For those struggling with FW18 - my own experience...

ZenRigs Man

ZenRigs Man

Fractal Fanatic
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Hey folks! Sukh here, hope you're all well.

I normally stay well out of 'this FW has borked my tones' discussions, and I know this has been mentioned somewhere in the 20+ page thread on FW18, but thought I'd put this here, where it's easier to find, just in case it helps anyone having the same issues I did.

I've been an Axe user since 2010 and have loved every single FW update - my tone has just gotten better and better. It took me time to find a cab mix that I loved (I use a stereo cab with 2 IRs) and I've just stuck with it. So much so that when FW8 rolled around, I couldn't imagine wanting any other tone from the little box, as it was EXACTLY what I had been hearing in my head since I started playing guitar 26 odd years ago.

Now, because of this, I just stuck with FW8. It did what I needed and, as cool as all the updates sounded, I knew that 9 onwards was accepted by the majority as being one that really changed tones and required more rework of presets than usual. Now, 2+ years later, along comes FW18 and the RAC12 (which I LOVE, btw) and it was time to update. I did so, knowing things would be different, but I was in for a shock as to how much things had changed, as my once lovely presets now sounded totally 'broken'. Not in a 'things have changed, you need to tweak' broken, but spectacularly beyond belief FUBAR.

No matter how much tweaking, restarting from scratch, trying different amps and IRs etc, it just sounded horrible, thin and boxy (and I'm not averse to setting things up and tweaking like mad - I'm used to it). After a week, I rolled back to FW8 (I'd backed up, of course!) and everything sounded right again. I still couldn't accept that FW18 could make things sound worse though (and there are plenty of sound clips out there that are mind blowing), so I reinstalled it and tried again. It sounded bloody awful still. Massive amounts of noise (that I had to gate EXTREMELY aggressively to keep quiet) and still the horrible plasticky sound I heard before. I checked all global parameters, I/O, reset amps etc etc - the basic drill when updating FW.

So I left all alone for a few days as I was out of town with work (my day job).

This morning, I tried one last time, but this time re-downloaded the beta FW and reinstalled it. Nothing else was done differently - nothing else connected / disconnected / moved / labelled / washed / same underpants etc etc. Basically the same as I'd done twice already and..... Bob is now a very close relative indeed... MASSIVE DIFFERENCE!

Now, with a lot less tweaking that I expected, I'm hearing FW18 as I expected it to sound. It's absolutely CRUSHING - waaaaay beyond the tones I got from FW8, and worth every bit of the acclaim it's been getting. I'm happier than I've ever been with my tone. But the point of this post isn't to tell you that. It's to say that I've now experienced, first hand, the phenomenon of 'this FW sounds wrong'. I am a computer scientist by trade and an old-school programmer (many years ago) so I understand 1's and 0's and I cannot fathom why this would even be possible ... but I've now, personally, heard a 'broken' update and would say to anyone else experiencing this oddness, please please please, try to re-download and re-install the FW. If it still sounds buggered, try, try again.

I cannot explain why, but it worked, and I'm (again) a very very happy bad guitar player.

Cheers!
Sukh
 
Well there were a number of updates during your "hiatus" that required reinitializing a lot of the blocks in order to work correctly and I've experienced a borked up firmware update one time in 6 years and a reinstall fixed it for me. It does happen....more often some people I might add. :)

I would just add to make sure that you at least download the newest set of presets which I believe have been reworked at least once since fw8 (you may have said that you did and I glossed over it).
 
I agree with Shasha, it probably had something to do with the chasm-jump of a firmware update. So much changed, maybe a few installs eventually got everything lined out. I might try skipping 2 or 3 firmware versions, but you definitely made the biggest jump I have seen! Daredevil...
 
don't forget to set your global noise gate offset to zero :)

and read through all the release notes from 9 onwards. you've got a lot of catching up to do....the reverbs, chorus, flange and rotary have all been updated. channel strip eq and compression added to the cab block. ultrares cabs!! tons of new amps and whole bunch of stuff i've probably forgotten.... you've basically got yourself a new axe fx....i hope you've set some time aside to investigate everything!
 
