Hey Cliff, (please read this if you get a minute....I know I lack brevity but it wouldn't be as informative!)
You made a mention in another thread like this one, about the same guys complaining about updates etc. I am one of those guys unfortunately, but I'd like to take the time to explain why without bashing on you or your fine work. Please hear me out if you can as I feel you may really get something cool from this post. It's not a negative one. If I were sitting with you at a bar, this is how I would put it.
I have been a bit unhappy with my Axe since you made the move to all that G3 stuff that was taking place. I felt that in MY opinion based on my real amp use, from around 17.5 on to the early Quantum's, that we got further and further away from tubes and some of the good stuff you had in the unit in earlier versions. I found myself tweaking my brains out to get a good tone...which I always did, but it was never easy to get back what I lost with some of the updates.
That said, this new beta is absolutely incredible! You've seriously nailed tubey-ness in what I would say 90% or more of the amps I tried in the beta. In case you wonder how I base my decision, I use three methods. The first is how pinch harms react with tube vs. transistor type tones. Just about every tube amp I have ever tried, compresses the top end transients just right when you pinch so hard it sounds like a scream that almost makes you feel it in your throat. I'm talking Eddie screams, not Billy Gibbons little chirps.
It's almost like a compression that comes out of nowhere to soften the blow and warm it up. You know, that sort of starved/choked sound like you are giving us in that 1970 plexi? Every tube amp I've played through has a little of that sound. Some more than others...you get what I'm saying I'm sure.
The second way is using a strat or some guitar with single coils in the middle position. Tube amps react beautifully chopping off those ugly high end transients where tranny amps totally give you that synthetic sound that sounds a bit like when we use our Treble Boost pedal.
The third way is how the sound reacts when I turn my volume knob down or decrease the gain using my pedal. You have totally lost that ugly tranny sound in the majority of these amps, passed all my personal tests and I couldn't be happier! I felt the need to post and thank you for your hard work. Seriously man, this update is truly remarkable. Though you give us so much all the time and that in itself is worth huge props, (and I do thank you sincerely for that too) it does me no good if all the effort falls short of what *I* personally need, ya know?
You hooked us up ten-fold...I'm blown away at how great all these amps sound. We still have a few tranny sounding amps IMO.....but I would say I literally got great sounds (not just acceptable, GREAT) out of 210 or more. Off the top of my head maybe 10-15 amps give or take just didn't do anything for me after tweaking them for 10-15 minutes. They still sounded good, just not something I'd use.
I got great tone out of the majority in 3-5 minutes....which is impressive. The only amp I have ever felt had the tube sound down that I need for high gain was the Marshall. Not so now! I can use so many different amps....it's just nuts! So thank you for that!
(I've also found that if you want a bit more of that choked sound I like, turn the crunch down to 0. On some amps, this to me gives them more of a transistor sound with crunch up past 10%. Try 0 and do some of my tests above....the amps will literally appear to saturate/compress more and be warmer reacting a bit more like tube amps. This is true with the Marshall mod especially when you go from 16% to 0. Listen to how it chokes and saturates at 0%.)
Ok so we're good there.....
The biggest thank you is actually where my issue comes in. My update experience has not been so good due to constantly tweaking my tone after. I've been tweaking the Quantum stuff since version one, and though I've achieved some really good tones, I've never been totally happy until 1.06 and now the beta.
My thank you is for NOT messing with the amps to where it changes my sound drastically after this update. When something drastic happens, it totally ruins my Fractal experience because I simply don't have 2 weeks to change my tone to something that will work.
I'm also a bit upset with hearing from others "well just don't update". This to me is unfair because you give us other things in the updates that are priceless that are incredibly useful and make things easier like:
1. There are awesome new amps and new little goodies
2. Effects updates
3. CPU enhancements
4. Easier modding
5. New buttons, widgets, options etc etc etc
I can of course come up with more, but that's a start of what I lose by not updating. All this is obsolete for someone that is happy with their tone. So my question is.....with all your incredible coding/innovation, isn't there a way to allow someone to update these other great things without changing their amp tones?
Can we find a way to "use amp from FW Q2.0" so that we that are happy with our tones never have to worry about constantly having to recreate ourselves unless we want to? Man, when I tell you it's a downer, it's something that I personally would be happy to pay you for IF I had to pay for an update....just so I can keep my tone and have all the other new stuff you give us weekly/monthly.
My last tweaking episode nearly made me stop using my Axe because I just couldn't find what I was looking for. I had to revert back to some old FW that made me lose some of the other cool stuff you had implemented. So I took a break, used something else and came back fresh after a few weeks, updated to 1.06 and was a bit more content. This got me thinking that one day, I'd try to cry out to you to ask if you would at least consider coming up with something for guys like me.
If I never tweaked my tone again and kept what I had right now and could get all your cool updates and new stuff, I'd be a very happy man. But when an update comes out that literally changes my amp block without me wanting it to....my heart sinks man. I'm not talking settings I can revert back to...I'm talking things that are changed so that when I use my fave preset, it no longer sounds like me and putting old settings back doesn't help and I may need to use another amp and re-tweak all over again.
It truly is a downer because with my busy life, the last thing I want to do is tweak tones. Tweak effects and mess with your goodies you give us...absolutely! That's like a Christmas present each month. But constantly messing with my tone to try and get back to where I was, man....as I bow to thank you for everything, I'm begging with every ounce of my being for you to please come up with something that helps people like me out. I'm sure there has to be a few of us. At any rate...
Thank you for reading if you got this far....and thanks for the hard work and awesome beta update. We're the tubey-ist we've ever been now and I didn't have to totally tweak my amp to get the sound I needed from it. I actually left some of the new settings it gained after refreshing it and like it better now...which is rare for me!
Thanks again!
-D.D.
