Finally updated from v9.x to v13.x

Sidivan

Fractal Fanatic
I've been extremely happy about v9.x (v8 modeling) for literally a year; 80+ gigs. I once attempted to upgrade to v11, but I didn't have enough time to really tweak on it and went back. However, the new chorus combined with a weekend off and my MFC sent back for a repair (stupid drunk people), I now had the perfect time to update.

My initial reaction was "OMG! MY TONEZ R RUINZED!". A double click of bypass (reset the amp block) and suddenly it was "Oh, wow. That sounds a lot better!". It was at this point when I decided it was probably a good idea to save my presets into an open slot and tweak on those. That way at any point I could recall the original right from it's source and start from there. Later, I realized this was an unnecessary step because if I was really going to give this firmware a chance, I'll need to just default everything and try the new amps/cabs out from scratch.

I started with my trusty Fryette D60M + Factory Cab 44. I tweaked and tweaked, but just didn't like it anymore. This was the same model I used in the Ultra since 2009, but I just couldn't get it right. I flipped to a clean amp to "reset" my ears and then went to the Splawn Quickrod. Holy shitballs. Paging through the cabinets, I decided on one of the Ultrares cabs. I played with that for 20 mins or so and it sounded pretty damned good. For no other reason besides my own personal peace of mind, I checked the wiki for the "recommended" cab and sure enough I was already using it. I repeated this procedure with my clean and crunch scenes and sure enough, my ears picked the recommended cabs for those amps too (USA Clean and Class-A 30W). I really need to trust my ears more.

I came back to these tones several times over the next few days to tweak with fresh ears.

OFF TO THE GIGS!

My first gig with v13 (Friday) was with my original band. We're a hard rock group influenced by Breaking Benjamin, Killswitch Engage, Coheed and Cambria, etc... It sounded incredible. My high gain tones cut through the mix, felt amazing, and were focused like a laser beam. This was definitely a change for the better.

Second night (Saturday) was with my 90's cover band. Drastically different tones (clean, crunch, high gain, synth, w@rped Vinyl), but every single one of them was great. I was a little overzealous with the gain on one patch, so I'm going to fix that. Also, I forgot to set the wah activation to the old method instead of this 5% movement thing... that bit me more than I expected. We have a steady sound guy and he said everything fit right in the mix and didn't have to do much to any of them. Sounded amazing in my in ear monitors all night long. The new delay mix is pretty f'in cool too. Big soaring solos never sounded so good and I even played better with these tones.

The only problem is that this widened the gap in quality between my Axe FX and the other guitarist's POD.
 
ohh yeah :) now you have to get that dude to skip his POD and come join the fractal junkies

it's great to be a part of this sonic revolution

I'm glad it worked out for you, must have been a huge difference coming from fw9

:)

have a good one
 
ohh yeah :) now you have to get that dude to skip his POD and come join the fractal junkies

it's great to be a part of this sonic revolution

I'm glad it worked out for you, must have been a huge difference coming from fw9

:)

have a good one

The difference was astonishing, really. It took a whole day to just wrap my head around input trim vs input drive. They are different depending on the amp!
 
Congrats on the success! I know upgrading from really old versions is tough. I'm on FW6.0c, and I really like my sounds. I had a weekend off, so I did the same thing as you, same initial result. After the upgrade my favs were all different for the worse... my punchy clean AC30 became crunch, my mid-gain Buttery got dirtier and compressed and didn't cut, and even my USA Lead 2 lost some girth. I spent hours resetting/tweaking and things improved, and I found models I liked that I didn't before, but at the end I don't feel like I was as happy as when I started, so I reverted back. It's no reflection on the quality of the FW13, I just think when you've achieved the sounds you want, anything that changes them (drastically in this case) is hard to overcome quickly. After all, my patches are the result of over a year's worth of experience. It's hard to get equivalently good results in just a weekend. I saved my v13 work so I can come back to it sometime.

And like you the other guitar player in my band uses a POD... it's the HD500 and I'm only on FW6, and there's still no comparison.
 
The only problem is that this widened the gap in quality between my Axe FX and the other guitarist's POD.
Why not run both guitars through your Axe? Did that back in the days when we had no keyboard to back us up and the singer had to play guitar. Works great (of course, you have to strip down some effects to get some CPU power back)!

With some external switches, you can even make the other one do some basic switching for 'his part' of the preset.
 
Why not run both guitars through your Axe? Did that back in the days when we had no keyboard to back us up and the singer had to play guitar. Works great (of course, you have to strip down some effects to get some CPU power back)!

With some external switches, you can even make the other one do some basic switching for 'his part' of the preset.

Do you mean.... share??? Share... the... AXE??!!!

Try: Yes
Share: No get your own Axe II.. (let's hope he don't get a even more shine XL)

;)
 
Do you mean.... share??? Share... the... AXE??!!!

Try: Yes
Share: No get your own Axe II.. (let's hope he don't get a even more shine XL)

;)
Well ... certainly depends on the other player. ;)
In my case, it was that cute little brunette singer that had absolutely no idea about guitar gear anyway. She managed to do power-chords while singing. And looking much better at that.

You know, sharing is caring. Or something.
 
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