FracTool - for power users only

Hi! I have an AX8 and i'd like to copy parameters from FxIII/FM3/FM9 presets or blocks. For example the delay settings in the Petrucci gift preset. But the Fractool cant open it. My .blk files working but the downloaded Petrucci blocks doesnt. Error loading blk file. Why is this? Im so disappointed.
 
squall93 said:
Hi! I have an AX8 and i'd like to copy parameters from FxIII/FM3/FM9 presets or blocks. For example the delay settings in the Petrucci gift preset. But the Fractool cant open it. My .blk files working but the downloaded Petrucci blocks doesnt. Error loading blk file. Why is this? Im so disappointed.
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You can only convert between presets of the same generation (Axe Fx II / AX8 or Axe Fx III / FM9 / FM3) or from old to new.

Edit:

Apologies that I misunderstood what was being asked. I thought you were trying to convert.
 
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squall93 said:
Hi! I have an AX8 and i'd like to copy parameters from FxIII/FM3/FM9 presets or blocks. For example the delay settings in the Petrucci gift preset. But the Fractool cant open it. My .blk files working but the downloaded Petrucci blocks doesnt. Error loading blk file. Why is this? Im so disappointed.
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Blk files are not supported, use the whole preset file
 
unix-guy: Yes i'm just trying to peek in the settings in the presets
AlGrenadine: Sorry but youre wrong, i can open my own ax8 block files just not the Petrucci delay files what i want and i dont know why.
And i cant open the downloaded .fasbundle presets either.

​

 
squall93 said:
unix-guy: Yes i'm just trying to peek in the settings in the presets
AlGrenadine: Sorry but youre wrong, i can open my own ax8 block files just not the Petrucci delay files what i want and i dont know why.
And i cant open the downloaded .fasbundle presets either.

​

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I'm not wrong, blk files are supported on gen2 only
 
I tired the latest version of Fractools to convert old IIXL files to III and when I load the converted files into the Axe I get no sound. I've spent an hour on one preset trying to track down the problem and can't figure it out. There are levles on each block on the Axe, and very minimal volume coming through to my interface but I have to turn the volume WAY up to hear it just a little bit. Something is wrong but it's impossible to determine where the problem is without spending more hours. Any suggestions?
 
Axeman said:
it's impossible to determine where the problem is without spending more hours. Any suggestions?
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It's not impossible. On the front-panel press Home, then Layout, which is button B, then Page >> to "Meters", then Zoom on knob A. Play a chord. The problem will be in the last block that shows a signal. The odds are good it's a missing IR, but if you hear something it's going to be a misconfigured parameter.

While FracTools can convert a preset, it can't adjust it so it'll sound right. The firmware has changed too much between those two machines that most people recreate the preset from scratch.
 
Axeman said:
I tired the latest version of Fractools to convert old IIXL files to III and when I load the converted files into the Axe I get no sound. I've spent an hour on one preset trying to track down the problem and can't figure it out. There are levles on each block on the Axe, and very minimal volume coming through to my interface but I have to turn the volume WAY up to hear it just a little bit. Something is wrong but it's impossible to determine where the problem is without spending more hours. Any suggestions?
Click to expand...
Answered you on Facebook
 
squall93 said:
Hi! I have an AX8 and i'd like to copy parameters from FxIII/FM3/FM9 presets or blocks. For example the delay settings in the Petrucci gift preset. But the Fractool cant open it. My .blk files working but the downloaded Petrucci blocks doesnt. Error loading blk file. Why is this? Im so disappointed.
Click to expand...
There have been so many changes in the firmware that affected the .syx files and, as a result, the older hardware can't understand what the newer hardware generates. That situation has always been true with the modelers, along with most software that generates files in proprietary formats.

Why is it? Because, software in the past has no idea of what software in the future will be able to do; think about it, how could it? So, to avoid the software doing the totally wrong thing and potentially destroying data or crashing, programmers typically put in a test to check what version of the software created the file, and, if it's a higher firmware level it'll refuse to work with the data. Backward compatibility is one thing, but forward compatibility is something totally different.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
There have been so many changes in the firmware that affected the .syx files and, as a result, the older hardware can't understand what the newer hardware generates. That situation has always been true with the modelers, along with most software that generates files in proprietary formats.

Why is it? Because, software in the past has no idea of what software in the future will be able to do; think about it, how could it? So, to avoid the software doing the totally wrong thing and potentially destroying data or crashing, programmers typically put in a test to check what version of the software created the file, and, if it's a higher firmware level it'll refuse to work with the data. Backward compatibility is one thing, but forward compatibility is something totally different.
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Firmware like any other software can be designed to provide a support of existing user data (think of applications and OSes) over a given time. However, with a few exceptions there are no companies providing 'lifetime' support of your data and a migration path to newer systems. The ones that do do charge major money and only big companies and government are willing to pay for it if there's no other way for them. Coming from the AX8 I feel that pain but looking at the bright side : with the recent firmware presets can be exchanged between AxeFx3, FM9, and FM3 as long as certain limits are not exceeded so there are tons of presets on AxeChange to try.

