Why was the AX8 not upgraded to Ares?

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I think he's doing programming for the medical or security industry. I looked him up a while back, but I can't remember exactly what he's doing, but it wasn't in the music industry.
 
The FM3 is expected to have roughly the same capabilities as an AX8. My guess would be that it has a more capable CPU than an AX8, but it's running more complex software ...so, has roughly the same capabilities.

Not being pedantic, but you can do a lot more with hardware designed for a job - over the long-run, than you can shoe-horning more advanced software into a lesser hardware platform, or hardware not optimized to run that software.

That's going to be true forever.

But, I doubt that would happen in this case for a long time, as the current Hardware platforms are more capable.

It's like PCs.. Used to be that you would need to buy a new PC every-year, as that older hardware just got bogged down by newer software.. Software pretty-much immediately outgrew the capabilities of newer platforms. ..Now, even a cheaper PC can run the more advanced software without the need for regular hardware upgrades, as the current hardware is at a point where it can take these new software leaps and bounds in it's stride.

Having said that, I personally would never buy a product based on hoping for updates.

...If a product doesn't have the quality or capabilities you require today, betting that tomorrow it will, is a real long-shot. You might hope that - if we're lucky - sound quality and capability is improved over time, but a realistic expectation would be that software is improved marginally, not vastly, and if the original hardware sets a standard for a person which is too low a bar to limbo under today, I wouldn't be getting that piece of hardware at all..

Is a healthy life cycle defined by years of updates or simply by years of being a well made product that sounds great ?

It’s not like the Ax8 CPU suddenly stopped working, it sounds as good as it ever did, no?

Most products we buy based upon how they work at the time..... when I bought a pedal or amp it was about what features it had and how it sounded. I didn’t buy a pedal expecting to send it in every few months and have them add extra knobs or something.

Buying a product not for what it is, but for what we hope it may be seems like quite a good way to be nothing but disappointed.


Nailed it. If a machine has the capability you need and sounds good today, it simply doesn't need any updates tomorrow. It just doesn't need them. ..If a person is waiting on tomorrow for something to sound as good, or have the capabilities they might be hoping for.... well ...l would definitely start lowering my expectations for improvement enough to get excited about.
 
I love updates, don't need/want your approval

my approval has nothing to do with it, but, if you need constant updates to get your fix, then you should always upgrade to the latest and greatest new products, ideally at time of release. That is how you’ll get the most updates, and naturally that will decline as the product matures.

As previously stated though, buying a product not for what it presently offers, but for hope of updates over a given period of time sure seems like a good way to be disappointed with what you’ve got simply because it didn’t meet an unrealistic future expectation.

updates are great, don’t get me wrong, but they are also like feeding a stray. Before you know it you have a bunch of cats scratching at your door each night because they’ve come to expect and demand a handout each night.

Cliff already ported some of Ares and everyone was like “when are we getting the rest of it”. Then when he finishes this latest version it’s going to be all smiles for a day, then next morning it will be “yeah but the III and FM3 have ____, why don’t we get it?” And back to the doom and gloom, “our product was abandoned so early, life isn’t fair”
 
The FM3 is expected to have roughly the same capabilities as an AX8. My guess would be that it has a more capable CPU than an AX8, but it's running more complex software ...so, has roughly the same capabilities.

That is how I interpreted the statement that the FM3 has roughly the same capabilities as the AX8.

Speaking of programmers leaving FAS, I wonder if that has something to do with the delay in the FM3? There has not been a post from @Greg Girardin since June 4.
 
Newb question. Other than running 2 amps simultaneously (which I have zero interest in) what features are lacking because of the “lack of CPU” in the FM3 or the Axe8 for that matter.

Few reductions and simplifications of features here an there, like 2 cabs/mics at once instead of 4, fewer deep-editing parameters on some things, a few effects won't be there (e.g. no vocoder), and of course less CPU means fewer effects/blocks can be used simultaneously in a patch.
 
If you where the owner of Fractal Audio, what would your top priorities be?????? Would you spend lots of man hours on updates for old units that are no longer sold in your store ??????? would you make improvements on the newest units that you still sell new??? Would you try to please people that all ready spent there money?????? or the people looking to spend money?????????? or would you balance it all out as it looks like Fractal Audio currently does??????
Hey Question mark guy, the AX8 is not an old product, it was introduced in 2016
 
Alright. Alright. Let me try this out...

Why was the AX8 not upgraded to Ares?

Because he wasn’t an FM3!


In my defense, I’m only half way through my first coffee of the day.
That reminds me of when my Dad used to say "Why? …. Because I said so!"
 
Whether the AX8 is "old" or not is meaningless. It's discontinued.

Why continue to support a discontinued product? In this case, I think it might be related to the FM3 delay. Issuing an update for the AxeII and AX8 is good public relations.
 
Whether the AX8 is "old" or not is meaningless. It's discontinued.

Why continue to support a discontinued product? In this case, I think it might be related to the FM3 delay. Issuing an update for the AxeII and AX8 is good public relations.
Right, the fact that Fractal has this amazing reputation of extended years of updates and support is part of the reason we love them, of course they can get away with doing a lot less than they do, but hopefully that's not where they are headed.
 
Right, the fact that Fractal has this amazing reputation of extended years of updates and support is part of the reason we love them, of course they can get away with doing a lot less than they do, but hopefully that's not where they are headed.

You can’t expect the same pace of development to continue indefinitely though...

look at digital cameras, in the first few years of the products it was revolutionary updates each new year/product cycle going from 2 to 4 to 8 et al megapixels, faster frame rates etc. Now days it’s like the same 24meg sensor year after year, maybe they add a touch screen, new shooting mode etc, but hardly night and day stuff, and as a result, people aren’t rushing to upgrade as often. Same with phones and computers etc.

the Axe II on FW1 and some 30 or so major updates is pretty night and day different, I mean remember before we even had scenes ? That was huge..... but then, new products come along and they started from day one with all those years of development already there, so how can you expect the same pace of development to continue ?

just because a II has g2, g3, quantum and the mostly Ares modeling over the years does not mean the III is promised at least 30 updates and 3 major modeling engine updates.

maybe it will have that, maybe in 2030 Cliff will still be doing firmware Friday, but maybe it won’t, there wasn’t any promise made.

just because the bar tender gave you a free drink last week, does not mean he owes you a free drink this week, much less every time you come into the bar....

past results do not guarantee future performance, it’s true of most anything in life, even FAS products
 
...unless everyone would rather that Cliff would trickle out updates really slowly like the competition. Imagine waiting years to get improvements to a 10+ year old unit that every other platform has or waiting more than a half year for a firmware update that has upgrade instructions requiring a venn diagram to perform.
 
Ares for the ax8 is coming, said by Cliff in person a few days ago (check the latest ax8 firmware thread to find the post).

Yes - see reply #294 in the pinned AX8 v10.01 firmware thread. Clearly I missed this very welcome news until now - fantastic !!
 
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Is a healthy life cycle defined by years of updates or simply by years of being a well made product that sounds great ?

It’s not like the Ax8 CPU suddenly stopped working, it sounds as good as it ever did, no?

Most products we buy based upon how they work at the time..... when I bought a pedal or amp it was about what features it had and how it sounded. I didn’t buy a pedal expecting to send it in every few months and have them add extra knobs or something.

Buying a product not for what it is, but for what we hope it may be seems like quite a good way to be nothing but disappointed.

Sorry, I buy FAS product based upon how they works at the time, but also how they works 5 years later. If FAS doesn't have long time upgrade, Line6 may be a better choice.
 
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