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

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The HBE...

I fooled around with this model in previous firmwares. It never really knocked me over. But I revisited it today on Cygnus. WOW. AMAZING. I'm hooked.

I never played the real amp. No idea if the model is true to it or not. And I don't care. I just lost the evening playing this thing.

FWIW, not much deep editing here. Gain 2.3, Bass 4, Mid 6, Treble 6, and Negative Feedback 3. IR is @York Audio FDMN. A little medium hall reverb...That's it.



Very similar experience here. I had enjoyed the C45 or whatever it used to be called, and it comes alive even more with Cygnus. I use similar settings, gain a tad more. I’ve found the legacy cab 60 hits the spot as well as Leon’s LT TV7.

I’m not sure I’ve ever posted about a firmware update but man there is something great going in here. It’s not radically different but that phrase “comes alive more” — as subjective as that sounds, fits.
 
I'm kinda dyin playing through the PRS Archeon in 16.00. The clean is amazing and the dirty is just snarly and mad - I LOVE it! As mentioned in the original post as possible, I am hearing an audible switch between the clean and dirty which you can hear in the sample too. The dirty is the Archeon Bright model. Using a PRS S2 Custom 24. Thank you FAS for such an awesome update.



This it the preset, but it's really just a few tweaks to the B/M/T as a personal pref. Didn't touch anything else.
 

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May I ask how you accidentally updated? Honest question.

Cygnus is a substantial update, but this is a beta, meaning this is not the final version and a preview or test for feedback from the community.

Yes some people have not done the upgrade.
Sure, I saw FW 16 and paid no mind to the actual "modeling" system - I thought it was a "usual" firmware update, just as a beta

IOW, if that isn't clear: I didn't update it with Cygnus in mind, I simply thought it was the latest in the great line of Axe Fx 3 updates, simple

I wasn't diminishing the value or importance - I was pleasantly surprised (still ignorant of what Cygnus vs ares is, but I don't want to beat a dead horse, I was just trying to catch up on a 72 page thread when im so late)

and why wouldn't someone upgrade when its such an improvement, thats the only highlight I garnered myself hence my question -BTW Larry Kehl just asked an even simpler question, and I don't know if it was answered (just that it was the next generation after ares....but what does that mean ?)
Possible issue - haven't played with the Princeton AA964 in a while, but it seems very low volume...

I was using the 5F2 variant right before and there is a drastic different between them.

I never noticed it before... Just wanted to share in case there's something up with the model.
Also, I did notice a drop in volumes, in a few, just to report the differences you found
 
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Sure, I saw FW 16 and paid no mind to the actual "modeling" system - I thought it was a "usual" firmware update, just as a beta

IOW, if that isn't clear: I didn't update it with Cygnus in mind, I simply thought it was the latest in the great line of Axe Fx 3 updates, simple

I wasn't diminishing the value or importance - I was pleasantly surprised (still ignorant of what Cygnus vs ares is, but I don't want to beat a dead horse, I was just trying to catch up on a 72 page thread when im so late)

and why wouldn't someone upgrade when its such an improvement, thats the only highlight I garnered myself hence my question -BTW Larry Kehl just asked an even simpler question, and I don't know if it was answered (just that it was the next generation after ares....but what does that mean ?)

Also, I did notice a drop in volumes, in a few, just to report the differences you found
Read the release notes?

Or possibly the title at least?
 
Would you like to share the preset? I yesterday bought the YA IR Pack, and I am interested to see how you made this great guitar tone (although I am not „cygnus-tized“ until now - but maybe today) …
Sorry I didn't save anything. But used the amp model as is, just tweaked the volume and tone to taste, didn't touch any other parameters.
 
I feel like spring reverbs in front of fender style cleans sound so much better now. Idk what it was, I never really liked them prior to this release. Now they are INSANE, like exactly what you would expect to hear.
 
One thing I noticed is that changing the power tube models has no impact at all. The JTM45 model defaults to EL34's, so I went to change it to KT66's and nothing changed. So I tried every other power tube and the only one that sounded any different was the 300B. I tried this with numerous other amp models and found the same thing. My recollection from the old firmware was that changing power tubes had a real impact on the tone and the feel. Anyone else finding this?

This is interesting because usually I've been hearing the opposite: That on past firmwares it made almost no difference but with Cygnus there's actually audible effects. Without changing the Transformer Match parameter the changes will be subtle on both. It's because all these tubes are designed to be relatively flat in operation when matched to an appropriate transformer, but have some individual quirks. On a real amp, your "alternate" tubes won't be matched to the transformer anymore, and that's a large part of the sound difference.

300B is an exception since it's a triode only tube. so most amps run in pentode are forced to triode when you select it. I'm not sure if amps that are triode by default are modelled that so switching to it will have less effect or not.


The HBE...

I fooled around with this model in previous firmwares. It never really knocked me over. But I revisited it today on Cygnus. WOW. AMAZING. I'm hooked.

Another fact about this is that the HBE is now the HBE2018 model by default, and the older model is gone.

He asked about updated presets, which to my knowledge haven't even been officially announced. But given that resetting amp params is helping some models a lot I wouldn't be surprised to see some get released sometime as well.
 
