Axe-Fx III 16.00 Beta 5 "Cygnus" Firmware - Public Beta #2

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My name is mud said:
do you hear the gap at 1:43 between 2 scenes in my latest video ? I got this in all my presets since day one I have the 3 .... I m living with it ... is it a story about the RAM in the axe that is not enough powerful or ? well this is off topic , but I was thinking about it while cuting the video , the gap is really present grrrr .
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That’s barely a gap honestly. It’s there in that clip, but it changes instantly. It’s just not cross fading.

If amp channels are changing, they can’t “fade” in to each other because all the settings are changing at the same time through the same audio path. The only way to solve this is to mute and unmute different amp blocks. Or the Axe paradigm would have to change to allow running 2 “presets” or “tones” at the same time to allow both to sound at the same time and cross fade. The Helix recently implemented this, but you lose 1/2 the CPU per preset to accomplish this. From what I read, it’s not worth that trade off for most people.

My roadster sounded exactly like that when changing channels and holding a chord. Drive pedals don’t do this because they are just being muted and unmuted. Channel changing in amps and modelers often have the same audio path and change settings quickly, which is more than just muting and unmuting.

I think the channel changing is the fastest it’s ever been. If they can improve it even more, they will.
 
Yes in roadster and roadking (that I owned for years ) there is a big “plock” the first time you change channels 🤦 and then it disappear ... they say it’s a foot switch problem hm. In the JP2c it’s more light . I owned a helix for one year and it was gapless . Same I owned 2 kempers and they were gapless too. Maybe the files are smaller . Don’t know . I use the fc12 . But yes they are a lot of parameters to change but it happens even with very simple scenes . I don’t miss my previous modelers at all even with this detail . The axe sounds better and is a lot more fun . But can’t we compare it to the RAM in a computer ? If the axe was 4 times more powerful I mean, then it’s gapless ?
 
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My name is mud said:
Yes in roadster and roadking (that I owned for years ) there is a big “plock” the first time you change channels 🤦 and then it disappear ... they say it’s a foot switch problem hm. In the JP2c it’s more light . I owned a helix for one year and it was gapless . Same I owned 2 kempers and they were gapless too. Maybe the files are smaller . Don’t know . I use the fc12 . But yes they are a lot of parameters to change but it happens even with very simple scenes . I don’t miss my previous modelers at all even with this detail . The axe sounds better and is a lot more fun . But can’t we compare it to the RAM in a computer ? If the axe was 4 times more powerful I mean, then it’s gapless ?
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yeah not sure what other modelers are doing to be "gapless." were you changing presets or scenes in that moment in the video?

i'm not sure presets can ever be gapless - that's just every single block changing at once. without a short audio gap/mute, there would be the loud pops that we had on the roadster. so i'm not sure what can be done for that much data changing instantly.

i'm pretty sure FAS wants to improve this always. the constant work to make the unit better and more efficient always directly affects preset and scene changing times, so i would say it's constantly being worked on.

3.02 in the FM3 for example didn't even mention faster Amp Channel changes, but it sure is faster, a result of the work on all the other stuff i think.
 
My name is mud said:
Yes in roadster and roadking (that I owned for years ) there is a big “plock” the first time you change channels 🤦 and then it disappear ... they say it’s a foot switch problem hm. In the JP2c it’s more light . I owned a helix for one year and it was gapless . Same I owned 2 kempers and they were gapless too. Maybe the files are smaller . Don’t know . I use the fc12 . But yes they are a lot of parameters to change but it happens even with very simple scenes . I don’t miss my previous modelers at all even with this detail . The axe sounds better and is a lot more fun . But can’t we compare it to the RAM in a computer ? If the axe was 4 times more powerful I mean, then it’s gapless ?
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Why would more RAM make switching gapless? I don't see it as a RAM problem - as has already been explained, it's that multiple blocks, including amp, cab, and everything else in the preset, are all being shut off, new blocks being loaded, etc AT THE SAME TIME. That HAS to take a finite amount of time, even if it's only a millisecond or two. Personally, I never even notice it.
 
jon said:
This this this!

I remember hating fender amps for that reason early on in my playing - they were biased so cold 🥶 they sounded so sterile and harsh!
Later on I learned to tweak and adjust bias and quickly realized that those same amps I hated came to life with sweet sweet tones!

There are so many inconsistencies with amps, and so many corners usually cut to make an amp cost 2000 instead of 12,000. The axe has none of these restraints, and we can have better sounding and playing amps than even our heroes did with the SAME real amps! Why would we not want this is beyond me.....I get the 'authentic' thing, but some of these things worked terribly, and were badly designed, and had so many areas cut to keep cost down and marketability high.....

