Axe-Fx Firmware Version 21.00

[My name is mud]

sake, because the AxeFx III Turbo is now complete, for me, it's reached perfection and I just can't imagine how current features improve

There is one really huge improvement to do, and that is the noise gate. Now I think that we have enough models and this and that. But I still have noises non filtered while playing and I battle with it everyday.

I found that When I put the input impedance at 22k better than 1000 (auto) it remove completely the noise I am fighting. But it also change the tone, so I play with « auto »

Cliff is/was(?) busy with this huge update, but I really hope that he will give use a top gate In The future

 

[Thomas Obester]

My post wasn't very informative ,sorry. This is about palm muting on high gain amps. I can agree there's no big (if any) effect on open strings

yeah, was asking because I have pretty good ears to hear all those little improvements with every new fw but here I’m not sure..
It’s bit daunting for me to read that for someone this is such a game changer, but myself, I hardly hear anything

 

[My name is mud]

yeah, was asking because I have pretty good ears to hear all those little improvements with every new fw but here I’m not sure..
It’s bit daunting for me to read that for someone this is such a game changer, but myself, I hardly hear anything

Same here, I have tried with the high gain ones and no difference. as ever, details are more listenable when you have a small amount of gain

 

[Omri Bazelet]

Same here, I have tried with the high gain ones and no difference. as ever, details are more listenable when you have a small amount of gain

Actually in cooper carter the most noticable thing is with the Brit 800 Mod being much more fuller and chunkier

 

[Smittefar]

I thought the difference was surprisingly clear in Cooper's video.

Now I will finally update

 

[2112]

Sat down to do a FW21 vid, saw FM9 FW4b and decided to have a rip there. Should all be applicable to the III as well!



New Herbie sounds rad, Marshalls sound AMAZING and everything else is purring along.

 

[Robrmann]

sound like this here, unboost, boosted, and lead patch (video is private)

Lefty

 

[Brewce]

Cliff, 7/2008: "The Brit 900 or Brit Pre will get you very close to a JCM2000. Essentially the same preamp voicing."

I also heard the 2000 is on Steve Lukather's request list in case he can't haul his own stuff.

And maybe a member from this forum once kept an eye on the gear for a Luke solo CD, and shared...
"I saw also a Marshall DSL [= JCM2000?] on both videos — it was written 'Luke's recording head' on the amp."

 

[Dave Merrill]

Good LORD MAN, the JCM 800's are absolutely BRILLIANT in v21!!! Upon updating I was immediately transported back to "the day", I finally just now put my axe down after 4 straight hours of JCM 800 goodness!!! My presets were damn good in 20.04, but they are absolutely incredible now! I haven't even tried another amp yet, just played my JCM 800 preset all damned DAY!! My fucking FACE HURTS from grinning. The string response, the tightened low end, the heightened clarity all just jumped to life the moment I fired up my presets.

Wiping a tear of joy from my cheek, I have to say you absolutely drove the last nail in the coffin with this release for anyone who still says, iike I did for so many years, that "modeling just can't compete with the real thing". I really don't miss my stack at all now save for the memories, and the rest of my Marshall museum I fear just became a Marshall graveyard overnight. A beautiful, toneful, expensive graveyard. I don't see any need to fire them up except for a nostalgia's sake, because the AxeFx III Turbo is now complete, for me, it's reached perfection and I just can't imagine how current features improve, but I suppose that's been said many times by many folks with many previous firmware releases, so I'm excited for the future of this product too.

Now to go rediscover 300 additional amps of distinction I have at my fingertips via the magic of Cygnus-2. DAMN I'm so happy!!!

(Special mention to @York Audio for the Marshall 412 T75 pack!!! YA MRSH 412 T75 Mix 13 is SO GODDAMNED PERFECT in my setup it really brings my JCM800 setup to life!!! That whole pack is incredible, if you're a Marshall fan from the 80's/90's, you won't be sorry you picked this pack up, it IS the cabs you remember!! No other 4x12 T75 cabinet pack has come close to what York put out in this pack!)

Thanks Cliff, and crew! My cup overfloweth!!!

Just out of curiosity, what guitar?

Could you post the preset for this?

I tried the factory one with that IR, #10 IIRC, very trebly. Not doubting you, just wondering.

 

[Kriig]

No. We are talking about pitch harmonics.

I understood that, but freq in an amp is key to PH.
More high mids and/or high end can bring pinch harm. easier. Jumping between a boosted plexi and other smoother amps with a different eq curve( in real life) makes this very clear. So the same will apply for the axe. EQ is the key ime.

