19.05 not working out

My initial impression going from 19.01 to 19.05 was the tone felt weaker, thinner, and not as loud. I had a gig coming up so I went back to 19.01. Later on, I went back and compared again. Similar impressions but I thought it might just be different rather than worse and I would give it a chance. I’ll need to play with it live before I have a verdict.
 
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Totally understand this. Back in v15, there was a point release i really liked. Given that we know 19.06 is coming I’d personally just hold off on updating till then as it could change again! What I did is use a Kemper to capture the core amp / cab tones and kept them through the updates till a new firmware came that I liked more.
 
trancegodz said:
I re-set all my amps and re-did all my presets when FW16.00 came out, then again when FW18.03 came out. Going though them last night with 19.05 all of the Marshalls and Friedmans sounded a bit off. I dialed them all back in and they sounded good to me again.

I had my Fenders dialed in for good clean sounds, but now I am having trouble getting completely clean sounds. Even with the gain only on 2 in some cases, the input trim on .5, and using a stock Statocaster with low output pickups. I have to pick very lightly to get totally clean sounds, otherwise it starts to distort. Even at really low gain settings.

Checking my Matchless and Vox presets they seem to have lost something I have not been able to dial back in so far. They don't have the sparkle they had before. I spent all night trying to dial them in and gave up.

It is always pretty easy for me to get good distorted sounds from the Axe FX. It's the pristine cleans that are sometimes not up to par to my ears.

Something I noticed a long time ago was that I need to listen to the Axe FX at a certain volume for it to sound right to me. The cleans in particular.
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You haven’t told us anything that will diagnose the problem. The best thing is to export a couple presets that demonstrate the problem and attach them to your post along with the system+global+fc file, so we can try to duplicate the problem.
 
I believe the process of installing the USB release w/Fractal-Bot may have triggered a refresh of the Axe-FX III firmware and is not specific to the USB.
 
trancegodz said:
Something I noticed a long time ago was that I need to listen to the Axe FX at a certain volume for it to sound right to me. The cleans in particular.
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That’s not the axe FX. Go plug into a tube amp at super low volume and see how amazing that sounds. Volume is volume. People expect to recreate the experience of playing through a loud tube amp through 5 inch studio monitors and seem to not understand you aren’t going to exactly recreate the experience that way.
 
cole lewis said:
That’s not the axe FX. Go plug into a tube amp at super low volume and see how amazing that sounds. Volume is volume. People expect to recreate the experience of playing through a loud tube amp through 5 inch studio monitors and seem to not understand you aren’t going to exactly recreate the experience that way.
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Correct. It's the Fletcher-Munson Effect in action. Wandering through the factory presets on an FX3 with system settings at the factory specs with the volume putting out 90-95db, will sound amazing, assuming the speakers are decent and the amp can handle the load.
 
To the original OP.

What I did to dial my Marshalls and Friedmans back in was to turn off the presence control completely, back the treble off a little, raise the bass slightly, and in some cases lower the mids a little.
 
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FusionFanatic said:
Since 19.05 I felt like I was the only one not happy with the new firmware until now. I've only been using the Axe III thru my Atomic CLR's at home. But 19.05 just wasn't right (for me).
I've made many presets (40) I keep it simple (amp - cab - dash of reverb) I'll use a variety of amps and guitars depending on my mood or needs.
But after going from 19.02 (which was great) to 19.05... everything changed tonally, even feel wise.

Best I can explain it is... my tones lost something. Grit, grind, bounce, dynamics. looseness, life, and feel. Basically, some of the terms we use to describe most tube amps. I remember seeing the words "smoother distortion" and "clarity" in the release notes.
I ignored these words and installed the firmware. I played different guitars, used different presets... it was everywhere. Again... playing at bedroom levels (I turned up a bit).. still there. My son confirmed what I heard. I reverted back, and everything was great again.

IMO, tube amps generally aren't smooth... tonally, or feel wise. It WAS great in 19.02... not in 19.05.

Most have said everything is awesome (as usual... and it usually is) but (for me) not this time, and not in one or two sounds. It's not something to 'fix' by adjusting some eq (as an example). But, not many are mentioning this regarding the last firmware. It cannot just be me.
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I have the exact same expirience . I wish i culd get the sound "engine" from 19.02 with the new functions from 19.05.

