just ridiculously easy now to dial in great tones in a couple of minutes.
 
FractalAudio said:
Finally someone commented on the tuner. That was a lot of work. The tuner is now a "quadrature demodulator".
Click to expand...

I was having so much fun last night, I never turned the tuner on! I'll have to check that out today. Thanks again, Cliff, to you & your team for the work you do.
 
GM Arts said:
My story: I've had a bad cold for a few days, woke up this morning with a pounding headache and a gig to do tonight. Felt a bit better by lunchtime, browsed the net and found version 6 is out. I know it's been well tested and didn't see any serious problems reported, so why not? Loaded it on, dialled in my 8 main patches in under 30 minutes - reset the amps but mostly kept the same models, just dialled in drive and tones. Feeling pretty confident with these new patches.

Off to the gig, and ... wow! My new ver 6 patches just smoked the ones I used before. Star performer from the night was the JCM800 sim. Bassguy 65 was a close second :)

Just want to say a massive thanks to Cliff & the team. I know you've put in a huge effort on this and it shows. I'm looking forward to digging deeper, but my first impression is that it's just ridiculously easy now to dial in great tones in a couple of minutes.
Click to expand...


You're a brave man, Carl.



(Old Monty Python quote for those who don't recognize)
 
Yeah, there is a lot of hype that surrounds some of these updates and I'm as cynical as they come, but I have never been let down by an update in all the time I've been using FAS stuff. Every update is a move forward. Sure there have been some bugs, but unlike some other companies I've seen Cliff knock out a patch in a weekend to take care of it if possible.

With all the accolades and stuff here about Cliff and FAS's customer support and development the bottom line to me is that the only thing that is as good is the way that the thing performs.
 
GM Arts said:
My story: I've had a bad cold for a few days, woke up this morning with a pounding headache and a gig to do tonight. Felt a bit better by lunchtime, browsed the net and found version 6 is out. I know it's been well tested and didn't see any serious problems reported, so why not? Loaded it on, dialled in my 8 main patches in under 30 minutes - reset the amps but mostly kept the same models, just dialled in drive and tones. Feeling pretty confident with these new patches.

Off to the gig, and ... wow! My new ver 6 patches just smoked the ones I used before. Star performer from the night was the JCM800 sim. Bassguy 65 was a close second :)

Just want to say a massive thanks to Cliff & the team. I know you've put in a huge effort on this and it shows. I'm looking forward to digging deeper, but my first impression is that it's just ridiculously easy now to dial in great tones in a couple of minutes.
Click to expand...

I am curious. You may be the first performer (non beta) world wide to have gigged with 6.0 and are reporting back a total success. Great news man, and nice for others to feel compelled to go foreword. I have read a couple other players were holding off until after upcoming gigs.
 
Just checking back in... amazing how people actually expect me to do other things OUTSIDE the music room when I have new firmware cooking!

Got a little more playing time in and all my gigging presets reloaded. I have to say that after listening to the new presets, I am probably going to revamp my preset arrangement again to have a few of them available. I can literally dial up nearly any preset in the first 50 and spend the next 30 minutes jamming on it in a whole new style. I find that pretty inspiring, and it will get you right out of the "my tone" rut. Kind of like stretching your legs, but musically.

I have found so many things, both on the unit and here at the forum, that I almost feel like I need to scrub everything and start from scratch to make the best use of what's available... I was just getting into the X-Y thing when this dropped and that was already opening a mass of possibilities. This is pretty incredible, and makes me really appreciate how difficult the design task was, and how focused the beta team must have been to come up with something like this unit and the updates produced for it.

Soooooo... I know this isn't exactly a "musical" approach, but I think I should probably get out a note pad and actually "design" the setup I need so I can be consistent across the settings and make the best use of the capabilities I have... which are mind-boggling at times (at least for my little mind). I also think I should do this just to remember what I did after it's done. Has anyone else taken this approach? How did it work for you?

Ok, back to it...
 
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