Cygnus /Austin buddy

serge20261

Inspired
My Austin buddy presets sound awful with Cygnus .I reset amp blocks and seems to make everything worse.What is this update actually doing in terms of parameters.
Anyhow reverted back to 15 everything is fine again.
Not hearing what the majority are hearing
More then likely I’ve missed something
 
I also have Buddy's tone pack from before Cygnus. Buddy uses some complex preset structures. In many cases, the change to Cygnus caused changes in some of the settings and also changed whether some blocks are engaged or not. For example, in a lot of presets I use from Buddy use more than one amp block with different amps. I found in some that some one amp block may be engaged when it's not supposed to be and vice versa. Also, some parameters in some of the amp blocks and other blocks may be changed after Cygnus. Those types of issue can make the preset sound very different and "off". I know Buddy is working on all the presets but you might try checking each amp block in isolation with a cab block to make sure the basic tone is there. I was able to "fix" a few of my Buddy presets by checking block by block to make sure the settings are correct.
 
I also have Buddy's tone pack from before Cygnus. Buddy uses some complex preset structures. In many cases, the change to Cygnus caused changes in some of the settings and also changed whether some blocks are engaged or not. For example, in a lot of presets I use from Buddy use more than one amp block with different amps. I found in some that some one amp block may be engaged when it's not supposed to be and vice versa. Also, some parameters in some of the amp blocks and other blocks may be changed after Cygnus. Those types of issue can make the preset sound very different and "off". I know Buddy is working on all the presets but you might try checking each amp block in isolation with a cab block to make sure the basic tone is there. I was able to "fix" a few of my Buddy presets by checking block by block to make sure the settings are correct.l
Sounds like a huge task to correct
Can you hear much difference once you’ve sorted everything with Cygnus?
 
Since I have nothing pressing to do, last week I loaded bank A of Buddy's Naked Amps pack for version 15.0 into both bank A and bank B of my Axe III. After loading the first bank, I used FracTool to reset all the amps, but I froze the parameters that I did not want to totally reset (Pre and Post EQ, everything on the Speaker Page, Input Trim, MV, and more). I left Bank B alone.

The last few days, at leisure I have listened to see if there were any major blowups as far as the difference. So far, I have only basically gotten through all the Fenders, half the Marshalls, and the few other amps sandwiched in between those in the bank (Vox/Hiwatt/Supro/JC120). So far, there have not been any where there have been changes where I didn't think I could fix it with a few tweaks.

I can't think of many instances where I was not more pleased with the Cygnus version than 15.0. Some were pretty much the same, but as others have said there is something better going on in the low mids of most amps and also the high mids in some. Bass got wonky on a few so far, so I've been messing with the lo cut in the preamp EQ which I had never done before and am liking that process instead of cutting a bunch in the cab block.

Now since I did freeze a good number of parameters in FracTool, I can't say if some of those left alone during a reset would not make the presets unusable. And I might have missed some of the goodness of Cygnus doing that. Just giving you my experience so far.
 
Hi Serge,

I updated all mine using Axe edit and wasn't to pleased with the results. So.. I restored from a backup, & used fractool, using the following procedure and am happy now (still looking forward to the update of course!)
  1. Install Fractool if you dont already have it
  2. Backup your presets,
  3. Open Fractool and Choose the 'Amp Resetter' tab,
  4. Select the parameters you want to keep the same settings,
  5. Enter the presets, or preset range you want to reset the amps in,
  6. Hit apply.
  7. DONE!
Freeze the following parameters - I'm quite happy overall...

Bass
Boost
Boost level
bp mode
Bright sw
Bypass
Depth
Drive
Dynamics
EQ
EQ1
EQ2
EQ3
EQ4
EQ5
EQ6
EQ7
EQ8
M.Vol
Mid
Overdrive
Pres
Sat
Sat drive
Spk comp
Spk compliance
Spkr impedence
Treble
Variac

Thanks
Pauly


My Austin buddy presets sound awful with Cygnus .I reset amp blocks and seems to make everything worse.What is this update actually doing in terms of parameters.
Anyhow reverted back to 15 everything is fine again.
Not hearing what the majority are hearing
More then likely I’ve missed something
 
Sounds like a huge task to correct
Can you hear much difference once you’ve sorted everything with Cygnus?
After downloading Cygnus and resetting the amp blocks, I went through my gig presets from Buddy that I use (about 5 presets) and went block by block turning them off and on. That helped isolate any issues. I started by isolating each amp block with a cab block and no other effects, etc. to make sure the basic amp tone was good. In my case, I found that the amps in isolation sounded great so I then explored each block and found some that needed adjustment. I had to re-level a few and adjust BMT for some but not much. For any presets that have only one amp block and one cab, they seemed to all sound great with minimal adjustment. Honestly, I don't use many complex presets so this wasn't a big deal for me. I know some folks on the forum have complex stuff that requires much more time to adjust. Hope that helps.
 
