Cygnus Poll - Honest Question - Improvement?

Do you notice an improvement with Cygnus amp modeling?

  • Yes, right out of the box

    Votes: 264 61.5%

  • No, even after attempting to tweak presets

    Votes: 10 2.3%

  • Yes, but it takes effort to tweak presets

    Votes: 66 15.4%

  • I can't tell

    Votes: 39 9.1%

  • No vote, just show results

    Votes: 50 11.7%
  • Total voters
    429
I'm too inexperienced/old to tell the difference. I'm always hearing from others the highs are different or this sounds muddy, etc. but honest to God I cannot hear it. I am listening through Yamaha HS-8 studio speakers, but to me, I cannot hear the difference. I wish I could. I am 70, although my ears are still good, and have not been blasted out over the years. I always keep my firmware totally updated and have great guitars. It probably is my lack of experience. I played a lot when I was in high school back in the 60s. Took up guitar again two years ago in retirement. I play/practice everyday, but I guess my ears ain't what they used to be. My props to Cliff and all the great people at Fractal. I love my AXE FX III, but I honestly cannot hear much of a difference from 15.xx to Cygnus.
 
@Bulldog50 I use HS-8s as well. Things to listen for would be under-note thumps even in higher notes, phasey note trails (try blankenship leeds), tighter and chunkier bottom end that blooms on amps like Fenders, easier to pick through IRs (no need to over compensate in top and bottom end in the IR)...
The stuff you experience in front of a real amp is there and very apparent. If you plug your Axe into the fx return of a real amp it's all there too.
 
As with many here, I've had to do a lot of tweaking but feel the results show that Cygnus provides a real improvement.
 
I have unloaded all my pre-Cignus presets and having a lot of fun creating new ones. I find many amps not so "polished" as before, more raw. Well I am not an expert on tone vocabulary.

And yes, I should practice more rather than listening to the machine.
 
Mohi said:
I have unloaded all my pre-Cignus presets and having a lot of fun creating new ones. I find many amps not so "polished" as before, more raw. Well I am not an expert on tone vocabulary.

And yes, I should practice more rather than listening to the machine.
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For some reason, i actually like the more polished sound, in some way it needed less eqing in the post!! It was just the right amount of shiny!
I might go back to FW15!!
 
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So far i would say in your poll
7 who have struggled or might stay w 15 out of over 300 that like it better or don‘t hear a difference to their presets good or bad is a pretty strong result in favor of IMO
 
16 is more rawcus IMO. 15 is very nice and Shiney. They are both brilliant. I just think that 16 is closer to what you expect an amp to sound like.
So there seems to be a point of departure between sounding like a real amp and sounding like a modeled guitar sound. The two are different. Some people like the polish which is not present in a real amp.
 
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AngusV said:
16 is more rawcus IMO. 15 is very nice and Shiney. They are both brilliant. I just think that 16 is closer to what you expect an amp to sound like.
So there seems to be a point of departure between sounding like a real amp and sounding like a modeled guitar sound. The two are different. Some people like the polish which is not present in a real amp.
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Give me amp sound.

If you want a recording sound, that's what all those filters, gates, and compressor blocks are for.
 
I compared the real versions of amps to Cygnus to my Fender Deluxe, Friedman Smallbox, and Matchless DC-30. Using the amp in the room and LB-2 load box I felt the new firmware was very faithful to the amp. A lot of amps, especially hand wired will vary in quality and sound but Fractal offers all the tools you need to tweak to match "your" model and you really don't need to tweak too much to get it right.

The analog, outside of the box amps I absolutely love are now just as stellar in the Axe. The analog, outside of the Axe amps I always hated sounded much better to me in previous firmwares. Now I hate those amps in the Axe.

I just think of all the time I spent tweaking EQ, mic position, etc to get the right sound. Now I have to do the same (but far less tweaking) and be more intentional about the sound I'm going for.

Additionally, I have to "play" the Axe amps much more like an analog tube amp that's in the room. The touch sensitivity makes a huge difference now. After playing modelers almost exclusively I realize that I was able to get away with a bit sloppier playing.
 
AnmolAtwal said:
For some reason, i actually like the more polished sound, in some way it needed less eqing in the post!! It was just the right amount of shiny!
I might go back to FW15!!
Click to expand...

interesting! I found the opposite: I was able to get rid od post-EQ and multiband compressors in some of my presets. And I needed less gain to get the CHUG going.
 
phil92 said:
interesting! I found the opposite: I was able to get rid od post-EQ and multiband compressors in some of my presets. And I needed less gain to get the CHUG going.
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I didnt use any post eq or compression as such in the post....and thats to say i am not that good at mixing. But the guitar tone already had that produced and shiny feel. Now it is a lot more raw which is fun to play....but will see how it feels recorded using the same mantra as before.
 
I sold my Mark 1 version about 2 weeks ago after having it for 3 years and thoroughly enjoying the unit. I finally fired up my new Mark II unit that I got a couple of weeks ago. I still in a bit of shock. What on earth were people saying that the Friedman models don't sound like they used to? I dropped in my favourite model of that amp, pulled in a couple York Audio Bogner IRs that I love, hard panned them and adjust the high and lows , added a bit of delay and whammo. Hit me like a ton of bricks!

Seriously, this box makes me forget about ever even wanting another amp and cab.

So, yup....Cygnus = 🥰😍😆😈
 
phil92 said:
interesting! I found the opposite: I was able to get rid od post-EQ and multiband compressors in some of my presets. And I needed less gain to get the CHUG going.
Click to expand...
Yup, same here.
I am using now much less gain then before cygnus, because the chug is there much sooner with input gain set lower.
In fw 15.01., I had input gain around 10-15% more just to get the chug I wanted.
With cygnus, amp chugs with authority, but there´s no need for having a lot of gain anymore IMO.
Or IOW, you are not cranking gain so you can chug, the chug is already there and you just add gain to get the character you want from amp.
Hopefully that makes some sense :)

for example, just to get the same chunky, lovely chug :

herbie 3 :

fw 15.01 - input gain 3.5
fw 16 - input gain 2.5

cameron ccv 2c :
fw 15.01. - input gain 3, input trim 0.8
fw 16 - input gain 3, input trim 0.5.

this is so amazing for me, because the unwanted noise is significantly lower than before.

I love this stuff :hearteyes:
 
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