 

[Piing]

Good LORD MAN, the JCM 800's are absolutely BRILLIANT in v21!!! Upon updating I was immediately transported back to "the day", I finally just now put my axe down after 4 straight hours of JCM 800 goodness!!! My presets were damn good in 20.04, but they are absolutely incredible now! I haven't even tried another amp yet, just played my JCM 800 preset all damned DAY!! My fucking FACE HURTS from grinning. The string response, the tightened low end, the heightened clarity all just jumped to life the moment I fired up my presets.

Wiping a tear of joy from my cheek, I have to say you absolutely drove the last nail in the coffin with this release for anyone who still says, iike I did for so many years, that "modeling just can't compete with the real thing". I really don't miss my stack at all now save for the memories, and the rest of my Marshall museum I fear just became a Marshall graveyard overnight. A beautiful, toneful, expensive graveyard. I don't see any need to fire them up except for a nostalgia's sake, because the AxeFx III Turbo is now complete, for me, it's reached perfection and I just can't imagine how current features improve, but I suppose that's been said many times by many folks with many previous firmware releases, so I'm excited for the future of this product too.

Now to go rediscover 300 additional amps of distinction I have at my fingertips via the magic of Cygnus-2. DAMN I'm so happy!!!

(Special mention to @York Audio for the Marshall 412 T75 pack!!! YA MRSH 412 T75 Mix 13 is SO GODDAMNED PERFECT in my setup it really brings my JCM800 setup to life!!! That whole pack is incredible, if you're a Marshall fan from the 80's/90's, you won't be sorry you picked this pack up, it IS the cabs you remember!! No other 4x12 T75 cabinet pack has come close to what York put out in this pack!)

Thanks Cliff, and crew! My cup overfloweth!!!

What guitar are you using? Would you mind to post the preset (without the CAB)

I've made a preset with the Brit 800 and the YA MRSH 412 T75 Mix 13 but it sounds thin when rolling the volume down and trebly when breaking, as @Dave Merrill has noted

I've tried a Strat with CS Fat'50 and a J.Custom with Satchur8.

 

[Bioloop]

The SL-X is a great amp and the only 900 model without diode clipping. I tried matching mine a while ago and got pretty close using the Brit 800 Mod model and tweaking Input Trim (SL-X Preamp Volume) and Gain (SL-X Gain Sensitivity).

I’d love to see an older JCM 2000 DSL100 (not the newer DSL 100HR) in the Axe someday. They’re cheap and easy to get now, but I have a feeling that amp is going to skyrocket in value and popularity down the road. It’s just a great sounding amp… especially the Lead 1 and Crunch modes with the Deep switch on. I’m gonna fire that one up now.

Back a few years ago, I snagged a JCM 2000 DSL 100 from GC. I didn’t really have a lot of money in it.
I replaced the output transformer and stock “circuit” choke with an actual wound choke from Classic Tone. Replaced the all tubes, KT77’s for power tubes and rebiased it.
Man it really opened it up on the clean channel !

 

[York Audio]

Good LORD MAN, the JCM 800's are absolutely BRILLIANT in v21!!! Upon updating I was immediately transported back to "the day", I finally just now put my axe down after 4 straight hours of JCM 800 goodness!!! My presets were damn good in 20.04, but they are absolutely incredible now! I haven't even tried another amp yet, just played my JCM 800 preset all damned DAY!! My fucking FACE HURTS from grinning. The string response, the tightened low end, the heightened clarity all just jumped to life the moment I fired up my presets.

Wiping a tear of joy from my cheek, I have to say you absolutely drove the last nail in the coffin with this release for anyone who still says, iike I did for so many years, that "modeling just can't compete with the real thing". I really don't miss my stack at all now save for the memories, and the rest of my Marshall museum I fear just became a Marshall graveyard overnight. A beautiful, toneful, expensive graveyard. I don't see any need to fire them up except for a nostalgia's sake, because the AxeFx III Turbo is now complete, for me, it's reached perfection and I just can't imagine how current features improve, but I suppose that's been said many times by many folks with many previous firmware releases, so I'm excited for the future of this product too.

Now to go rediscover 300 additional amps of distinction I have at my fingertips via the magic of Cygnus-2. DAMN I'm so happy!!!

(Special mention to @York Audio for the Marshall 412 T75 pack!!! YA MRSH 412 T75 Mix 13 is SO GODDAMNED PERFECT in my setup it really brings my JCM800 setup to life!!! That whole pack is incredible, if you're a Marshall fan from the 80's/90's, you won't be sorry you picked this pack up, it IS the cabs you remember!! No other 4x12 T75 cabinet pack has come close to what York put out in this pack!)

Thanks Cliff, and crew! My cup overfloweth!!!

The 800s are pretty nuts in this FW! They’re raw and the power amp response “feels” incredible under the fingers. And thanks for the kind words. I’m glad you’re having fun with the T75 cab.

Man! Fantastic tone as always! What IR did you use, and what guitar?

Thanks! I used my MJT Telecaster (pine body with nitro finish… can’t remember the pickups) and the MTCH V2 M25 Mix 01 for the IR.

