Axe-Fx III Firmware 28.00 Release

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Holy crap, talk about killer organic sounds! And so far, I've only touched one preset. It is based around the USA MK IIC+ Deep Bright and it was blowing me away. I love when a new FW drops and my planned exam of all the goodies goes right out the window, as the sound/feel overrides my focus to instead make music!
Thanx as always to Cliff and all the FAS team! I'm so appreciative you do what you do!!
Cheers,
Lee
 
Good LORD MAN the JCM800 has once again had even more magic applied!! It IS tighter in the low end, but subtly and perfectly, it all sounds tightened up in my 2203 High (it WAS absolutely perfect!)

The JFET Studio Compressor up front in the chain (where i prefer to apply comp in my setup) is INCREDIBLE!! Went from what is now the Modern VCA Compressor (think it was the Studio FF prior in 27.x), and first checked out Rockguy, VERY nice, but I'm just givin' 'em a quick review, so next I checked out the JFET and my PANTS got tight!!! The gritty fullness it added is so perfect, and with the new triode algo for the JCM800 it.....I almost hesitate to say it, because "how can it be every single time now??"....MORE feel and tighter across the board, once again, for the 8th? 9th? time, perfected the JCM800!! I just cannot believe what I'm feeling and hearing.

Lastly, I just want to say how noticable it is that all the default settings on just about any device chosen now are nearly perfect! It takes very little, if any, time to dial in what I'm looking for from said device. This time it was the new JFET Studio Compressor; choose, enjoy perfection. Sure I can tweak it, and probably will someday, but the point is, it's already dialed into a fantastic setting for most uses. Just another bonus I am noticing more and more.

Once again, just scatching the surface on v28, I'm sooooo happy it was Fractal I chose to cross over to modelling with. Fractal is the absolute GOAT and with Cliff and his team, I don't see that ever changing. This is just insane joy, thank you SO MUCH Cliff and all the beta testers, what a whopping release, SO much great stuff!! Feels like I need to put up Christmas decorations again. 🤘 :cool:
 
Great work cliff! Can’t wait to try some of the new goodies on the FM3.

Have you ever considered entering the HiFi market and build something like a preamp/streamer/dac that includes your modeling technology? I bet you could disrupt this market in a blink with a great preamp that has some tube modeling going without the disadvantages of real tubes in a living room.
 
FractalAudio said:
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I’m lucky. My neighbors listen to awesome music.
They have no choice!
 
Holy crap, after having messed with it extensively tonight, I can say it's unbelievable. The feel, the aliveness of the amps. This is the reason I play guitar.

Thank you genuinely for taking what already felt perfect and still finding ways to make it even better. The feel of the amps was one thing, but combining it with the flexibility of the DynaCabs was just ideal. I kept thinking, if the fifteen year old me could've known all this tone would be at my fingertips, he wouldn't have believed it. I was just dialing in one epic tone after another, like it was nothing.
 
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MirrorProfiles said:
I’m not doubting what’s in your specific amp at all, and Friedman definitely wired the NFB from the speaker terminals for a while - just saying that Dave Friedman (RACKSYSTEMS in that post) himself says that from 2016 onwards they changed it to the 4 Ω tap and that’s the case in most people’s amps from that period onwards.

At 1:44:45 in this video Dave talks about it, says it’s something they used to do but not anymore:




It’s not internet speculation or conjecture, it’s from the horses mouth and is a well documented change that he’s mentioned himself a lot (which somehow skipped your specific amp). But as that amp has had different revisions and component values over the years, I don’t mind swapping the values in Axe Edit to the version I like best.

Just looked through my old photos for my BE100 gut shots which I believe is the same year as Cliff’s (4 toggle switches on the front). Annoyingly the angle of the camera isn’t ideal but it seems to be coming off the toggle switch (pink wire) on my amp.

View attachment 151628
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That model (2018?) there is showing a fixed depth circuit of 220k in parallel 4.7nF, same values as they always used before switching to the pot in the DLX.
That negative feedback resistor is 47K off the 4 ohm tap there, which is the same resistor value they used when they used to wire to the speaker jack.
 
Liam Thompson said:
That model (2018?) there is showing a fixed depth circuit of 220k in parallel 4.7nF, same values as they always used before switching to the pot in the DLX.
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The DLX has a pot for the Depth, but it also has a 3 way response switch that toggles through different amounts of NFB. Its in the manual here: https://friedmanamplification.com/w...100Deluxe_INSTRUCTION_MANUAL_6-4-19_FINAL.pdf

There's also a switch to change the frequency of the depth.

Liam Thompson said:
That negative feedback resistor is 47K off the 4 ohm tap there, which is the same resistor value they used when they used to wire to the speaker jack.
Click to expand...
Yeah - so off the 4 Ω tap, as Dave Friedman has been on record saying as being the way it's designed since 2016. Need to check what year mine specifically is but 2018 sounds about right.

The way I see it is:

  • there is already the 2010 BE model which fits in the time frame of when they had it connected to the speaker out. The voicing and circuit of that revision is probably based on the assumption of a 16 Ω load.
  • anything after 2016 is probably going to be wired to the 4 Ω tap, and the changes Dave made to the circuit will be with that in mind. The fact that Cliff seems to have an anomaly doesn't change the fact that most people who have a BE100 made after 2016 will be used to 4 Ω.
  • The DLX version is selectable. I have no idea if any one position is more popular than the other.

With the older BE100 design, and the DLX, I think part of the sound of the amp is being able to change NFB. The versions with it set to the 4 Ω tap, less so (as it would require modding).

