Axe-Fx II Firmware 9 Public Beta

[Tremonti]

2 Rock...the one amp I wish were in and now it seems to be coming. YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And if those are clams I'll eat 'em and have 2nd's!

 

[VegaBaby]

Are you talking in terms of grouping them in general or implementing said groupings in the code?

grouping in general. not the coding side.

 

[cobbler]

grouping in general. not the coding side.

Makes total sense!

 

[Deaj]

Hopefully we will have an official release before the weekend. Couple more amp models should be in there too: Two Rock Jet and Fuchs ODS50. Also I have finished the "FAS Crunch" model which is my take on the ultimate Plexi.

I also have a Fender Bandmaster on the way and maybe a Bad Cat.

Sweet! My primary amp for 5 years was a Fuchs ODS50. I had Fuchs set it up for a really light touch. Arthritis ruined the amp for me though and I eventually sold it. Having an AxeII model will allow me to set the dynamic range to suit my current technique. Nice!

The FAS Crunch sounds cool as does the Bandmaster!

Thanks for the new goodies Cliff!

ETA: Love the Two Rock Jet clip Cliff! Nicely played and great tone. That 'chirp' seems to be part of the R.Ford sound. Nice to hear it happening in the AxeII.

 

[Radley]

Hopefully we will have an official release before the weekend. Couple more amp models should be in there too: Two Rock Jet and Fuchs ODS50. Also I have finished the "FAS Crunch" model which is my take on the ultimate Plexi.

I also have a Fender Bandmaster on the way and maybe a Bad Cat.

WOWzer!!!

 

[Deaj]

WOWzer!!!

Indeed!

 

[SilenceIsACrime]

So, I don't normally voice myself in these new firmware threads, but I can't help myself this time - v.9b sounds absolutely astonishing. When I went from 6.02 to 7 I was immediately floored by how ballsy my tone became but when I went from 7 to 8 I was actually a tad let down as it felt as though my tones went a tad flat. Now, from 8 to 9 those balls are back and bigger than ever. The attack I get is unreal and everything about my sound is HUGE. I cannot wait to dedicate more time to diving into this update! Thanks to Cliff and everyone else who work their asses off to get so many quality updates to us - keep on keepin' on.

 

[yek]

That Two Rock model isn't merely fat, it's obese.

Yep, the modeled version too.

 

[Warrior]

That Two Rock is outstanding!

How about the Freedman Steve Stevens amp it sounds killer. Would be a great amp to model
Heres a youtube link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7INgqW8aGJs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

That IS a killer sounding amp!

 

[Morphosis]

Here's a clam-filled demo of the Two Rock model: www.fractalaudio.com/tmp/two_rock_test.mp3

Can`t wait! Sounds incredible!!!!!

 

[ptgold]

You know it would be awesome if the amps on the amp tab page were put in order of gain. From clean fenders to the highest gain ones last. Itd make it easier to scroll through I think

 

[SparkyG]

I like mr Golds idea. I wide imagine that when dialling in a patch that most peopl e( as I do) have an idea of the type of gain required first, then select and amp to suit etc. so starting, clean > crunch > classic rock type > death metal would make it easier to select. Especially if like me you don't really know the exotic Amp market meaning I wouldn't know if a 2rock was a blues type amp to a clean twangy one. Lol
Thanks

 

[iaresee]

I like mr Golds idea. I wide imagine that when dialling in a patch that most peopl e( as I do) have an idea of the type of gain required first, then select and amp to suit etc. so starting, clean > crunch > classic rock type > death metal would make it easier to select. Especially if like me you don't really know the exotic Amp market meaning I wouldn't know if a 2rock was a blues type amp to a clean twangy one. Lol
Thanks

We tossed around these kinds of ideas in the beta team and the trouble is there are a lot of amps that cover a wide variety of sounds. Buttery for example -- where do you place that? It can do clean, it can do crunch and it can get pretty hot. And then there's possibly a desire to group like-amps together. For example, if you did it by clean -> crunch -> high gain, you'd end up fracturing channel trios like the 5153 in the list. It's advantageous to have those three models right next to each other so you step through them Green -> Blue -> Red.

It's an oddly complex problem to get "right". There seemed to really only be "right for some circumstances" type solutions to the problem. No "right for all circumstances" solution.