I'm kinda dyin playing through the PRS Archeon in 16.00. The clean is amazing and the dirty is just snarly and mad - I LOVE it! As mentioned in the original post as possible, I am hearing an audible switch between the clean and dirty which you can hear in the sample too. The dirty is the Archeon Bright model. Using a PRS S2 Custom 24. Thank you FAS for such an awesome update.



This it the preset, but it's really just a few tweaks to the B/M/T as a personal pref. Didn't touch anything else.


I love a bit of James Taylor. Nice playing, great tones!
 
Sure, I saw FW 16 and paid no mind to the actual "modeling" system - I thought it was a "usual" firmware update, just as a beta

IOW, if that isn't clear: I didn't update it with Cygnus in mind, I simply thought it was the latest in the great line of Axe Fx 3 updates, simple

I wasn't diminishing the value or importance - I was pleasantly surprised (still ignorant of what Cygnus vs ares is, but I don't want to beat a dead horse, I was just trying to catch up on a 72 page thread when im so late)

and why wouldn't someone upgrade when its such an improvement, thats the only highlight I garnered myself hence my question -BTW Larry Kehl just asked an even simpler question, and I don't know if it was answered (just that it was the next generation after ares....but what does that mean ?)

Also, I did notice a drop in volumes, in a few, just to report the differences you found

I guess Fractalaudio has named their software software modeling implementations/releases so that they'll make it more easy to speak of than referring to numbers like 12.3 or 14.04, etc.

Meet Fractal's Quantum, Ares, Cygnus...

Apple does it with their OS "High Sierra", "Mojave", "Catalina" and Android phones does it as well "Lollipop", "Marshmallow", "Pie", etc

So when you plan to change something significant in a software implementation, you give it a new name and start a new cycle.

Then as a developer you work at the software with that name until you have something that can be tested in house by a quality assurance team that makes sure that you, by changing its core, didn't break anything you weren't suppose to and the software works as expected (as planned when you gave it a new name). This goes back and forth between developers and QA team until most of the bugs are squashed.

When the quality assurance team finishes their work and state that they couldn't find anything major with the software, it becomes a BETA and it's moved to what it's called "USER ACCEPTANCE".

(Here could be added a new step in testing the product, a private beta, where select users are co-opted to test the implementation prior to have it thrown out the door to the masses as a BETA)

This user acceptance is a bunch far larger that the QA team and they can find bugs or unwanted behaviour that the QA team couldn't possibly been able to, given its size and knowledge about the product. This version of software is delivered usually with a release note stating that this is not the final implementation but just a beta - and "here be dragons"... The majority can't mess their device with this since they need to use it (live shows, recording, etc) and wait for the final release. Some are taking the bait and start enjoying something that wasn't yet fully released.

Then the users report back their experience and more bugs are squished, functionality polished, etc until you reach the threshold of acceptance and the BETA becomes a Release Candidate.

When the candidate for release has all the approvals for being a full release, then the software is provided to the masses with no disclaimers that there could still be problems with the implementation - it does what it was planned to and here's what changed: ...

Hop in with any additions to my omissions :D - I tried to present what usually happens behind the scenes in a software development company with any new release without getting too deep.

An educated user can take better decisions on what he upgrades to if he understands what those keywords are (beta, release candidate, final, etc)

On another note - I think you guys are the lab rats for us the FM3 users to get the latest and greatest without moving a finger :D :cool: :tearsofjoy: ;)
 
"My name is mud" - I would send these few words.
I'm repairing amps.
The resistance, the value of the capacitor never matched the value given in the circuit diagram.
The knobs are getting worse and worse. Especially the ones that are soldered to the panel.
The panels are also of poor quality. They warp and crack when soldered.
The output stage pipes can only be bought in pairs.
In vain is only one bad.
I could tell you a lot about what mistakes I encounter.
A very fundamental mistake! Grounding.
A little oxidation and it can cause incredible problems already.
And finally the cold soldering.
 
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"My name is mud" - I would send these few words!
I'm repairing amps!
The resistance, the value of the capacitor never matched the value given in the circuit diagram!
The knobs are getting worse and worse! Especially the ones that are soldered to the panel.
The panels are also of poor quality! They warp and crack when soldered.
The output stage pipes can only be bought in pairs!
In vain is only one bad!
I could tell you a lot about what mistakes I encounter.
A very fundamental mistake! Grounding!
A little oxidation and it can cause incredible problems already.
And finally the cold soldering!

The Society of English Language called. They're glad you have found their missing exclamation marks.
 
The Society of English Language called. They're glad you have found their missing exclamation marks.
Sorry.
I just wanted to emphasize the importance of the problem with an exclamation point.
Unfortunately, I can not speak English.
So I'm not aware of the rules either.
But I'll pay attention to him from now on.
I try to avoid using an exclamation mark.
Sorry, once again.
 
Sorry.
I just wanted to emphasize the importance of the problem with an exclamation point.
Unfortunately, I can not speak English.
So I'm not aware of the rules either.
But I'll pay attention to him from now on.
I try to avoid using an exclamation mark.
Sorry, once again.
It's all in good fun :) Don't change a thing, there's nothing wrong with an exclamation point. Your English is really good!
 
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