Axe-Fx III 16.00 Beta 4 "Cygnus" Firmware - Public Beta

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Finally had the opportunity to properly test Cygnus the past weekend thru my 2 CLRs and 2x12 and with the band, so I'll report my thoughts.

Fenders are just unbelievable! I've played my buddy real 59 bassman several times and up until FW15 I never found the axe model to be really convincing in mimicing that particular amp.
With Cygnus it now sounds pretty much identical and has the same feel too.

I tried some mid-to-high-gain models and after a little tweaking they felt much more alive, VH4 blue and jcm800 in particular are sooo good.
I don't hear anymore that nasty "white noise like" sound underneath the main tone and the mid focus seems shifted towards more pleasant frequencies.

But there are some cons too, brought to me by this update:
I have a few patches where I use the Plexi 100W model which I can't make sound as punchy as with fw15.01, I lost that nice thump on palm mutes that was so easy to achieve with the previous firmware and I can't get it back in cygnus using just the basic controls.
Since this model is still not verified, I really hope the cause is a just a mistake that will be corrected in the next realease.
Or maybe that's just how it sounds and I need to tweak it more or look for an alternative model.

The problem is that I have a similar issue with the ac20 too, it doesn't "thump" as strongly as before, kinda feel more compressed.
And in general some amps seem to exhibit less "bloom".

I don't know, maybe I just had tired ears and need to try again with those amps.
What's sure though, is that this is, tonally, one of the biggest updates since I own a fractal device (6 years), meaning that I've never experienced such a huge change in tone between two consecutive updates. Maybe I just need to get used to it
 
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My name is mud said:
sure I have all my presets in folders on my computer
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Use Fractal Bot in receive mode and backup your entire unit. Once it’s done, put it in send mode and update to Cygnus. If you like it and decide to tweak your tones, keep it and enjoy the journey. If you don’t like it, load FW 15.01 and send the preset files back into your unit. It’ll be as if your Cygnus trial never happened, but I think you’ll like how it sounds.
 
ok I m back from the future (and back to 15.01)

+
more PICK attack in clean sounds and light gain overdrive amps like fender's or marshall
the high gain are more dirty and sound more like tubes head
the archon i never really liked sounds good !
the 5130 red is not so bad

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i need to redo all my presets
most of the heads i like are not in the beta , so I cannot stay in beta .
more dirty is cool for some big rock genre, but for tight metal things, prog, death /thrash ... i think i need to redo tons of hours of tweaking .

when you are in the beta, you want to turn back , and then , when I retry the sound i have in the 15.01 i said : ok , the beta is better .
everything in the 15.01 sound thinner , smaller in a way, and boxy sounding (in high gain , not in fenders and others )

so yes . time to wait the whole thing once again .

Great job , it sounds more true . But thats not an update for metal and I didnt see any "chug" /tightness/ohmmff I expected there when they annouced this "cygnus" thing some weeks ago . I was expecting crazy palm muting sounds
 
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If it is more accurate across the board, then it is for metal, rock, blues, jazz, and even pop. :eek:

I do like 15 as well so I may go back and forth as I desire even after an official release of 16.
 
too much amps are missing to have a real big opinion, in my case . they are already a lot of amps but not the one I use and like.
this "accurate" thing dont mean nothing to me . let's remove the noise gate from the axe 3 , then it will be even more realistic :rolleyes: . High gain heads dont sound like shit neither, some of them are tight .
 
I’m sure it’s known, but along with the flickering input impedance, I noticed that the Friedman tone stack is misspelled as “Freidman”
 
My name is mud said:
Yes , that’s so cool and interesting to talk with the same robots as you . If you like that , speak with a mirror . With luck we are not the same . What a boring world you choose . Forums are places when everyone share their opinions . If you have nothing to say , go in the garden with a ball , I call you when it’s dinner time .
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You realize you just insulted one of the most knowledgeable & helpful members on this forum? In contrast, you have been neither!
 
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