Its Hard to Say Good bye, MK II Users :(`

[acidfrost]

That's why I sold my MKI when Cliff warned us about the eprom limitation.
It's still a good streetprice for MK I/II and I had to put about $600 for an XL+ upgrade.

Not a bad deal for 5 year old product if you compare to other used electronic gear like laptops/phones/ipads ....

Maybe for you, but there's a lot of Canadian here.
Let's say I sell my Mk2 at 1700$ US. then buy an XL. With shipping and taxes, it's 2687.01$ US. that's a 1000$ difference. Convert to CAD, it's a 1350$ difference. That's a lot of money for basically the same hardware with just a bit more firmware memory (which was never advertised back when the XL came out and the resale prices and CAD were good). I would've made the switch back then if I had known.

 

[Jean-Pierre Brunod]

Yes, but what people are forgetting is that if you remove old modeling support for Mk users, you are also removing it for XL users, who have no reason to have it removed...

Oh, I thought there were two different branches of the code for the two models

 

[dpeterson]

i'll bet the problem is that a high profile person(s) use it so it cant get nuked. the only other answer is to do separate builds, or add all the conditional statements in the code. which is added work.

 

[Black Bitch]

+1 on never using older models. All that I ever want is best amp modeling possible I trust Cliff's judgement on this but I would appreciate it if it's possible for us Mark I II users to go on as much as possible

+1.000 I love my Axe FX II MK i and would not be able to upgrade to an XL.

 

[bdrepko]

Please just get rid of old firmware options. If people don't want to move past this threshold, so be it!

Do you realize what your asking? There are actually 3 people that really use this feature. Quit thinking only about yourself

 

[Baracus]

As a fractal user since 2009 with the ultra I just wanted to add a few comments. I've been very happy with the axe-fx for years and Fractal has been one of the best companies I've ever dealt with. Considering how other companies do business I'm well aware that we aren't owed anything as far as firmware updates are concerned.

I'm still hoping those of us with older units who don't mind updating/revising can somehow take advantage of newer firmware. I realize this is only my personal situation and there is more than likely a huge amount of things to consider with the decision.

As someone who has no interest in older versions I just wanted to add my voice to the list.

 

[bdrepko]

Here is a question. Many of us now own an AX8. I have never heard what its memory size is. But since it is less expensive I assume that the memory is smaller. At what point are we going to have this same argument about the AX8?

 

[ElectricPhase]

“Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” -Mister Spock

Que sera sera.

 

[Toopy14]

“Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” -Mister Spock

You took the Vulcan words right out of my mouth!

 

[dongzo]

Would be nice if the mark I/II users just could buy an eprom with more memory. But thats prolly never gonna happen.

 

[Poparad]

There seems to be some confusion in this thread about what's causing the space issues. Now someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but the number of amp models, fx, advanced features, has absolutely no bearing on the size restraints the MKI/II just hit. If my understanding is correct, it's the boot part of the firmware that's maxed out, not the part that stores amps, fx, etc, which apparently has plenty of space to go.

Also, the chip involved in the booting for the MKI/II can't simply be swapped out for the larger one the XL/+ has, as there are a lot of other complications with the hardware that would need also be upgraded, making the upgrade physically impractical to do.

 

[Jason Scott]

That only applies for amp model updates, not other blocks. The drive block, wah, reverb, etc changes would cause the need to revisit all presets in the new firmware. The amp block modelling version is not a panacea.

Fortunately, effects aren't updated very often.

 

[Nero]

AX8 user here, i've been seeing these post on the modeling and I can sympathize, on the AX8 we don't have the option for previous firmware modeling, no complaints here, each update i've installed makes the AX8 sound better.

I'm glad i don't have to go into each presets and change them to "LATEST", actually with each FW i go and listen to all the stock presets to see how they have changed in tone, so far I have no complaints.

I think eventually they should phase out the firmware selection, focus less time on trying to make the firmware smaller to fit it in older units etc, just my 2 cents

 

[Geezerjohn]

I never use the older firmware. Besides, if its that old, it's probably limpware.

 

[Jason Scott]

You know what else can retain the sound of the older presets? Not installing new firmware.

How is that a solution for people that want to use new firmware and retain the sound of older presets? Personally, if I thought removing older versions would provide 20 or more additional updates, the trade-off would be worth it, in my opinion. Otherwise, it's just delaying the inevitable and I don't see the point of removing a useful feature in exchange for an additional 5 or 6 upgrades.

I'd say, in exchange for the ability to keep up with firmware updates, giving away old modelling versions is a small price to pay.

To you because you apparently don't use it.

I get that adjusting 40 presets to new firmware is time consuming, but it's really selfish to take away firmware updates from thousands of Axe users

You want others to sacrifice something for your benefit and consider them selfish if they don't, but that street runs both ways.

just because some guitarist has no time or is too lazy...

It has nothing to do with laziness. The Modeling Version functionality was implemented for the express purpose of saving time. Do you use it? If not, then you wouldn't know. It's easy to ask others to sacrifice functionality that you don't use.

And yet, they don't even have to do it... just don't install new firmware!

Again, that's not a solution for owners who want to use the latest firmware and easily retain the sound of older presets. The solution already exists. You're asking them to give it up.

 

[Jason Scott]

I never use the older firmware. Besides, if its that old, it's probably limpware.

I don't use older firmware, either. But I do find the Modeling Version parameter useful for retaining the sound of older presets. I use the latest firmware for all current presets, however.

 

[Geezerjohn]

But that will only last maybe a few more firmwares...then what? Will everyone come to terms with the end of the MK I/II?

I see your point but must admit I am not on-board with it. It would be like having an obstructed bowel and choosing not to address it because you are eventually going to die anyway. I'd rather take some FX-lax. Better to purge out the old stuff than to stop eating. Just my $0.02.

 

[Stratoblaster]

It would be like having an obstructed bowel and choosing not to address it because you are eventually going to die anyway.

Heh that made me laugh...good one...

 

[zenaxe]

As a mkii guy who is likely to wait for a III when the older II's get stopped... I am a bit concerned about: Axe-Edit updates. Hopefully it will ate least remain backward compatible such that if there is say a bug fix or version that is updated for macOS/Windows updated versions I can still use it... ditto CabLab3. This is also going to make Fractool pretty worthless/confusing for Mk1/2 owners, I suppose.

I think the part that's tough for me to reconcile with was the line was always "There's room for hundreds more amp models" when new firmware would come out and people would ask how many more could it hold.

Yes, I love Fractal's support and deeply appreciate it, but honestly this crossed my mind last time this was discussed... I passed on the XL blow out and other upgrade opportunities because to me this made it sound like they would EOL at the same time; every time an "axeFx II? When?!!" thread came, there was nothing ever mentioned that indicated some subset of us were likely to get phased out sooner than the other group. There was never any indication that there was a hardware limitation in the Mk 1s/2s that would limit their FW update lifetime vs the newer boxes. Don't get me wrong it is not shocking but it did come as a surprise as I never had noted any info to that effect and the topic has come up here about once or twice a month for the last couple of years... I also recommended folks to get a used Mk1/2 if they were not going to use the extra IRs if they needed to save some coin and now feel a bit bad as there was extra value there I was not aware of...

 

[Stratoblaster]

There was never any indication that there was a hardware limitation in the Mk 1s/2s that would limit their FW update lifetime vs the newer boxes. Don't get me wrong it is not shocking but it did come as a surprise as I never had noted any info to that effect and the topic has come up here about once or twice a month for the last couple of years...

This mirrors my thoughts exactly. The XL/XL+ were touted as simply having more room for presets and IR's and it was never mentioned that there would be benefits to having an XL/XL+ with regards to firmware updates until now. The inability of getting new firmware on the Mark I/II has also caught me by surprise since I also assumed both platforms would go EOL at the same time in that regard.