HI all:

I've been working most every night on the Cygnus LiveGold update for Axe-Fx III and in a week (or two worse case) Bank 1 Marshall-styles will be all updated and I'll put that "Partial update" in yall's downloads area.

A few things:

Cygnus changes the power amp modeling. With some amp models that's a big change in sound, with others, not so much. The new Freidmans are killer IMHO.

But usually the Gain structure (possibly Input Gain/Drive, and more likely the Master volumes) have to be slightly adjusted if you update to Cygnus, then you have to fix the LEVEL to compensate. I am finding have to add 2 db or so to existing LEVEL, give or take, to some updated Cygnus amps, but some amps don't need any LEVEL tweak - varies by amp model.

So, if you presets sound "weak" after updating to Cygnus, try raising the LEVEL by 1 or 2 db and see if the preset "wake ups" again.

Cygnus is "thicker" on the bottom and lower mids, so in contrast, if you A/B them side-by-side, yes firmware 15 is more "edgier" with more mids or higher kids (but that is also possible perception issue, due to less bass being present).

So far (Marshall amps focus), I think Cygnus sounds amazing and more like a real amp than even firmware 15, but that does not mean firmware 15 sounds "bad" - it works fine and sounds good to me, certainly gig-worthy.

So if you "reset" the amp block using the Axe-Fx III Editor, under Cygnus, a lot of the LiveGold's custom preset settings (some detailed below) go away...

Some of these changes I make when programming may include:

Depth - will tweak sometimes to control bass/bottom end, usually lowering it, I rarely add it.

Presence -- when you do a default, it resets back to 5 default (I think). Presence control in some amps under Cygnus seems to have a more powerful (like Friedmans) effect on overall tone than it did in firmware 15. Negative feedback, which I never touch, can too.

Saturation drive amount is set somewhere less than the default amp reset of 4 in most cases, I have to check these all over again, because some need different vales under Cygnus than firmware 15, else turning it on (via CS5) the preset becomes too loud,

Sometimes (rarely) I lower the default Brite cap value to get the bright and dirt amount where I want it,

The preamp boost amount in db (usually set it to less than 12 db default value)...

On about 30% of the presets I will change the default Speaker Impedance Curve type to a choice I favor that matches my selected CAB IR better, and this can have BIG impact on tone EQ especially bottom end or top, and sometimes (rarer) I will play with the Lo and Hi Freq Res to get it "right.". A lot of time was spent "auditioning" various speaker impedance curves preset by preset in making the original LiveGold presets ya'll use.

I set Speaker Compression to zero usually (and a reset will move it to 1.0). The new speaker compression algorithm is more to my liking than the old one, and now I may be adding a "smidgeon" of that (like I'm not kidding, 0.10 maybe and that's it) for some amps, just to take a slight edge off. I usually like it at zero because I FEEL the note more immediately (stiffly?) as I play, and the old speaker comp "felt like" it added some unneeded time lag to me, but some like it softer attack than stiff, so you can dial to taste (they higher you go, the more you have to up the LEVEL to compensate).

Amp 10 band GEQ - sometimes I will drop a little of the 63Hz or add a little top here.I try to avoid it and leave it alone 85%+ of the time, but sometimes that's what i need to do to optimize to the Cab OR to get what I want.

Input EQ (low cut) I will play with that value scene by scene sometimes, rather than default amp value, to stop any flubby bass as again goes; the more the gain in the scene/amp, the more likely I will raise it above 100Hz.

Output Compression - I will add 0.25 to cleans just so they shimmer longer, just a little

Input Dynamics - on the boutique amps I may add a little, less <1.

On EVH plexis I may set variac lower than 100%.

While I am not touching it in updates, changing the power tube bias in Cygnus from default to something higher (wow - you can intentionally red plate the tubes!) really affects the tone, pretty cool, check that out for the Marshall-style amps in bank 1 under Cygnus, as well as the Grid Bias and Master Grid - just little movements there can really open an amp up further.

I'll note those options in the partial update release notes and final release notes for LiveGold for Cygnus.

If you only have a handful of "must use" presets from Live Gold and you want to update to Cygnus, if you copy the above parameter's values before you reset and then re-input those same values, then after tweak the Gain/BMT/Pres slightly and LEVEL to average -12db on a sustained "A" chord, you should be fine.
 
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Buddy, like I said in my post on the thread, I’ve been really liking messing with the lo cut in the preamp section when the bass is a little busy. Not a huge cut-usually in the 40-60 range. Then sometimes raise the bass a little in BMT to compensate. Seems a little cleaner on the bottom end. But I kind of forgot about the depth parameter so maybe that kind of does the same fix.
 
Buddy, like I said in my post on the thread, I’ve been really liking messing with the lo cut in the preamp section when the bass is a little busy. Not a huge cut-usually in the 40-60 range. Then sometimes raise the bass a little in BMT to compensate. Seems a little cleaner on the bottom end. But I kind of forgot about the depth parameter so maybe that kind of does the same fix.
Hey Mott!