 

[yek]

We tossed around these kinds of ideas in the beta team and the trouble is there are a lot of amps that cover a wide variety of sounds. Buttery for example -- where do you place that? It can do clean, it can do crunch and it can get pretty hot. And then there's possibly a desire to group like-amps together. For example, if you did it by clean -> crunch -> high gain, you'd end up fracturing channel trios like the 5153 in the list. It's advantageous to have those three models right next to each other so you step through them Green -> Blue -> Red.

It's an oddly complex problem to get "right". There seemed to really only be "right for some circumstances" type solutions to the problem. No "right for all circumstances" solution.

Exactly.

It's easy to point to amp types which fit in multiple categories.

Lost of interesting ideas were constructively discussed. Clean-to-dirty, order by type, order by manufacturer, order by amp name, order by date of release (original) etc.

There was no clear winner. Any chosen method would receive fierce criticism.

 

[scottburrow]

We tossed around these kinds of ideas in the beta team and the trouble is there are a lot of amps that cover a wide variety of sounds. Buttery for example -- where do you place that? It can do clean, it can do crunch and it can get pretty hot. And then there's possibly a desire to group like-amps together. For example, if you did it by clean -> crunch -> high gain, you'd end up fracturing channel trios like the 5153 in the list. It's advantageous to have those three models right next to each other so you step through them Green -> Blue -> Red.

It's an oddly complex problem to get "right". There seemed to really only be "right for some circumstances" type solutions to the problem. No "right for all circumstances" solution.

That totally makes sense to me.

It would be cool if you could do it by Tube type 6l6's, EL34, KT88's etc or at least having that in a definition somewhere within the model itself. by saying this model is based on a 12AX7 preamp tube and EL34 Power amp tube section, would be helpful when you want to Tone match something. Being able to find an amp with the same type of tubes would speed up the process for us Amp uninitiated. Anything that speeds up the process is a good thing, it takes out some of the guess work.

And yes I know its probably easier to do it by ear, but there are so many Marshallesc amps out there, that it would help. And Yes I know that a tone match wouldn't matter in the end, I know, I know.

 

[MisterE]

Any chosen method would receive fierce criticism.

Not if you include it in the Global-config page: "Sort Amps by..."

 

[scottburrow]

Exactly.

It's easy to point to amp types which fit in multiple categories.

Lost of interesting ideas were constructively discussed. Clean-to-dirty, order by type, order by manufacturer, order by amp name, order by date of release (original) etc.

There was no clear winner. Any chosen method would receive fierce criticism.

Couldn't you do some type of check box that lets you sort anyway you want such as in a database. so in one of the Main global menu's you could have different sort types such as by Amp type, by Genera, by tube type, clean -to -dirty, by manufacturer, amp name etc Kind of like the options we have for other processes such as copy out 1 to out 2, t would be selectable and make the user decide what he wants. Just thinking out loud.

 

[RDH]

Not if you include it in the Global-config page: "Sort Amps by..."

Like that thought, options to select your own category configuration, makes sense!

 

[Kriig]

I like it best when the makes are together; Mesa, Marshall, Fender etc.. When AE appears in full bloom, it`s easy as a choice of being shot or get married to Bar Rafaeli

http://bros503.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/bar-bros.jpg

That`s a hard....... choice...

On the the Two Rock: OOOoooooooo.......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS6vLkTE7ME&feature=g-vrec

 

[laxu]

Honestly I think the device would need a dedicated grouping for amp models with multiple channels. Possibly a channel select option inside the amp settings for those amps that have multiple channels modeled (maybe by hitting enter on the amp type knob to cycle thru them?). It would be purely a user interface change, internally they could still be regarded the same as regular models.

As for grouping, I'd say just put similar amps together and alphabetically. For example Fenders, Marshalls, Mesas, Vox etc "usual suspects" followed by amps that are based on those (e.g. hot rodded Marshall type amps after Marshalls), followed by the more esoteric amp models roughly grouped by the kind of tone they deliver or are associated with (clean, crunch, high gain etc). It's not an exact science but anything is better than the somewhat random order they have now. IMO this would be best because people will generally seek for a certain kind of tone so having the similar options close for easy auditioning is useful.

Backward compatibility should be thrown out of the window every now and then. Just look at what Apple have achieved with OSX compared to how Windows is still full of legacy components and UI just for the sake of backwards compatibility. The Axe-Fx is nowhere near as complex and people have to edit their patches anyway when significant tonal improvements are rolled out. It wouldn't take too long to go thru all patches and select the right amp and channel.