Cygnus Tech Notes

FractalAudio

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Fractal Audio Systems
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General notes:

1. The power amp bias algorithm is changed and the bias control works differently now. As with a real amp as you turn the bias down the gain also goes down. Typical values for bias are between 0.45 and 0.5 for fixed bias amps and 1.0 for cathode biased.

2. Dynamic Presence and Dynamic Depth have been removed as they are incompatible with the new algorithms.

3. On the Dynamics tab there is now a "Master Bias Ex." parameter. This scales ALL the bias excursion parameters. The default value for the various bias excursions is usually 100% now but there are some amps where a bias excursion may be 0%. Depends on the topology.

4. In general high gain amps should feel tighter and sound more "vocal". All amps should feel quite a bit more dynamic. You may need a compressor to tame things if you're recording (as you would a real amp).

5. There is a lot more variation in feel between models now.

6. The Triaxis models now have an authentic Preamp Presence control that works like the real thing.

7. The Hicut and Presence are now separate parameters. In most cases this is invisible to the user. However for the Komet models you get both, just like the amp.

I will add to this list as I remember things.
 
Thank you for these notes and all your hard work Cliff. Your dedication to the progression of amp modeling is heard and felt. I very much look forward to hearing the music that will be inspired by all the tones you can get from this new firmware.
 
So, if you have the dynamic presence on 3:00 on presets, then update to Cygnus, the preset gets muddy? I noticed that my high gains didn’t “sizzle” like they used to.
 
General notes:

1. The power amp bias algorithm is changed and the bias control works differently now. As with a real amp as you turn the bias down the gain also goes down. Typical values for bias are between 0.45 and 0.5 for fixed bias amps and 1.0 for cathode biased.

2. Dynamic Presence and Dynamic Depth have been removed as they are incompatible with the new algorithms.

3. On the Dynamics tab there is now a "Master Bias Ex." parameter. This scales ALL the bias excursion parameters. The default value for the various bias excursions is usually 100% now but there are some amps where a bias excursion may be 0%. Depends on the topology.

4. In general high gain amps should feel tighter and sound more "vocal". All amps should feel quite a bit more dynamic. You may need a compressor to tame things if you're recording (as you would a real amp).

5. There is a lot more variation in feel between models now.

6. The Triaxis models now have an authentic Preamp Presence control that works like the real thing.

7. The Hicut and Presence are now separate parameters. In most cases this is invisible to the user. However for the Komet models you get both, just like the amp.

I will add to this list as I remember things.

4. In general high gain amps should feel tighter and sound more "vocal". All amps should feel quite a bit more dynamic. You may need a compressor to tame things if you're recording (as you would a real amp).

😍👍🏻
 
Because they were useful controls and there are benefits to being able to control frequencies dynamically.
But a dynamic EQ before or after the amp is not the same as what those controls provide.

Not saying your wish is a bad one but it's not a solution here.
 
1. The power amp bias algorithm is changed and the bias control works differently now. As with a real amp as you turn the bias down the gain also goes down. Typical values for bias are between 0.45 and 0.5 for fixed bias amps and 1.0 for cathode biased.

I used to set it to 0.7 to simulate tubes biased at 70% on hiwatt and plexis, does it still work like that in Cygnus?
 
Just listened to Marco Fanton's 1h37 presentation of Cygnus.....wow. It's all in italian but the sounds speak for themselves.
He really goes deep in the parameters; couldn't understand all of it but the sounds were really impressive.
yeah I really enjoyed it!
 
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