Cygnus /Austin buddy

Just picked up the Live Gold pack.
Obviously ridiculous amount of work put into these.

The Bank 1 is really good. The Mesas in Bank 3 are very good even w/o updating.
The Bank 2 with Cygnus installed is pretty erratic. Some Fenders are really bass heavy and woofy.
Will look for update this summer.
Hi @Lkdog -- in the real life Fenders Amps can be quite actually bassy and will "woof out" when turned up it many cases. Fender's bass in the circuit helps with the single coils people use with them - Strats and Teles, but not so much with humbuckers.

You can use the INPUT EQ tab on the Amp block page to LOW CUT anything coming into the amp under 100Hz to 150Hz -- and that will tighten any Fenders up as they get louder. You can also use the CS6 BASS CUT switch as well. Hope that helps!
 
do not buy this crap. Even if he appears to help, still sounds like shit
@stef borremans Not sure how to respond to this criticism.

My stuff from my TonePacks is being used on tours from people from NIN to Justin Bieber and in RCA studios in Nashville snd True Fire studios in Florida - and they are thrilled with the sounds. Literally hundreds of folks on this forum would disagree with you if asked.

If it sounds "like crap", when investigated, it's usually the playback system being used and how your unit is set up. I can try to help if you like.
 
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

Hi @serge20261 - go download the update from my website that matches your Fractal firmware. Cygnus X 19.08+ is different from the Cygnus 15.x era, and everything had to be re-leveled and some gain adjusted for Marshall styles, and here and there some EQ adjusted.

By the way - I loved firmware 15. Best Tweed deluxe sound ever in that one. But have moved on!
 
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.

So, to my ears, Cygnus X (Fw 19.x) changed the gain scale a little in Marshall amps, and presets needed a re-level. FractalTool method of freezing values and doing amp reset alone thus won't bring them back to where they should be.

I'm not really using FracTool anymore to do updates (not that there is anything wrong with it!). I have two Axe-Fx III units, and so I A/B sounds between the old firmware and the new one, side by side on meters with everything the same output -- and that helps me figure out what "has moved" in the new firmware update -- and helps me zero in tonally on what I need to do to fix it for each preset.
 
@austinbuddy, what a thankless job! With the frequency of firmware updates especially!

Thanks for all you do, and your presence in the community.
Thank you @Dave Merrill - Believe it or not, I genuinely and sincerely like helping all you guys here on the Forum with unit issues or to get great sounds that you love and help you play even better with - "The Democratization of Great Tone" I call it.

We all learn from each other, but the end goal is JOY and inspiration when we play, because it sounds so good. In this crazy world, I like to think being a small part of producing moments like that for people is worth something.

As you know, I've been on this forum since 2010 or so and have learned a lot over the years, and like to share when it helps others. I didn't start selling TonePacks until 2017, as I saw a need to get everyone a good example of each amp model. It's something I wanted for myself at first, and it turns out most of ya'll want the same thing too!
 
Update is out! :)
AB, is the update in a new folder or the MAY 2022 folder? Didn't see a new folder after MAY 2022 since your Update announcement. Thank you for everything you do for us. It is such a blessing to have your vast expertise and tireless dedication to the Fractal community always available!!! And your KICKASSS presets.
 
AB, is the update in a new folder or the MAY 2022 folder? Didn't see a new folder after MAY 2022 since your Update announcement. Thank you for everything you do for us. It is such a blessing to have your vast expertise and tireless dedication to the Fractal community always available!!! And your KICKASSS presets.
It’s coming. The delay is I have to update the FC settings all over for Fm3 users and Fm9. Once that’s done I will post it. Hopefully tonight but maybe tomorrow.

But really, the 19.07 versions ya’ll have are fine on 20.02 on 98% of presets.
 
It’s coming. The delay is I have to update the FC settings all over for Fm3 users and Fm9. Once that’s done I will post it. Hopefully tonight but maybe tomorrow.

But really, the 19.07 versions ya’ll have are fine on 20.02 on 98% of presets.
Awesome. Those presets still sound great to me.
 
@austinbuddy

AB, can you explain in a little more detail what is going on with the FM9 version of your ”Gold” presets. Are you waiting on the next release of FM9 firmware to complete the conversion? I know the next release of the FM9 firmware has been a while coming since it is supposed to include some major upgrades and fixes.

Thanks for all you do to keep your software current with all the changing firmware updates.
 
