Axe-Fx III Firmware 31.03 Release

w4eae said:
So, cabs were definitely not working. You could tell by the sound--particularly on distorted tones--that it wasn't, but I bypassed the cab block just to make sure and nothing about the sound changed.

THIS MAY HELP ANYONE WHO HAS A SIMILAR PROBLEM IN THE FUTURE:

I went into the 'setup' menu on the Axe-FX itself, selected 'utilities', paged over to the 'reset' tab, and performed a 'Reset System Parameters'. This seems to have solved the problem.
Click to expand...
Now do a full system backup.
 
This was the first time I have updated firmware on the Axe FX, but I have had an Fm-3 for a couple of years now and done every update with zero issues. This must have been a freak thing.
 
Pitch is now on par and has surpassed the old SGX-2000 and Magicstomps which I always loved and still preferred the pitch shift of (even though the SGX was somewhat lo-fi it still has a great pitch shift character nonetheless).

I need to add that with the Axe III, latency is superb with pitch added so making it now sound this good with that great latency had to take some dang serious coding.

Thanks Fractal!
 
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This new firmware is very strong.

Nobody can touch this company’s product. Without getting into too many details, I service my own amps and build clones of amps I cannot find. With this new software, I took two weeks and duplicated a few of my favourite amps, using their performace
characteristics and components. The presets sound perfect.
 
skydog said:
This new firmware is very strong.

Nobody can touch this company’s product. Without getting into too many details, I service my own amps and build clones of amps I cannot find. With this new software, I took two weeks and duplicated a few of my favourite amps, using their performace
characteristics and components. The presets sound perfect.
Click to expand...
Yea - with the tone match block I can hone in then get the sound from a past recording or live rig spot on all the way down to how squishy or saturated the sound is. It's really incredible.
 
Scotto said:
Yea - with the tone match block I can hone in then get the sound from a past recording or live rig spot on all the way down to how squishy or saturated the sound is. It's really incredible.
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That’s cool. In my case, I didn’t use tone matching.

The amp block pages have some circuit components and a lot of resulting behavioral variables available. I duplicated three of my amplifiers: 1966 Fender Super Reverb, 1969 Marshall 50W Plexi bass amp (circuit 1986 with a Drake transformer), and an early 1970 Marshall 100W Plexi Super Lead. I have tons of amps, but I decided to try these three (free time over the holidays). I set the most significant values. Crazy as it sounds, this worked. I had to use my shop equipment to measure output points thoughout the amp circuits. I loaded the corresponding Fractal presets and then modified the values with my own particular circuits’ values. Eureka.

This was the virtual equivalent of cloning an individual, specific amp. No, I couldn’t duplicate the values of each component. Fractal is taking this into account. These determine some of the performance values. Is what I did perfect? No, some of the setting are percentages, others are 1-10 scales. I estimated here and there. For their part, Fractal is reliably making frequent improvements toward simulating component and circuit behaviours.

For technical readings on the amps, I used a 1 kHz sine signal, with 100mV RMS for input testing, and 10-20 mV RMS to simulate pickups. For the Marshalls, I used a static 16Ω dummy load, and a 2Ω dummy load for the Super Reverb. I used a Variac to set the power AC voltage to the circuit specification.
 
skydog said:
That’s cool. In my case, I didn’t use tone matching.

The amp block pages have some circuit components and a lot of resulting behavioral variables available. I duplicated three of my amplifiers: 1966 Fender Super Reverb, 1969 Marshall 50W Plexi bass amp (circuit 1986 with a Drake transformer), and an early 1970 Marshall 100W Plexi Super Lead. I have tons of amps, but I decided to try these three (free time over the holidays). I set the most significant values. Crazy as it sounds, this worked. I had to use my shop equipment to measure output points thoughout the amp circuits. I loaded the corresponding Fractal presets and then modified the values with my own particular circuits’ values. Eureka.

This was the virtual equivalent of cloning an individual, specific amp. No, I couldn’t duplicate the values of each component. Fractal is taking this into account. These determine some of the performance values. Is what I did perfect? No, some of the setting are percentages, others are 1-10 scales. I estimated here and there. For their part, Fractal is reliably making frequent improvements toward simulating component and circuit behaviours.

For technical readings on the amps, I used a 1 kHz sine signal, with 100mV RMS for input testing, and 10-20 mV RMS to simulate pickups. For the Marshalls, I used a static 16Ω dummy load, and a 2Ω dummy load for the Super Reverb. I used a Variac to set the power AC voltage to the circuit specification.
Click to expand...
Interesting. Care to share some presets of what you’ve done?
 
skydog said:
This new firmware is very strong.

Nobody can touch this company’s product. Without getting into too many details, I service my own amps and build clones of amps I cannot find. With this new software, I took two weeks and duplicated a few of my favourite amps, using their performace
characteristics and components. The presets sound perfect.
Click to expand...

