I made some presets really quickly. The 6160 Block Lead might sound a bit muddy without a Tube Screamer in front, but I preferred to activate only the amp block. I don’t usually use Marshalls, but I made a short clip with the 1987X because of the comments I read. Both clips sound identical, I don’t notice any difference. The waveforms also look identical. If you match one clip to the other, you get a perfectly straight line as a result...
The 6160 Block Lead keeps sounding worse with each firmware...
https://samply.app/p/9zNhaLE7CzhnXYM4vbVV
I don't how exactly you got the 1987x to sound like a metal machine (
and I'm definitely interested in details if you care to share), but whatever it is, I think it sounds good both before and after the update, though I can't hear much difference myself either. I've been able to bond with that model in all the times I've tried it.
In regards to differences,
maybe 29.0 beta is a smidge brighter through my headphones with some models, but that could just be me since it seems like there's a variety of opinions already. I haven't had a lot time to really dive in and record before/afters or test all my go-to models since, of course, I'm not feeling well and can't play as long as I'd like, which definitely sucks.
And I agree that the 6160 Block is still sounding off, particularly with the attack/distortion character, even after this update. I was hoping the changes to the pre-amp modeling would alleviate the strange fuzzy initial attack that came in 28.05, but it's still the same here.
If anyone is interested in more info on what I'm talking about and hasn't seen it yet, I posted a thread with sound examples from 28.02-28.07:
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...ferent-off-to-me-now-w-sound-examples.214129/
Even with my feelings on the Block Letter, I'm still interested in getting to really dive in once I'm feeling better and see if I can hear any additional changes, but may end up rolling back as well until the full release since I'm usually not one to try the beta anyway.