@austinbuddy

AB, can you explain in a little more detail what is going on with the FM9 version of your ”Gold” presets. Are you waiting on the next release of FM9 firmware to complete the conversion? I know the next release of the FM9 firmware has been a while coming since it is supposed to include some major upgrades and fixes.

Thanks for all you do to keep your software current with all the changing firmware updates.

Sure. I think I can do this without a NDA issue, else the moderators may strike this.

I'm one of many Fractal beta testers. I've been helping test parts of the next firmware for FM9 (like preset translation across the 3 unit types).

So I did all my Live Gold updates on the FM9 before the 2.03 that is available to beta team. So you can use those 2.01 ones fine. But I did Naked Amps FM9 and saved the presets on that beta, which means you can't read those presets on the public firmware (yet). I have already saved them and customers who bought it can download that Naked Amps update - you just can't read the Naked Amps FM9 ones until the next firmware release comes out.

There will probably be a new FM9 firmware release this month - not for me to say, that's really up to Fractal Audio -- but it's also nice to see firmwares align in features across all three units - III, FM9, and FM3, so that the presets I make are also congruent them.

Sometimes there needs to be a little time, to catch up to Cliff's III innovative updates. After all, Cliff just released 20.01 last week and on Friday 20.02 beta was out on Friday - that fast!
 
Last edited:
Sure. I think I can do this without a NDA issue, else the moderators may strike this.

I'm one of many Fractal beta testers. I've been helping test parts of the next firmware for FM9 (like preset translation across the 3 unit types).

So I did all my LiveGold updates on the beta after public 20.02 that is available to beta team, and saved the presets on that, which means you can't read them on the public firmware (yet). I have already saved them and you can download the update - you just can't read them until the next firmware release comes out.

There will probably be a new FM9 firmware release this month - not for me to say, that's really up to Fractal Audio -- but it's also nice to see firmwares align in features across all three units - III, FM9, and FM3, so that the presets I make are also congruent them.

Sometimes there needs to be a little time, to catch up to Cliff's III innovative updates. After all, Cliff just released 20.01 last week and on Friday 20.02 beta was out on Friday - that fast!
I thought it was something like that, but I wasn't quite clear on it. That is very helpful. Thanks again for all you do!! Cheers!!
 
I thought it was something like that, but I wasn't quite clear on it. That is very helpful. Thanks again for all you do!! Cheers!!
I lond of misspoke above. LiveGold is update for FM9 now, should be a June 2022 update and it will work with the current public firmware available. But Naked Amps is saved on a beta and those will not work until next firmware. Sorry for the confusion. Busy day! Happy July 4th ya’ll.
 
Sure. I think I can do this without a NDA issue, else the moderators may strike this.

I'm one of many Fractal beta testers. I've been helping test parts of the next firmware for FM9 (like preset translation across the 3 unit types).

So I did all my LiveGold updates on the beta after public 20.02 that is available to beta team, and saved the presets on that, which means you can't read them on the public firmware (yet). I have already saved them and you can download the update - you just can't read them until the next firmware release comes out.

There will probably be a new FM9 firmware release this month - not for me to say, that's really up to Fractal Audio -- but it's also nice to see firmwares align in features across all three units - III, FM9, and FM3, so that the presets I make are also congruent them.

Sometimes there needs to be a little time, to catch up to Cliff's III innovative updates. After all, Cliff just released 20.01 last week and on Friday 20.02 beta was out on Friday - that fast!
Hi AB.
Does this mean, that the new LiveGold update for Axe-Fxlll has the new speaker impedance curves?
 
Hi AB.
Does this mean, that the new LiveGold update for Axe-Fxlll has the new speaker impedance curves?
Nothing in LiveGold is updated with the 20.02 BETA new Speaker impedance stuff. But LiveGold is updated to the public release 20.01.

I suspect we’ll see some more betas on this 20.02 new speaker curve processor over the next few weeks.

There are some (a few) new speaker curves available in public firmware 20.01 (and more in 20.02 beta) but I did not use these new ones in June 2022 update except for a few presets, if I recall right. Cliff has added more since, and in future update I will check those out and see what sounds better. Sorry fro any confusion.
 
Last edited:
I lond of misspoke above. LiveGold is update for FM9 now, should be a June 2022 update and it will work with the current public firmware available. But Naked Amps is saved on a beta and those will not work until next firmware. Sorry for the confusion. Busy day! Happy July 4th ya’ll.
OK. Yeah, that does make a difference. I'll download the latest and check them out. Thanks.
 
Back
Top Bottom