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

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Mojotone:

"In 2012, Mojotone was contacted by Geddy Lee's bass tech, John "Skully" McIntosh. Alex Lifeson was in search of an amp to use on their upcoming Clockwork Angels tour. He had used a Marshall Silver Jubilee in the studio and was having a hard time finding something reliable to use on the road. Skully knew that Mojotone had an arsenal of amp kits and parts at our disposal, and was also aware that Mojotone did contract manufacturing for other amp companies. He asked us to build him something close to a Jubilee and told us he needed it delivered to Canada in one week. We quickly put Mojotone tech Steve Snyder to task building this new amp. Steve put in more than a few long nights and added a few of his own ideas to the classic Marshall design. One week later the new "Lerxst Omega" amp was delivered to Alex where the band was rehearsing for the tour that was only two weeks away. We knew the amp sounded good when it left but Alex's response was much more than we ever expected:

"I am so blown away by the fantastic job you and your colleagues have done creating the Lerxst amp for me. We pulled the Marshall last night after A/B-ing the two. The tonal character is quite similar but the response of the Lerxst has greater immediacy, sustain and grip. It sounds so good!"
After spending the last 2 days playing the Brit Silver model, I concur. I've been playing at stage volumes at home (2x CLR's and 2 x Event Opals)... made my wife leave the house for a few hours
 
4 hours with the beta , 30 presets re-tweaked already .

The thing I like the most is the big improvement of clean sounds , and light crunch .

Marshall afd improved , 5150 III red really improved , JP2c improved even if it’s not “finished” as the note said

the clean in ac30 and USA clean 🥰

but there is a big work to do, to tight the dist of most high gain heads . In palm mute and without a boost , the amps are pretty dirty .

don’t understand the hype with Friedman in general, maybe it’s not for my music genre , it sound dirty to me

well I won’t turn back in 15.01 this time
 
I know it's not a public poll, but just to just offer one opinion, I loved the old standardized Log15 Master Volume control philosophy that prioritized actual granular control over the poweramp as opposed to having "real life" Master Volume knobs on so many amps that prioritized cheap marketing stunts and goosed the pot at the earliest opportunity to give you the illusion that "wow this amp is loud!" at the expense of tonal control.
This.
 
So are you saying that all my presets are pointing at the wrong amps now? How did you know that the Bandmaster is Blues Jr?

Table 1 below shows changes between Beta 4 and Beta 5.

Green in the top section Beta 5 marks newly updated amps or ones that are now verified from their Beta 4 versions.
Green in the bottom section Beta 4 indicates an unverified amp is now verified in Beta 5.
Green in the bottom section Beta 5 indicates a newly updated amp that is not yet verified.
Blue indicates an amp listed in Beta 4 that is not included on the Beta 5 list. (There are three of these.)

I have not compared the Beta 5 list to the total amp list to see how much is left to do.

Can't wait to get a beta for the FM-3, though I totally understand why it makes sense to work through the beta process on the Ax3 first.”
 
I know it's not a public poll, but just to just offer one opinion, I loved the old standardized Log15 Master Volume control philosophy that prioritized actual granular control over the poweramp as opposed to having "real life" Master Volume knobs on so many amps that prioritized cheap marketing stunts and goosed the pot at the earliest opportunity to give you the illusion that "wow this amp is loud!" at the expense of tonal control.
I agree with these guys :)
 
Hopefully Cliff can put the taper on a switch in the setup options then because nothing short of nuclear war will get me to update beyond beta 5 in that case.

I'm getting the best tones I've ever had thanks to realistic volume controls instead of endlessly trying to find a sweet spot like before.

My fingers are freaking raw. I haven't played this much in years.
 
The Master Volume control taper now matches the real amp. In all prior firmwares the MV taper was Log15 for every model regardless of what the real amp used. I will have to check those two models you are using to see if the taper is different from Log15.

I may return the taper back to Log15 for the final release. Haven't decided yet.

Does this apply to the Presence / Depth controls as well?
 
Hopefully Cliff can put the taper on a switch in the setup options
I thought that would be a good feature, too, until I realized that that setting would have to go along with presets in the preset exchange, or folks would be in for quite a surprise when they load up a preset that had the opposite master volume setting from their personal preference!

If it were a per-preset setting, and the conversion equation was in the Axe, it could adjust the preset automatically for your preference, though.
 
Help please... I was on 14.00 and upgraded to Cygnus b5.2 on windows

I seem to of lost all the presets and all my foot controller (FC 12) settings (1.09).

I’ve even reloaded system configurations from prior saves to get the FC 12 working partially - but resulted to manually having to set the layouts switch by switch. None of my continuous controllers (EV1) are seen.

Re presets: I was thinking about reinstalling the factory patches over the beta, but I’m not certain how to get back to “normal”. Especially the FC12

I did rebuild the kitchen sink patch quickly and it does sound incredible with the 59 baseman!

Thanks in advance!
Halp ... Anyone got anything; purdy please?
 
Halp ... Anyone got anything; purdy please?
I'd reload FW 14, and restore your presets and system configurations to get back to normal. If everything is OK, I'd step to FW 15.1 and do a full backup. Then I'd step to Cygnus.

You will have the option to restore to any of the previous firmware versions at that point. The step from 14+ to 15.1 to Cygnus has been straightforward on my AF3 with no loses but there might be something incompatible in a direct jump.

You might even want to do a system reset prior to loading 15.1 just in case there's something wonky, then reload the system and controllers backup file and move forward. As long as you have the backup files you haven't lost your configuration. If it's a bug then Fractal will be able to fix the problem with your help.
 
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Did some comparison with my Mark V real amp, the palm muting on Axe III definitely improved in the beta, however, the real amp still have quite a bit more dynamic, eg when digging harder into the string with the pick. This is by no means a scientific comparison, as the lower volume setting on the real amp didn’t push it as hard which might contribute to the higher dynamic...
 

I know it's not a public poll, but just to just offer one opinion, I loved the old standardized Log15 Master Volume control philosophy that prioritized actual granular control over the poweramp as opposed to having "real life" Master Volume knobs on so many amps that prioritized cheap marketing stunts and goosed the pot at the earliest opportunity to give you the illusion that "wow this amp is loud!" at the expense of tonal control.
Yes~
 
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