AustinBuddy Naked Amps Tone Pack (still) Rules! ... New Website up...FM3...coming soon(ish)

Hi AustinBuddy.
Bought your Tonepack, and totally loves the amps, i've tried so far!
I experience some of the amps has a +3-4db volume increase changing scenes - Is it suposed to do that?
Thx
MortenVedel

Hi Morten: So so glad you love the presets!

The presets are all professionally leveled at an average output signal strength of -12db, using medium output humbuckers (some will come in a little less -db for single coils)... except the Cleans-Only Bank presest were leveled with a Tele Neck pickup; use the drive block (mostly clean boosts) on those to fatten things up if they are low in volume to your ears.

The type of amp matters; some amps are much more sensitive to dynamics of incoming signal than others which tend to compress the dynamic range, so you will get fluctuations.

Also, Scene 2 is always a higher gain scene than Scene 1; your and my ears may fool us that it got much louder, when in fact it just got more gain. But it would not surprise me if some Scene 2 presets were slightly louder by 1-2db than Scene 1 for some amps, given the gain differential, but know that I did level all Scenes. You can use the Input Trim turned down slightly (before reaching for the Level knob) as one way to adjust

Hope that helps! Thrilled you like the tones!
 
I gotta say, after reading a lot of the positive reviews I decided to buy the pack and see for myself how good it was and they are right. Theres a ton of great sounds there. I liked comparing certain amps with my own patches and I basically swapped most of mine out for AB's amps. Thanks for putting the time in to make a great product.
 
Thanks AustinBuddy, I really appreciate your insight. For those that primarily depend on your presets, do you recommend we upgrade to 9 or wait for your adjustments?
 
Thanks AustinBuddy, I really appreciate your insight. For those that primarily depend on your presets, do you recommend we upgrade to 9 or wait for your adjustments?

Manny, if you like what you have now, then waiting further makes sense. You really just gain the speaker compression piece by upgrading.

My main point is, thankfully, as i hoped, the new firmware is not forcing any significant re-working of amp settings (phew!) — but I need to spend more time with everything. I suspect that the new parameter could make some presets sound even better with fine tuning.
 
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AN UPDATE FOR TONEPACK USERS CONSIDERING UPGRADING TO FWQ9.0

Today I spent several hours A/Bing multiple presets the 700+ Naked Amps TonePack, comparing the preset sounds digital signal output from my AX8 (FWQ8.02) and my XL (FW 9), using an A/B box to switch between the units.

There ARE changes to the overall Tones on presets in FW9.

Here's a soundclip with about 7 examples. There are seven amps compared from dirty to clean:

1. Hook 2b
2. Friedman Small Box
3. Vox AC15
4. Plexi 100 Jumped
5. Vibroverb AB (first)
6. Blackface Princeton
7. Vibroverb AB (first)

In each one, the first amp is the AX8 wth TonePack as designed/programmed (FW 8.02).

In the second, you hear the same TonePack preset, from an XL updated with FW9, AND with SPKR COMP set at 5.0 and maybe a slight raise in the Amp Level (to compensate for Fletcher-Munson curve, need preset at equal volume).

These are both SP/DIF digital signals with no processing coming into my board, using an A/B box to switch from same guitar.



I'd love to hear your guys reactions to the sound differences?

To my ears, the public FWQ9 update applied to TonePack FWQ8.02 presets makes the FW8.02 created tones, to varying degrees, brighter and sharper, less mid-focused, and so in some ways "less rounded" than the Tonepack sounds under FW8.02. The 8.02 created-tones sound more organic (truly for lack of a better way of putting it).

FWQ9 has taken away any prior amp page speaker (motor drive, motor constant, speaker drive) stuff that was in FW 8.02 of course, and it defaults to zero for new SPKR COMP if you load the TonePack.

The closest thing I can get to replicating globally the FW 8.02 TonePack sound is to turn UP the new SPKR COMP in FW9 up to 5, and then increase the amp LEVEL control by at 1 to 2 db louder to compensate (try to get it to measure -12db on DAW channel or console).

This Amp Block LEVEL adjustment very much seems amp dependent unfortunately and not something that works across the board/ll presets. While the above helps a lot and does smooth out the sound some compared to zero SPKR COMP value in FW9, it still has the overall EQ effect I described above -- it does NOT make it exactly like the preset sound in FW 8.02. Something in the overall amp EQ has changed slightly to my ears.

On Firmware 9 release notes, Cliff said of SPKR COMP:
<< This value defaults to 3.0 when the Amp block is reset. It does not get reset when changing the model. If using the Axe-Fx II with a tube power amp and conventional guitar cab you may want to reduce this value to 0.0. The gain reduction meter shows the amount of virtual power compression (select the Spkr Comp knob to monitor the gain reduction). Typical guitar speakers compress between 3 and 6 dB depending upon construction, age, volume, etc. The default value is conservative and yields about 3 dB of compression. >>

So for current TonePack users, I'd probably highly advise staying with FW 8.02 and not going to FWQ9 if you want the TonePack tones to sound "as designed, dialed-in and intended" for now. I personally am going to stick with 8.02 for now myself on my AX8.

