Axe-Fx II "Quantum" Rev 7.00 Firmware Release

Yeah, we discovered some fascinating things recently. I was reading a paper about measuring the distortion characteristics of microwave amplifiers and that led us to a new class of analytic signal that reveals a lot about the distortion characteristics of tube amps. The reason the release took so long is we had to remeasure nearly every amp and collect and enter this new data.

I'm so happy with the new modeling that I've removed the old algorithms to make space for new stuff. I had just finished a new optical compressor algorithm but it wouldn't fit into memory. Now it can. Sounds like an LA-2A (but maybe better).

Thank you for the detailed explanation; very cool. Will this analysis technique be applied to overdrive and distortion/fuzz DRIVE models?
 
Yeah, we discovered some fascinating things recently. I was reading a paper about measuring the distortion characteristics of microwave amplifiers and that led us to a new class of analytic signal that reveals a lot about the distortion characteristics of tube amps. The reason the release took so long is we had to remeasure nearly every amp and collect and enter this new data.

I'm so happy with the new modeling that I've removed the old algorithms to make space for new stuff. I had just finished a new optical compressor algorithm but it wouldn't fit into memory. Now it can. Sounds like an LA-2A (but maybe better).
Cool stuff Cliff. Can't help but wonder what other new goodies this can lead to???

Also, will this extra space help keep the Mark 1's and 2's in the firmware race longer?
 
Hey all

Had a small bit of down time this arvo and went to put FW7 on [ from 6.03 ] as I was keen to try it out and post some audio demo's comparing .... anyway ... a bit of an issue arose which I havent had before.

Background

About 2 weeks ago, I went from 6.03 to FW7 Beta .... all good ... noted some changes but went back to 6.03 pending FW7 final .... all of this went fine, no hitches

Today

Went from 6.03 to FW 7 final .... all installed OK .... Axe Edit asked to install the latest version ... no problems .... FW7 final went on fine ... no issues .... re-booted as normal .... got Axe Edit to Force a FW Refresh [ I always do this just in case ] ... no problems ... made sure Global FW on Axe was on Latest [it was] ... re-loaded my presets ..... de-selected / re-selected amps ..... de-selected / re-selected the Cabs ..... made sure all my presets were set to Latest FW version ...... checked all the block sum settings etc...... all %100 fine / normal / as Ive done before for all my FW upgrade from Q1.x onwards.

Problem

Start to play ....... all of my presets sound very weird / muddy / just wrong ....... when I previoulsy went from 6.03 to FW7 Beta, the changes were good / subtle [I posted about it at the time] however what given what I am hearing now ...... something has clearly not gone quite right.

I ran out of time so will have another look at it tomorrow, but in the meantime

-> has anyone else had a similar experieince ?

-> is the best recommended course of action to simply re-install the FW ?

-> any other sort of "reset" I could use / try at the same time ?

-> anything else I could try if needed ?


Sincere thanks in advance for any advice / suggestions.

Ben

SOLVED :)

Firstly sincere thanks again to all for all the suggestions.

I re-installed the FW [ a 2nd time ] and this time " Ctrl + I " was working - re-set all my blocks and all back to sounding right / as it should :)

My only initial comment - as I havent yet spent too much time with FW7 Final yet - is that this FW definetly sounds differnet to FW 6.0.3 - especially once I cranked it up to live-levels through my CLR .... I'm gonna take some time to re-do my patchs - but the way the amps gain-up / gain-down in this FW release is very different [to my ears at least] from FW6.0.3.

Many thanks again,
Ben
 
Yeah, we discovered some fascinating things recently. I was reading a paper about measuring the distortion characteristics of microwave amplifiers and that led us to a new class of analytic signal that reveals a lot about the distortion characteristics of tube amps. The reason the release took so long is we had to remeasure nearly every amp and collect and enter this new data.

I'm so happy with the new modeling that I've removed the old algorithms to make space for new stuff. I had just finished a new optical compressor algorithm but it wouldn't fit into memory. Now it can. Sounds like an LA-2A (but maybe better).

This is so cool. :) great news.
 
Hey guys.
I hope this helps some of you. I loaded the newest factory banks a, b and c presets then reset the amp blocks and then saved each preset. I tried to upload here but keep getting an error. I tried the .sys files then tried .zip files but neither worked. Help in uploading would be appreciated.
 
Hey guys.
I hope this helps some of you. I loaded the newest factory banks a, b and c presets then reset the amp blocks and then saved each preset. I tried to upload here but keep getting an error. I tried the .sys files then tried .zip files but neither worked. Help in uploading would be appreciated.
That'll be too big a file to upload to the site. Put it in Dropbox or Google Drive and share it out from there.
 
Here's a sample of the optical compressor:

Perfect timing ! In less than two months, I'll be on stage in the island's nicest theater, playing songs from a band whose guitar player is known for his love of compression :cool:

Here's some tones I'm using right now, with Quantum 7 ; after that rehearsal, I tweaked some of them (like, using the "On the turning away" amp/cab/chorus settings on "Comfortably numb")
 
Perfect timing ! In less than two months, I'll be on stage in the island's nicest theater, playing songs from a band whose guitar player is known for his love of compression :cool:

Here's some tones I'm using right now, with Quantum 7 ; after that rehearsal, I tweaked some of them (like, using the "On the turning away" amp/cab/chorus settings on "Comfortably numb")



Wow
 
Got weird bug on this firmware. Some cabs sound like digitally distorted mess IN STEREO ULTRARES MODE. Not all cabs, but some: F096 f.e
I use Mark II
 
Thanks, I am new to this so could you please try this and let me know if it works.


In my browser its giving an error. When you put the link in your thread post, did you just paste the link into the "EDIT POST" box, or did you create MEDIA tags around it by any chance?
 
new class of analytic signal that reveals a lot about the distortion characteristics
Just thinking aloud:
Textbook "analytic" in RF/DSP means simply that I zap the negative frequency component (Hilbert) and I get a continuous envelope at the signal, e.g. also at zero crossings of the original signal.

For us microwave oven guys this has a deep physical meaning because the nonlinearity of a RF amplifier mainly depends on this "modulation envelope" of the signal.

But this only works when the carrier frequency is much higher than the modulation bandwidth.

For audio frequency nonlinearity, "analytical" is a purely mathematical construct because this latter assumption doesn't hold: With a Hilbert transform I essentially calculate what a 2nd orthogonal pickup on the strings would see (e.g. peaks during a zero crossing of the original signal). But a real amp cannot access this information (causality / impulse response length for the HT), so the methods for RF signals will be limited at audio where the fractional bandwidth is much higher.
This only as some random thoughts on the topic, maybe you find something useful in there, maybe not :)
It might work pretty well to estimate how group delay varies, and build on that.
 
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Is it just me or are quite a few people saying they are experiencing bugs (or at least perceived bugs) with this firmware? I haven't updated yet, but I'm seeing some folks sharing their bug stories and it is making me hesitate. Maybe that is just the nature of a significant firmware update like this one.
 
Is it just me or are quite a few people saying they are experiencing bugs (or at least perceived bugs) with this firmware? I haven't updated yet, but I'm seeing some folks sharing their bug stories and it is making me hesitate. Maybe that is just the nature of a significant firmware update like this one.
FWIW, I was using this firmware all day yesterday in my home studio running through building presets, and I didn't have any issues whatsoever.
 
I played for 3 hrs running through presets
I didn't experience anything, but I wasn't building any presets
 
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