I remember a band I was in where we bought 3 of the same amp, cuz it was a killer amp and we could dial 3 completely different tones on it.

It boggled our minds why when we set everything exactly the same, the 3 amps sounded very different!

Amps are going to sound different, even identical amps will sound different. Hell, the SAME amp sounds different depending on the time of day and humidity and temperature and all that!

Give me the idealized, best example of the amp in the best tweaked way it can sound. Authentic is great, but idealized is better. This is 2021, not 1960. We are driving fast, efficient, versatile, feature rich, electric luxury vehicles nowadays, if you want completely authentic go back to a bumpy horse drawn cart and tell me how much you prefer that, all because it's authentic...
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Well said.
 
Doc Rock said:
Why would more RAM make switching gapless? I don't see it as a RAM problem - as has already been explained, it's that multiple blocks, including amp, cab, and everything else in the preset, are all being shut off, new blocks being loaded, etc AT THE SAME TIME. That HAS to take a finite amount of time, even if it's only a millisecond or two. Personally, I never even notice it.
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Don’t know, a process that is so fast that you cannot even hear it . Me I feel it everytime I change to rythm to solos.. so every 2 minutes .
 
chris said:
yeah not sure what other modelers are doing to be "gapless." were you changing presets or scenes in that moment in the video?

i'm not sure presets can ever be gapless - that's just every single block changing at once. without a short audio gap/mute, there would be the loud pops that we had on the roadster. so i'm not sure what can be done for that much data changing instantly.

i'm pretty sure FAS wants to improve this always. the constant work to make the unit better and more efficient always directly affects preset and scene changing times, so i would say it's constantly being worked on.

3.02 in the FM3 for example didn't even mention faster Amp Channel changes, but it sure is faster, a result of the work on all the other stuff i think.
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I was changing scenes, scene 2 to scene 3 .
Same amp, A to C copy (channels) with a little eq difference. Same cab. Just reverb and delay nothing else. But nothing new about this. I know people will get nervous if I continue to speak about it. so we will see what we will have in the future and that’s all hm.
 
Today I decided to give the 5150 a try. Never really used it, but holy balls that's TIGHT. Nothing flabby in the lower registers. That normal?

I always avoided it, because it's a bit lethal with the gain and all.
 
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You can use two amp blocks in a preset and alternate between them to have completely seamless changes between amp models. Anytime you change presets or channels, the block is reset to load the new model and there will be a tiny drop out.

Another option is to use scene controllers to change amp parameter values in the same block instead of switching channels. That too will be completely seamless.
 
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Overcaster said:
Today I decided to give the 5150 a try. Never really used it, but holy balls that's TIGHT. Nothing flabby in the lower registers. That normal?

I always avoided it, because it's a bit lethal with the gain and all.
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It gets even tighter with a tube screamer or the horizon precision drive... or you can use a boost in the preamp, or input eq to remove more lows.
 
johnnypig said:
It gets even tighter with a tube screamer or the horizon precision drive... or you can use a boost in the preamp, or input eq to remove more lows.
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I thought there was some international law that forbids not doing this hah

The screamer boost is a must. Well the thing is the super lows aren't that annoying. It's bassy and tight, just right.
 
My name is mud said:
I was changing scenes, scene 2 to scene 3 .
Same amp, A to C copy (channels) with a little eq difference. Same cab. Just reverb and delay nothing else. But nothing new about this. I know people will get nervous if I continue to speak about it. so we will see what we will have in the future and that’s all hm.
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Did you have the AXE3 connected to Axe Edit? If so that could add some switching latency. Try disconnecting to see if that improves switch time. It has been fast for me.
 
My name is mud said:
I was changing scenes, scene 2 to scene 3 .
Same amp, A to C copy (channels) with a little eq difference. Same cab. Just reverb and delay nothing else. But nothing new about this. I know people will get nervous if I continue to speak about it. so we will see what we will have in the future and that’s all hm.
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Try using two amp blocks in parallel and use a multiplexer block to switch them. I'm doing that with delay and chorus/flange blocks and it works great.
 
FractalAudio said:
3. This firmware is more aggressive in the very high frequencies than the previous beta. There was a mistake in the power amp algorithm that reduced the drive into the virtual power tube grids by about 30% typically. So the grids weren't clipping as soon as they should resulting in reduced high frequency overtones. This typically will only be noticeable on non-MV amps. On non-MV amps you should hear a bit extra "sizzle" in the top end.
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After reading this and giving #5 a whirl, I realized my initial impression that my Plexi was less distorted in #4 was accurate. Thing is I kinda liked it. If I wanted to adjust my tone in that direction, would the typical front panel controls of presence, treble, and gain be the best method, or is there an advanced parameter I should try adjusting?
 
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