Issues and bugfixes with Fractal Audio products

I can only go by what i see first off the latest FM3 was a Beta
on Monday night Cliff said i have narrowed it down
5 mins later he had found the issue
20 minutes later he had a temporary work around
and less the 24 hours later the corrupted code was corrected and Bryant release new beta

thats one thing about their support
they fix things in hours or days vs
other companies weeks or months
 
As a FAS customer since 2013, I can say without any doubt that they do whats best for their business.

Posts like this thread just make me laugh.. (not the original poster, but the replies .... that now are mostly removed) I mean life is hard when you can't get what you want right now and have no control over the information you are given.... lol.

Learn some patience and some humbleness, and if you're really bent out of shape about FAS, write a song about lol.

Trying to create drama on forums never goes well around here.
 
I’ve been happy with FAS over the years. The only thing I would change would be the firmware release cycle.

Now hear me out..... if it were me, I would continue the beta releases on the forums but hold off on the official releases until the axeIII and FM3 are aligned. Having had an ax8 and now that I just ordered the FM3, I get a little nervous when the III shoots so much farther ahead with updates. I’d like to be able to move patches, blocks and settings between my units and having the updates aligned would be the easiest way to do that reliably.
 
MicroMort said:
I’ve been happy with FAS over the years. The only thing I would change would be the firmware release cycle.

Now hear me out..... if it were me, I would continue the beta releases on the forums but hold off on the official releases until the axeIII and FM3 are aligned. Having had an ax8 and now that I just ordered the FM3, I get a little nervous when the III shoots so much farther ahead with updates. I’d like to be able to move patches, blocks and settings between my units and having the updates aligned would be the easiest way to do that reliably.
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The amp block I believe is now aligned w the 3 after this update so I would not worry about that when you get yours .
The problem is Cliff is always forging ahead and working on stuff , because the FM3 has a little different processor , it may take a bit longer to be able to port the improvements that the Axe gets .

I think the Axe 3 is the flagship product and as so , those guys should not have to wait to move ahead , and Cliff will keep creating awesome updates but yes the FM3 updates may not exactly coincide with the Axe 3 updates
 
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MicroMort said:
I’ve been happy with FAS over the years. The only thing I would change would be the firmware release cycle.

Now hear me out..... if it were me, I would continue the beta releases on the forums but hold off on the official releases until the axeIII and FM3 are aligned. Having had an ax8 and now that I just ordered the FM3, I get a little nervous when the III shoots so much farther ahead with updates. I’d like to be able to move patches, blocks and settings between my units and having the updates aligned would be the easiest way to do that reliably.
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Why should they hold off when you can do it by yourself? If you want axe III and fm3 always aligned just don't install new axe firmwares until the corresponding update for the fm3 comes out. 🤷‍♂️
 
Of course I could do that and it would be annoying (researching previous III firmwares to stay in sync with the fm3).

Imagine having all official releases bundled up nicely so that every new thing that is in the III and CAN be in the fm3 is released together. The betas can still be new and wild but I would bet professional users would appreciate the consistency.

It just falls under the “would be nice” category to have current products lock step in a release cycle, that’s all. Don’t take this as complaining pls, it’s just my opinion 🤷‍♂️.
 
Fractal Audio is easily the most transparent company in the MI I've ever worked with. Nevermind that they have the world's best guitar amp modeling and effects. Going back to when Cliff used to hang out at the old Huge Racks Inc forum in 2005, he has been listening to customers. I mean really listening. And it doesn't matter if you're some famous rockstar or not. I've been using Fractal products since 2007 with the Ultra on firmware 3.x and couldn't be happier with the people, the products, and the customer service.
 
hippietim said:
Fractal Audio is easily the most transparent company in the MI I've ever worked with. Nevermind that they have the world's best guitar amp modeling and effects. Going back to when Cliff used to hang out at the old Huge Racks Inc forum in 2005, he has been listening to customers. I mean really listening. And it doesn't matter if you're some famous rockstar or not. I've been using Fractal products since 2007 with the Ultra on firmware 3.x and couldn't be happier with the people, the products, and the customer service.
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And don't forget the great community here! ;)
 
Ajegwu said:
The road to where we are now has been anything but transparent, and you know it. They've had this thing in hand for over a year at this point. What happened?

I assume those longer IRs are right around the corner, in the "next" firmware too.

Hey, where's that Ares 2.0 update for my AX8, btw?
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So sell and move on to something else.
 
MicroMort said:
Of course I could do that and it would be annoying (researching previous III firmwares to stay in sync with the fm3).

Imagine having all official releases bundled up nicely so that every new thing that is in the III and CAN be in the fm3 is released together. The betas can still be new and wild but I would bet professional users would appreciate the consistency.

It just falls under the “would be nice” category to have current products lock step in a release cycle, that’s all. Don’t take this as complaining pls, it’s just my opinion 🤷‍♂️.
Click to expand...

Helix does offer that functionality in their once a year releases that comes out for all devices at the same time. ;)

Doing that inevitably ends up collecting more features up into larger, less frequent releases. Which also means there's a larger surface area for bugs with each of those new releases, and a harder job of tracking down the source of the issues.

Plus it complicates the relationship with Axe FX III beta firmwares. Currently, if it's a Beta you know there's some stuff that Cliff is uncertain about the stability, or the completeness, and needs some people testing out. But the releases you know are completed features that should be stable and aren't likely to change again until they get another fresh look in the future. With your suggestion, piles of things that are "done and tested" would still be in the Betas, and need to be tracked and managed and keep updating release notes for.

Imagine if all the FW12 features got released at once as 12, the notes would be a mile long, and if someone starts having a freezing issue after updating from 11, you have 100 places that could be causing it.

Right now Fractal does what it does by operating on a fast feedback loop. New features come out practically weekly, the people who are highly engaged on the forum install them just as fast, find any bugs, and Cliff gets to look at what changes within the last week or two caused it and correct it.

If you want to look at it as a benefit instead, any new feature gets a trial by fire on the III before making it's way to the FM3, working a lot of the kinks out.
 
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I guess deep down I’m being a little selfish, having both a III and an FM3.

I used to have an ax8 and I recognize that there were some platform/dev issues with how that all shook out regarding updates and firmwares. The FM3 looks to be aligned with the III in a better way than the ax8 was with the II. I really don’t want my FM3 to get left in the dust (so far it’s not at all). A solution would be to bring the FM3 up to speed with aligned stable releases and keep doing betas as usual. Fractal is much, much, more nimble than line6 so I don’t believe it would shake out to once a year.

That said, it doesn’t appear to be a problem right now so everything I’m bringing up is pretty much pointless. I’m really not complaining. I’ll shut up now and go practice. 🥴
 
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