Axe-Fx II "Quantum" Rev 1.00 Public Beta

Any severe bugs with this beta to where I shouldn't attempt to use for a gig?


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Wow I upgraded from v19 early beta (the version before the Dephase was added and I never installed v20) directly to Quantum this evening.

I played my main v19 presets for a half hour or so then did the install; I was very curious to see how much of a difference, if any, I'd notice.

Immediately playing my 1987x main crunch preset after going from v19 to Quantum it was like in the Wizard Of Oz when Dorothy get's knocked out in her black and white world and wakes up in a much different place in full color. Yea, dramatic lol, but the improvement/change in the feel and tone was immediately noticiable and simply incredible IMO...

I found the notes/tones had more of a fundamental fullness in the body which sustained as the strings rang out with the hair/overdrive/distortion sitting on top and never thinning out and losing a fat richness. I loved how Quantum feels much more 'solid' as you fret and stays that way as the notes sustain...I'm really blown away.

As others have said, Quantum feels more immediate/responsive and I'd agree with that, as well as the transitions from clean/crunch/dirty work with the volume control like never before. I auditioned several amps that I could never previously dial back the gain properly to get into crunch-zone that didn't sound thin and wimpy but with Quantum that wasn't a problem. It seems that the channel drive characteristics (clean/mild OD/crunch/higain) of many amps is more apparent and again, I could dial in amazing crunch/mild breakup tones on a ton of amps I couldn't do that with before...

I tried dozens of amps tonight, from clean, crunch, higain, etc. all thru factory cab 60 (Fractal 4x12 GB M160) and by only tweaking the drive/master/channel volume every single amp I landed on while scrolling thru the models I could get a killer tone out of it in seconds. I'm floored with Quantum...and with...

...the Dephase control; tried it as well for the first time this evening and all I'm going to say about it for now it that it's the CAB block control/parameter I've been waiting for and is the single best CAB block control ever. Yes, I like it that much...I love, love, love what it does when you add just a bit to an IR....

Fractal ups the game once again, big time...I'm pretty excited with this indeed...
 
Stratoblaster said:
I tried dozens of amps tonight, from clean, crunch, higain, etc. all thru factory cab 60 (Fractal 4x12 GB M160) and by only tweaking the drive/master/channel volume every single amp I landed on while scrolling thru the models I could get a killer tone out of it in seconds.
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i totally agree!
...the Dephase control; tried it as well for the first time this evening and all I'm going to say about it for now it that it's the CAB block control/parameter I've been waiting for and is the single best CAB block control ever. Yes, I like it that much...I love, love, love what it does when you add just a bit to an IR....
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what Dephase values did you end up with?
 
Chris@AxeFxTutorials said:
what Dephase values did you end up with?
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I found that adding ~1 -> ~2 (just a small amount) was all I needed for the several cabs I tried; what I like about the control, aside from it's obvious effect, was you could give it a crank and go 'wow, I really love that' and leave it...you don't have to 'overthink' this parameter (although I'll be certain to really get familiar with it in the next few days).
 
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Chris@AxeFxTutorials said:
it really is just more and better. don't waste time over analyzing this one guys, install it, put HBE amp stock and Factory Cab 59 (TV cab by ML) and play a big G chord.
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Yea, I second that thought, don't over analyze it at all...I spent 15 seconds with the BE thru factory cab 60 and had the most awesome classic rock/70's tone imaginable...
 
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i've been setting the dephase to 5, just because i saw someone else say that's what they were doing, lol. i haven't had time to do a detailed test of it at different settings.
 
Stratoblaster said:
Yea, I second that thought, don't over analyze it at all...I spent 15 seconds with the HB thru factory cab 60 and had the most awesome classic rock/70's tone imaginable...
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I third that thought! I am absolutely blown away by how much better it sounds. I haven't modified one preset and I have never enjoyed playing so much. Everything is so much better...the dynamics, the attack, the sustain, the clarity of each note...tone, etc. It feels like you barely have to touch the strings.
 
I've been happily plugging along on FW18, waiting for the final release of FW20, mostly because I wanted to wait until Axe-Edit was updated. After seeing all the hubbub about Quantum, I couldn't resist and had to install it. For me the change wasn't huge, but holy bat, Shitman, my presets sure sound sweet! As others have said, the amps just seem to respond better and tone-wise they are just more pleasant. I've not really gone through the factory presets, but I did a bit of bouncing around in the 50-60 presets I use with my two bands, and everything sounded as good or better than with FW18, with absolutely no adjustments. I also went through each of my presets and set the cab de-phase on 5. That's the first time I've done any tweaking in the cab blocks, but it just upped the realism another notch or two.

