Upgraded to Quantum from 16.01... presets sounds shitty

digitalwaveform said:
Wow. So let me get this straight, the release notes say, 'If you upgrade multiple firmware versions, you must rebuild your presets."?

Oh and if you're reluctant to do it, the forum will all pile on and make you feel like shit.

This attitude is precisely why some players are down on this forum and down on firmware upgrades that 'require' you to start over.

I would rather have a root canal than rebuild my patches entirely from scratch.

Maybe some of you guys are can dial up 4 to 5 patches that cover every nuance from scratch in an afternoon and go play 4-5 gigs in a row and have it all just be perfect...good for you!!

I can't.

No piece of software that I use professionally requires me to remix a song because of a new version, or re-edit the audio, or re-edit a picture.

I'm busy booking shows and learning material, traveling to gigs, running sound, dealing with clubs, hell, performing! I don't need or want a ground zero reboot every time a new upgrade comes out. And throngs of fanboys on this board are never going to get me to agree that it is simply standard operating procedure that I have to start fresh every time I want bug fixes or new features. I bought the unit for it's stability and upgradability. They are not mutually exclusive to one another. No where in the marketing material or manuals does it say this is consistent requirement. The whole, 'no one is putting a gun to your head to upgrade' is such a bullshit cop out too. Who doesn't want quality to improve? Who doesn't want better stability? Bug fixes? It is not a requirement in the software industry that upgrading requires one to change their workflow or to start over. It just isn't. I could site countless examples from the pieces of software I use to make a living that are meticulous about their upgrades that don't hose you simply cause you want a new rev that fixes bugs or adds some new shit. It's like Adobe saying, download the latest Lightroom, but BTW, you'll have to re-edit every photo you've ever edited and start over. They'd get crucified. Sure, occasionally, a leap has to be made to get to the next level. (different system requirements, RAM etc) But it shouldn't be expected and taken as the norm. It absolutely should not. It should be considered very carefully.

I love my AXE-FX, I had 3 of them at one point. I've spend a lot of hard earned money on them, and I've gigged a shit ton on them. But as someone who's had to deal with shit on stage go wrong quite a number of times from upgrades, it sucks. But the argument of, ' if you don't want issues, then don't upgrade." is simply wrong.
If it was right, then we'd still all be on vers 1.01, wouldn't we???
Click to expand...


AMEN!

It's like "love it or leave it": You'd better love the constant firmware updates, and tweaking things over and over again, or "leave it" - either get rid of your Axe-Fx, or stick with one firmware and never plan on upgrading. And people will jump all over you if you point out the failings of either of those approaches, or anything you feel is a major fail on the Axe-Fx (eg. MIDI clocksync). I love the expertise on this forum and I love the flexibility of the Axe, but man oh man, the almost religious defense of this metal and plastic 2U box gets to be a bit much. I find myself getting somewhat negative as an anitdote to all the fanboy hyperboble, then half my posts come across as anti-Axe. (as in Axe-Fx, not Axe body spray ;-) )
 
Last edited:
jdosher said:
Because people seem to get upset if someone points out things they don't like about the Axe-Fx.
Click to expand...

Yes this is what happens a lot on this forum. Strange because the whole point about updates is improvement. So if there is nothing to improve the updates are not necessary anymore.
That means people will say what they think can be improved. This doesn't necessarily mean any disrespect to FAS or that they don't like their Axe fx.
 
I just re-do the levels if they jump while upgrading. The basics of some of my presets are from FW8.
 
In a recent discussion about the Deluxe Reverb Cliff wrote:

"We got our reference Deluxe Reverb out of storage today, hooked it up and measured and compared. Gain measures spot-on and A/B testing sounds identical."

I take this to mean that he has captured this amp perfectly (you can't get closer than 'identical' can you?) and that there will be no changes to this specific amp moving forward. Hopefully the same will happen for all the other amps (if it hasn't been done already with Quantium) and that moving forward the focus will be on adding new amps and fixing the odd amp the doesn't yet sound 'identical' as well as adding new effects. Hopefully the days of recreating patches with each firmware are close to being done.
 
If the core amp modeling has changed (for the better), which in turn effects every amp, then doesn't it just logically make sense that you might need to adjust your presets? At least just a little? You can't have your cake and eat it too.. just like you can't have your pudding until you eat you meat!
 
cobbler said:
I always find it quite humorous when someone criticizes a person for criticizing others. :lol
Click to expand...