My favorite tone match use is to record a really well-mic'ed acoustic guitar, then tone match it will a piezo pickup for a true-to-life sounding live acoustic plug-in guitar, no mics and no feedback.
 
Dave Merrill said:
Yes, 100%, please do.
Click to expand...

Dave Merrill said:
Yes, 100%, please do.
Click to expand...
Here are the three presets requested overnight, after my previous post.

A few caveats:
I made these to see how close I can get to cloning my amps (someday). I have a lot of amps. Prior to Fractal Audio's release of the Axe FX III, I was constantly "upgrading" my amps, to get the sound I wanted. Mostly component values, some circuit fixes and protections, and in two cases power and output transformers. (Btw, I keep all of the original components, so that I can undo my mods.) I also used to swap speakers a lot. Sometimes just to preserve the original speakers. More often, I like a certain couple of vintage speakers for my Marshalls.

I have never considered showcasing any of my presets with the community. I never considered any special ability to program presets - hardware is easier for me than software, lol.

In this case, I decided to see if I could use the firmware and presets as I do my workbench and my amps. I think it worked for me. I posted about it yesterday and a few of you have asked me to release presets. I'm not an expert at this. As I've said, they sound just like my amps. They may not sound like yours. Here are the three I tried over the holidays - a 1969 Marshall 50W plexi, a1966 Fender Super Reverb, and a 1970 Marshal 100W plexi Super Lead.
  • There are purposely no frills, with the exception of some clones of a few of my drives.
  • The 50W plexi has no drives, as I never use them with this amp. I installed a PPIMV years ago (to make it work in different venues), and changed my transformers.
  • The Super Rerverb has a compressor and clone of my Klon. Again, what I use with this amp because the Super is a lot of clean amp. This is my favourite Super Reverb, and has old Mercury Magnetic transformer modifications.
  • The 100W plexi has three of my pedals, because that's what I use with this amp: clones of my Tone Bender, Klon, and a homemade pedal I built that I use as a boost that slightly cuts at 100Hz and slightly boosts at 1.2kHz (the real amp likes it).
They are all leveled for my FOH system. Here goes. If I've done this wrong, please let me know. I have never exported presets.
 

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Oops, I should have mentioned that I'm a traditionalist. I use my tone and volume knob a lot. Keep that in mind. The age of my amps should pretty much describe me.

Edit: Also, I use an FC-12 as a pedal board. I don't use scenes very often. For each preset, I have the option to use my pedals, but I don't typically chain them. The one exception on these three presets is the 100W plexi. I tend to always use the "pedal" that looks like a PEQ block. The real amp likes this real pedal. I do use time-based and special effects, but they aren't in these presets. I think I'm starting to repeat myself, so I'll quit talking.
 
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skydog said:
Here are the three presets requested overnight, after my previous post.

A few caveats:
I made these to see how close I can get to cloning my amps (someday). I have a lot of amps. Prior to Fractal Audio's release of the Axe FX III, I was constantly "upgrading" my amps, to get the sound I wanted. Mostly component values, some circuit fixes and protections, and in two cases power and output transformers. (Btw, I keep all of the original components, so that I can undo my mods. I also used to swap speakers a lot. Sometimes just to preserve the original speakers. More often, I like a certain couple of vintage speakers for my Marshalls.

I have never considered showcasing any of my presets with the community. I never considered any special ability to program presets - hardware is easier for me than software, lol.

In this case, I decided to see if I could use the firmware and presets as I do my workbench and my amps. I think it worked for me. I posted about it yesterday and a few of you have asked me to release presets. I'm not an expert at this. As I've said, they sound just like my amps. They may not sound like yours. Here are the three I tried over the holidays - a 1969 Marshall 50W plexi, a1966 Fender Super Reverb, and a 1970 Marshal 100W plexi Super Lead.
  • There are purposely no frills, with the exception of some clones of a few of my drives.
  • The 50W plexi has no drives, as I never use them with this amp. I installed a PPIMV years ago (to make it work in different venues), and changed my transformers.
  • The Super Rerverb has a compressor and clone of my Klon. Again, what I use with this amp because the Super is a lot of clean amp. This is my favourite Super Reverb, and has old Mercury Magnetic transformer modifications.
  • The 100W plexi has three of my pedals, because that's what I use with this amp: clones of my Tone Bender, Klon, and a homemade pedal I built that I use as a boost that slightly cuts at 100Hz and slightly boosts at 1.2kHz (the real amp likes it).
They are all leveled for my FOH system. Here goes. If I've done this wrong, please let me know. I have never exported presets.
Click to expand...
Is this purely acadenic for you or are there some albums we can hear your tones on? Always looking for new music to check out.
 
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