Axe-Fx II "Quantum" Rev 1.00 Public Beta

craiguitar said:
I tried the dephase feature in the previous beta, and It didn't appear to do anything noticable. Could it be that the cab IR I use (I only use one...my own) didn't 'need' dephasing, whereas many other cab IR's would benefit greatly from it?
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I noticed it working more on close miked IRs with SM57s
 
Alex EShadow said:
Just in case anyone in this forum is interested in authentic feedback and not fanboyism about the QUANTUM beta...

Little background before my rant, I've had the Axe 2 since FW6, had an AxeFx Standard before that. I've been recording stuff with it for the longest time, and have seen it go up and down in quality with each FW release (usually up!!).

Quantum is great - for the gigging and bedroom guitarist. It improves feel considerably, especially with the hot rodded Marshalls.

That said, I feel we're back to FW 12 in terms of muddiness. FW18 was the first time I had a feeling I didn't have to "push" the axe to the front of a mix, it would go there on its own without special EQ boosts, compression or anything, just like a normal miked amp does. In QUANTUM that is gone, I have to keep pushing things again, the amps are muddier. I've tried the 5150s, Friedmans, JVM410, JCM800 yesterday.

Does anyone else share the same feelings? I'm a guy who simply pulls up a cab or two and an amp, plays with the tone stack, presence, and sometimes master vol, and leaves it there. As much as I can tweak, I've found every time I mess with more advanced stuff I can go for hours at end only to land at a worse spot than I began. I do use the new preamp sim in the cab block though.

So to sum it up, I'm not saying QUANTUM sucks. Far from that, it's definitely an improvement in terms of feel. But for the studio guitarrist, it's lacking. It's a step back. I'm sure there's people in the forum with the mixing and tweaking skills to work around that in a mix, but for me it's not, and I'm guessing there's a lot of people like me out there.

Shoot me :)

Alex
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Alex,

Please try reloading the firmware. I had the exact thing you describe happen to me yesterday when I loaded Quantum. It was not pleasant. It was very disappointing. This was the first time I had experienced a negative reaction to a new firmware, so I tried going back to 20b (which will alter some presets to being unreadable BTW for those thinking of doing so without backing up) and my tones were right there where I left them. I reloaded Quantum, taking notice of the settings in the presets that I had issue with. In resetting the amp block I noticed the Bright Switch, Presence and Depth parameters are reset. Be aware of this for your existing presets as this can cause a definite difference in tone. I am happy to say that I am now pleasantly surprised by the Quantum firmware improvements! Seems it didn't take the first time I tried it.

YMMV, IMO, allegedly, off the record.....

:)
 
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craiguitar said:
I tried the dephase feature in the previous beta, and It didn't appear to do anything noticable. Could it be that the cab IR I use (I only use one...my own) didn't 'need' dephasing, whereas many other cab IR's would benefit greatly from it?
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I'd say the IR in question determines the effectiveness of De-Phase. For example:

On IR F012, De-Phase has a major effect, as it does on most close-miced IRs.

On an IR of a Palmer speaker simulator (basically a simple lowpass filter), De-Phase has very little effect, even on 10.

On a "flat" IR, De-Phase has no audible effect at all, even on 10.

So the degree to which De-Phase will affect an IR depends entirely on the IR, and the best value to use for De-Phase depends on both the IR and the user's taste.
 
Had another round with the new beta this morning. My last experience was at lower volumes since everyone else was in bed. It really sounds great. Chime without harshness and everything is so clear even with more than enough gain.
I have a habit of using too much delay and reverb and before the ambient sounds under the guitar could get muffled, now everything is so clear. The bass response is the best ever (maybe even better than some tube amps!?). Guitar volume knob reaction is perfect & leads sing with clarity.
Thanks for this amazing update Cliff!
 
boltrecords said:
Any severe bugs with this beta to where I shouldn't attempt to use for a gig?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Nothing I would be concerned about, yet, on my end.

If you use the Recto's, be sure to use Recto 1, from what I've read (I'm not using them, right now, so I'm not sure what the issue is).

Other than that, it just seems better - some levels may be a little off from what I had before; I'm waiting until the final FW drop, before I go through and adjust all my levels again, but that's not a biggie.
 
KittyForHire said:
Bahaha, impeccable timing :)

My doctor has just ordered me off work for at least a month due to a bad leg.
At least I can still sit and play the guitar. This should be fun :D
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Life gives you lemons, mix your bad self up a big ole batch of some LEMONADE!
 
Hey guys 1st post, long time lurker. I feel i have come at an unusual time to the axefx world. I have the XL+ and updated to the latest official 19 upon unboxing about 2 months ago. Now this.."Quantum" loaded. It sounds good. Really good. I haven't left my Brit 800 for about 2 days now. I could live with just this one tone happily... so much fun. I can vouch for the "feeling" aspect of the description on this one. Also the Dephase parameter allowed me to find a couple of sweet spots I have not heard before. Good job guys. I look forward to future updates.
 
steadystate said:
On an IR of a Palmer speaker simulator (basically a simple lowpass filter), De-Phase has very little effect, even on 10.

On a "flat" IR, De-Phase has no audible effect at all, even on 10.
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The Palmer, being an electronic filter with no actual mic involved, has no phasing issues for the De-Phase parameter to work on. The flat IR, being flat, has nothing at all for De-Phase to get hold of.

With IRs that are based on actual speakers, there will almost always be a noticeable effect.
 
One thing I noted last night while trying out the new FW.. I would typically reset (re-initialize) an amp model and then reset the cab block as well so I could hear the changes in the amp models without cab edits applied (like I usually do). On many of the amps I tried (various Marshalls, DC30, AC30, etc.) I had to turn down the level quite a bit more than what I would typically run it (down to -19 or -20 db). Just curious if this was expected or experienced by others?
 
