Not a fan of Quantum 7.01 (Personally)

Which Firmware do you Prefer

  • 7.01

    Votes: 70 89.7%
  • Pre 7.00

    Votes: 8 10.3%

  • Total voters
    78
  • Poll closed .
. I think it's got a lot to do with those tv mix IRs that got added because they sound amazing with almost everything.

Which "tv" IRs? The stock ones have been in the firmware for quite a while.
 
Q7 improved some of my presets immediately but honestly, it has been a TON of work for my bread and butter tones. They still are not 100% back to where I had them.

On the upside, I was blown away by the JCM800; for some reason I like the Splawn QR presets I have better too, and quite like the 7.02 Motor Drive on most things, loved seeing a new drive and capabilities for some of the FX.

That said, I'm still not very happy with any of the other heavy Marshall sounds which are my faves. I had some Cornford presets that are giving me fits. My #1 Cameron CCV preset is crap now and I just got the Atomica into the acceptable range.

This does not make this FW bad but it does make it a lot of work. I have faith that the tones are still in there but it is a PITA to redial. In the past, thankfully, many FWs have blown by with very minor updates on my part but this one has been a huge time sink and I have spent most of my guitar time dialing stuff since 7.

I honestly hope the Marshalls do not get any attention from Cliff after this one for a long while so I can get things stabilized.
 
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Q7 was a pretty big change. It kinda worried me for a little bit because it drastically changed my preset. Played around with it for about 15 minutes and now it sounds better than it did before. The Power Amp modeling is insane now! Everything sounds so thick and nasty. Best and most noticeable FW update to me in the 2 years I've owned my Axe FX.
 
Relative short-timer here (18 months), but das 'toans have never been easier to dial in for me. I'll admit I'm not recording, so I do not have the need to "tone-match" to be identical. I just want great guitar tones and I get them easier than ever.

Literally, I fuss with controllers (CC and Scene) and effects far more than I do on amps (which typically is maybe 5-7 parameters at most; B, M, T, Brt, P, (MV?) and XFmr drive). I know the advanced params, but rarely, very rarely do I feel the urge to tweak those.

The Fenders sound like Fenders, and the Vox sounds like a Vox, same for the Marshalls (Plexis, JCM, JTM, etc.) and Hiwatts, etc. etc. ad nauseum ad infinitum. Boutique 1 is a mainstay go-to amp. And I love the FAS models. Couldn't be happier. :D
 
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Most of the firmware updates sound the same to me - maybe if I had the opportunity to A/B them I'd notice a difference. But in some sense, doing that puts an unnatural amount of stress on the ears to pick out stuff that is maybe audible, but just not that important. Dunno if that makes any sense. Q7 is different. I noticed Q7 instantly, particularly in the Soldano-derived amps (SLO, Recto, 5150). The SLO in particular always felt kind of weird to me, but it's much much better now.

Point being, if you really had your tones carefully and perfectly dialed in, then odds are yeah, Q7 probably screwed stuff up as there's very noticeable changes in some cases. "Better" is always going to mean "different", so if you don't want different then obviously updates are a bad idea. For me the big tonal change I noticed immediately was that it muted all presets with a user cab. That was weird.
 
I'm absolute fan of firmware 15.07 (yes, g2 modelling)
this one really works for me
every new firmware, i try it .then i come back to my favorite firmware.15.07 :) last doesn't mean better for every one, i far prefer a jcm800 over a 2000 !
it's been a long time now that axe fx II sounds like an amp (btw i did a gig tonight with fw15 and a friend who came really thought i had an amp, he was blown away how "real"(= close to the sound of an amp) was the sound) , so even there there's no "need" for better modelling,it does the job, now every firmware is like a "mod" to me, like you would mod an amp.it doesn't work for everyone

= if your patchs sound great with Q3, come back with this firmware and play your guitar and enjoy the axe fx :)
 
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I just upgraded my firmware from 6.03.1 and was not pleased with the results in Quantum 7.01. I preferred all my old presets and had spent two years refining them to exactly where I want them, using different firmwares. I actually am using Quantum 3 for alot of my presets(amp model version) in 6.03.1. I did not make any new presets with the optical compressor,shimmer drive, and new transformer modeling. I did try them in some of the presets I had and they did have a cool sound(comp/drive), so I am not going to knock those new features. However, I prefer the old sounds I have in 6.03.1. I do not really need the new compressor/shimmer drive either especially since I would lose all my other sounds, and don't want to spend time tweaking 90+ of my user created presets. Sometime I will try making new presets using the shimmer drive, optical comp 1, and a Matchless/fender setup. I also did not turn cabs off so it could of affected my experience. (I use cabs with all my old sounds and use a power amp through real 4x12 cabs as well)

This is just an opinion, if you enjoy the update that is awesome. I am only stating that it really altered my presets and I did not like it. It would be nice if going back to old firmwares was possible again. I know this is a pain for the engineers, but I would pay more to add extra memory to the unit to do this. I am curious if anyone else has had issues getting their presets to sound the same, or if they were able to make them sound better with the new firmware. This is just an opinion, I tested my sound recording AES with the different firmwares, and just hearing it out of my power amp/cabs afterwards. I downgraded so I have my sounds back. (I always save the old firmwares) With 6.03.1 I have all the sounds/features I need. One thing everyone can agree on is that Fractal is an amazing company.
No way in hell will you ever get more than a few to acknowledge what you write even though many may agree. There are too many who will pounce on those with a differing opinion. There are many users who enjoyed the ability to use previous models but did not dare speak up when the decision was made to forgoe this option. You are a brave soul to write this. I once was critical of version 19 and my comment was erased! Frankly, I don't see the usual rave reviews from the masses regarding 7.02. The Axe Fx is the single best piece of equipment I ever purchased so who really cares about any haters.
 
This explains why. Not a recommended configuration.
Thanks for the response Cliff, I will definitely give the new firmware a chance and change my unorthodox configurations. For whatever reason those configurations work great with my current presets/firmware. I think the most important thing is to always backup up your presets and save old firmware downloads before updating.
 
Thanks for all the feedback everyone! I think the approaches of making brand new presets and doing tweaks with new firmware is a good way to go. At the same time if you are so happy with your existing tones and don't need more features it makes sense to stay put. Honestly, I can't complain about anything as no one forces you to update the system or not backup information.
 
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I'm absolute fan of firmware 15.07 (yes, g2 modelling)
this one really works for me
every new firmware, i try it .then i come back to my favorite firmware.15.07 :) last doesn't mean better for every one, i far prefer a jcm800 over a 2000 !
it's been a long time now that axe fx II sounds like an amp (btw i did a gig tonight with fw15 and a friend who came really thought i had an amp, he was blown away how "real"(= close to the sound of an amp) was the sound) , so even there there's no "need" for better modelling,it does the job, now every firmware is like a "mod" to me, like you would mod an amp.it doesn't work for everyone

= if your patchs sound great with Q3, come back with this firmware and play your guitar and enjoy the axe fx :)
I think depending on your type of tone and playing/the AMT of time making a preset will determine the best firmware to use. It is nice to know I'm not alone. I think 15 was the first one I started with.
 
No one is forcing anyone to use any particular firmware.
If you prefer the sound of earlier firmware, go ahead. Cool.
Personally, I prefer the latest firmware pretty much every time.
I truely started loving my tones since quantum 1. (Got the axe at Firmware 15) and it just got better since then...
 
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