Firmware Ultra 11 update ruins all tones

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pbright

New Member
I have had the Ultra for more than 6 months and have spent countless hours tweeking tones to perfection for running direct into Pro Tools and playing live through a Marshall power amp & 412 cab. Certain tones were the best I have ever heard, almost unbelievable. I have been more than pleased with the purchase.

I just updated to firmware 11 a few days ago & am now sick about the way it sounds. Not only do all of my presets sound horrible but I can't even adjust it sound close to the way it did. It sounds like a Line 6 or something. If it would have sounded like this when I bought it, I would have returned it. My ability to make my favorite Cornford sound creamy & smooth is gone. I can't get it to sound right. The low end is mushy, the high end is harsh, and the tone is overall very small.

I could maybe accept it sounding different and requiring changes to get it back where it was, but I can't even adjust it to sound close to the same. It is beyond disappointing.
 
You can always go back to your prior firmware if you don't like 11.
Hope you made backups of your presets/banks prior to upgrading.
 
Wow, that's the first bad review I've heard of 11. I've read countless positive reviews, and have to contribute my own. To my ears, 11 had the opposite effect on my presets than what you described. I get smoother highs, tighter lows.
 
metal190 said:
Wow, that's the first bad review I've heard of 11. I've read countless positive reviews, and have to contribute my own. To my ears, 11 had the opposite effect on my presets than what you described. I get smoother highs, tighter lows.
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I was thinking the same thing. OP, has anything else potentially changed in your setup?
 
You don't by chance have a recording you did before the update that you could record again with the update so we can hear the difference? Something that drastic could be some kind of global setting that may have changed somehow. If that's the case, maybe we can point you in the right direction if we can hear it. I don't know, but maybe a cab sim setting or something?? But, like s0c9 said, you can always go back. I believe some have done that in the past with other updates. I know I too am happy with 11, but that's not to say everyone will be.
 
I can understand OP, I did not get the "WOW" impression as lots of you folks got after updating. But in my case I started all over again (oh yes, pain in the a**). I downloaded a patch from the forum, curtesy of XPENNO. great rock/marshall tone. Tweaked it to suit my rig, SS power amp and 2 1x12 celestion cabinets, things started to sound way better than before.
From there I have been taking my patches "back to basic", lots of them I could delete a PEQ or GEQ block and they started to sound better. To my ears more punch and "stringyness".

If you have time and energy, give it a good shot. Takes time for sure, but hopefully its worth the effort.
Otherwise as S0c9 says, roll back to previous version and continue rock n roll.

/Urban

Firmware 11 patch here (created by: XPENNO)
 
s0c9 said:
You can always go back to your prior firmware if you don't like 11.
Hope you made backups of your presets/banks prior to upgrading.
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Yeah the only update in the patch that you'd lose out on is basically what you don't like or perceive to have an issue with. Personally I love the update, but I did have one patch that I just opened up today that would require some work because it did just kind of lose it's cut. I'm pretty sure that there are some filters in there though that could probably be removed to get me a good starting point.
 
I agree that you do have to go back and do some tweaking, but every firmware upgrade I've had since Ive been a user has required tweaking after an upgrade. It's always been short term pain for long term gain.

The big bonus of V11 what I consider 'acrosss the board' improvement in the amp sims For me (and I'm not a high gain amp guy at all), the revelation was the Trainwreck sim. Someone else on this forum and I apologize that I don't remeber who, mentioned how they never liked it before and now it was their favorite. Well I tried it and I totally agree, right now I'm using this to get a great blues tone. I look forward to checking out other 'new' amps, if I could only stop playing this one.
 
Loren9050 said:
I agree that you do have to go back and do some tweaking, but every firmware upgrade I've had since Ive been a user has required tweaking after an upgrade. It's always been short term pain for long term gain.
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+1 - exactly what I was going to say.

As others have suggested, if you don't want (or don't have time) to tweak for the new FW then you can always go back to 10.
 
What firmware version were you upgrading from? Was it pre or post 10.03?


I ask because I had the same exact reaction when I upgraded from 10.01 to 10.03, which had changes to the power amp modeling (namely the Amp block's HF Resonance control). All of my tones that I had crafted (and re-crafted) over the last couple of years all sounded very dull and uninspiring. It was like there was a new "Bland" control added and it was set to 10. I tried and tried to get my tones back but couldn't and reverted back to 10.01. I had gone through similar situations with previous firmware revisions, but always found a way to make them work and eventually ended up liking them more than previous versions. 10.03 was different. My tones were so far removed from how good they sounded that it was pretty clear that it wasn't for me. Since then I have reloaded 10.03 four more times and tried giving it another shot, but it just seemed hopeless and I couldn't reload 10.01 back fast enough. Maybe if I had two Axe FXs, loaded with the two firmwares, I could get my tones back by being able to A/B them, but with just one I always feel like I'm stumbling in the dark trying to get back what I had and what I spent so much time to get.

