What is your philosophy when updating?

What do you expect going into a fw update?

  • The best, always expecting better.

    Votes: 146 94.2%

  • The worst, dreading any changes to your tones.

    Votes: 9 5.8%
  • Total voters
    155
  • Poll closed .
jlynnb1

jlynnb1

Axe-Master
Just curious, do you go into an update excited, expecting things to be better or are you full of dread expecting the most minute of tweaks in the update to wreck your patches/tones?

This isn't a troll post, but an honest question. I have an genuine curiosity as to whether or not our expectations color our hearing.
 
jollo said:
I'm a damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead kind of guy. It doesn't seem that hard to me to roll back, if you don't think the newest firmware improves things. I feel that most updates have been for the better but maybe i'm a fanboy (?).
Click to expand...

well some would def call you that. if you are happy with a product then you must be a blind fanboy.

I asked this question out of sincerity, though...i feel like if you go into something expecting the worst, you might hear what you expect to hear.

The flip-side is that you can definitely not be as critical a listener if you just think everything is glitter and rainbows....but there has to be a happy medium.
 
I read the release notes looking for any "gotchas", then I install and check and recreate any presets if necessary. It's not a big deal if I have to start from scratch because I'm essentially an amp/cab/reverb guy.
 
Backup first, that way no surprises and if for whatever reason you don't like it you can always go back. I've only updated twice since I've owned my II and been pleasantly surprised both times. Don't anticipate any worries.
 
I can't hear a change in 90% of the parameters anyways, so things like "vintage" vs "short" preamp tubes, poweramp hardness for 2 vs 3, etc aren't things I lose sleep over.

There is only so much time in the day I figure, and if I'm going to geek out over tweaking, I'm going to spend some time trying some different IR mixes, or different actual amp models. Things that can have a huge return on overall tone, which is quite apparent to me.

Going from a cab pack 7 v30 to a cab pack 8 GB ? Worthwhile..... changing sag from 3.1 to 3.2.... I'm not going to notice
 
Judging by at least my personal experience of, extremely small bugs here and there aside, literally every update that's ever been released:

1. Having been an improvement to the Axe-Fx in one or more ways
2. Having never made anything about the Axe-Fx worse...

I think it's safe to expect good things from each one at this point.
 
I just update it. I dont back anything up anymore. Half the time I have to redo presets anyway.
I never roll it back.
 
I wait a little while to see if something shakes out on the forum before jumping on board.

Then I update one of my Fractals, load my presets, and compare to the previous firmware.
 
All this recent talk has got me thinking.... what exactly did the super anal "I have to spend 3 weeks retweaking every patch" types do before devices like the Axe-Fx ?

Did they come home from work each evening and throw their amps up on the bench and spend the next 4 hours changing cap values 3%, or did they keep taking their amps back to the tech and telling him the sag needs to be reduced 2% ? Did they do this for each and every amp they owned ?

I sure as heck didn't. I took some amps in and got mods done on them, like an extra gain stage on my Bassman and JCM800 and then crazy as it sounds, I just played the amps!

Seems now instead of playing, folks are spending every waking moment tweaking stuff that really doesn't matter nearly immeasurable amounts, and then doing it all over again.

Don't get me wrong, I love my Axe unit, best guitar purchase I've ever made, but part of me wants to just sometimes just go buy a Carol Ann or Friedman and stop being caught up in all this whining and tweaking, and paralysis analysis and all the other crap this forum has become.

Plug in, adjust BMT to taste, jam
 
I hope for the best (which is usually what happens) & prepare for the worst. (back-up back-up back-up back-up back-up back-up !!!)
 
I save presets as I make them (if I think whatever I'm working on is worth saving) in folders named for which FW version they were made with, but I don't really even do full backups anymore.

I wing it. Hasn't let me down yet.
 
If something in the release notes piques my interest (new amps, big tonal changes), I update with high hopes, and I haven't been disappointed yet. I usually don't bother on the firmware updates that change the ratio of the winding of the capacitance of the secondary transducing tube conductor. Those firmware changes are very minor and I'm usually too lazy to plug in the USB.

Its so easy to dial in a good tone these days, I really don't mind if firmwares wreck my presets. FW18 certainly wrecked them all, but redoing them took minutes, and sounded better than before. Bare in mind I'm a pretty simple player, I just go boost -> amp -> cab... maybe a PEQ in there sometimes.

Back in my Line 6 days, I would have hated it if the tone was constantly changing, due to the sheer amount of work that went into making a patch sound acceptable. But thats not really a thing with the Axe, most amps sound pretty good even with the stock settings.
 
I typically wait a couple of days to see if someone who's ears I trust has any warnings and/or to give time for a newer version to pop up. This has made updates a glorious thing!!!
 
lqdsnddist said:
All this recent talk has got me thinking.... what exactly did the super anal "I have to spend 3 weeks retweaking every patch" types do before devices like the Axe-Fx ?
Click to expand...

They probably would be flipping tube amps like crazy trying to find one that didn't sound different every time you turned it on at a different temperature/humidity.
 
I used to wait a few days, and follow the chatter, to see if I wanted to chance the update.

Nowadays, I scan the release notes, while I wait for the update to finish..... :geek

Isn't there some way to pump out updates every day just before quitting time at work, so I can drive home like a maniac, to get it loaded, snaking every slow car in the left lane, so I can be the first on the block with the update installed? It puts excitement into my life; I get bored waiting more than a day or two for updates - I've got better things to do than wait for a day on end for an update.

My guitar sounds better than ever these days; the only problem is I've forgotten how to play, while I chase tone......and I'm only partly kidding.
 
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