9.02 Amp Model Poll

9.02 Amp Model Poll

  • I like both the clean and high-gain models better than 9.00

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • I like the cleans but prefer the 9.00 high-gain models

    Votes: 219 87.6%

  • I prefer 9.00 for both clean and high-gain

    Votes: 31 12.4%
  • Total voters
    250
Firstly, as others have said, it's really nice to have a manufacturer who is so willing to strive for perfection...thanks Cliff. I really enjoy this forum and hearing the advice of others. I have a set of tones in my head that I have always gravitated towards, whether that was my old "rack system" or with the Line 6 stuff, plugins, etc. and the people on this forum are very helpful with dialing in those tones. I have never owned any vintage Fenders or Marshalls or Boogies, so I appreciate those on the forum here who have vast experience with those amps. It seems that the majority of the major players here are very happy with the new 9.02, so I will defer to them and just retweak my patches. I've never really enjoyed spending hours tweaking patches...start second and third guessing myself as ear fatigue sets in...but I think heading towards "greater realism" with the Axe-fx will always be the best course of action.

Right after the 9.02 update my 2 "main" patches (Bassman with a drive in front) sounded like a buzz saw they were so bright, which was kind of a bummer, but I've been working on them and switched to the Brownface with the BB preamp...I think I have them basically to where I was before.

I just hope they don't change drastically again...LOL
 
FractalAudio said:
9.02 is simply more accurate. It isn't attempting to sound better, just more accurate. I sat down with a Deluxe Reverb and an Axe-Fx side-by-side and realized the DR was a lot brighter. I lugged out a bunch of other amps and, sure enough, they were much brighter. So I set out to figuring out why.

So I figured out why and updated the power amp models to reflect this new knowledge.
Click to expand...

I'm happy the way things are going. I think it gets better every time!

But I gotta admit the statement above puzzled me a little. First, kudos to mr. Fractal for his frankness and his continuous quest for optimal tone.

I've seen people (including me) write that the Axe-Fx equivalents of their real amps were identitical. I've seen statements that frequency curves were identical. I've seen people who complained about lack of sparkling highs being being told that it wasn't so.

And suddenly it comes down to: Yeah, well, it wasn't bright enough.... Blame it on my weird sense of humor but actually I find that very funny. And a reminder that things are taken too seriously some times. Here comes Mr.Green: :mrgreen:

Kriig said:
This is pretty simular to what comes out of my cabs... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eImmcNG ... re=related
Don´t get much better that for blues and some rock stuff... Sooo FAT :shock:
Click to expand...

Man, what a great tone! :shock:
 
Both vere better on 9.02. The settings seem to be more identical to the real thing .
On my jcm 800 I can hardly touch the treble before it gets to bright. Now the Axe-fx is behaving the same way.
More real . I can see that some people need some time to compensate for this. Also the presense and damping becomes more real in the way they response.
 
I voted for both clean and high gain on 9.02. I hesitated at first because I was concerned about how bright everything all of the stock and custom presets are before tweaking. Plus, I haven't really dialed my important patches again. However, when after I tweaked a few, I did find myself really enjoying playing on 9.02. Seems more lively and lifelike than 9.00... so far.
 
I voted No.1.

I´m all for accuracy and tweaking with 9.02 is so super- easy.
Happy camper here. Thanks Cliff!
 
I voted n.1

Emulation sound more real. Am I the only one who feel the 9.02 sound better than 9.00 without major tweaking? I lower a bit the drive... and there we are, wonderful chimey high... no flubby low end... mudness...

Hi-gain. To tight hi-gain I use ACTIVE tonestack, presence and/or resonance. I don't tweak them in V9, but should be take into care. Also dial damp, master, bias and higher B+ cap.
 
FractalAudio said:
...So I set out to figuring out why. So I figured out why and updated the power amp models to reflect this new knowledge.
Click to expand...

Hahaha... you make it sound so easy Cliff!!! :lol: :lol: :lol:

FYI: haven´t voted ´cause I haven´t had time to either upload or try the new firmware... :oops: :(

/Mike
 
Smilzo said:
Am I the only one who feel the 9.02 sound better than 9.00 without major tweaking?
Click to expand...
The same here.

I just did a rapid test yesterday even... this morning, with my main preset (Das Metal with Redwirez Mesa IR :twisted: ) and it was almost perfect out of the box. Actually I redid my preset when the firmware 9 was released and it was way more less tweaked than before, for better results. Now I feel it more "plain", thicker (hard to define with words) without being too bassy.

Maybe that's the secret for this new firmware as far as I've read: do not have a heavily tweaked amp block ? :?:

I can't wait to correctly tweak my main presets :mrgreen:
 
Yeah, 9.02 is brighter as everybody is saying. But the biggest difference for me is I no longer have to go into the advanced parameter tab and play around with the "low-cut" parameter in order to avoid lots of muddy mushiness that was present previously on most models. It was most particularly noticeable on the Fenders.