As I've said already, I don't mind adjusting the NFB amount, it's easy to do and part of the appeal of using Fractal anyway. But IMO, I don't think the current implementation is a reflection of what most people's post 2016 BE100's will have.

FWIW, I just checked some NFB values for other Marshall style amps. Presumably the values vary a bit based on measurements from Cliff which I guess are based on tolerances and circuit quirks.

New BE100 value=9.15 16 Ω
BE2010=7.4 (8 or 16 Ω? different resistor value?)
Smallbox=5.85 (8 Ω?)
1959SLP=5.3 (8 Ω? the official schematic shows it off the 8 Ω tap with a 47k resistor)
Plexi 100W=5.3 (similar arrangement to the above?)
Dirty Shirley=4.3 (guessing 8 Ω and that the values account for the difference in output vs 100W amps?)
Atomica=3.2 (different resistor value to the others?)
AFS=1.94 (4 Ω and 100k with different tolerance to below?)
2203=1.88 (4 Ω tap 100k)
Brit Silver=1.88 (4 Ω and 100k, the same as above)
Plexi 100W 1970=1.54 (4 Ω and component drift? 1970-71 was a transition from 8 Ω and 47k to 4 Ω and 100k)
Brit 2204=1.27 (4 Ω and 100k but 50W with the same values means less NFB than 100W)

From these values I can definitely make some guesses about what to use, but obviously not having to guess the values for the intended circuit would be even better. Can anyone help? Is it easy to work out the values required to change these to specific circuits? Its clearly possible to achieve the results of a range of combinations but it isn't clear how to land on the intended value.

FWIW, John Segeborn posted a load of values that Marshall used over the years. Its quite interesting to follow the evolution of the circuits:

1739795484635.jpeg
 
MirrorProfiles said:
The DLX has a pot for the Depth, but it also has a 3 way response switch that toggles through different amounts of NFB. Its in the manual here: https://friedmanamplification.com/w...100Deluxe_INSTRUCTION_MANUAL_6-4-19_FINAL.pdf

There's also a switch to change the frequency of the depth.


Yeah - so off the 4 Ω tap, as Dave Friedman has been on record saying as being the way it's designed since 2016. Need to check what year mine specifically is but 2018 sounds about right.

The way I see it is:

  • there is already the 2010 BE model which fits in the time frame of when they had it connected to the speaker out. The voicing and circuit of that revision is probably based on the assumption of a 16 Ω load.
  • anything after 2016 is probably going to be wired to the 4 Ω tap, and the changes Dave made to the circuit will be with that in mind. The fact that Cliff seems to have an anomaly doesn't change the fact that most people who have a BE100 made after 2016 will be used to 4 Ω.
  • The DLX version is selectable. I have no idea if any one position is more popular than the other.

With the older BE100 design, and the DLX, I think part of the sound of the amp is being able to change NFB. The versions with it set to the 4 Ω tap, less so (as it would require modding).

As I've said already, I don't mind adjusting the NFB amount, it's easy to do and part of the appeal of using Fractal anyway. But IMO, I don't think the current implementation is a reflection of what most people's post 2016 BE100's will have.

FWIW, I just checked some NFB values for other Marshall style amps. Presumably the values vary a bit based on measurements from Cliff which I guess are based on tolerances and circuit quirks.

New BE100 value=9.15 16 Ω
BE2010=7.4 (8 or 16 Ω? different resistor value?)
Smallbox=5.85 (8 Ω?)
1959SLP=5.3 (8 Ω? the official schematic shows it off the 8 Ω tap with a 47k resistor)
Plexi 100W=5.3 (similar arrangement to the above?)
Dirty Shirley=4.3 (guessing 8 Ω and that the values account for the difference in output vs 100W amps?)
Atomica=3.2 (different resistor value to the others?)
AFS=1.94 (4 Ω and 100k with different tolerance to below?)
2203=1.88 (4 Ω tap 100k)
Brit Silver=1.88 (4 Ω and 100k, the same as above)
Plexi 100W 1970=1.54 (4 Ω and component drift? 1970-71 was a transition from 8 Ω and 47k to 4 Ω and 100k)
Brit 2204=1.27 (4 Ω and 100k but 50W with the same values means less NFB than 100W)

From these values I can definitely make some guesses about what to use, but obviously not having to guess the values for the intended circuit would be even better. Can anyone help? Is it easy to work out the values required to change these to specific circuits? Its clearly possible to achieve the results of a range of combinations but it isn't clear how to land on the intended value.

FWIW, John Segeborn posted a load of values that Marshall used over the years. Its quite interesting to follow the evolution of the circuits:

View attachment 151638
Click to expand...
It's quite simple. Turns ratio is the square root of the impedance ratio.

Therefore if the feedback is taken off the 4-ohm tap instead of the 16-ohm tap then the turns ratio is 1/2. Set the NFB to half the value.
 
FractalAudio said:
It's quite simple. Turns ratio is the square root of the impedance ratio.

Therefore if the feedback is taken off the 4-ohm tap instead of the 16-ohm tap then the turns ratio is 1/2. Set the NFB to half the value.
Click to expand...
Thanks so much! And to get from 16 to 8 Ω it would be divide by 1.414?

And how about if the resistor values are different? For example the 67 and 68 Plexi NFB values above, or if I wanted to change between 47k and 100k at different impedance taps?
 
MirrorProfiles said:
Thanks so much! And to get from 16 to 8 Ω it would be divide by 1.414?

And how about if the resistor values are different? For example the 67 and 68 Plexi NFB values above, or if I wanted to change between 47k and 100k at different impedance taps?
Click to expand...
Yes, multiply by 0.707 to go down one tap.

If you double the NFB resistor you would decrease the NFB by 1/2.
 
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