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 .
The FW updates are usually an improvement and i usually look forward to them.

Though I have experienced the occasional update that has resulted in adding way more bottom end than i would have hoped for, or the opposite with too much high end. I've also experienced a corrupt firmware update where i needed to re-download the FW and re-loaded it again. Once I even needed to reset system parameters. The forum has always been very supportive when these things come up, and Cliff has always reacted quickly to issues that may arise.

But these things happen with software and you have to anticipate it, and you have to know when NOT to update, like right before a string of shows where you have no time to adjust a bunch of presets if needed. And ALWAYS BACKUP FIRST! Don't let your desire to have the latest and greatest trump common sense in terms of when you should go ahead and update to your firmware.

Fractal is by far the most forward thinking and consumer minded company I have had the pleasure of dealing with in the last 35 years of playing guitar.

and for that......I THANK YOU!
 
yeah, i didn't ask the question to throw stones at the guys who have issues, i'm just trying to understand their experience and mindset. I've never had a negative experience, and the threads where people are talking about having to rework everything or how their fav amps/tones are ruined just confound me. That doesn't mean they aren't experiencing that, I just can't relate at all.
 
i have to echo jlynnb1 here. there have been many updates over the years where a group of people are saying their tones changed "drastically" with FW updates that really shouldn't have changed anything tone-wise. people will even say "what did you do to the Recto Orange" when the only update was to the Utility menu or something similar.

i too don't understand how people are hearing the differences. i'm not saying they aren't. but all facts point toward it not being so.

time and time again, i've updated to the latest firmware with zero change to my tones. that said, i don't do deep advanced parameters, drastic EQ, major gating, etc. and i'm not sure if any of that is the cause either.

with all the reports of the drastic tone changes though, i've never really heard any audio examples of this. comparing what was before with what was after. and sometimes when others have asked for those examples, the response was "well it's not something you can record, it's the feel" etc.

so without any audio examples of before vs after, there will always be a group of people whose tones don't change from 18.11 to 18.12, and a group of people whose tones do change. all we can do is talk about it and think the other group is the crazy one.
 
I update every time a new firmware is released (after backing up, of course), but the initial step up to FW 18 was the only one where I could hear a major difference. (I joined Club Fractal at FW 17.) I don't do any amp tweaking other than BMTP and the various gain/volume settings. Unless it's an A to B side-by-side comparison, my ears - and most importantly, my audience's ears - can't tell the difference between a sagging tube and a long plate. Especially when both sound good.
 
TG3K said:
my audience's ears can't tell the difference
Click to expand...

Fix'd, sort of.
Knowledgeable listeners with a good ear are out there, but the vast majority of concert goers don't know what good tone is much less how to articulate what it is in words. Hell, we're musicians and WE do a terrible job of describing sound as other senses (which, ironically makes sense, since one sense has no equivalent to another sense. Sense.).
Was it loud? Were they drunk? Don't worry, you sounded "awesome!"
 
I just can't get over how when an update comes out, incremental or otherwise, 200 posts rave about "how much better it sounds" and those replies are 100% accepted without question, but as soon as a SINGLE USER says it sounds worse, WHAM... out comes the insults questioning the posters integrity, the "don't update then," the "it's all in your head because nothing major changed," the "it's your own fault for needlessly deep tweaking."

I want updates that add new features and fix bugs just like everyone else. I don't want that it negates all the time I've put in previously, and then when one comes to the forums looking for help or to see what others experiences are, have to be ridiculed by a community of minimalists that bought the most tweak-able box in the history of processing, yet insist that there is no need for deep tweaking because it "sounds good to me with simply B/M/T to taste and Jam" .... then further make comments like "I can't hear a change in 90% of the parameters anyways" :roll

I didn't buy the Axe FX II so I could twist B/M/T to taste and jam...... That's great that this is all you aspire to use it for, but I do not.

I actually record every rehearsal I do directly to a digital recorder for review purposes. This means I have actual physical sound samples of my presets prior to updating. So with having an actual physical reference, I have yet to experience an update that did not change my tone, incremental or otherwise. Then Cliff posts this isn't possible since nothing changed..... WTF man, so what am I supposed to do now? It isn't in my head. the rest of my gear didn't change.... the only thing that changed is I updated the Axe FX II firmware, and it does not sound the same.... And sorry folks, after being attacked and bashed in the past, I'm not interested in the drama or insuing forum flogging by the community so I just leave it be and stopped updating, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here that has had this experience. :nightmare:

My Philosophy when updating is that I am not going to bother anymore until the final firmware unless Cliff adds many of the things in the wish section.

I'm happy for those of you that are happy with basic and/or default tones and effects. I am not one of those.
 
Sometimes my patches sound different to me day-to-day when absolutely nothing has changed... same patch, no changes, no updates, same volume, same guitar, etc. I'm sure a lot of that is in my head.

Maybe the music I listened to on the way home hammered my ears so the guitar sounds different this evening, etc.
 
Severed said:
I just can't get over how when an update comes out, incremental or otherwise, 200 posts rave about "how much better it sounds" and those replies are 100% accepted without question
Click to expand...

probably because it's not a complaint, so it isn't addressed.

but you are right. if 18.11 to 18.12, for example, had tons of people saying "it sounds much better" and nothing in the firmware was changed to create that effect, then yes, it should also be called out.

if you would be able to share even small snippets of your before/after tones, i'd love to hear it. it's obviously happening to many people, but i personally haven't heard it, so i can't comment on it. i'd love to hear what you and others hear so we can have "tangible" things to use for this discussion. as i mentioned before, it's all "he said, he said" without audio examples, and we can't move to find a solution like that.
 
