Cygnus Poll - Honest Question - Improvement?

Do you notice an improvement with Cygnus amp modeling?

  • Yes, right out of the box

    Votes: 264 61.5%
  • No, even after attempting to tweak presets

    Votes: 10 2.3%
  • Yes, but it takes effort to tweak presets

    Votes: 66 15.4%
  • I can't tell

    Votes: 39 9.1%
  • No vote, just show results

    Votes: 50 11.7%

  • Total voters
    429
My final remaining 4x12 is a very late ('79 I think) 1960A cab that will be the same as yours barring the JCM800 name plate. I haven't yet dared AB Cygnus with my 2203, which is of the same JMP era, but got modified a bit over time as it had a lot more gain than I needed, and I wanted it to be bassier and less fizzy, for some reason... You'll note I landed on Basketweave for many presets too. Great minds (or fools seldom differ.. :O )

Tricky understanding how real cabs might respond. It might just be that the impedance curve over-emphasises a frequency band that the physical cab emphasises too.

Out of interest, do you still use IRs with real cabs, or just ditch and go straight out to the power amp? What power amp are you using for the Axe FX?

Liam
No IRs. I use a Crest CA-9 power amp.
 
I am so happy with my first experience in the modelling world being the Axe Fx III Mk II, it's like I'm 16 years old, and my first car is a Corvette. So I'm fine continuing the use FW15, until the factory presets are updated for 16. No vote for me.
 
I love it, but I did notice my main preset 4th scene uses an Archon for some heavy hitting. I'm going to have to actually
dial some lows/low mids back into it. It still sounded good, but that's my "BALLS" scene!
 
I agree with you.... But we all have limited time, so if there's no significant advantage of going from Ares to Cygnus, I'm not going to spend time updating my presets. This poll was created for 2 reasons. 1 - help me see if Cygnus is worth the time to upgrade/update my presets. 2 - squelch nay sayers who criticize Cygnus. It's accomplished both.

When it's ported to the FM3, I'll be able to tell you what I think ;)
Well unless you're planning to not update firmware again (or maybe not for a long time) you really need to just move forward.

You can obviously opt to use whatever firmware you want but the Cygnus modeling isn't going away and changes will continue to come, modeling or otherwise.

Are you ready to draw a line? ;)
 
It has a fuzziness that I can't dial out. The BE no longer responds to my guitars volume knob like it used to...2 quick things. Like I mentioned though, I'm extremely happy with my switch to the Soldano.
That has not been my experience with BE/HBE... I find it growly and pretty tight but I'm not hearing a pervasive fizz.
I'm really curious about all of our different signal chains and how that affects the way we make presets. The two primary schools of thought being live playing vs. studio with monitors and the volume differences.
Some day we'll have to make a database of guitars, pedals, monitors, FRFR, power amps and cabs.
Also, the SLO is all around more useful than HBE, not so humble opinion there and also indisputable scientific fact. The Dirty Shirley is so good in Cygnus too.
Yesterday I discovered how nice the Div/13 FT37 High is.
 
The Friedman amps used to be my goto amp, Cygnus has seemed to change this in a way that just doesn't quiet fit in to our mix.
The good thing to come out of Cygnus thought is that I have now discovered many more amps that were I thought were very ordinary in FW15, the Fenders, Boogies and Plexis have just come to life to name only a few. It is so much easier to dial in that sound you need now.
I try and use the same CABs as often as possible to be consistent in the mix, more amps in Cygnus seem to suit this way of doing things.
The 5153 50w Blue is now my goto amp ...
 
Well unless you're planning to not update firmware again (or maybe not for a long time) you really need to just move forward.

You can obviously opt to use whatever firmware you want but the Cygnus modeling isn't going away and changes will continue to come, modeling or otherwise.

Are you ready to draw a line? ;)

It has been widely reported in this thread that the amp models I care about most have been noticeably improved. So yes I plan to update when Cygnus is ported. Then I'll probably stop updating. That's where I'm drawing the line.

I did the same with the AX8 and it worked great for me. My preference is to avoid constantly updating and chasing tones, and instead just play. Which is what I'm doing with Ares on FW 3.02 - it sounds awesome.
 
It has been widely reported in this thread that the amp models I care about most have been noticeably improved. So yes I plan to update when Cygnus is ported. Then I'll probably stop updating. That's where I'm drawing the line.

I did the same with the AX8 and it worked great for me. My preference is to avoid constantly updating and chasing tones, and instead just play. Which is what I'm doing with Ares on FW 3.02 - it sounds awesome.
Nothing wrong with that. Sounds like a good plan.
 
That 6G12, tho....

Sounded great before, but a whole new level of great after Cygnus. Punchy and crisp when clean, nice bluesy raunch when turned up. Using the factory Super 4x10 C10R IRs with it for now, as that is close in dimensions and speakers. Would love to see a proper IR set with P10Rs in the right cab....
 
Listened/watched a few vids demonstrating the difference but couldn’t really tell...unfortunately most demos of the Axe are chug stuff and to be I can’t tell the difference, suppose I don’t know what I’m supposed to be listening for. On updating I did notice my lead sounds were a little too aggressive and I needed to back off the drive...after doing this I felt the difference seemed more ‘valvey’ (is this a new word), on the clean sounds, I can definitely hear a difference, for me it’s slightly fuller/fatter and definitely better.
my Austin Buddy settings sound awful though....
 
It has been widely reported in this thread that the amp models I care about most have been noticeably improved. So yes I plan to update when Cygnus is ported. Then I'll probably stop updating. That's where I'm drawing the line.

I did the same with the AX8 and it worked great for me. My preference is to avoid constantly updating and chasing tones, and instead just play. Which is what I'm doing with Ares on FW 3.02 - it sounds awesome.
Yeah, that's definitely a viable option.

Most people can't make that decision because the will (eventually) want some other new or updated feature or capability.
 
Yeah, that's definitely a viable option.

Most people can't make that decision because the will (eventually) want some other new or updated feature or capability.

Updating firmware is a good cure for GAS. I try to save FW updates for when I'm up to my eyeballs in GAS.

Unplugging from the forum helps avoid the FW update rat-race as well. I'm failing at that currently.
 
Maybe. The II I sold a few months ago was on 18.08, I had skipped many updates thereafter.

As I’ve said previously, as we get closer to perfect, I’d expect the variation per update to become far less drastic. Maybe I was kidding myself when I thought we were already at 97%.
The real issue I think most people have is other improvements aside from the amp modeling... But, yes, most things modeling have been more than "sufficient" for a long, long time IMO.
 
It has been widely reported in this thread that the amp models I care about most have been noticeably improved. So yes I plan to update when Cygnus is ported. Then I'll probably stop updating. That's where I'm drawing the line.

I did the same with the AX8 and it worked great for me. My preference is to avoid constantly updating and chasing tones, and instead just play. Which is what I'm doing with Ares on FW 3.02 - it sounds awesome.

Another option is to update and not edit patches unless something is glaring. You can update without chasing IMO.
 
Coming from a FM3 to the AxeIII, the FIRST thing I noticed was how easy it was to get that amp in the room thump from FW16. All in all, it's subtle (as are all the updates now) but it was noticeable right out of the box from a feel/sound perspective
 
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