FW 11.03 Xformer match settings

cragginshred

Fractal Fanatic
Before Fw 10 to current a lot of folks, myself included got better tone and clarity from lowering the Xformer match to around 777 or there abouts. are folks still doing this with FW 11.03? Cliff, is this still a good thing to do, or even needed?
 
I still do a bit for the marshals. Still seems to open the up a bit but not having to as much as with previous firmwares. All depends on taste though
 
Don't remove ANYTHING !
Those who dont want advanced parameters, dont go the the advanced page or buy a Line6 ;)

Is these parameters only accessible from the front panel :eek: or can we get to the advanced parameters via Axe Edit? 8)

I am beginning to think I may be doing my self a huge disservice by developing my tone tweaking skills (no ... not twerking skills ;) ) only through Axe Edit and not via the front panel.

Man - I would love to hear the tonal effect of tweaking Xformers! :encouragement:
 
The internal default value is based on the amp that was modeled and an assumed speaker voice coil resistance of 0.8 times the nominal impedance. I.e., if the speaker is rated at 8 ohms the assumed voice coil resistance is 6.4 ohms. Some speakers are slightly below this, others are above. 16-ohm Celestion Greenbacks, for example, are about 12 ohms so that would 0.75 times the nominal impedance. To simulate this you would reduce the matching to 0.75/0.8 = 0.9375.

If you find yourself lowering this value consistently then your Master Volume is too high (assuming it's a MV amp). If it's a non-MV amp and you still find yourself lowering this value then you'll probably find the tone harsh or too scooped at loud volumes. In general I find people set the MV too high on MV amps. I think they don't realize that most MV amps achieve full volume around 2-4 on the MV knob and then it's just compression after that. Amp makers are partly to blame here as they do this on purpose to make their amps seem louder than they really are. Of course the sweet spot is that point at which the power amp starts to compress so you want to set the MV high enough to get into the sweet spot.

It's a psychological thing. People always like a more "open" sound even though they don't really understand what makes a tone "open". When you lower the Transformer Match you reduce the power tube compression of the lows and highs. The problem is humans naturally gravitate to this to the point that they will make the tone excessively "open" and then it doesn't fit in the mix.

I do not recommend deviating much from 0.9 - 1.1. Of course there are no rules. With real amps some people like that more open sound and achieve it by plugging their cab into the higher impedance output, i.e. plugging an 8-ohm cab into the 16-ohm jack. This would be equivalent to setting the match to 0.5. SRV liked it the other way round IIRC which would equate to a match value of 2.0.
 
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