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.
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.