Once again, this reaffirms my opinion that the Axe-Fx is hands down the best investment I've made on musical gear. Many, many thanks to Cliff and the FAS team!
 
jlynnb1 said:
i've been setting the dephase to 5, just because i saw someone else say that's what they were doing, lol. i haven't had time to do a detailed test of it at different settings.
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Yea as I was trying Dephase with several cabinets I was just giving the control a twist until I liked what I heard and felt; when I looked at the numbers they were between 1 and 2...I didn't even get to 5 lol! Will also need to spent more time exploring this parameter indeed....
 
Robboman said:
I'd do this myself if I only had time... maybe someone could record us a clip like so:

1). Record a 5 second unprocessed guitar riff in looper, or DAW.
2). Play loop through a selection of different amp models on FW19 and record 5 second amp clips.
3). Update to Quantum and repeat with the same loop, amps. No other changes.
4). Use DAW to arrange all these mini clips into one long clip so that it A/Bs one amp at a time.

(amp1 FW19 > amp1 Quantum ::::: amp2 FW19 > amp2 Quantum ::::: amp3 FW19... amp3 Quantum ::::: and so on..............................)

Just a handful of popular amps ranging from clean to hi gain would suffice :)
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Just posted a comparison of 7 amps (3 mid gain, 4 high gain, sorry, no cleans) at stock block settings to the Recording subforum:

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/axe-fx-ii-recordings/103781-fw-19-vs-quantum-amp-shootout.html

Some amps are definitely showing more obvious changes than others in Q1.
 
Thank you! Excellent job! I really hear the diff now. The adjective Presence or Aliveness describes my experience of the Quantum sound.
 
So the real question is "what the hell is quantum?" I don't get buried in release notes and get all obsessed with trying to understand the technical aspects, but I'm definitely curious because it's not just an incremental improvement, it's pretty damn significant.

Great job Cliff....I wonder if taking a little vacation didn't help to recharge the batteries or if this was another one of those things that you've been working on for a while. Whatever the case, job well done. :encouragement:
 
shasha said:
So the real question is "what the hell is quantum?" I don't get buried in release notes and get all obsessed with trying to understand the technical aspects, but I'm definitely curious because it's not just an incremental improvement, it's pretty damn significant.

Great job Cliff....I wonder if taking a little vacation didn't help to recharge the batteries or if this was another one of those things that you've been working on for a while. Whatever the case, job well done. :encouragement:
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I wonder if this is like asking a chef "so whats in your Secret Sauce". I look forward to how Cliff answers this. ;)
 
tone said:
Every note screams,Akira anyone???
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Ahhh, yes... have to play some Thunder In the East today!

Yesterday I had an hour to play with the new FW: Dirty Shirley, HBE & Brit Brown using factory cab #60.

Somewhere around FW13,14,15 there was a huge improvement on the note attack. There used to be a somewhat "brickwall" hardness to the attack that went away with those firmwares. With more recent firmwares I felt that there was still a tiny bit of extra hardness in the mids that is not supposed to be there - at least in some mid pushed tones.

With Quantum it feels like that extra hardness is gone but the attack is somehow faster! How the hell did you pull that one off Cliff? It's more immediate just like Chris said but not at the expense of the feel.

There also seems to be a very interesting "3D" clarity in the bass. Have to experiment more with this.
Awesome update!!
 
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I'm eager to try this tomorrow. I have to admit, I have a hard time imagining a substantial improvement over 19. Seriously, how much can Cliff improve on 19?

BUT THEN: I think back to how I felt when I first tried my Ultra. I couldn't see how Cliff could improve much on it at the time. And now, playing my Ultra after playing my II makes me realize that I don't know what I don't have until I have it.

Bottom line, I'm going to play 19 for a while tomorrow and then load 1.0 beta. I'm looking forward to knowing what I didn't have. And the cycle continues.
 
This firmware does indeed benefits us poweramp/cab player.
Every firmware has sounded great but there has always been some subtle differens with a tube amp.
With the Q1 firmware you have that missing link, the palmutes sounds natural and <guitar>volume-knob changes behaves just like a tube amp.
Great update!
 
RushOvGY said:
This would be hilarious :p

I did notice an improvement in the sound and ease of play in alot of the amp models with this firmware, but I don't know if its just from actually getting some real practice for the first time in a few months.

I missed fw20b as I was going to wait for the official release, but the need to hear the next new thing got the better of me. Insanely impressed with the dephase function in the cab block, once i grasped what it does its hard to imagine the beasty black box without it!

I was meant to be applying for jobs today, ended up wasting it all jamming through factory presets and tinkering with IRs! So thanks FAS, one more day poor, but money doesnt buy happiness.. Actually it pays for cab packs and thats totally the same thing!
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I tried the dephase feature in the previous beta, and It didn't appear to do anything noticable. Could it be that the cab IR I use (I only use one...my own) didn't 'need' dephasing, whereas many other cab IR's would benefit greatly from it?
 
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