But now i have made so many changes and it would be a nihgtmare to roll back to 19.02

For me 19.02 was what ive been missing in all the previus FW.
 
What I've noticed so far with 19.05:

I'd re-set all my amps and re-did all my presets back when FW16.00 came out, then again for about half of them when FW18.03 came out. Cliff said you don't need to re-set the amps if you are coming from 18.03 to 19.05 so I didn't re-set those, but I did tweak some eq settings.

I'd re-done all of my compressor blocks back when the major change was made to the compressors so that was not an issue.

Re-setting presets that I'd built back in 16.02 to 9.05 they became thinner and brighter sounding and lost their fullness. I was not able to dial it back in using eq. Also the presence control now sounds harsh and brittle at any setting above 0 on all Marshalls and Friedmans. Before I usually had the presence settings on those amps somewhere between 2 and 5. With 19.05 I have to turn the presence control off completely.

In general 19.05 sounds thinner, and brighter and is less full sounding. The sound of the distortion is a bit unnatural sounding to me now. The presence control is harsh sounding. It is also harder to get good full sounding total clean sounds on Fenders and Vox amps. They are always on the edge of breakup if you pick a little harder, even with the gain settings as low as 2 and the input trim turned down halfway, and playing a Stratocaser with single coils.

I'm done trying to tweak presets in 19.05 so I am not asking for advice on how to fix FW these issues. It doesn't sound bad, just not quite as good to me as it has been in the past. I am not worried at all about it as no matter how good we think it sounds, Cliff almost always has something even better just around the corner.
 
I spent some time today looking at the power amp code. Not much has changed since 19.02. The only things that changed were:
1. A bug was fixed that was causing rounding noise whenever the output signal went negative and...
2. The calculations for the speaker/transformer were improved.

So I double-checked the speaker/transformer calculations and found a mistake in the turns ratio calculation. The turns ratio is being undervalued. I've fixed this and there is noticeably more "weight" in the tone now.

We are hoping to release 19.06 this week and the fix will be in there.
 
FractalAudio said:
I spent some time today looking at the power amp code. Not much has changed since 19.02. The only things that changed were:
1. A bug was fixed that was causing rounding noise whenever the output signal went negative and...
2. The calculations for the speaker/transformer were improved.

So I double-checked the speaker/transformer calculations and found a mistake in the turns ratio calculation. The turns ratio is being undervalued. I've fixed this and there is noticeably more "weight" in the tone now.

We are hoping to release 19.06 this week and the fix will be in there.
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Thanks Cliff. Does that "mistake" affect the new FM9 beta too?
 
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bjjp2 said:
Thanks Cliff. Does that "mistake" affect the new FM9 beta too?
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I was also curious if this one may have also worked its way into the FM3/FM9 betas as there have been a few similar comments on those betas as well.
 
FractalAudio said:
I spent some time today looking at the power amp code. Not much has changed since 19.02. The only things that changed were:
1. A bug was fixed that was causing rounding noise whenever the output signal went negative and...
2. The calculations for the speaker/transformer were improved.

So I double-checked the speaker/transformer calculations and found a mistake in the turns ratio calculation. The turns ratio is being undervalued. I've fixed this and there is noticeably more "weight" in the tone now.

We are hoping to release 19.06 this week and the fix will be in there.
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Does this affect FM3 5.02 as well?
 
FractalAudio said:
I spent some time today looking at the power amp code. Not much has changed since 19.02. The only things that changed were:
1. A bug was fixed that was causing rounding noise whenever the output signal went negative and...
2. The calculations for the speaker/transformer were improved.

So I double-checked the speaker/transformer calculations and found a mistake in the turns ratio calculation. The turns ratio is being undervalued. I've fixed this and there is noticeably more "weight" in the tone now.

We are hoping to release 19.06 this week and the fix will be in there.
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Wow. More weight - and set lists???!!! o_O :D:cool:
 
FractalAudio said:
I spent some time today looking at the power amp code. Not much has changed since 19.02. The only things that changed were:
1. A bug was fixed that was causing rounding noise whenever the output signal went negative and...
2. The calculations for the speaker/transformer were improved.

So I double-checked the speaker/transformer calculations and found a mistake in the turns ratio calculation. The turns ratio is being undervalued. I've fixed this and there is noticeably more "weight" in the tone now.

We are hoping to release 19.06 this week and the fix will be in there.
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Great news! A public beta would be even better :)
 
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