I had a similar experience to @York Audio years ago when I was gigging with a DSL50. Ended up with a JVM as a backline amp for a fly date and it was a very different animal. one can never have too many Marshalls though, right?

Oh you can NEVER have too many Marshalls. The good ones are ridiculously satisfying in real life. In the Axe, the 800, 800 mod, and 1987x jump models are pretty special.

Cool thing with the Axe III is you no longer need the other Marshalls as backups!!

And the Axe is more reliable! I toured mine for five years putting them through hell. They were in terrible heat, frigid cold, rainy days, dusty festivals, and brutal handling with international freight companies… I didn’t need to use my backup unit once.

 

[Darrin66]

yeah, was asking because I have pretty good ears to hear all those little improvements with every new fw but here I’m not sure..
It’s bit daunting for me to read that for someone this is such a game changer, but myself, I hardly hear anything

Use it along with lower Bias Excursion settings. You can tame the fizz, at least on Marshall models. Game changer for me.

 

[dbarrow]

Also make sure you are running the latest Fractal usb drivers if you are on Windows. My Axe Edit just quit connecting out of the blue
about a month ago and updating those drivers fixed it right up.

I got it working. Everything was the "latest
version. I reselected the ports in Axe-Edit by selecting "none" and then "Axe-FX III". Additionally, I got my RJM Mastermind GT22 working by updating it to the latest firmware 4.91 and reloading all the Axe-FX III presets. Everything works now. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.

 

[Rock Chalk]

I got it working. Everything was the "latest
version. I reselected the ports in Axe-Edit by selecting "none" and then "Axe-FX III". Additionally, I got my RJM Mastermind GT22 working by updating it to the latest firmware 4.91 and reloading all the Axe-FX III presets. Everything works now. Thanks for steering me in the right direction.

Actually, I think it was @unix-guy that suggested resetting the ports, but that's awesome that you got it working!

 

[Bman]

I didn't read all 13 pages of the thread. Just updated, hit a chord and played a few riffs on my main preset (Brit Super). I'm updating from the FW released last week so I wasn't expecting to hear something noticeable. But I immediately thought it sounded like a doubled signal. Like the whole tone feels so full it's like I've doubled a track or split the signal. I'm still not sure if I've psyched myself out or it is indeed that much fuller. I guess I'll sift through the comments to see if that's what everyone else is experiencing too. Wow.

 

[artzeal]

Firmware 21 is a masterpiece. My enduring thanks to the Fractal Audio family.

 

[Nik73]

How about for the next FW update, allow us to do Amp Model trade-ins.
For example: I would trade all JVM models including the Satriani ones for a JCM 2K DSL (even if only the Crunch & Lead1 modes-with tone switch disengaged).
The Brit Silver Lexerst for the real deal....or even the newer 20 watt Studio model- but has to have both channels including the Lead Master Volume knob- you could even leave out the pull boost.

Good LORD MAN, the JCM 800's are absolutely BRILLIANT in v21!!! Upon updating I was immediately transported back to "the day", I finally just now put my axe down after 4 straight hours of JCM 800 goodness!!! My presets were damn good in 20.04, but they are absolutely incredible now! I haven't even tried another amp yet, just played my JCM 800 preset all damned DAY!! My fucking FACE HURTS from grinning. The string response, the tightened low end, the heightened clarity all just jumped to life the moment I fired up my presets.

Wiping a tear of joy from my cheek, I have to say you absolutely drove the last nail in the coffin with this release for anyone who still says, iike I did for so many years, that "modeling just can't compete with the real thing". I really don't miss my stack at all now save for the memories, and the rest of my Marshall museum I fear just became a Marshall graveyard overnight. A beautiful, toneful, expensive graveyard. I don't see any need to fire them up except for a nostalgia's sake, because the AxeFx III Turbo is now complete, for me, it's reached perfection and I just can't imagine how current features improve, but I suppose that's been said many times by many folks with many previous firmware releases, so I'm excited for the future of this product too.

Now to go rediscover 300 additional amps of distinction I have at my fingertips via the magic of Cygnus-2. DAMN I'm so happy!!!

(Special mention to @York Audio for the Marshall 412 T75 pack!!! YA MRSH 412 T75 Mix 13 is SO GODDAMNED PERFECT in my setup it really brings my JCM800 setup to life!!! That whole pack is incredible, if you're a Marshall fan from the 80's/90's, you won't be sorry you picked this pack up, it IS the cabs you remember!! No other 4x12 T75 cabinet pack has come close to what York put out in this pack!)

Thanks Cliff, and crew! My cup overfloweth!!!

 

[MileHighJustice]

I use the JPC++ amp model, and I'm noticing it being much more mid-heavy and thicker/bigger. Anyone else seeing similar results?