Suggestions on what you've done to enjoy 18.03

[Vintagero]

Hi everyone.

I don't post too much (specialy becouse english is not my mother tongue...).


But i have to say this: FW17.03 and FW18.03 are like night and day, and in my opinion for the good, becouse for me the FW17 has been the worst update ever. All my sounds were with lots of bass, bad feedback, really noisy, i was

really mad, and now everything is ok again, i can even use old presets... Please don't go back, i think this is the path.


(I'm not complaining for one amp, it was all of them. Thank God it's fixed) XD

 

[ztevie]

I also noticed the new factory presets were bassy and dull sounding. I have only skimmed through a few though. And the "Yngwie" preset had lost almost all it's gain? I didn't reset amps or anything, since I use other presets I didn't bother. Loaded my old banks(lots of fremen presets there) and the sound was clear and crisp again.

 

[barhrecords]

I would say that there is definitely a 'grain' to the sound that the original amps don't seem to have. I only tend to use models of amps that I already own so know these amps well. This grain to me is a little more fuzz box like than valve.
Saying that, I did a festival gig a couple of weeks ago (with the original first beta) straight to monitors and PA and it sounded great onstage and out front so I will carry on with what I have already programmed up. It's only since I have had it back in the studio that I have noticed it. Upgraded to 18.03 once it was back in the studio. Maybe the beta didn't have this?
Loving some of the new cabs. Think they are sounding really good. Found some familiar old sounds with some really odd matchings. CAE 3+SE Lead into factory cab 123 (i think, not in front of the axe) sounds like 1975 eraTed Nugent on the first self titled album haha.
It's been nice to have time in my studio to mess about with it. Never normally have that much time free.

The first Nugent record is one of my all time favorites. Could you share some details on that preset Vinny?

 

[squealie]

To offer more encouragement..

I struggled with 17 a lot. After some resetting, and abandoning my ancient modded Fremen presets...and possibly a minor update or two... really loved it.

18 beta .. same thing. Really grumbled at that one. then the 2nd beta for whatever reason it turned into a magic box again. 18.03, I like it more than ever. Sometimes it seems like the Axe needs to live through a couple of updates before it actually relents and cooperates. LOL

Keep updating, and poking around with different amp models. I'm glad I did.

 

[rodzimguitar68]

Please understand this is not meant to be a complaint. I'm merely asking:

Thanks for any suggestions in advance.

Your post may or may not have had influence on this: 18.04 was released late last night. You can use the front panel, to revert the pre-amp tubes back to firmware 17.xx and this might give you the feel that you miss. Search the forum for Cliff's post on the 18.04 release.

 

[greiswig]

Your post may or may not have had influence on this: 18.04 was released late last night. You can use the front panel, to revert the pre-amp tubes back to firmware 17.xx and this might give you the feel that you miss. Search the forum for Cliff's post on the 18.04 release.

In all sincerity, this company has the most responsive customer support of any company I have ever worked with. I've had my A&H mixer for a year or so now, and I am still running 1.6 firmware.

 

[DrHee]

I struggled to get the sound i wanted for the first 6 months. Always felt there was a harshness in high end i could never dial out fully without cutting to the overall sounds detriment. I updated to the 2nd public beta release and it was there at last. Dialling in was simple with only a basic cab cut and i was beaming. I had a great gig using only a few Brit 800 variants for my patches. Everything felt good. For some reason the 18 final release brought back some of that extra brightness/harshness and i'm back to tweaking again? Rolling back to a beta version just seems wrong though. Still better than 17 though! By the way, i can't find the brit 800 bright knob in the latest axe edit even though it's showing on my axe lcd?

 

[Danny Danzi]

Your post may or may not have had influence on this: 18.04 was released late last night. You can use the front panel, to revert the pre-amp tubes back to firmware 17.xx and this might give you the feel that you miss. Search the forum for Cliff's post on the 18.04 release.

Excellent! Will look into that and try it.

Again, thanks to everyone who has posted and given me their time and advice. I have been trying all your suggestions to the best of my ability. Still not getting the results I was hoping for, but that's ok. 17.04 works the way I need it to for now. Not going to give up on 18.03, I just have limited time to spend.

You guys have all been so cool talking about this. I thought for sure someone might come on and accuse me of whining or yell at me to just use 17.04. Instead I get taken care of like Fractal has taken care of me when I've needed support or a question answered. Sincere thanks for your understanding everyone.

 

[FractalAudio]

I struggled to get the sound i wanted for the first 6 months. Always felt there was a harshness in high end i could never dial out fully without cutting to the overall sounds detriment. I updated to the 2nd public beta release and it was there at last. Dialling in was simple with only a basic cab cut and i was beaming. I had a great gig using only a few Brit 800 variants for my patches. Everything felt good. For some reason the 18 final release brought back some of that extra brightness/harshness and i'm back to tweaking again? Rolling back to a beta version just seems wrong though. Still better than 17 though! By the way, i can't find the brit 800 bright knob in the latest axe edit even though it's showing on my axe lcd?

There was no change to the algorithms or 800 models between the 2nd beta and the release version.

 

[DrHee]

Pretty certain i read a note regarding a couple of tweaks between beta and final, not in fundamental algorithm but some setting or other. Some of these threads are so long it'd take me hours to find it!

 

[jlynnb1]

perhaps its not an overall thing, just a certain type tone and how it was affected. I know Danny has a fairly unique tone he goes for and maybe the new FW affects it in a way that 99% of us would never notice? same for others? I always wonder if that's the case when people start hearing things that most don't...it doesn't discount their issues, just means it's unique to them and what they are after.

 

[vinnyburns]

The first Nugent record is one of my all time favorites. Could you share some details on that preset Vinny?

