This may be a long post.............
Concerning the Friedman BE100 I'll admit I am, or should I say was one of the guys that was still thinking something is broke in these models in Cygnus. I noticed the issue in I think it was firmware 16 Beta 5 that something was off compared to Beta 4 and I was intially told it was the "power of suggestion". I made some clips posted them up and sure enough a fault was found with the model and was put right in the next beta. But ever since then I have been still feeling and thinking I'm hearing that something still isn't right, like a few others are. The BE100-V1-2018 model was my main go to amp in firmware 15.
So I went back to Firmware 15.01 setup up a preset of the old BE100 V1 2018 model, everything except the IR I used at stock settings. Nothing but an Input Block > Amp Block > Cab Block > Output Block.
I then took screen shots of every page in Axe Edit and noted every parameters setting. I then recorded a simple riff to listen back critically.
I did the same for firmware 16 Beta 4 (before the excursion fault appeared) and 16 beta 11 the latest we have where the new models were added (V3 etc). For the fimware 16 comparisons I used BE100 V1, which is the direct Cygnus replacement for the old V1 2018 model.
Below is a link to a spreadsheet showing all relevent parameters we can see have changed in Axe Edit over these three firmwares. This
may help anyone struggling with the Cynus models to get closer to Ares model if thats what they prefer but don't want to miss out on all the good stuff as well by staying on 15. Bare in mind the settings are obviously for two totally different amp modelling algorithms. One of the main things to notice which might help is that the low cut frequency changes quite a bit between the firmwares, which a few have noticed. Why? only Cliff could answer how that relates to everything he codes that we don't see in the background that isn't available in Axe Edit.
BE100 Parameters Link
One of the differences I believe some people maybe hearing and not liking in the Cygnus models is if they are using similar or the same master volume levels they used on firmware 15. Now we know and were told the Log 15 taper never changed for the model, but all the other tweaks under the hood we don't see will still effect the headroom levels differently I would assume even if the master volume is set the same. All three firmwares at the same stock settings came out at different volumes and also showed different levels on the power amp headroom meter. I always liked the master volume set at stock 4.0 the best in Ares on this model, so using the headroom meter, to get a steady reading I ran a sine wave from the synth block into the amp and checked where that would send the headroom meter and took a note. It lands on -2.1 dB in firmware 15.01. Do the same on 16 Beta 4 same stock settings and it lands on -7.8 dB and on 16 Beta 11 and it arives at -1.2 dB. So obvious changes to the model during the beta phase are effecting this. I matched the headroom level I was getting in 15 at 4.0 on the master to firmware 16 Beta 4 and Beta 11 and had to set the master volume to different levels on both, 5.7 on beta 4 and 3.75 on beta 11. Again quite a difference. So maybe master volume as has been mentioned to other could be part of the issue.
I made 5 clips in total and tried to volume match then in Pro Tools the best I could.
Clip 1: Firmware 15 Stock Settings
Clip 2: Firmware 16 Beta 4 Stock Settings
Clip 3: Firmware 16 Beta 4 with Master set to equal headroom level in 15
Clip 4: Firmware 16 Beta 11 Stock Settings
Clip 5: Firmware 16 Beta 11 with Master set to equal headroom level in 15
Upon listening back to these rather than playing and listening at the same time I'm not sure in the later Cygus betas they are as fuzzy as I was thinking whilst playing, when I listened back I starting thinking the Cygnus Friedmans are actually quite fine and are sounding better to my ears today......who knows maybe there is still a little part of code/setting wrong that has snuck in there again? Maybe I've been just enjoying the Cygus Mesa Marks more and thats what I'm starting to learn more towards? The fuzz would probably be more apparent if I was running my usual gain on 8 maybe as well.
Anyway if anyone finds any of this useful and helps them out then it wasn't a waste of time. Maybe this is just a truer representation of what a real BE100 with the lowered negative feedback sounds like, I've only played the older model with the NFB off the jack, when I got my JMP 2203 modded to a BE100 circuit I had my NFB set exactly like this newer model 47k I believe off the 4 ohm tap and much prefered the more raw tone, so maybe this is the real more raw tone compared to the older model and is obviously more accurate?
If Cliff reads this maybe one last look over the BE/HBE models would put a lot of people at ease, although I'm sure he's been over this model a few times already?
Also did anyone mention if we are getting the C45 setting on the all the relevent models like before? Were they accidentaly missed off or still getting finished ready for full release?
