I still don't hear much difference. Yet when I play the two versions side-by-side I hear and feel a considerable difference. Perhaps it's mostly feel and that doesn't translate to recordings.
I disagree with the making small clips and looping them, etc. That's too clinical and OCD. It's all about the feel and the "mojo". Download the firmware, install it and enjoy it. It's not a science project. It's an art project. Make some music with it. FW18 is inspiring to play for whatever reason. Actually I know the reasons but I can't share that. The reason that people are freaking out is that FW18 is all about certain subtle nuances that fine tube amps have but that modelers don't, or did not until now. Tube amps do several key things that provide certain psychological stimulation and create enjoyment. FW18 reproduces those nuances. It took nearly a year of studying amps to figure these secrets out and then getting that into code.
If you haven't played it, you won't understand. But as soon as you play it, you will understand. When we first released it to the beta team it was announced as "here's some new firmware, give it a play". No hype. The responses were "holy cr@p, what did you do? This is amazing". There's just something about it that presses the right buttons.
Yes. This.
The modern electric guitar is a strange instrument when thought of by traditional standards. In its simplest common form it's not actually a complete instrument until you add an amplifier.
In essence the whole system is a self adjusting musical feedback loop (Player->guitar->effects->amp->ears of player) which changes itself accordingly dependant on the ever changing interactions between each stage. Importantly, each stage of the system can have a dramatic influence on and in some cases DICTATES the MUSICAL output of the system.
In a rather obvious way, it's like The Edge's delay pedal. Listen to the same parts with the delay pedal bypassed. The delay effect as part of the system fundamentally dictates the MUSICAL output of the whole system!
In a less obvious way, it's the specific way in which a particular tube amp sags, or the non-linearity of its clipping etc. and how your fingers react to it.
I discovered a lot about the player's role in this system of infinite variables a few years ago, when reamping became part of the standard workflow of many in the industry when producing heavy guitar based recordings. This isn't to say that reamping isn't a valid tool in the studio and cannot be done well- it certainly can.
However when I was reamping more and more, I started to notice a profound difference in the marriage between the overall tone and performance quality when reamping a part recorded through a different amp. This was profoundly different than using the original performance scratch track, or retracking the part using the new amp. This wasn't necessarily a problem caused simply by reamping through amps that were wildly different from the original performance. In one case I even noticed a big difference when I was reamping through a different example of the same model of amp!
Interestingly, this was never much of an issue when reamping the DI through the exact amp and cab setup used to track the original... Funny eh?
I believe it's those subtle differences that a good player reacts to in their playing but a DI cannot.
As its essential that you don't have a broken electrical connection between your drive pedal and your amp as much as its essential to not have a broken connection between the player and the system. It's the feel, the response to pick attack, the '3d', the thump, the 'amp in the room' it's the elusive 1% difference between a tube amp and a modeller that makes all the difference and in my opinion it can have a profound effect on the player. When a system works well in this particular way, people refer to it as 'inspiring' to play or it has 'mojo'.
In the past I've been quite vocal about the amps previous firmwares not 'feeling connected enough' until 17.03 which was when things started to really align.
Cliff is constantly chasing that last 1%- even to the point of rewriting the fundamental algorithms... That's why I'm in awe of what a mammoth task this whole thing is. The sheer amount and nature of the variables is mind boggling.
I wouldn't be surprised if in Cliff's search for the final 1% he accidentally stumbles upon a model which unifies quantum field theory and general relativity...
I look forward to trying 18b tomorrow!
Thanks Cliff.
I like making comparisons like this, because i´m interesetd in.