If you go to FW9 with the Tone Pack, then I advise you

1) put SPKR COMP at 5.0 and adjust to taste;

2) the higher the SPKR COMP level you chose, the more you will have to raise the Amp LEVEL to compensate to get your preset back to a -12db overall average output level (see my video), and

3) dial the treble or presence back some, mids up a little, and bass to taste on any TonePack Amps you like to use for recording or gigs.

As the needed tools become available over the next month or two (Axe-Edit and Ax8-Edit compatibility with FW9, AND critically Fractool compatibility) I will see if anything can "fix" this for an updated TonePack download for customers -- but right now there is no one thing I can advise that does so, other than the 3 steps above or staying on FW Q8.02.

-AustinBuddy
 
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Hey @austinbuddy , I'm very interested in your tones but I've never been able to use a single preset that I've downloaded as they sound nothing like the clips through my rig. Do you have a single sample preset you would be willing to post and audio sample so I can see if it sounds close on my rig before I buy?
 
Hey @austinbuddy , I'm very interested in your tones but I've never been able to use a single preset that I've downloaded as they sound nothing like the clips through my rig. Do you have a single sample preset you would be willing to post and audio sample so I can see if it sounds close on my rig before I buy?

Believe me you wouldn't regret buying these they're ridiculously good
 
I'd love to hear your guys reactions to the sound differences?

To my ears, the public FWQ9 update applied to TonePack FWQ8.02 presets makes the FW8.02 created tones, to varying degrees, brighter and sharper, less mid-focused, and so in some ways "less rounded" than the Tonepack sounds under FW8.02. The 8.02 created-tones sound more organic (truly for lack of a better way of putting it).

I listened to your A/B clips, formed an opinion, and then I read your comments. I'm hearing exactly the same thing, and I too will be staying with V8.02. As this is a new approach for the speaker sim I suspect that as Cliff develops it we may find some of the brightness/sharpness being moderated.

Terry.
 
Hey @austinbuddy , I'm very interested in your tones but I've never been able to use a single preset that I've downloaded as they sound nothing like the clips through my rig. Do you have a single sample preset you would be willing to post and audio sample so I can see if it sounds close on my rig before I buy?

Check Soundcloud AustinBuddy for lots of clips by different players. I did put a Bonus Classic Rock & Blues clip up on Axe-Change: Steel Sings:ST which is a Dumble Steel Stringer for Stevie Ray Vaughan or John Mayer types of clean Strat sounds.

The problem is there are 259 amps, how to choose just one or five samples for everyone — nothing could really be representative of 259 amps?
 
Couldn't you just create a template, dry in mono and just switch through the amps and cabinets in the Fractal? The only disadvantage would be that the cabs wouldn't be matched but I'm not sure that is a huge deal.....
 
YES!

Just as Cliff said, confirmed tonight at least for XL, XL and presumably Mark II, the latest Firmware 9.01 is identical to 8.02 in tones/sounds for the 700+ Naked Amps Pack. (Firmware 9.0 was NOT).

Tested several amps tonight comparing the same Naked Amp presets my XL on FW 9.01 to FW 8.02 on my AX8, using an A/B box to switch. The dozen or so I tried of varying amp types sound the same in each unit. No tone change.

So this is great news for existing TonePack users for XL, XL+ and Mark II.


1) The 700+ Naked Amps TonePack presets should sound the same if you update the firmware to FW 9.01

2) You do not have to make any main amp page adjustments to compensate; I did not use the advance amp page parameters in the Naked Amp presets on the Speaker Drive page.

3) Per preset, you can dial in the SPKR DRV and the new SPKR COMP to taste if you like. Remember, the SPKR DRV and SPKR COMP will default to zero.

The more SPKR COMP you use, the more you may have to increase the LEVEL of the amp block up (higher) to compensate "Make-up gain" to keep your overall signal level coming out at -12db (see my video on the subject).

Now, I have NOT updated the AX8 yet to firmware 9.01 to check it; will do that Sunday and report back, but I don't expect there to be any differences.
 
Just bought the pack...............................................

:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D


After years of owning the Axe.....man , at the first preset I KNEW !!!!!!!!

Sounds so much more balanced in every way than I have ever made my own presets.....!!!!!!

Going to have MASTER Sounds now.....:p:p:p:p:p:p

I can recommend this pack STRONGLY !!!!!!

Going to save me TONS of job and an even more happier SOUND GUY at gigs !!
:cool::cool::cool::cool:
 
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