Betas and Austin Buddy Live

Lance Holland

Lance Holland

Inspired
What's your take on whether to install updates like this latest beta if your presets are based on Austin Buddy's packs?
Wait for AB to release his update when the final release is made or go for it?

Thanks!
 
It sounds like a great update from the beta thread. I was wondering if others' experience with these updates is that it requires substantial rework.
 
Some updates are impossible to resist, and from what I've read it seems plenty things will change. IIRC, not even AB recommends to update (re. his pack).

In the recent interviews, he also seems to hint he may update those packs only once a year, so that could be a year from now...?

I think if I was him, I'd bet on this update being the most sound changing one for a long time and update early... ;)
 
If you try to update to new firmware, please back up all your presets first.

The new firmware update will change some adjustments I made to amp block. For example it resets the amp input lo cut I use a lot.

So some of your presets will get more bass. The Marshalls will get louder, the Class As quieter. The Fenders are okay. I have not (of course) tried all 275+ amp channels/types so can’t say.

Try it if you want, but your levels may change and you would have to readjust. If you do decide to go back to 5.03 firmware, you will need to reinstall all those presets as part of your roll back.

There are some other changes needed. Fractal skipped over the original speaker curve update for the FM3 that they in released firmware for III (20.04) and FM9 (3.00) -- those are firmwares I had updates for and was ready to release for the FM3, BUT they went to FM3 with the same new public beta for the III, which does some of the changes that are brand new and so I will need to re-level and adjust,t probably 1st quarter 2023.

So I can put a “temporary” update that went' be corrected in accounts if you want to try it (but would have Klone and new amps etc.) but because it skipped a firmware Iteration and is still beta, it won’t be perfectly leveled and will have the issues I listed above.

Thoughts?
 
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I wish there would be a way to identify the parameters that were reset and compare the before and after values.

Fractool has an XML export, but only lets you do one preset at a time. It would a simple matter to write code to compare the exports and generate a report on the changed values, but doing the exports one at a time would be far too labor intensive.

Edit: I just learned that I was wrong. You can easily export individual files for every preset in a bank at once. I'll see if there's something useful to be gotten from this...
 
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ElectricPhase said:
I wish there would be a way to identify the parameters that were reset and compare the before and after values.

Fractool has an XML export, but only lets you do one preset at a time. It would a simple matter to write code to compare the exports and generate a report on the changed values, but doing the exports one at a time would be far too labor intensive.
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I have to do them manually. I have two III’s, one on old firmware and one on newer. I A/B them running two editors and look at what parameters the new firmware changed in amp block…
 
FWIW, I've got Live Gold on both my III and FM9, everything still sounds great and is certainly usable. Some things are different but it's not such a huge variance that it changes things in a negative way. In general, I use those presets like having a well-stocked studio, so when I'm recording and think "This part needs an old Marshall", I just pull up a preset, tweak it to fit the song and press Record. And actually, I don't believe I've updated Live Gold in my III for quite a while, I'm more than sure I'm missing the last update Austin put out.

The tweaks are so slight, they're just doing what I'd do in post with an EQ, or adding an effect to the preset.

I'm recording a song right now using the new beta and still using Live Gold the same way I always did. I wouldn't hold off on updating at all. Especially now that Austin's pointed out where the biggest changes will pop up, ya know what to expect.

(FWIW PT. II- I think Live Gold should come in every Fractal unit out the door. FAS would have twice as hard of a job keeping units in stock if it shipped with every unit from word of mouth alone. No dis to the factory presets, but Live Gold has been invaluable to me and the organization is OUTSTANDING)
 
RevDrucifer said:
FWIW, I've got Live Gold on both my III and FM9, everything still sounds great and is certainly usable. Some things are different but it's not such a huge variance that it changes things in a negative way. In general, I use those presets like having a well-stocked studio, so when I'm recording and think "This part needs an old Marshall", I just pull up a preset, tweak it to fit the song and press Record. And actually, I don't believe I've updated Live Gold in my III for quite a while, I'm more than sure I'm missing the last update Austin put out.

The tweaks are so slight, they're just doing what I'd do in post with an EQ, or adding an effect to the preset.

I'm recording a song right now using the new beta and still using Live Gold the same way I always did. I wouldn't hold off on updating at all. Especially now that Austin's pointed out where the biggest changes will pop up, ya know what to expect.

(FWIW PT. II- I think Live Gold should come in every Fractal unit out the door. FAS would have twice as hard of a job keeping units in stock if it shipped with every unit from word of mouth alone. No dis to the factory presets, but Live Gold has been invaluable to me and the organization is OUTSTANDING)
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@RevDrucifer This is good to hear that you aren't feeling things have drifted too much presets sound and level wise under new public beta firmware. I've just not had the bandwidth to go through everything under public beta 21.00, after updating it for firmware 20.04 through August-September-October.

At some point I'll update, once the FM9 firmware catches up to the III and FM3, and stuff is no longer "beta" but all are final release across all three units... then I'll do some preset leveling adjustments to LiveGold across all three platforms. But I may not get it done until early 2023.
 
austinbuddy said:
@RevDrucifer This is good to hear that you aren't feeling things have drifted too much presets sound and level wise under new public beta firmware. I've just not had the bandwidth to go through everything under public beta 21.00, after updating it for firmware 20.04 through August-September-October.

At some point I'll update, once the FM9 firmware catches up to the III and FM3, and stuff is no longer "beta" but all are final release across all three units... then I'll do some preset leveling adjustments to LiveGold across all three platforms. But I may not get it done until early 2023.
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Precisely why I put the Wow emoji to your first post; that's a crazy amount of work. I'm blown away you even have the wherewithal to pull that off! I saw the e-mail for the FM9 update this weekend and thought "Ohhhh the poor guy, now he's got Cygnus 2 to move onto"

I tend to think of all my presets as being liquid; I don't have "my sound" dialed into any single preset because it's whatever works for the song. Even relying on the same presets, I tweak them differently from song to song. I don't get hung up on small tonal differences because it's a huge time-suck, I just tweak until it works for what I'm doing and move on. With my live rig, I don't even tweak the presets; I rely on the EQ's of the power amps I'm using to adjust for the room. This approach takes my focus off tweaking and lets me focus more on playing.

So if one is a stickler for getting something EXACT and "This is IT, this is MY tone. I've crafted it from the fires of Hell with my bare hands!" then I could see how these differences could throw them off. My advice is to not allow them to do so, they've only shifted over a couple seats in the ballpark.
 
We don't have any major gigs until New Years Eve....so, there's plenty of time for adjustments. (although we are shooting a promo video this weekend).

I just installed the beta and...........the earth continued to spin on axis! :)

While I haven't deeply analyzed anything, nothing seems weird.
 
hole said:
But seriously: you can always roll back a FW update.
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Before installing new firmware make a backup, and then update the firmware. By doing it that way the backup acts as a safety net for the presets. Once a preset is edited with more recent firmware, it's possible that it won't be visible if you revert to an older version.
 
austinbuddy said:
If you try to update to new firmware, please back up all your presets first.

The new firmware update will change some adjustments I made to amp block. For example it resets the amp input lo cut I use a lot.

So some of your presets will get more bass. The Marshalls will get louder, the Class As quieter. The Fenders are okay. I have not (of course) tried all 275+ amp channels/types so can’t say.

Try it if you want, but your levels may change and you would have to readjust. If you do decide to go back to 5.03 firmware, you will need to reinstall all those presets as part of your roll back.

There are some other changes needed. Fractal skipped over the original speaker curve update for the FM3 that they in released firmware for III (20.04) and FM9 (3.00) -- those are firmwares I had updates for and was ready to release for the FM3, BUT they went to FM3 with the same new public beta for the III, which does some of the changes that are brand new and so I will need to re-level and adjust,t probably 1st quarter 2023.

So I can put a “temporary” update that went' be corrected in accounts if you want to try it (but would have Klone and new amps etc.) but because it skipped a firmware Iteration and is still beta, it won’t be perfectly leveled and will have the issues I listed above.

Thoughts?
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I'll be backing mine up tonight, then I'll try the latest beta release. Once everything is done I'll go through and let you know what adjustments, if any, were needed. Thanks for the heads up.
 
If I want to try the beta 2 version with the fractal stk amps instead of my Austin Buddy live gold - (which I backed up ) how do I get the original FA amps back into my FM9 ? new user, sorry little confused
 
Jamme1961 said:
If I want to try the beta 2 version with the fractal stk amps instead of my Austin Buddy live gold - (which I backed up ) how do I get the original FA amps back into my FM9 ? new user, sorry little confused
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You can re-install the Factory presets anytime. You can find and download them from the Fractal Audio website, and use Fractal Bot to send Bank A (which is 100+ factor amps) to whatever bank in your unit you want to. Yes it will overwrite what you have there now, so back up with FractalBot everything before you do this, so you can always revert back. Good luck!
 
I purchased live gold last Friday...
Man.....fantastic sound... bank B is my favourite...not a Marshall guy..
No need to spend hours with every parameter of my FM9T..
the only tweak is to lower some 4khz ...just a little..in global eq..in full volume my frfr cabinet.
firmware 3...waiting the final release of 4
Its time to play the guitar now...
Thanks AustinBuddy
 
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