Axe-Fx III 16.00 Beta 10 "Cygnus" Firmware - Public Beta #7

[AlGrenadine]

Odds are really good the cache is in memory after the unit has finished its boot, and then disappears when the power is removed, resulting in the need to reload the cache the next time it is powered up. That delay when we save a preset would be when the cache is updated and the preset is written to the non-volatile memory.

When i say memory i think about non-volatile one

 

[ruso]

Speaking of boot times, could something be done about that? It takes a while.

Hmph… I just leave mine on.

 

[Jack Napalm]

Maybe Cliff could make the boot time the same time it takes for tubes to warm up. You know, for that added realism.

 

[Smittefar]

I was just about to say, it still much shorter time, than I would allow my tube amps to heat up before hitting the standby switch.

 

[plexi59]

The auto standby switch was implimented to allow the virtual tubes to warm up properly.

Mesa Mark V takes less time to “boot up”. Most amps don’t actually need a “standby switch” - manufacturers include them because they were needed in the 60s when fender saved a few cents per unit and used lower voltage caps after the standby switch - no load from power tubes means higher voltage on the caps. Caps are properly rated nowadays. I omit the standby switch in my own designs. Voltages in guitar amps aren’t high enough to cause “cathode stripping”.

 

[yyz67]

My guess is that CPU is CPU and if the Axe loaded the cache in the background it would affect the CPU available for the currently loaded preset (imagine one at 85%). Also, if someone goes to another preset quickly and it's not yet cached, how does that work?

 

[chris]

I thought the Axe3 did this before but people complained that in the first minute of use everything was sluggish...?

(not being snarky, just saying what I think happened in the past.)

 

[AlGrenadine]

My guess is that CPU is CPU and if the Axe loaded the cache in the background it would affect the CPU available for the currently loaded preset (imagine one at 85%). Also, if someone goes to another preset quickly and it's not yet cached, how does that work?

I guess parsing preset names across memory is not very cpu intensive...

 

[plexi59]

I omit the standby switch in my own designs. Voltages in guitar amps aren’t high enough to cause “cathode stripping”.

Case in point:



It’s a power amp. No standby switch. And a PCB with modern components inside - none of that “point to point” nonsense.

 

[Thenewexhibit]

Cut down on your presets. I have like 2 saved and my Axe boots up in a blink.

Did you wind up just deleting a lot of the stock presets? I was actually considering that.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Did you wind up just deleting a lot of the stock presets? I was actually considering that.

I deleted all stock presets and barely have any of my own, and the boot time is extremely fast.

 

[frankenbeans]

Did you wind up just deleting a lot of the stock presets? I was actually considering that.

I deleted everything, except a couple kitchen sink presets. I have all my libraries stored if I want to restore them, but I found I play more when I don’t have a bunch of presets to explore. Having both Austin Buddy libraries is a blessing and a curse in that way for me personally.

 

[pharmd07]

Mesa Mark V takes less time to “boot up”. Most amps don’t actually need a “standby switch” - manufacturers include them because they were needed in the 60s when fender saved a few cents per unit and used lower voltage caps after the standby switch - no load from power tubes means higher voltage on the caps. Caps are properly rated nowadays. I omit the standby switch in my own designs. Voltages in guitar amps aren’t high enough to cause “cathode stripping”.

Dave Friedman said this in one of his podcasts. Standby switches in guitar amps are not needed.

 

[ruso]

Who plays through all of the factory presets anyway?

 

[Vio]

Good to know, thanks. I don’t need a ton of presets, most of mine are stock and I use maybe 10 of my own. In fact my usage of AxeFX eventually converged to an amp-like situation, and of these 10, 3 are workhorse presets I use all the time: clean, crunch, and high gain. The rest are only used every now and then.

But as a software engineer myself, I’m pretty sure that if boot times haven’t been optimized yet, there’s a good chance they could be improved with 80% of the initial benefit coming from 20% of work.

Not a huge priority to be sure. But a good project for a new hire perhaps.

Just an idea for @FractalAudio : maybe the presets cache could be done in a background thread and the presets tab become available only once this thread finished?

Or store the cache in memory. Update this cache everytime a preset name is changed or a preset is imported etc...

Great ideas - here's the next step!

 

[frankenbeans]

Who plays through all of the factory presets anyway?

Some of them are very interesting showcasing what you can do with the Axe. Presets like Warped Vinyl are great demos, for lack of a better word. Then you have Pop Rhythm which is a capital-G Great clean tone. There’s a lot of good in them. I was just doing some spring cleaning and removed them for now.

 

[plexi59]

Great ideas - here's the next step!

Doesn’t pay as well as my current gig. Maybe one quarter as well, in fact. Embedded SWEs don’t make much unless their work is AI-related. Which mine is.

 

[AlGrenadine]

Great ideas - here's the next step!

I guess fas wouldn't want an European distant worker ^^

 

[IronSean]

I guess fas wouldn't want an European distant worker ^^

On-site in NH. Hardware is annoying like that.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Especially meetings that could have been an email!

My favorites are the emails that should have been a meeting.
You know, where people talk about the situation together, brainstorm possible solutions, and make some decisions?
What a concept!
Way better than batting alternating misunderstandings and laboriously detailed clarifications back and forth repeatedly.
Gah.