When 11.00 came out with yet again changed power amp modeling, I had a little hope that maybe it would be more to my liking. That lasted until I had it loaded at hit the first chord. It was still very bland sounding. I tried re-tweaking for a couple of days without success and went back to the old firmware. I tried 11.00 one last time a few days later with the same result and went back to 10.01 for good.

I'm actually kind of hoping there will be no more upgrades for the Axe FX 1 (I know everyone is going to hate me for saying that :D) so there won't be anything new that I would feel I was missing out on (namely new amp sims). As it stands right now, 11.00 has nothing that I want.
 
I had a similar experience when upgrading the firmware ages ago (so long I can't remember which version). I had created an almost perfect (for me) SRV tone which you can hear in the following clip. After the upgrade I could not for the life of me get that tone back and have never been able to do so since. Even the Rotary Speaker sim sounded better before. Sadly I have come to the conclusion that sacrifices have been necessary in order for the Axe to move forward in other areas.

YouTube - ‪completeguitartutor's Channel‬‏
 
pbright said:
I have had the Ultra for more than 6 months and have spent countless hours tweeking tones to perfection for running direct into Pro Tools and playing live through a Marshall power amp & 412 cab. Certain tones were the best I have ever heard, almost unbelievable. I have been more than pleased with the purchase.

I just updated to firmware 11 a few days ago & am now sick about the way it sounds. Not only do all of my presets sound horrible but I can't even adjust it sound close to the way it did. It sounds like a Line 6 or something. If it would have sounded like this when I bought it, I would have returned it. My ability to make my favorite Cornford sound creamy & smooth is gone. I can't get it to sound right. The low end is mushy, the high end is harsh, and the tone is overall very small.

I could maybe accept it sounding different and requiring changes to get it back where it was, but I can't even adjust it to sound close to the same. It is beyond disappointing.
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Pbright,

I am with ya. After reading your post I have put 10.5 with my favorit patches back in.
And I have to agree. The mids are grainier in 11.0 and 10.5 is smoother and warmer.

Thanks for making me do this test!

I am back to 10.5

Update:
I am going back and forth....I think I solved the hardness by putting the (low res mono) cab
sims knobs at ca noon. The smoothness is back. Looks this issue is solved. So I give FW11 another chance.
 
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No, the setup is really simple. Out of the Ultra, into the power amp, & into the cab. Nothing else has changed.
 
I was on 10.05 & went to 11. I appreciate your comments. Bland is a very good way to describe how it sounds now. When I first got it, some of the factory presets sounded great with minimal adjustment. Now even those are miles away from sounding good. Think I'll try going back to 10.05 & see what happens.
 
Actually no I didn't make backups because I had no idea that it would have this kind of effect on it. Live & learn.
 
shredi knight said:
When 11.00 came out with yet again changed power amp modeling, I had a little hope that maybe it would be more to my liking. That lasted until I had it loaded at hit the first chord. It was still very bland sounding. I tried re-tweaking for a couple of days without success and went back to the old firmware. I tried 11.00 one last time a few days later with the same result and went back to 10.01 for good.
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agreed. i couldn't get any of my previous patches to sound good, and didn't feel like wasting a year or more of tweaking. i also have had a few large bands
dump their presets onto mine, and with the 11. they didn't sound close to they way they did. 10.01 ftw
 
I have several recordings that I made with it before. I'll try to see if I can find one and use the exact same preset & guitar so you can see what I have. Thx for your comments.
 
AlbertA said:
Then again shredi says two rows of shunts sound different.
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Yeah, but that's only because they do. :p


You know, after reading your comment last night I decided to revisit that and gave myself a blind test. I took my favorite patch (just dry tone - no effects) and made a duplicate one with just one row of shunts supplying the dry tone instead of my usual two and adjusted the level so the perceived volume was identical. I then randomly saved both patches over and over again to four preset locations in an unused back. I saved the two patches so many times in those 4 locations that when I was done, I had no idea what patch I had where, or how many of each. It could have been all two shunt patches, one shunt, of a combination of both (it ended up being two & two). I then played through the patches back & forth a couple of times and was able to identify what patch was which, first time with no problem, four for four. I did this same test using 2 banks worth of patches back when this whole debate started and was able to identify what patches were what then too.

I know you think I'm crazy, that it's just placebo on my part and that it doesn't make any sense (it doesn't, I agree), but I can hear a difference and the blind test last night just proved it to myself once again. :)


Anyway, I really don't want to derail this thread, but I thought I should respond to that.
 
pbright said:
Actually no I didn't make backups because I had no idea that it would have this kind of effect on it. Live & learn.
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Bummer.... don't know if you "tweak" from front panel or use AxeEdit, but I make a habit of backing up Bank A (my patches) EVERY time I go to tweaking. It's saved MY butt more than once.. I highly recommend that you (and everyone) adopt a similar strategy. It will [potentially] save you a lot pain.
You may never need it, but there's going to be that one time (like now) when you do !
 
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