Axe-Fx III Firmware Release Version 12.09

[York Audio]

I wouldn't sell the SLO. It's one of those amps that will probably increase in value. They're pretty awesome amps but to sound great you have to crank 'em and they're ear-splitting loud.

I completely agree. I told him to keep it for that same reason and told him to sell his Archon instead. Going from the SLO to the Archon was just sad. The SLO was so open and alive sounding (had the master around 5-6 in the room through a 4x12...I peed a little), and the Archon has this weird midrange honk that is impossible to get rid of and sounds like Ray Romano screaming at you...we turned that amp off pretty quickly.

 

[REDD]

Opening Post. The first post in the thread.

I thought it meant the original post as in first? So opening post is it? Learn something new every day!

 

[flying_walrus]

Unzip preset syx-files (3). Start FracBot. Select AF-III (must be powerd up and usb connected). In Send tab browse presets Bank A file. Click send, choose Bank A in pull down. Click OK. Presets bank A will be transferred (may take a while). Easy peasy.

then repeat for banks b and c. if your presets are stored in bank D they won’t be over written. if you changed the factory presets, this operation will overwrite them.

i could have sworn @chris had a video on this procedure, but am not seeing it

 

[jon]

I completely agree. I told him to keep it for that same reason and told him to sell his Archon instead. Going from the SLO to the Archon was just sad. The SLO was so open and alive sounding (had the master around 5-6 in the room through a 4x12...I peed a little), and the Archon has this weird midrange honk that is impossible to get rid of and sounds like Ray Romano screaming at you...we turned that amp off pretty quickly.

Man the way you hear everyone begging for that Archon you'd figure it was the next dumble or something! Good to hear it from you!

Not saying it's a bad amp, but I think it's very well overhyped

 

[lqdsnddist]

Never heard Ray Ramono used to describe an amp tone but it’s a rather good descriptor lol

 

[Lastdarkace]

Thank you Cliff and the whole Fractal team. This is by far the most inspirational piece of equipment I have owned.

 

[FractalAudio]

Man the way you hear everyone begging for that Archon you'd figure it was the next dumble or something! Good to hear it from you!

Not saying it's a bad amp, but I think it's very well overhyped

All new amps get overhyped. One day it's the Archon which then fades into obscurity. The next day it's Bogner's latest amp named after an Egyptian/Roman/Norse/Himalayan god. Then it's the Death Reaper Satanic Neutron Blaster that is "so tight and brootal". And then everyone is back to the classics.

Right now it's the Revv Generator. In a month people will be bored with it.

 

[bdrepko]

All new amps get overhyped. One day it's the Archon which then fades into obscurity. The next day it's Bogner's latest amp named after an Egyptian/Roman/Norse/Himalayan god. Then it's the Death Reaper Satanic Neutron Blaster that is "so tight and brootal". And then everyone is back to the classics.

Right now it's the Revv Generator. In a month people will be bored with it.

We are still waiting for the Death Monger Seal Clubber.

 

[shemihazazel]

I finally joined the party, and went straight from 12.07 to 12.09.

First off, the pitch block improvements are bonkers. Thing tracks crazy good now. Even with tracking set well beyond 5.0, the latency is barely perceptible.

And then there's the new modeling improvements. I haven't visited my high gain patches for a few weeks now. I got some DT1990 Pros around the same time, and could hear some nastiness in the upper frequencies that I hadn't noticed before. I think "Eh, I'll just come back later and tweak those." Fast forward to last night, when I pull up one of those same patches. All the nasty bits in the upper register are GONE. And the sound/feel is much tastier overall.

Thanks Cliff and Team for your relentless pursuit of improvement!

 

[Rex]

Hi Rex .... what do you mean by ...OP ?

OP = “Original Post” — the first post in this thread. It tells you that yes, there are new presets. It also tells you where to find them.

 

[2112]

"Silky" is definitely the word to describe this FW.

 

[bdrepko]

Man the way you hear everyone begging for that Archon you'd figure it was the next dumble or something! Good to hear it from you!

Not saying it's a bad amp, but I think it's very well overhyped

It is one of the better amp models in the Helix. I can just imaging what Cliff could do for it.

 

[greiswig]

Definitely hear a change in the high end on my existing presets. In several cases, I had notched the output EQ in the amp block at the 4kHz area to try to pull out some harshness i just couldn’t get rid of. Now I feel like I don’t need that. Very nice!

 

[York Audio]

Man the way you hear everyone begging for that Archon you'd figure it was the next dumble or something! Good to hear it from you!

Not saying it's a bad amp, but I think it's very well overhyped

To be fair, not many amps would be able to stand next to an SLO without their tail between their legs. The Archon is definitely its own thing, but if you're itching for that tone, try the 5153 Red model and set the input EQ to 650Hz and boost it 3-4dB and you'll get the gist. I still think the PVH 6160 Block and the FAS Skull Crusher are better for that kind of tone.

Never heard Ray Ramono used to describe an amp tone but it’s a rather good descriptor lol

You'll never be able to un-hear it now.

Death Reaper Satanic Neutron Blaster

That one got me.

 

[levipeto]

I thought it meant the original post as in first? So opening post is it? Learn something new every day!

yeah, you are right!

 

[peteri]

Very impressed, extremely impressed for such a small version increment!

I've gone through my presets today and found that basically I've gone from smoothing parameters in the 2-5 range to across the board 0.

Upper end is just much, much more pleasant - now only cut I'm running is a tiny bit of bass cut to tame the low end of my FRFR.

Marshalls sound quite a bit better, Fenders - oomph! Wow!

Thank you

 

[Brian Coonan]

I'm pretty blown away by this update. I just spent about an hour going through the new factory presets and moving some into the Axe so I can use them later (I didn't have any in there at all) and found myself moving more and more over. I feel like this new update has really made a big difference in the sound I'm getting - thanks a ton to FAS for the outstanding work. The taming of the high end is great!

 

[Henry]

"Silky" is definitely the word to describe this FW.

You made the movie length 12:09. No coincidence I assume.

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Thanks, I have changed so many things that it would be a lot of work to go back and update all the new presets.

You can load the new factory presets into the preset manager in AxeEdit, and then have complete control over which preset gets stored where.

 

[2112]

To be fair, not many amps would be able to stand next to an SLO without their tail between their legs. The Archon is definitely its own thing, but if you're itching for that tone, try the 5153 Red model and set the input EQ to 650Hz and boost it 3-4dB and you'll get the gist. I still think the PVH 6160 Block and the FAS Skull Crusher are better for that kind of tone.


You'll never be able to un-hear it now.


That one got me.

I tried an Archon at the PRS booth at the Boston Amp Show/Axe-Fest last year and it was OK - 5150ish but with the weird mids you mentioned. Much preferred the little MT15 head all around.

It's easy to forget we have access to amps like the Cornford (sounds bang on with my Soldano Hot Rod 50+ funnily enough), CarolAnn, Fryette, Splawn and the FAS models which cover so much of that "5150/Recto/SLO on performance enhancing drugs " thing already.