Edit: And this is nothing Al can fix in FracTool.
 
ChristThePhone said:
Firmware like any other software can be designed to provide a support of existing user data (think of applications and OSes) over a given time. However, with a few exceptions there are no companies providing 'lifetime' support of your data and a migration path to newer systems. The ones that do do charge major money and only big companies and government are willing to pay for it if there's no other way for them.
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That’s applicable when newer software loads old data, and we see that sort of backwards compatibility often. The developer knows what changed and applies the same code they wrote to migrate their data to the new version.

The OP wanted to run new data, the preset, on old hardware and firmware. Flipping that, providing forward compatibility, is extremely unlikely to work. Imagining that scenario … The old software would have to be rewritten to adjust the data to a future version without changing any other functionality, and be installed and run so the data migrated, but then the software wouldn’t know what to do with it, causing an instant stalemate. It’s revision control gone wild.

The only way it would work would be to have new firmware that knows how it’s done in the future, but that won’t run on old hardware so new hardware is required … oh, wait … that’s why we buy the next generation units. :)
 
actually all it takes is the firmware storing a version info inside a preset. the newer firmware would have to know how to deal with backlevel presets. doesn't have to be the FM9 firmware,, could be built in into FM9-Edit. Of. course, there would be limits as to what the software could bridge because it would have to default new parameters and probably ignore no longer existing ones, the outcome wouldn't necessarily be a 100% match. But it would be better than having the user guess how to map things.
 
ChristThePhone said:
actually all it takes is the firmware storing a version info inside a preset. the newer firmware would have to know how to deal with backlevel presets. doesn't have to be the FM9 firmware,, could be built in into FM9-Edit. Of. course, there would be limits as to what the software could bridge because it would have to default new parameters and probably ignore no longer existing ones, the outcome wouldn't necessarily be a 100% match. But it would be better than having the user guess how to map things.
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It's already stored
 
I have both and Axe-Fx II XL+ and Axe-3 Mark II. I've loaded Quantum v10.01 (latest on Fractal site) on the XL and latest firmware on the III. I then loaded my old Axe II presets into the XL+. They all work perfectly. When I export them and use Fractool to load into the Axe III, they don't work at all (low volume, garbled, etc). I thought maybe exporting them from the XL+ with the latest firmware would help, but unfortunately it didn't. But I see videos on YouTube of people converting Axe II presets to Axe III perfectly with no problem. Am I doing something wrong? Thank you!
 
Axeman said:
I have both and Axe-Fx II XL+ and Axe-3 Mark II. I've loaded Quantum v10.01 (latest on Fractal site) on the XL and latest firmware on the III. I then loaded my old Axe II presets into the XL+. They all work perfectly. When I export them and use Fractool to load into the Axe III, they don't work at all (low volume, garbled, etc). I thought maybe exporting them from the XL+ with the latest firmware would help, but unfortunately it didn't. But I see videos on YouTube of people converting Axe II presets to Axe III perfectly with no problem. Am I doing something wrong? Thank you!
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there's no way to port presets between the legacy and the current systems. Block algorithms and their parameter sets are just to far away from each other. you'll have to recreate them on the new box by ear.
 
ChristThePhone said:
there's no way to port presets between the legacy and the current systems. Block algorithms and their parameter sets are just to far away from each other. you'll have to recreate them on the new box by ear.
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I was able to get part of the way there. I loaded Axe-Fx III firmware 2.0 and then my XLII+ cab back up file to the Axe III. Fractool connected to my Axe III and then converted and loaded my XLII+ presets (saved back in Aug 21 from Quantum v10.01). Some presets had an "Out2" block put in the chain for some reason, but when I shunted those, the presets worked well. Not exactly the right tone, but pretty good. What I need is the effect settings, not the tone. I don't want to have to rebuild complex shimmer and delay blocks for 50+ presets.

I'm backing all this up in banks and individual presets. The next steps is to upgrade the firmware on the unit to the latest and see what happens. If that messes up the block settings, then at least I'll have a starting point and will fix them individually.
 
Axeman said:
I was able to get part of the way there. I loaded Axe-Fx III firmware 2.0 and then my XLII+ cab back up file to the Axe III. Fractool connected to my Axe III and then converted and loaded my XLII+ presets (saved back in Aug 21 from Quantum v10.01). Some presets had an "Out2" block put in the chain for some reason, but when I shunted those, the presets worked well. Not exactly the right tone, but pretty good. What I need is the effect settings, not the tone. I don't want to have to rebuild complex shimmer and delay blocks for 50+ presets.

I'm backing all this up in banks and individual presets. The next steps is to upgrade the firmware on the unit to the latest and see what happens. If that messes up the block settings, then at least I'll have a starting point and will fix them individually.
Click to expand...
With all the changes in modeling and many updates to the effects blocks, that's about what you can expect.

Use it to migrate the "layout" of your presets... The sound will certainly not be what it was on the Axe Fx II.
 
Anyone had any luck creating banks out of individual presets? I've tried using "save to bank" option, for FM3, but when I'm re-opening the created bank file in FM-edit, it comes up empty.
 
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