I was just flicking through the speaker cabs looking for a nice clean cab. I really liked cab number 123. After that, I was flicking through the amps using my Les Paul and had not changed the speaker. When flicking past the 3+SE Lead channel, I had the Les Paul turned down to about 3 at the time and the sound was reminiscent of that first album. Didn't do much tweaking. I actually pulled up iTunes, chose the album and had a play along for old times sake Dow to about 3 on the Les Paul for rhythm and all the way up for solos. I think it's that cab more than anything and there is probably a better amp to use. Will be messing about with it a bit more in the next week or so
Was also monitoring through Logic so had my Lexicon PCM Native doing the reverb (Plate, mid plate 4, rev time about 2.5s and send at about -12 in Logic?. Only had an amp and cab selected on the Axe.

 

[vinnyburns]

Excellent! Will look into that and try it.

Again, thanks to everyone who has posted and given me their time and advice. I have been trying all your suggestions to the best of my ability. Still not getting the results I was hoping for, but that's ok. 17.04 works the way I need it to for now. Not going to give up on 18.03, I just have limited time to spend.

You guys have all been so cool talking about this. I thought for sure someone might come on and accuse me of whining or yell at me to just use 17.04. Instead I get taken care of like Fractal has taken care of me when I've needed support or a question answered. Sincere thanks for your understanding everyone.

There is now a new beta (18.04) with the ability to run your amps back at 17.04 on a per amp basis. There is a setting in Amp/Adv. You need to choose vintage not modern. There is an 18.04 thread started today that explains it.
Excellent service to add this option so quickly.

 

[greiswig]

There is now a new beta (18.04) with the ability to run your amps back at 17.04 on a per amp basis. There is a setting in Amp/Adv. You need to choose vintage not modern. There is an 18.04 thread started today that explains it. Excellent service to add this option so quickly.

I'd call that STUNNING service. Sorry to gush, but the FAS crew has spoiled us with their responsiveness.

 

[Tommy Tequila]

Just to be clear, Cliff said in the 18.04 thread that the only thing that changes is the wave shaper portion of the pre-amp tube algorithm when you alter the new setting. 'Vintage' is v17, 'Modern' is v18 and 'Test' is new one that goes after the long plate type of preamp tube. It does not affect anything else related to the sweeping G3 changes to the underlying pre-amp/power amp modeling.

TT

 

[Danny Danzi]

There is now a new beta (18.04) with the ability to run your amps back at 17.04 on a per amp basis. There is a setting in Amp/Adv. You need to choose vintage not modern. There is an 18.04 thread started today that explains it.
Excellent service to add this option so quickly.

Agreed! I'm stoked to try this. Hopefully tonight, but it's not looking good until tomorrow. Got a client in here right now that is so meticulous, I ain't getting out of here until 8 am. LOL! Thanks again...will report back and let you know how the new beta responds. This sounds like a really nice and much needed feature quite honestly. Though I know we need to change with the technology Cliff adds (and 98% of the time it's been better for me) it's hard putting time into a group of sounds and then losing them to where you have to do some serious tweaking to get them where you want/need them. For the guys not gigging that may have more time....tone chasing/tweaking is a way of life as well as an art all in its own. Trust me....I lived it too. But after 20 years of it...it's nice to dial something in and worry about my playing instead of my tone while having all the new stuff Cliff works so hard to get give us. At any rate, I can't say enough good things about FAS as well as the members who frequent this site giving so much of their time and advice. I'm honored to be a Fractal user. Thanks!

-Danny

 

[swass]

...You guys have all been so cool talking about this. I thought for sure someone might come on and accuse me of whining or yell at me to just use 17.04. Instead I get taken care of like Fractal has taken care of me when I've needed support or a question answered. Sincere thanks for your understanding everyone.

The difference was that you don't come off like a half cocked crybaby as some do here.

 

[Danny Danzi]

The difference was that you don't come off like a half cocked crybaby as some do here.

Thanks for that. Much appreciated.

Just got done trying the new beta. Though I hear a little pop when I cycle through the 3 choices, I don't hear a drastic change that is helpful to me. Worked some more with the new FW, recorded some tones thinking I might have had things dialed. Reloaded 17.04 and compared....still no comparison....17.04 obliterates anything I've done in 18.04. No harm no foul...I'm perfectly happy. I'm just afraid these new amp sounds will be solidified for a while which will prevent me from updating and enjoying anything new that gets added. I sometimes wish I could change my ears or my personal preferences...but I'm super locked in on what I have presently....which isn't really a bad thing....it's sort of a final thing for a while any way. Thanks again guys.

 

[BillyZeppa]

Hey, Danny. Can you post two samples - one reamped from 17 and one reamped from 18? It would be really helpful and instructive for everyone to hear the difference and maybe someone will be able to help you sort out 18 so it works for you. Just a thought, but if you have the time, that might be the way forward. :calm:

 

[Danny Danzi]

Yeah I'll see what I can do Billy. One thing I can't figure out is...my studio sound doesn't lose as much gain as my live sound does. The low mid boxy stuff isn't as apparent on that sound either. I'm thinking....one sound may have never been updated amp wise. Remember when Cliff had our presets remaining the same until we did an amp reset? I'm thinking me never doing that on the live sound and having done it on the studio sound is where the difference is. I'm still not giving up...I just wish I had more time. I'll try to get some samples together so you hear what I mean.

17.04 has more hair, seems more expressive to me, more of that starved plate tube sound...pinch harms choke you at the throat and natural sustain seems more organic and realistic.

18.03/4 less hair, low mid boxy, a bit warmer, expression and sustain is not as apparent. Pinch harms sound transistor...like squeals instead of chokes...if that makes sense? Sustain is considerably less and I feel like I'm fighting along the lines of a VST but not as bad.