Vertigo Pulse said:
Hey guys 1st post, long time lurker. I feel i have come at an unusual time to the axefx world. I have the XL+ and updated to the latest official 19 upon unboxing about 2 months ago. Now this.."Quantum" loaded. It sounds good. Really good. I haven't left my Brit 800 for about 2 days now. I could live with just this one tone happily... so much fun. I can vouch for the "feeling" aspect of the description on this one. Also the Dephase parameter allowed me to find a couple of sweet spots I have not heard before. Good job guys. I look forward to future updates.
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Welcome aboard... Check in here time to time. Never know when craziness will happen...
 
I normally like to wait for full releases, sometimes even until AE is updated, but with all this chatter going on I had to find out for myself.

I had about 30min to jam on Q1b this morning before work. I spent about 75% of that time on my high gain rhythm channel (D60M) and the rest split between my lead (Uber) & clean (Triptik Cln) presets. Prior to loading, I jammed on FW19 for about 5min just to get a feel of where I was starting from.

My pre-coffee rushed early morning findings through Beyer 880Pro's:

* Q1b is very much noticeably tighter. It seems to track a little faster, very very responsive.
* It seemed a little thin, as if bass were being attenuated just a tad. I typically cut bass before the amp block with a drive. I had to raise that cut (still cut a little, but ~1dB less cut than before).
* Adding that bass back did not make anything flub out. It stayed tight and aggressive.
* Highs are definitely smoother. I like a little recto-style fizz to my heavy presets. It was still there, but tamer, which is a good thing IMO.
* I'm hearing some nice bloom thus far. I use juuust a little dynamic depth & presence (more presence than depth, to get a little "hair" & "cut"), but this feels a little different to those controls. Without more time with it, I don't think I could describe it any better.
* Tight low end translated over to my clean preset, which most would have probably liked, but I didn't. I like my cleans to be "squishy" and very forgiving. I think I'll try to soften the poweramp or maybe bump up sag a little to get the old feeling back. That said, the clarity seemed improved, and that was a welcome change!
* I haven't noticed any difference in effects in the short time I've had to play on Q1b. It might've affected the drive blocks in a way similar to the amp blocks, but at this point I couldn't tell you.

EDIT:

jollo said:
I don't know if it's just my error or whatever but I just noticed all my preamp tube types got set to authentic with the new firmware. Just a heads up if your patches sound weird. I like the new firmware and I like the long plate, so I've been setting them back. Now I like it even better.

Just to check if I'm an idiot, I would appreciate if someone else would check the preamp tube type on the Other Page and see what they are set to. Thanks.
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Jollo, I just happened to have specifically checked my preamp tube type for the Uber preset I use for leads. It was, and still is, set to long plate.
 
I did not have the same success with the current Quantum beta so went back to Firmware 20 (actually thinking of trying to go back to Firmware 19). All of my tones did not sound as distinct from each other and just had a harshness and extra noise and seemed like not much in the low mids. Was hard to dial in high end as well. I've had this happen before during a firmware update and normally could just update again but didn't seem to work this time. Seemed fine when I first updated but just was strange. I reloaded Firmware 20 and was back to the sound I had before.

I know this is just a beta and will be tweaked, etc. so not even worried about it. I just wasn't hearing the tones everyone was describing so knew I probably had something happen. I've had corrupted presets before do similar things. The Axefx kicks ass whatever firmware I'm on. :)
 
FreeMind said:
What does this "Quantum" new way of modelling actually do? Where did the modelling went wrong in G3?
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Cliff has purposefully no posted any release notes. The point is to experience the releases with out hands and ears not with our eye and intellect. I thin the second question is a bit off. No one ever said that G3 went wrong. The Axe from the Std v1 through Quantum V1 has been a progressive revelation (enhancement) from Cliff. It is possible that he may have never even arrived to quantum if he had not had the G3 epiphany first.
 
Im sure I will get flack for this, but be that as it may...This is in no way a criticism of FAS....

Given all the wonderful recent FW updates (18+) and G3 implementation, would it really surprise anyone if this release was really FW 21 (check out your patches on Axe Edit) that for marketing purposes got a dramatic name to counteract all the major buzz that Line 6 is getting with Helix these days?

Lets face it, buzz and excitement in anticipation of Helixs release has been dominating the forums for a while. In order to compete for potential customers attention, something needed to be done to bring that attention to the Axe .Something new and exciting for folks to talk about with a catchy name for drama. In fact it would be an extremely smart thing to do to deal with all the press and hype of the "competition". And it has succeeded in generating new excitement and interest from folks that up until now have been focused on Helix.

Call it what you will....Quantum...FW21.....by either name it still sounds sweet to me ;)
 
Rockguitarzan said:
Im sure I will get flack for this, but be that as it may...This is in no way a criticism of FAS....

Given all the wonderful recent FW updates (18+) and G3 implementation, would it really surprise anyone if this release was really FW 21 (check out your patches on Axe Edit) that for marketing purposes got a dramatic name to counteract all the major buzz that Line 6 is getting with Helix these days?

Lets face it, buzz and excitement in anticipation of Helixs release has been dominating the forums for a while. In order to compete for potential customers attention, something needed to be done to bring that attention to the Axe .Something new and exciting for folks to talk about with a catchy name for drama. In fact it would be an extremely smart thing to do to deal with all the press and hype of the "competition". And it has succeeded in generating new excitement and interest from folks that up until now have been focused on Helix.

Call it what you will....Quantum...FW21.....by either name it still sounds sweet to me ;)
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I considered this possibility, but really, does it matter?
Leopard
Snow Leopard
Mountain Lion...
 
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