If the amp has a depth control, play with lowering it by a value of about 1.0 from whatever is default (if 4.5 or higher) for the amp model, in addition to the others above. I also cut in the Cab Block the IRs there, but Cygnus update doesn’t change Cab settings.

By the way, for regular tuned guitars, they don’t really put out frequencies under 68Hz for your low E. So generally raising the amp input EQ to low cut to at least 70hz only helps.
 
Well, I know that but somehow since it’s before the preamp, it seems to take something out that makes a difference in the finished product. Kind of like a subatomic particle.

Of course I could be insane.
 
HI all:

I've been working most every night on the Cygnus LiveGold update for Axe-Fx III and in a week (or two worse case) Bank 1 Marshall-styles will be all updated and I'll put that "Partial update" in yall's downloads area.

A few things:

Cygnus changes the power amp modeling. With some amp models that's a big change in sound, with others, not so much. The new Freidmans are killer IMHO.

But usually the Gain structure (possibly Input Gain/Drive, and more likely the Master volumes) have to be slightly adjusted if you update to Cygnus, then you have to fix the LEVEL to compensate. I am finding have to add 2 db or so to existing LEVEL, give or take, to some updated Cygnus amps, but some amps don't need any LEVEL tweak - varies by map model. So, if you preset sound "weak" after updating to Cygnus, try raising the LEVEL by 1 or 2 db and see if the preset "wake ups" again.

Cygnus is "thicker" on the bottom and lower mids, so in contrast if you A/B them side-by-side, yes firmware 15 is more "edgier" with more mids or higher kids (but that is also possible perception issue, due to less bass being present).

So far (Marshall amps focus), I think Cygnus sounds amazing and more like a real amp than even firmware 15, but that does not mean firmware 15 sounds "bad" - it works fine and sounds good to me, certainly gig-worthy.

So if you "reset" the amp block using the Axe-Fx III Editor, under Cygnus, a lot of the LiveGold's custom preset settings (some detailed below) go away...

Some of these changes I make when programming may include:

Depth - will tweak sometimes to control bass/bottom end, usually lowering it, I rarely add it.

Presence -- when you do a default, it resets back to 5 default (I think). Presence control in some amps under Cygnus seems to have a more powerful (like Friedmans) effect on overall tone than it did in firmware 15. Negative feedback, which I never touch, can too.

Saturation drive amount is set somewhere less than the default amp reset of 4 in most cases, I have to check these all over again, because some need different vales under Cygnus than firmware 15, else turning it on (via CS5) the preset becomes too loud,

Sometimes (rarely) I lower the default Brite cap value to get the bright and dirt amount where I want it,

The preamp boost amount in db (usually set it to less than 12 db default value)...

On about 30% of the presets I will change the default Speaker Impedance Curve type to a choice I favor that matches my selected CAB IR better, and this can have BIG impact on tone EQ especially bottom end or top, and sometimes (rarer) I will play with the Lo and Hi Freq Res to get it "right.". A lot of time was spent "auditioning" various speaker impedance curves preset by preset in making the original LiveGold presets ya'll use.

I set Speaker Compression to zero usually (and a reset will move it to 1.0). The new speaker compression algorithm is more to my liking than the old one, and now I may be adding a "smidgeon" of that (like I'm not kidding, 0.10 maybe and that's it) for some amps, just to take a slight edge off. I usually like it at zero because I FEEL the note more immediately (stiffly?) as I play, and the old speaker comp "felt like" it added some unneeded time lag to me, but some like it softer attack than stiff, so you can dial to taste (they higher you go, the more you have to up the LEVEL to compensate).

Input EQ (low cut) I will play with that value scene by scene sometimes, rather than default amp value, to stop any flubby bass as again goes; the more the gain in the scene/amp, the more likely I will raise it above 100Hz.

Output Compression - I will add 0.25 to cleans just so they shimmer longer, just a little

Input Dynamics - on the boutique amps I may add a little, less <1.

On EVH plexis I may set variac lower than 100%.

While I am not touching it in updates, changing the power tube bias in Cygnus from default to something higher (wow - you can intentionally red plate the tubes!) really affects the tone, pretty cool, check that out for the Marshall-style amps in bank 1 under Cygnus, as well as the Grid Bias and Master Grid - just little movements there can really open an amp up further.

I'll note those options in the partial update release notes and final release notes for LiveGold for Cygnus.

If you only have a handful of "must use" presets from Live Gold and you want to update to Cygnus, if you copy the above parameter's values before you reset and then re-input those same values, then after tweak the Gain/BMT/Pres slightly and LEVEL to average -12db on a sustained "A" chord, you should be fine.
Hi Austin ,
New Fw day … and Beta ,
Does it mean that you ll have to redo your previous work ……???
 
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