Completely unusable here too. Just like FW 10 in general. Pantaloons of the highest proportions. Gonna be downgrading to 9.2 tonight and it'll be the last time I'm messing with firmware.
Hi Jonny,
this is not directed at you, just a general point - my profession is about developing software for governments, banks, etc, so let me share some insight - this is meant to be helpful, not a rebuke
with Fractal you are in an adult-to-adult relationship with the software producer, whereas.. with Microsoft, adobe, Avid, IK, and Apple especially, the relationship is Adult-to-child, They treat you like you will sue or cause a large publicity issue unless everything is predictable and completely "safe" and unsurprising. To accomplish this, they reduce the number of releases per year, and are way more conservative with what they try to roll out. This is THE way with big corporate stuff. (Mind you, I no longer download any iOS update until it's version x.01, they seem to have bugs in every new major version)
With Fractal, they pull out every stop, and release as quickly as they can - this is a custom shop in effect, but the caveat is, and it could be more clearly articulated - for each update, the firmware changes a huge amount, and no one should just look on this as an upgrade like the latest point release of word or outlook. You
will need to verify / update every patch, and this should be planned into your time-scales.
In places I work, any upgrade from even a big-time supplier is run through weeks of tests in pre-production before anyone uses it for paid work or work on live systems. Too risky otherwise.
Fractal basically says "here, this is ready to try, but be aware this really changes the sounds of existing patches" - so I would say, leave it 6 months or 3 months if you are playing live or doing sessions, and cannot spare the time to verify your patches - any software upgrade from any company is always disruptive, but Fractal doesn't baby us, and tries to put as much as they can in each release - I recognise a labour of love when I see it.
Since I got my AF2, every FW release has improved, but I think you should try to avoid taking every single one unless you have enough time, or more than one AF2 - I have lived with v8 until now, for example,
This is like the tone fairies took your valve amp and pedal board away overnight, and did their best to make better tones possible - but the tough part is you have to go and tweak everything to get your new improved sound back out of the shiny improved rig
Moral is
For any software - don't get update fatigue, take the updates when it's convenient for you