I figure any preset I made or downlaoded can always be better so I delete it and start again if its a complete write off
 
Rotti said:
Fix'd, sort of.
Knowledgeable listeners with a good ear are out there, but the vast majority of concert goers don't know what good tone is much less how to articulate what it is in words. Hell, we're musicians and WE do a terrible job of describing sound as other senses (which, ironically makes sense, since one sense has no equivalent to another sense. Sense.).
Was it loud? Were they drunk? Don't worry, you sounded "awesome!"
Click to expand...

I agree. Part of my point was that even when there IS a discernable difference between the current version of a preset and the previous version, both of them sounded pretty darned good to begin with.

As an aside, I think most of us have had nights when it seems everything we played sucked out loud...missed cues, tuning issues, cracked singing voices, and yet inevitably, some guy (usually drunk) will come up at the end of the night, shake your hand, and say "You guysh are the BEST fff-fucking band I-I ever heard!" And of course on the nights when you are playing like a rock god, someone will come up and say "You guys are OK, but you should hear my little brother's band. They RAWK!"
 
I will update on the way to a gig maybe not a beta but a real update absolutely. if my presets tanks I'll just use a couple stock ones. I've been stuck playing through so many shitty or malfunctioning "real" amps it's a pleasure to have so many great amps and presets to choose from,play loud, pick up chicks, drink free beer\m/
 
KG MD said:
Why does anyone care how often other people update?
Click to expand...

because some people who update claim that the update is ruining their sound, when often times, technically speaking, it shouldn't change a thing.

so it's the ones who experience a problem when updating who make this a "care."
 
I always expect good things to happen and positive results for any kind of firmware upgrade; either improved sound/feel/accuracy, etc. or bug fixes and added functionality/amps/cabs/FX.

If the update is a 'big one' I redo my presets from scratch (say for a major version change); the incremental updates don't usually change the sound/feel as much but I just retweak if needed.

I've been upgrading since FW 6 or 7 on the Ultra and haven't been disappointed yet in an update; quite the opposite in fact...
 
mnemonic said:
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.
Click to expand...

Heh that's the kind of update that makes me crazy and want to update ASAP when I read it in the release notes...I've modified and fiddled with tube amps for some years and I love having all this kinda stuff virtualized and tweakable.
 
I read the release notes which are always kindly copy/paste posted by some good soul in the same thread as the fw announcement. I download it. I decide do I want to install it. I back up. I run the install in via Fractal Bot. While it's uploading I walk clockwise round my chair 18 (because it's FW 18) times with each rotatation taking exactly 4 strides. Try it ... it works!
 
I don't really have a critical ear for tone (that's good and bad I suppose), and usually around every 2 weeks to a month or after a gig I revise my tones/create new ones just to explore, if I come across a combination I like I just go with it, but I will backup everything I had before. It's so easy to get a usable tone out of the Axe so I'm not too worried about updates wrecking my sound.
 
I just update. There hasn't been a change to my tones since G3ing (most of) the amps.

My presets up until this point haven't changed much either. I usually tweak the B/M/T knobs when I show up to the gig during soundcheck like I would with a real tube amp.
 
Severed said:
I just can't get over how when an update comes out, incremental or otherwise, 200 posts rave about "how much better it sounds" and those replies are 100% accepted without question, but as soon as a SINGLE USER says it sounds worse, WHAM... out comes the insults questioning the posters integrity, the "don't update then," the "it's all in your head because nothing major changed," the "it's your own fault for needlessly deep tweaking."

I want updates that add new features and fix bugs just like everyone else. I don't want that it negates all the time I've put in previously, and then when one comes to the forums looking for help or to see what others experiences are, have to be ridiculed by a community of minimalists that bought the most tweak-able box in the history of processing, yet insist that there is no need for deep tweaking because it "sounds good to me with simply B/M/T to taste and Jam" .... then further make comments like "I can't hear a change in 90% of the parameters anyways" :roll

I didn't buy the Axe FX II so I could twist B/M/T to taste and jam...... That's great that this is all you aspire to use it for, but I do not.

I actually record every rehearsal I do directly to a digital recorder for review purposes. This means I have actual physical sound samples of my presets prior to updating. So with having an actual physical reference, I have yet to experience an update that did not change my tone, incremental or otherwise. Then Cliff posts this isn't possible since nothing changed..... WTF man, so what am I supposed to do now? It isn't in my head. the rest of my gear didn't change.... the only thing that changed is I updated the Axe FX II firmware, and it does not sound the same.... And sorry folks, after being attacked and bashed in the past, I'm not interested in the drama or insuing forum flogging by the community so I just leave it be and stopped updating, and I'm sure I'm not the only one here that has had this experience. :nightmare:

My Philosophy when updating is that I am not going to bother anymore until the final firmware unless Cliff adds many of the things in the wish section.

I'm happy for those of you that are happy with basic and/or default tones and effects. I am not one of those.
Click to expand...

You'd be surprised that your playing can change your tone too with or without a fractal update.

For example: I gig the House of Blues in Disneyland (Anaheim) every single Wednesday. Same guitars, amp, band etc. I put my amp in the same spot and for all intents and purposes I've eliminated every factor I possibly can that would change my tone. I've done multiple gigs there on the same firmware and I'll be damned if my tone was different each and every time. I'm on a wireless PSM 200 with IEM and somehow the tones change with no change to the fractal or anything else.

Of course, this was the same deal with real tube amps when I had residencies in different clubs playing every week or multiple times a week keeping my gear there overnight. Ive had multiple 3-4 nighters and kept my Bogner Shiva combo there and just threw a tarp over the gear. And each and every time the tone was different enough for me to twist a knob or two to get "my sound"

Your ears change, your position in the room changes, your mood changes. Theres a million factors that can change a guitar's tone even when firmware updates don't.
 
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