Axe-Fx II "Quantum" Rev 7.00 Public Beta #2

Well I'll will second that, after all, if it wasn't for the virtues of tubes we wouldn't have the virtues of virtual tubes. :D:eek::cool:
Which are instantly optimizable, swappable & biasable. Not to mention, just like Rock & Roll, Never Gunna Die!
Once tubes are sufficiently and accurately modeled there becomes no empirical difference, and the AFX is real close and closer all the time, so that makes it a lot easier for AFX users to agree that 'tubes are best' as a point well made. ;) For now that is. It's hard to believe that the tone of historic equipment just happens to always have better tone. Old guitar , better tone. Pioneer brandX, magic tone. I think this meme has carried over from guitars to amps, and the transistor amp fiasco of the sixties right at the time high gain was becoming a thing, has reinforced the idea that 'traditional' means best - plus the problems with early digital converters, gives a 'traditional wins' meme to overcome.
Bu this is no reason to believe tubes are the end all, be all, end of the road in the quest for tone. Tubes just won some historical battles with newcomers and dealt with them handily. But now it's the 21st century and tubes have another thing coming.
 
and the transistor amp fiasco of the sixties right at the time high gain was becoming a thing, has reinforced the idea that 'traditional' means best - .

Lol, and here I thought it was the transistor amp fiasco of the 80s. I always just assumed the 60's were like a butter churn, full of tuby creaminess. Shows how much my history teacher left out about real scientific advancement. I never even heard of scalar theory until the Grunge movement.
 
The Plexis will be even better in the release version. I found a mistake today in the way the B+ was routed into the preamp. Essentially the B+ voltage was not routed to the cathode follower stage properly so the preamp wasn't compressing nearly enough when the power supply sagged. Makes a substantial difference.

I dialed up a 50W Plexi patch using one of the new IRs that will be included and got the best tone I've ever gotten from a modeling device. Heck, maybe the best tone I've gotten from any device, real or modeled.

Say When!!!

 
Once tubes are sufficiently and accurately modeled there becomes no empirical difference, and the AFX is real close and closer all the time, so that makes it a lot easier for AFX users to agree that 'tubes are best' as a point well made. ;) For now that is. It's hard to believe that the tone of historic equipment just happens to always have better tone. Old guitar , better tone. Pioneer brandX, magic tone. I think this meme has carried over from guitars to amps, and the transistor amp fiasco of the sixties right at the time high gain was becoming a thing, has reinforced the idea that 'traditional' means best - plus the problems with early digital converters, gives a 'traditional wins' meme to overcome.
Bu this is no reason to believe tubes are the end all, be all, end of the road in the quest for tone. Tubes just won some historical battles with newcomers and dealt with them handily. But now it's the 21st century and tubes have another thing coming.
It depends on who you ask.

I'm guessing there is a reason why guitar builders offer torrefaction to lessen moisture and thus aiding in crystalizing of the sap in the wood.
My take...an old guitar that has been played a lot will always sound better because the vibrations from playing it will loosen the sap and let the wood vibrate more.

I'm sure it can be done artificially but I'm a strong believer that no matter how many 1000s you spent on a new instrument it'll take many hours of getting it to where it should be.

Fwiw my only remaining Strat I bought in 94 and pretty much played daily and it's definately not something I'd consider selling.

I remember when I was a kid I met this guy who was really into 60s Flying Vs and he bought a bunch if them from Rudolf Schenker, including one of the ones Michael Schenker used on love drive.... Whenever he sold one and guys came over the played obviously a bunch of them and the collectors never were interested into the ones that weren't mint since the well even looked like they were broken in pretty good...but the difference to both him and I were significant. We talked about the breaking in quite a lot back then.

I also think something similar happens to all analog stuff that gets rattled around.
 
It depends on who you ask.

I'm guessing there is a reason why guitar builders offer torrefaction to lessen moisture and thus aiding in crystalizing of the sap in the wood.
My take...an old guitar that has been played a lot will always sound better because the vibrations from playing it will loosen the sap and let the wood vibrate more.

I'm sure it can be done artificially but I'm a strong believer that no matter how many 1000s you spent on a new instrument it'll take many hours of getting it to where it should be.

Fwiw my only remaining Strat I bought in 94 and pretty much played daily and it's definately not something I'd consider selling.

I remember when I was a kid I met this guy who was really into 60s Flying Vs and he bought a bunch if them from Rudolf Schenker, including one of the ones Michael Schenker used on love drive.... Whenever he sold one and guys came over the played obviously a bunch of them and the collectors never were interested into the ones that weren't mint since the well even looked like they were broken in pretty good...but the difference to both him and I were significant. We talked about the breaking in quite a lot back then.

I also think something similar happens to all analog stuff that gets rattled around.

I agree but have no science to back it up.

Also, certain used instruments I just bond with right away. Other's not so much.

I didn't buy a new guitar until I was an adult and could afford it. :)

I remember my older brother bought and later sold a Twin and a white 60's Strat. Didn't seem like collectors items in 1973.
 
Well I'm leaving for Europe in the morning and will be Axe-less for a few weeks :(


So I'm sure Q7 final will be released as soon as I board the aircraft.
 
Once tubes are sufficiently and accurately modeled there becomes no empirical difference, and the AFX is real close and closer all the time, so that makes it a lot easier for AFX users to agree that 'tubes are best' as a point well made. ;) For now that is. It's hard to believe that the tone of historic equipment just happens to always have better tone. Old guitar , better tone. Pioneer brandX, magic tone. I think this meme has carried over from guitars to amps, and the transistor amp fiasco of the sixties right at the time high gain was becoming a thing, has reinforced the idea that 'traditional' means best - plus the problems with early digital converters, gives a 'traditional wins' meme to overcome.
Bu this is no reason to believe tubes are the end all, be all, end of the road in the quest for tone. Tubes just won some historical battles with newcomers and dealt with them handily. But now it's the 21st century and tubes have another thing coming.

This is exactly how I feel. A few years ago, I posted that I believe that digital modeling will end up sounding more 'tubey' than the best tube amps! This is because we will continue to identify exactly what makes our ears love the sound of valves, and eventually be able to amplify this effect to the most desirable level...
 
Much of the "tubiness" is found in the interaction of tube/transformer/speaker combination. Even pre amp distortion amps sound "tubiest" when that master volume knob get that output into the sweet zone.
 
Weird... I don't remember the 12AX7A RCA preamp tube in the list before. Sounds great in the Triaxis (USA Pre) Lead 2 Yellow with EL34s in the power amp
 
Wow - It really sounds like this update will be a total game changer - I wonder if it will still be called Quantum, or it will get a new prefix.
 
Sorry, going to be a while longer. I had been working on some new measurement techniques and yesterday I stumbled onto something. As a result I ended up changing some of the algorithms but now I have to remeasure a bunch of amps again.

Thanks for the updates on FW status. It's nice of you to share. This beta is quite good in the meantime.
 
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