Okay,
this weekend I've started work on updating the Live Gold TonePack to Cygnus firmware, and will keep updating here as Cliff updates all the 270+ amp models over next few weeks. I'll keep you guys posted.
Unless you really know what you are doing, I recommend you stay on firmware 15 and wait a few weeks for now. Wait until at least the Cygnus release is a FINAL PUBLIC release, and not a BETA, before you think about updating.
And as always, BACK UP EVERYTHING in FractalBot before undertaking any kind of firmware update, so you can always revert back to firmware 15. Remember, a preset that is saved on Cygnus firmware probably cannot be read by firmware 15 and will appear "blank". Backups are critical!
It will be many weeks until a complete TonePack update is ready. A few things to know are below, and I'll add more as I go to this...
Cygnus WILL change the sound of many of your presets. Mostly for the better (so far in my testing). The Plexi style amps all sound WAY better, but I haven't done many others yet. I'm focused on updating Bank 1 Marshall styles for now.
Cygnus can affect the gain and volume of existing presets. Meaning, the same gain setting on firmware 15 is NOT necessarily the same level of gain on Cygnus. You have to use your ears and not your eyes. Your old habits of "I like the Master at 4 on this amp" or "I like the Gain at 5 on this amp" may not sound the same now, you'll have to adjust.
Cygnus can change the tone (EQ content) of existing presets. In the Marshalls so far I'm hearing more bass after a re-set that I need to further cut, and so far with Marshalls I'm finding I want to push the amp's mids in Cygnus out a bit more (which firmware 15 did nicely).
Cygnus may change a sound you like in firmware 15 - and you won't be able to get it back. It's new firmware, and I can hear the difference when A/Bing my two Axe-III units on identical presets with "the same settings." I can dial one to be close to the other with some tweaks, but it's still not exactly the same for many amps. But don't worry, the amps mostly sound better and more realistic so far - and the Cygnus firmware FEEL better under your fingers.
Warning: The saturation drive (when engaged via CS5) now is WAY louder in many presets and I will have to dial those back down manually further in the next update. You have been warned!
If you do an amp reset on a LiveGold preset, know that you will lose any settings I may have made to:
-Output compression (for cleans),
-Input EQ (to cut/control bass),
-Amp GEQ (rarely, but sometimes),
-Variac (Van Halen stuff), and
-Saturation Drive (I custom set this a lot)
-Speaker Impedance Curve (I did custom choice, not default, for about 1 in 4 presets).
Resets will restore default amp settings also for your
presence control and
master volume and
saturation drive value - you'll lose those on a soft amp reset.
So I'd make a note of those values in any amp scene
before you do any resets.
But (thanks to
@yek for reminding me of this) if you use the SETUP > GLOBAL SETTINGS > TONE CONTROL DISPLAY and that set to IDEAL instead of AUTHENTIC,
the good news that then an amp reset should leave your preset's existing Gain/drive, Bass/Middle/Treble and Level controls exactly as they were, as well as any custom amp boost amount dialed in.
Overall, after making adjustments, I'm loving Cygnus so far and it's a big step up to the "live in a room" sound - very fat and full sounding.
Today I updated the LiveGold presets to these models to Cygnus in my working bank:
-6CA7 Plexi
-1959 SLP all models (Jimmy Page! I can hear it!),
-Brown Sound,
-1987x all models,
-JCM 800 all models,
- Brit Super Lead, (Black Sabbath! I can hear it!)
-JTM45 all models,
- Dirty Shirley both models and
- Friedman Small Box.
17 presets, 4 scenes each = 68 sounds. I run about 8 to 12 updated scenes per hour, depending on what needs to be fixed, if anything. So it's gonna take awhile to get all 1200+ LiveGold preset/scene sounds updated to Cygnus -- but will be worth your wait! Your patience is appreciated!
Any lost soul still on FW15?