:O

Ok. so I updated few days ago and I only played a couple of hours... because I didn't like 18 at all (comparing it 17), but I really wanted to like it.

Dramatic change in tone. Kind of "raw", but too raw!

When I saw this thread I was surprised others have that major of a problem with it as well.

I don't think reloading would solve the problem, but I gave it a try ...

I don't know what to tell you. It sounds much much better!!!

Sounds really good!

So if you don;t like 18, try to reaload it.
 
It would be interesting to hear what Cliff can say about this, if it's even possible that multiple reinstalls would yield different results.
 
Hello all. I have only had my Axe FX II XL for a few month's. Could someone either point me to a post or explain what I should be doing after updating the firmware? Pretend I don't have a clue. Thanks
 
I've had new firmware downloads that somehow got corrupted.... re-downloading the new firmware and reinstalling with the fresh one, in my case, always did the trick! The key being... the fresh one. That's what one has to deal with on occasion with computers. :ugeek
 
shasha said:
Well there were a number of updates during your "hiatus" that required reinitializing a lot of the blocks in order to work correctly and I've experienced a borked up firmware update one time in 6 years and a reinstall fixed it for me. It does happen....more often some people I might add. :)

I would just add to make sure that you at least download the newest set of presets which I believe have been reworked at least once since fw8 (you may have said that you did and I glossed over it).
Click to expand...

Thanks buddy. I don't use any of the factory presets, however, only my own.
 
levipeto said:
:O

Ok. so I updated few days ago and I only played a couple of hours... because I didn't like 18 at all (comparing it 17), but I really wanted to like it.

Dramatic change in tone. Kind of "raw", but too raw!

When I saw this thread I was surprised others have that major of a problem with it as well.

I don't think reloading would solve the problem, but I gave it a try ...

I don't know what to tell you. It sounds much much better!!!

Sounds really good!

So if you don;t like 18, try to reaload it.
Click to expand...

Well hey there! Even if it's just helped you out, it seems this post was worth making!
 
simeon said:
don't forget to set your global noise gate offset to zero :)

and read through all the release notes from 9 onwards. you've got a lot of catching up to do....the reverbs, chorus, flange and rotary have all been updated. channel strip eq and compression added to the cab block. ultrares cabs!! tons of new amps and whole bunch of stuff i've probably forgotten.... you've basically got yourself a new axe fx....i hope you've set some time aside to investigate everything!
Click to expand...

I know Sim - my biggest problem (generally) is a very busy life and not much time to just sit and do stuff like this, as much as I'd like to. Glad to say, however, it is now sounding better than ever, so every other 'new thing' since 8 will now be a long-burn experimentation project that'll just add the icing :)
 
Rick said:
I agree with Shasha, it probably had something to do with the chasm-jump of a firmware update. So much changed, maybe a few installs eventually got everything lined out. I might try skipping 2 or 3 firmware versions, but you definitely made the biggest jump I have seen! Daredevil...
Click to expand...

I really don't know man. After each install, I'd check all the I/O and global settings etc, switch stuff on and off (e.g. AMP modelling, cab sims etc) and still very 'WTF!'. The only thing different on the last pass was re-downloading it before updating. Again, being a computer nerd, I can't see how it would make any difference if I went from FW1 to FW18, as opposed to FW 17 to FW18. New firmware is new firmware, it's not additive - it just replaces what was there before.

As for 'Daredevil' - more like 'scaredy cat!' Lol! (actually, it was for the reasons I mentioned - was extremely happy on 8 and didn't have the time to redo everything).
 
There's only one thing I don't get. As far as I know the firmware is validated before installing it, so how would corrupted firmwares get installed without an error?
 
i mentioned this in another thread, but someone in my chat had the exact same experience. thin, no gain, horrible sound upon first load of FW18. i believe he reset system parameters, reloaded presets, etc. no change.

he loaded it a 2nd time and then everything was fine!

i'm not sure that he was coming from a very old firmware; i think he was on 17 something.

i know in the past people had this issue and "those in the know" kinda frowned upon the solution being "load the firmware again." but i saw it "with my own eyes" or as close to it via live chat.

i don't think everyone should load things twice immediately though. but if it sounds thin and crazy... i guess that's the trick?
 
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