Does anyone else find they have a new favorite amp in different firmware releases

Quantumating, mental note, add new word to dictionary. It is so fun to be part of the amp modeling evolution.

Sorry, to the OP. Yes and no. USA Clean and FAS Modern have been my main go to amps, but Brootalz slipped in there. Also use some of the Verbs for some of the cleans. Went back to FAS Modern and it still sounds great. Now also using USA Lead. With over 200 amp models it just seems like a circle with you in the middle and it all sounds good. Most models just need a little tweaking if any at all to get great tone. Not to mention having a ton of great IR's to pick from. Kid in a candy store comes to mind.
 
I always find at least one new amp to like every now and then, firmware or not. I still have my go too's. I will say though, that I've never really completely abandon an amp for another either. I've changed amps in presets, but not because I disliked the old one, but because the new amp worked better for that particular song.


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My favorites always change. Every time I read something in release notes or see someone talking about a particular model on here I look it up on the wiki and make a preset. It's really cool to be able to just willy-nilly switch between a fortune's-worth of different amps. That's not exactly a feasible method with the real hardware.

The flow has been something like:

Bassman -> Rambler, Chieftain, Recto -> AC30, Supro, DC-30 -> Smallbox & Savage -> Princeton & X99 Clean.

I go through phases of styles and tones I like to jam on, as you can probably tell by the above. Beautiful thing, the Axe-Fx.
 
Promit said:
Random thought - What if there were a setting, let's call it "Amp Tweaks", that allowed you to select? "Authentic" would try to give you the amp, but there would be "FAS" or "Clear" or something which uses your tuned values? Maybe a couple subtle variations of the amp? Don't know if it's a particularly worthwhile feature but it would be interesting.
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This - like we have with the sat (authentic or ideal).
 
FractalAudio said:
With a real amp the designer has to tune the amp by unsoldering parts and putting in new ones. This is tedious and time-consuming. In debug builds I can tune the amp with a twist of a knob
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I'm curious how you handle the variance in the Ohm/Farad values. I assume most capacitors and resistors in a real amp are specified -10%/+10% or +5/-5 which could make a huge different to the sound depending where the part is located in the curcuit.

A tone stack resistor with +10% resistance would change the frequencies drastically.
 
Quantumating the SPICE models - that sounds like nice task... Now isn't one of them married to that football dude?
 
Yes.. things tend to have evolved as the FW advances and I've found some amp models lessen their appeal (for me) while others seem to do the opposite. But I've done the same w/ real amps over the years.. no telling how many times. Yet another reason I love this piece of kit..
 
Wolfenstein98k said:
IMO, you should make the models as accurate as possible, and then make a FAS model with all the tunings and tricks and whathaveyou that you feel improves the model. I think there's a bias people have when they approach a "name brand" amp that isn't there with the FAS models, plus you're "modding" it to YOUR specs, so it does basically become a FAS amp rather than the original....... why give Bogner (for instance) credit for the great-sounding model that your ears have fine tuned beyond the original? :D
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Depends on how far the parameter changes go. It sounds like the equivalent of selecting specific values for components to me, which is not really deviating from the 'real world' design. Most designers are going to select passive components like resistors and capacitors that can easily vary by as much as 20% in their measured value from the schematic 'design' value.

When you go to buy an amp, in your specific real world amp, all those fuzzy 5,10,20 percent windows all resolve to some specific value for the one you have and it will NOT be the same as the value set printed on the schematic or in the prototypes the manufacturer built. The result is an incredible amount of variation some audible, some not. This is why specific tube amps of the same design all have the same character since schematically they are the same within tolerance but there are the occasional magical mojo specimens where all the stars aligned on a specific set of measured values that sound extra good.

While I am sure FAS tries to procure prime specimens with intrinsic mojo, I have zero problems with them going through and hand selecting specific values which give optimal performance which may vary slightly from their on site specimen and IMHO, this in no way diminishes the claim 'this is a model of amp X'. Now if they were to do something like change the feedback topology of the power amp... Yes, this is a modified amp, it should be named to reflect that so people's expectations are aligned but that doesn't sound like what Cliff is saying.
 
zenaxe said:
While I am sure FAS tries to procure prime specimens with intrinsic mojo, I have zero problems with them going through and hand selecting specific values...
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Yeah. Cliff is doing what Marshall and Boogie and Soldano did, according to their sense of tone and that of players. Having worked in sonar, Cliff may be one of the best living to do it.
 
Haven't gone Quantum yet. I'm still on 19 because I'm a non-beta dude. I wait for the full release and Axe-Edit and all that stuff. That said, HBE, Plexi, USA Clean, Vibroverb are my standard go to amps and have been for quite a while now. I still play around with the others, (oh ya, I use the Brit Brown too) but I try to keep all my working presets to 3, 4 amps tops. It gives me consistency in my tone. More or less I use my Axe like a 3 (4 really) channel amp with a huge pedal board of effects.

It's better though, as I don't need a huge rack full of cables and switching units, and I can change the order of effects at any time, and turn on everything with a single switch. Noise free. Authentic tone. Love it.
 
Pinkycramps said:
Haven't gone Quantum yet. I'm still on 19 because I'm a non-beta dude. I wait for the full release and Axe-Edit and all that stuff. That said, HBE, Plexi, USA Clean, Vibroverb are my standard go to amps and have been for quite a while now. I still play around with the others, (oh ya, I use the Brit Brown too) but I try to keep all my working presets to 3, 4 amps tops. It gives me consistency in my tone. More or less I use my Axe like a 3 (4 really) channel amp with a huge pedal board of effects.

It's better though, as I don't need a huge rack full of cables and switching units, and I can change the order of effects at any time, and turn on everything with a single switch. Noise free. Authentic tone. Love it.
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Yeah, I am with you. A nice clean sound, a mild crunch, a thick crunch, and a lead sound is all I need.
 
bdrepko said:
For a long time my favorite model was the 5153-red. After FW17 it became the 5153-blue. Now my favorite is the Friedman BE. I do still like the others, I just get the best sound out of whatever is my current favorite. I have definitely noticed that all of the amps just getting better on every new firmware release. So at some point will the Axe-FX2 sound better that a real tube amp???? Not being a fanboy, just telling it like it is.
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I think I have come full circle. I started with the Herbie 3 as my fave, then the 5153 and then again with the Angle 1. Now I'm back to the Herbie 3.
 
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