AN UPDATE FOR TONEPACK USERS CONSIDERING UPGRADING TO FWQ9.0
Today I spent several hours A/Bing multiple presets the 700+ Naked Amps TonePack, comparing the preset sounds digital signal output from my AX8 (FWQ8.02) and my XL (FW 9), using an A/B box to switch between the units.
There ARE changes to the overall Tones on presets in FW9.
Here's a soundclip with about 7 examples. There are seven amps compared from dirty to clean:
1. Hook 2b
2. Friedman Small Box
3. Vox AC15
4. Plexi 100 Jumped
5. Vibroverb AB (first)
6. Blackface Princeton
7. Vibroverb AB (first)
In each one, the first amp is the AX8 wth TonePack as designed/programmed (FW 8.02).
In the second, you hear the same TonePack preset, from an XL updated with FW9, AND with SPKR COMP set at 5.0 and maybe a slight raise in the Amp Level (to compensate for Fletcher-Munson curve, need preset at equal volume).
These are both SP/DIF digital signals with no processing coming into my board, using an A/B box to switch from same guitar.
I'd love to hear your guys reactions to the sound differences?
To my ears, the public FWQ9 update applied to TonePack FWQ8.02 presets makes the FW8.02 created tones, to varying degrees, brighter and sharper, less mid-focused, and so in some ways "less rounded" than the Tonepack pm FW8.02. The 8.02 created-tones sound more organic (truly for lack of a better way of putting it).
FWQ9 has taken away any prior amp page speaker values (motor drive, motor constant, speaker drive) stuff that was in FW 8.02 of course, and it defaults to zero for new SPKR COMP if you load the TonePack.
The closest thing I can get to replicating globally the FW 8.02 TonePack sound is to turn UP the new SPKR COMP in FW9 up to 5, and then increase the amp LEVEL control by at 1 to 2 db louder to compensate (try to get it to measure -12db on DAW channel or console).
This Amp Block LEVEL adjustment very much seems amp dependent unfortunately and not something that works across the board/ll presets. While the above helps a lot and does smooth out the sound some compared to zero SPKR COMP value in FW9, it still has the overall EQ effect I described above -- it does NOT make it exactly like the preset sound in FW 8.02. Something in the overall amp EQ has changed slightly to my ears.
On Firmware 9 release notes, Cliff said of SPKR COMP:
<< This value defaults to 3.0 when the Amp block is reset. It does not get reset when changing the model. If using the Axe-Fx II with a tube power amp and conventional guitar cab you may want to reduce this value to 0.0. The gain reduction meter shows the amount of virtual power compression (select the Spkr Comp knob to monitor the gain reduction). Typical guitar speakers compress between 3 and 6 dB depending upon construction, age, volume, etc. The default value is conservative and yields about 3 dB of compression. >>
So for current TonePack users, I'd probably highly advise staying with FW 8.02 and not going to FWQ9 if you want the TonePack tones to sound "as designed, dialed-in and intended" for now. I personally am going to stick with 8.02 for now myself on my AX8.
If you go to FW9 with the Tone Pack, then I advise you
1) put SPKR COMP at 5.0 and adjust to taste;
2) the higher the SPKR COMP level you chose, the more you will have to raise the Amp LEVEL to compensate to get your preset back to a -12db overall average output level (see my video), and
3) dial the treble or presence back some, mids up a little, and bass to taste on any TonePack Amps you like to use for recording or gigs.
As the needed tools become available over the next month or two (Axe-Edit and Ax8-Edit compatibility with FW9, AND critically Fractool compatibility) I will see if anything can "fix" this for an updated TonePack download for customers -- but right now there is no one thing I can advise that does so, other than the 3 steps above or staying on FW Q8.02.
-AustinBuddy