Like this above for instance? Just maybe, and pure speculation but the patches may have been shitty sounding before the firmware upgrade, in which case it does no good polishing a turd. OTOH moving up several firmware versions at once and then acting surprised that it might need a tweak here or there is naive thinking at best. Not quite the same but try upgrading from Windows 95 to 10 in one swoop, or any other program by 3 or more levels at once, and you might catch my meaning. Nothing is always perfect or seamless when skipping between software updates, even an Axe Fx:lol
 
Last edited:
If it helps, I never meant to be agressive or angry against the firmware updates / Axe FX II / or Fractal.

In fact, as I said, I'm a Fractal supporter / fan since the very begining.

English is not my mother language and sometimes I can't express some nuances, maybe I should have titled the post "Upgraded to Quantum.....and presets don't sound as well as before".

If so, my bad.I just wanted to get some feedback in similar experiences so I can upgrade to Quantum knowing which should I tweak or where was the difference.
 
Well....a year has gone and I'm thinking about updating again to the latest firm and give up firm 16.01....Hope to deal well with the whole preset re tweak , wish me luck!
 
Just look at it as a totally new Axe FX, regard your amps and IR's as starting from scratch, and you'll enjoy what you'll get. Q5.03 is to 16.01 as 16.01 is to an Ax-FX Ultra (perhaps). This is not something you want to do an hour before a gig.
SteelEdge said:
Well....a year has gone and I'm thinking about updating again to the latest firm and give up firm 16.01....Hope to deal well with the whole preset re tweak , wish me luck!
Click to expand...
 
I have kept current with most of the major releases since getting my AxeFX, which shipped with FW13. Most of the time I haven't had to rebuild from scratch, but I've been occasionally resetting patches, and discovering that the amps / cabs are more lively since Q1. They seem to be more responsive, and have a bit more "air", making them feel / sound like entirely new amps. I've also been able to get by with much less EQ tweaking, as the amps seem to sound better in their default settings.

With big jumps in FW versions, it does seem that there are often significant changes to the architecture of the modeling, and that can make existing presets sound very different in the new firmware. I have a friend who made the upgrade from FW14 to Q3, and it radically changed his tones. We spent several hours going through presets and resetting the amp models. Once that was done, he was astonished at the difference in tone. But again, it required an investment of time to go through his 50+ presets. Generally, we flattened the EQ, and lowered the preamp gain.

I always wait to update my AxeFX until I'm off the road, and can spend a day in the studio going through all my of presets. I've never regretted making the update, but I always assume that I may need to double-check my settings afterward.

One cool discovery that I made after going to Q3 was that I actually *can* get a very usable tone from a Marshall JCM800. I've played through dozens of actual JCM800s, and was never happy with the sound of my guitar through that amp. I happened to start goofing around with the AxeFX model again, and discovered that's a very usable amp. I got curious as to whether the model was somehow optimized in a way that didn't reflect the real amp, so next time I was in the studio, I wheeled out the owner's JCM800 and applied the same settings that I use in my preset. It sounded the same : amazing, authoritative, and monstrously huge. Go figure! The AxeFX taught me how to use the actual amp.

In other news, I think this whole "strat into a Marshall JCM800" thing could catch on... :)
 
Ive owned 4 of these, it is a more structured highly accurate tone rich update to 5.03.
Hang in there and start from scratch like Ive had to, you wont be disappointed. Definitely check out the Character Adjustments in Cliff's notes, it will clean these up and make them harmonically rich.
 
I will try for sure.

Thing is, I have my cool U2 presets from Michael, and the awesome Metallica presets from Guitarjon, and I don't really like to lose that presets, that's the main reason I didn't upgrade yet....but I wanna try the new firmware, so....

I also have a Kemper and a couple of amps, and I'm not really into that "tweaking" that I was years ago, because I don't have the time.But I know how the Axe works and can be tweaked...been the first Spanish Axe owner and I've owned all of them, except for the XL...didn't feel the need to upgrade to that one.
 
Don't know if this has already been mentioned (I to am lazy ;) ), but some of the updated have caused additional cpu usage on certain amps (especially the latest one), and also have change the output volume. So check if it is not "simply" a matter of the output of the unit that is distorting, which can easilly be changed bu lowering the amp- or cab block vomlume, or the main volume of the scene.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom