Just what I was afraid of

[VegaBaby]

I must have bad ears - I can hear very little difference on my patches.
Recorded my JCM800 patch before and after and there is very little noticeable difference to me between 8.06 and 9.00.


likely my ears

You need to explore it again is all. The master/drive interplay is MUCH more 'real' and 'open' than before. You have to turn knobs to hear it react differently.

If I may add...use Sag as well in combination with the ones Scott mentioned. It's a lot more 'natural' now if that's a good term for it. I find some of my Marshall tones really benefit from a slightly increased Sag to where I used to have it set. In general my Master came down a bit though.

 

[SparkyG]

I'll have another play tonight.

Both My JCM800 patch and Plexi2 patch didn't sound much different.

I have them set up as per Scott's recommendations to get the master lower down and the Drive up (as opposed to the other way round that I used before). Those recommendations of course were for Version 8, Scott have you found this different now?
this is the Amp settings
JCM 800 Drive - 6.61 Master 2.99 Bass - 3.9 - Mid 7.91 - Treb 6.65 (Brt off) Redwirez AC30 SM7 Cap edge 1 IR

PLexi2 Drive - 6.93 Master - 6.02 Bass 1.5 - Mid - 6.14, treb - 7.17 (Brt off) 2X12 Brit Cab

I generally don;t touch the Sag (yet). Interestingly I could have sworn I increased the low cut freq on both of these patched to about 150 (after reading one of Scott's recommendations) Oddly after the upgrade to 9.99 (and using the "upgrade all presets" they both seem to have gone back to 10hZ? Maybe I didn;t change those patches but though I did.

More tweaking I guess- please keep the hints coming though - Eager to learn etc.

 

[merlin17]

Just played a bit with the new firmware.
Wow! It's there finally, the new feel is just fantastic and alive - everybody who mentioned that before is right.
Some of my own patches with tweaks now sound not as good as some amps with default values!
I couldn't use high Master settings before - it didn't feel right, now it's THERE. The same with SAG and even Warmth (which I put to 0 all the time before). The "broken" crunch sounds that were there before when I tried the e.g. Top Boost with higher Master settings transformed into the real thing.
Fantastic!
(And at the same time I received my new Suhr Classic-T and it's a great combination. ;-) )

 

[iohanr]

this all sounds very exciting, but I'm scared as hell to do my first firmware upgrade!!!!

Hehe... I guess we are in the same boat. I just received my Ultra last Monday and haven't even started creating my own presets yet and now it's time to do a firmware update... hopefully I don't mess this up! (although I'm pretty disciplined about RTFMing...)

 

[Reiep]

Don't worry guys, it's absolutly nothing !

Start the firmware transfer, go to drink a coffee, back 5 minutes later, be Mr Green :mrgreen:

I did the update this morning while under the shower but didn't have the time to try it... and I'm still at work :roll:

 

[dsl]

I did the update this morning while under the shower but didn't have the time to try it... and I'm still at work :roll:

Wow!! I didn't know the Axe was waterproof!!!

Is that new for V9?

:lol:

 

[mworkman]

I did the update this morning while under the shower but didn't have the time to try it... and I'm still at work :roll:

Wow!! I didn't know the Axe was waterproof!!!

Is that new for V9?

:lol:

Maybe someday Cliff will tell you the story of Prototype #2 and how it survived a bath of sorts... stuff of legends.

 

[iohanr]

Don't worry guys, it's absolutly nothing !

Start the firmware transfer, go to drink a coffee, back 5 minutes later, be Mr Green :mrgreen:

I did the update this morning while under the shower but didn't have the time to try it... and I'm still at work :roll:

Ugh... It seemed too easy but it didn't work 1st time. I am about to try again. I used SendSX and I have one of those cheap USB-to-MIDI cables from ebay. It took at least 20 minutes to transfer and I wasn't around when it finished, but it looks like the AxeFX aborted because the version still says 8.09 even though SendSX says the file transferred successfully.

 

[bluffalo]

Don't worry guys, it's absolutly nothing !

Start the firmware transfer, go to drink a coffee, back 5 minutes later, be Mr Green :mrgreen:

I did the update this morning while under the shower but didn't have the time to try it... and I'm still at work :roll:

Ugh... It seemed too easy but it didn't work 1st time. I am about to try again. I used SendSX and I have one of those cheap USB-to-MIDI cables from ebay. It took at least 20 minutes to transfer and I wasn't around when it finished, but it looks like the AxeFX aborted because the version still says 8.09 even though SendSX says the file transferred successfully.

[imageg]http://reaver.routex.net:8000/Uploads/Links/sendsx.jpg[/img]

i had the same issue, i bought a usb to midi cable and the axe just did not like it. when i got my interface that had a built in midi interface it worked first time and every time since.

 

[iohanr]

FYI - it is currently uploading the firmware and it looks like it is working (just as the first try). Here is a picture:

So, at least I know I have everything hooked up correctly and it looks like the process is working. It is the end result that didn't work the first time.

Will update if successful or not on this second try. (I tried a different USB port this time)

 

[iohanr]

i had the same issue, i bought a usb to midi cable and the axe just did not like it. when i got my interface that had a built in midi interface it worked first time and every time since.

Hmm... I bought 2 of these el cheapo ebay specials. If both of them don't work, then I guess I'm out of luck. Any recommendations for a cheap interface that works? Or is $50-$60 the cheapest I can go (Roland or M-Audio)?

Yes I know it seems odd that I would spend $2000 on the AxeFx and skimp on the dumb MIDI cable... but I thought all I would ever use it for is to load firmware and nothing else, so why spring for something fancy unless absolutely necessary?

 

[Cron]

The cheap chinese usb interface also didnt work for me. I can edit patches but not save them, and uploading firmware is a no go. Someone using linux with the cheapo said it works perfectly though. For a while there i was on a mission to find a different driver for it (not the plug and play driver it installs automatically) but gave up because ppl didnt really seem to care too much.

Im using an m-audio uno now and it works great and is relatively cheap.

 

[iohanr]

Well, second try failed too even though all indications were that the transfer was successful. I just realized I have a Game Port/MIDI port on my old SB Live card. I will give that a go and see if it works.

 

[iohanr]

Success!! I guess it was those cheap Chinese USB-MIDI cables that the AxeFX didn't like. My frickin 10-year old SoundBlaster Live sound card with a "Game/MIDI port" and a "Joystick-MIDI cable" worked! haha.

 

[plexi59]

The topic of the thread swerved from the differences in models to MIDI adapters somehow. But I'll contribute on this as well. I was unable to get my E-MU Xmidi 1x1 to work in Windows. Apparently, Windows doesn't buffer MIDI messages, so if the receiving device falls behind, too bad. So I'm using it with my Mac instead with great success.

To folks who have cheap USB interfaces which are flaky with Windows -- if you have a Mac, try updating the Axe from there. If you don't have a Mac, go out and buy one.

 

[Cron]

Yes funny enough those old ones always seem to work without a hitch. Used an old ESS soundcard just to update a couple of times and always worked perfectly.

 

[mworkman]

Success!! I guess it was those cheap Chinese USB-MIDI cables that the AxeFX didn't like. My frickin 10-year old SoundBlaster Live sound card with a "Game/MIDI port" and a "Joystick-MIDI cable" worked! haha.

Don't dismiss the soundblaster cards... That's what I've used for over 50 firmware updates. Success every time.