So to my ears it doesn't just seem that there are more highs... it's more like the whole frequency range has been shifted slightly to the right. It's more musical now. I love it.
 
To my ears, 9.02 is much crisper and detailed, more refined. It's easier for me to tweak and achieve the tones what i have in mind.

9.02 rocks !
 
Subjective impressions alone are always a bad indicator of relative accuracy, if that's your goal. We might prefer A to B, but at the end of the day, that's all we can conclude.

IMO, the only real yardstick for improvement or changes should be careful comparison to known references under controlled conditions. Seems like that's what Cliff has done.

After just updating to 9.02, on listening to my current presets, I turned the Axe off and walked away, thinking WTF?

Next day I edited some presets, found I could tweak back to what I wanted, but that it was just faster and easier to default the amp block and go from there. 9.02 is a big step forward, IMHO. First time since I've owed the Standard (2+ yrs.) that I wasn't fighting excessive lower mids to get a balanced tone.

So, IMO, the more that Cliff is able to directly compare his work to reference standards, the more predictable the results will be.
 
I voted for 9.02 across the board . Last weekends gigs showed much improvement on cleans they Really had the cut,presence and clarity I've been missing and struggling to achieve. Somewhat less dramatic on the gainier patches ,but I really like what 9.02 has done for them too. More realistic in both tone and feel to me. I found playing solos on some of my crunch rythym patches boosted without extra drive added were very satisfying and just felt right . I've been fighting the low end mud for awhile now. This update opened a door for me with IR's that I couldn't use before , (even with much tweaking) . Huge improvement to my opinion !!!!

The Ax Fx has taken a HUGE Bite out of the frustration of being a guitar player seeking Tone!
YUDAMAN!!
Thanks Cliff!!
 
I voted for 9.0 because after the update every single patch (I use around 30 different patches) sounded horrible. Maybe this is caused because I mainly build my patches using a Blues Jr. as the first basis amp with an additional 2nd (main) amp. I needed several weeks for the programming and it is too frustrating to spend hours and hours for programming instead of playing the beast.
Furthermore I must say that my 9.0patches sound absolutely great. Maybe I will update if there will be version 9.6 including the compare-function.

RolandGuitar
Germany
 
RolandGuitar said:
I voted for 9.0 because after the update every single patch (I use around 30 different patches) sounded horrible. Maybe this is caused because I mainly build my patches using a Blues Jr. as the first basis amp with an additional 2nd (main) amp. I needed several weeks for the programming and it is too frustrating to spend hours and hours for programming instead of playing the beast.
Furthermore I must say that my 9.0patches sound absolutely great. Maybe I will update if there will be version 9.6 including the compare-function.

RolandGuitar
Germany
Click to expand...
IIRC the Blues Jr. has been reworked as well. So even if Cliff decided to revert to the 9.0 poweramp modeling, the Blues Jr. would (in your case unfortunately) still sound different.
 
RolandGuitar said:
I voted for 9.0 because after the update every single patch (I use around 30 different patches) sounded horrible. Maybe this is caused because I mainly build my patches using a Blues Jr. as the first basis amp with an additional 2nd (main) amp. I needed several weeks for the programming and it is too frustrating to spend hours and hours for programming instead of playing the beast.
Furthermore I must say that my 9.0patches sound absolutely great. Maybe I will update if there will be version 9.6 including the compare-function.

RolandGuitar
Germany
Click to expand...


After the update the Blues Jr actually became my amp of crunch tone choice. What an odd world we live in.
 
Just to be wishy-washy...

After playing some more today, I still really like the improved clarity. I'm noticing an unfamiliar response and sound out of the low strings with high gain. Very hard to describe. Anyone else?

edit: I sorted this out, I'm a dumbass. :eek: .... new FW kicks ass.
 
I am mostly a clean to moderate drive player and rarely do the metal thing. I really like the new update for the Fender type sounds, and 9.02 works much better with my IRs. With 9.0, I had to use an EQ in line to get rid of that hollow, boxiness, modeling sort of sound, but with 9.02 I can dump the EQ as a necessity and just kick it on as an effect if I want to do something along those lines. When I'm not using the Axe fx, I play through a '67 Dual Showman that I built into a combo amp with an Eminence "Swamp Thang" 12 inch speaker. With 9.02 on the Blackface and Deluxe models, It's amazing how close I set the amp controls to the settings I use on my real Blackface amp; freaky. The Carol Ann is one of the smoothest drive sounds I have ever gotten out of any rig. Strat with Kinmans through that sounds great. Fractal is one of the few companies around that is really in the business of getting things right, and I really appreciate that.


Thanks
 
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