Xrocker
Fractal Fanatic
Yes. Intermittently.
Just be happy you were born into it....you can create for the first time and be blown away. Enjoy!
I think that's a pretty good question. The only ones that may be able to answer would be Cliff or maybe one of the beta tester guys.
As for the "same settings as a real amp" nah, I don't think anyone really expects that nor would they hold it against Cliff for not being exact. I personally think some of our amps sound better than the originals....and I mean that sincerely. Others seem to sound weird to me...but again, there are several things that need to be factored in. I only use about 4 different cab models. So some amps are going to suffer for me...and rightfully so if the cab is not the right fit. You have to try anything and everything really. At the end of the day, I'm happy to have my Axe over the Kemper. I've had a few K's in my studio....and though they were definitely cool....I'm happy with what I have.
Unfortunately, it's not that easy rik. So many things change sometimes, you don't know where to start....new options added....the list goes on and on. For example, I've not updated my XL+ since 18.4. That FW just worked for me and gave me what I needed. If I would have done what you said and recorded a song into my pc, and then even took screen shots of every menu (which I have done many times lol) in my AxeFx amp block, I would STILL fail trying to get my old sound with the new FW nor would I know what actually changed or why.
When you add things, change things, re-calibrate things....you get a brand new unit on some of these updates. In my case, I got 3 updates worth of brand new units in one and everything from my effects to my amp blocks and even cab options have changed. Even though I've mentioned a few things there....if you were to get Cliff to explain it, those little things I just mentioned probably turn into 600 changes per option internally.
Funny story real fast....when I was developing VST plugins for a company, we came up with this one build that was absolute sickness....in a good way. To me it was one of the best VST plugs we ever did out of the 1000 different builds lol. Anyway....this one took 11 seconds before it loaded up into your DAW. That's definitely a bummer and not good at all. If you had two instances of the plug, that was 22 seconds before you'd see them. 3 instances....add another 11 seconds and so on. That said, the sound was incredible but we were trying something different to get it to sound like that and the downside was the load time for where we were at THAT time in the software world.
That "different" had all the right stuff. We just had to find a way to make it load faster...which we did in fact figure out. But my reason for saying this....I happened to ask the owner why this happens and he said "picture an amp builder literally creating the plug from scratch when you initiate an instance....there are 400+ things happening as that plug loads."
Unacceptable to the buying public if you were to tell them that....they just want the thing to load fast and work right. LOL! But in that same situation, we probably have a lot of that going on with our Axe FX....but we have all the right stuff to do those 400+ changes in an instant. Add in new FW with a bunch of new options and changes and man....I can't even fathom how many things may be going on. So you never really know what has changed or how it has changed your particular sound. Like I say though, maybe Cliff can sum it up in a few sentences or so....but I'm not so sure.
I can say how it changed my situation. It changed everything for me....in a good way. More warmth and tube sound...less transistor/synthetic bite, tone stack seems to fit the amps better, pinch harmonics sound more like the pinch harms you get out of a tube amp instead of how they sound when you do them using a transistor sound. This is super important to me because I absolutely hate the sound of synthetic pinch harms. Think Eddie Van Halen....when he pinch harms, they scream in a way that hit you in the throat.
The sustain is really there now. We always had loads of drive in the axe, but I've always felt that in certain situations, the notes would die out where this never happened using my tube pre-amps or my regular amps. I've tried everything in the Axe and just chalked it up as one of those things I would have to try and compensate for....which I have. With this FW, I'm not getting that "die out" like I used to and am not using as much gain. I used to compensate using a little more gain or I jacked up my compressor output to push things a little more on my lead sound. All that is different and for the better now.
