Ok, so my go-to preset for the last several months is based around the (formerly named) AC20 Dlx Bass model (now called AC20 EF86b). I just updated from Q1.06 and finding the same preset now sounds quite a bit darker and woolier. Is anyone else finding the same?
Cliff - would this be an expected outcome of the class-A changes outlined above? I found that bumping Bright up to 3-4db or bumping the Treble from just under 5 to about 7.5 seemed to help make things less dark.
I'm running MV at 10, Input Drive at .8... If that helps?
Thanks
Kevin
I can't speak for Cliff or anyone else. But the darkness for me has been in adjusting a few things.
The first thing I touch is presence. You'd think this would add a little high end, but to my ears it actually adds a bit of a mid range voicing making the sound a bit thicker. Sometimes you want that, other times thinning things out is the better choice.
Next is supply sag to a higher number. The higher the number, the tighter the sound for me and you get less boxy-ness. I find that at default, the amps sound a bit too congested with mids for my personal use/liking. Setting to 5.0 up to 8.0 has been a game changer for me on every amp I touch.
I also like some of the old values we used to have. For example, on the Marshall 800 mod that I use, the neg feedback was at 2.0 now it's at 1.55. The bias excursion was at 50% now it's at 42 something.
The next thing I touched was the xFormer low freq. Raise it until some of the low end, darkness goes away. I run mine anywhere from 25 to 40 on some amps. It depends on the cab I'm running.
Speaker low res Q at 2.000 now at 1.697.
In dynamics, comp clarity was 10, now 6.51.
When I changed those back to what they used to be, the darkness was gone and my amp sounded like me again with a bit more pep along with the new dynamics and feel Cliff has added. Will that work for you with your amp? No idea man...but I noticed the darkness you spoke of and changed the above and bam...back to me, but better sounding to my ears.
EDIT** Just to be clear....the old values are what I reverted back to...meaning the first numbers given. When I say "now" I mean that is what the value changed to after the update if you update the amp block. Adding a little eq on the amp by 0.15 at 8k helped me too while taking out -1dB of 500Hz. Dark is good because 9 times out of 10 we can control that....raspy and razor sharp....ugh, thank God we didn't get that!
I'm blown away by this release. The tube realism is simply off the charts on so many amps! There are more usable amps in this thing than not. There was a time where I looked at all the amps we had and sort of felt bummed that more weren't usable for me. Now I'm like a kid unleashed at a toys r us! A few small tweaks and the majority of these amps sound like a million bucks no matter what cab I use. High 5 Cliff...thanks man!