There's a certain (and this one I really can't even explain right to you) feel or the way an amp reacts. We are getting that same reaction now. We've always been close in my opinion, but this is so close to me, I don't think about it anymore. What all this means technically compared to my old sounds? I really don't care lol....I'm just happy it is the way it is. I'm not even going to question it.....in the time it has taken me to even give you my personal guess and experience, I could have had another one of my tones tweaked for Quantum. Hahahahaha! None of the AxeFx firmware builds were bad. The thing sounded great when I got it 2-3 years ago. But this one definitely is a game changer for the better.
-Danny
Not a problem....hope I didn't bore the crap out of you. LOL! I just love the conversation about this piece as well as meeting new forum guys/players.
Unfortunately, I seem to always be one of those guys that has a lot to do in a major update like this. LOL! I sometimes think things are playing tricks on me...so I DO as you mentioned and record everything. There's just something about tone in my ears, that I just can hear in my own world. Even if Cliff were to tell me "this has not changed" I'd still be able to tell something if there was something. I have freak of nature ears....I really do. My tone isn't even all that good compared to others.....but it works for me and I just know when something has changed or it isn't right. Quick example...
There was a FW update a few months back where Cliff had mentioned "if you do this and this, you will have what you had in the last FW". I'd never argue with the dude...he made the thing, he knows better than I do. However, no matter what I tried, there was something in that particular FW that changed to my ears. When I was able to tell blindly on a recording having someone else push the play button with my back turned with two files of the old FW and one with the new playing the same piece, I knew I had to be right in some way even if data wise or numerically it was impossible. Something was different and it just sounded more synthetic to me. Even if I'm totally wrong, to my ears....I wasn't satisfied and liking my tone unless I reverted to that older FW.
My Van Halen tone took a major hit on this release as well. I've not fixed that one yet, but my main tones are sounding so good....I literally took the night off from work just so I could play and record the new tones. I'm the happiest I've ever been! I need to update my live tones next...which should be a piece of cake now that I know how to get what I'm after. All in all it took me about 2 hours to experiment and get what I needed. But the difference for the better is at least 50%...which is huge. Most times when I try to fix a sound after an update I either stay close to the same or actually lose a little something.
Heck man, my fave FW were 15 and 16. I only updated because of the additional options and fixes the later ones gave me...but I always felt my tone was never quite the same. In some areas it got better but in other areas something was missing. Sort of like when I played through a 2101. I liked the tone but there was always something missing that I could never add in....but it was the best tone I ever came up with for myself so I stuck with it. Same with me using older FW. When I get something right, I try to stick with it unless something mind-blowing makes me want to update. LOL!
Nah you'll find that you will master this thing if you open yourself to it. It will happen on its own really. That said I've had mine a few years and I've not scratched the surface....but only because my time isn't what it once was and thankfully, I learned enough about the unit to create the tones I needed. One day my main rig went down, I bought the Fractal and had 1 week to create my own personal tones and create my entire Van Halen tone library. (I play in a VH tribute band that sort of puts its own spin on VH)
So that was a nightmare to have to learn the unit and come up with tones that fast. But I managed to pull it off and things worked out really well. I'm still tweaking it from time to time, but really feel confident about this release because it has all the right stuff for me. I'm sitting here playing between sentences just smiling like my chick is under my console doing a little playing of her own. LOL!
Good luck with your Axe brother, and welcome to the family. If you have any questions, the guys on this forum are mutants in the way they help. You'll just about always have an answer in minutes instead of hours. This is one of the best forum communities I've ever been a part of. Tough when it needs to be, affectionate and super helpful all other times.
-Danny
Hey Danny!
I benefited from many of your well articulated and enlightening posts on recordingreview.com over the years. I remember the VST you were worked on back in the day
I'm fairly new to the FAS world but loving it. I skipped FW 19 mostly because im still thrilled about the tones in 18.. but I am going to jump to Q as soon as im done with current song.
Cheers
Yeah that VST was a bear...I still use it but prefer a few of our beta's opposed to the final release. It's the best sounding plug I ever used to be honest....and I'm not saying that because I had anything to do with it.
