Axe_FX II Rigs, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Digital Modelling.

Drew_TNBD

There is something deeply fucked with this firmware. If I start a new preset, and have an amp into a cab... double verb model... it sounds bloody awful.

If I change an existing preset to the double verb... it sounds absolutely fine. I've done the reset amps thing the firmware mentions. No difference.

Drew_TNBD

It seems to be related to the new defaults for the master volume. They've got it cranked to 10, and it sounds fucking shiiiiiiiiiiiiit!!

EDIT: Nahhh... that can't be it... my old preset has the same setting....

Si_

I had that problem a while ago (look about 4-8 pages back) on an earlier firmware. I fixed it by re-flashing the firmware

Clarky

just tried the double verb.. to be honest I don't know what it's sposed to sound like..

it's pretty clean.. 

made it sound nicer though by hitting the boost and turning up the depth

Drew_TNBD

They've some really fucking stupid decisions with this firmware. Mainly to do with the master volume and now the saturation switch decreases the volume of the amps, which is not what I've ever noticed with real amps.

I'm disappointed in it to be honest and I'm gonna stick with FW14.

Si_

Hmm.. think I'll stay on the FW15b until 15.1 comes out.

Clarky

for the amps I'm using I really like this firmware…

ok so if the vol drops with the sat switch [which I agree is a bit needless] I'll just up the level pf the amp..

Drew_TNBD

Figured out my woes. FW15 reset my Input 1 mode from L+R Sum to Left Only... which for some reason seems to jack up the input signal quite a lot... causing all of the amps to fart out.

The sat level drop thing is not realistic - I've literally never experienced that. With saturation you get compression, but that does not equate to a level drop. It equates to lack of dynamics and extra gain. That's my opinion.

This whole firmware thing is like the Reaper development style all over again, I hated it then and I hate it now! :P

Clarky

@Si_ ;

I've loaded you're preset.. yup.. huge delay between scenes.. much much bigger than anything I've encountered before…

looking into it..

PolarityMan

Drew_fx said:

This whole firmware thing is like the Reaper development style all over again, I hated it then and I hate it now! :P

Explain?

Clarky

@Si_

you're CPU is up over 90%, that screws the scene change timing..

I stripped out the multi-delay, the CPU dropped to 84% and the gaps improve greatly..

now you only have the normal X-Y lag you get in the amp block

Note that this lag, although noticeable, is still better than the lag you get with a real channel switching amp

how to improve this…

do you have a song in your set that actually uses all 4 of these amps???

if not, then you don't need them all in a single preset..

example 1: song that only uses two of your 4 amp choices

you copy this preset, use two amp blocks set to the X side.. they never X-Y switch

you simply use scenes to switch between these amps

example 2: song that uses 3 of your amp choices

look at the song and determine which two amps you need to switch between the most, or which expose the X-Y lag the most in the song [remembering that you may not be playing when you make a tone change - cos what you're playing / not playing at that point in the song]..

once you've determined which is the last effected amp choice, this will be the one you need on the Y side..

so which amp block do you place it in?

the block that either never transitions to this Y side amp, or never transitions to it when the lag will be noticeable / difficult to mask

what I do..

scene1: riff [amp1X=5153 / amp2X=Herbert]

scene2: solo [amp1X=5153]

scene3: clean [amp2=JCM800]

notice that my soloing tone is on amp1X. I always want tight transitions to solo. I can / do go to solo from riff and clean. so I keep the soloing amp available always and never make an X-Y switch to get to it..

surely the 5153 soloing will have much more gain and different EQ to the 5153 riffing?? yes this is true..

I use a vol block before the 5153 as a level boost [a huge one] which adds a ton of extra gain for soloing with.. and also a GEQ block at the end of the chain to alter the EQ [smooth out the high's, calm the lows] and also to provide the 5dB level boost so I jump over the band when soloing.. when I hit the solo scene, amp2 mutes [irrespective if it's clean or riff] and the vol and GEQ blocks go active to fire up the gain, alter the EQ and provide the soloing level boost…

your other FX [delays / multi delay / others..]

only have them in a preset where you'll need them for a song / type of song..

for example, if you only have one song with the multi delay [and the other one or two delays - and maybe some other fx - are not needed then have a single preset with that in there..

the issue - you're trying to do everything in a single preset

the solution - create more presets that do less and are built for specific songs / groups of songs

the ethos - build presets so you only need to change preset between songs, and do not have anything in a preset that don't need to be there..

you have 380+ preset slots, you'll not run out.. so use them..

never allow the CPU above 89%

Drew_TNBD

PolarityMan said:

Drew_fx said:

This whole firmware thing is like the Reaper development style all over again, I hated it then and I hate it now! :P

Explain?

Lets add bits on to our framework willy nilly because the developer had a moment of clarity or whatever, and lets do it in preference to the other stuff that actually needs to be done, because it's more time efficient and more fun to do it.

Seems to me that the modelling changes in FW15 have done very little good. The saturation switch volume drop is not realistic. Everything else is pretty much the same, so all those changes were unnecessary... hell, it even says in the release notes that the Plexi models were changed and that it wouldn't affect the sound, but it was done to be more accurate on paper.

Which makes no sense to me. If it doesn't affect the sound, it didn't need changing.

Take a bunch of changes like that, add them together, and you've got either a bunch of things that change the sound collectively, or you've got a whole load of wasted work. I would've rather seen some improvements elsewhere personally.

Saying all that.... I mostly dislike how I experienced a few bugs and reported them, and rather than try to reproduce or come to my aid, the "community" just said to me that I should like it or lump it, even if it meant scrapping all my presets.

Drew_TNBD

For instance, the saturation volume effect doesn't sound bad. But it does fuck up the workflow somewhat. Do this:

1. Switch to Das Metall.
2. Set gain to 4. Sat button on. Block output level to -3dB.
3. Play a series of chords.
4. Switch to any other amp.
- Output is very loud, and possibly clipping depending on your settings.

You may say "well why not just use the master volume" and the answer is: I've already got my tone at that point. I just want it louder. Turning up the master is going to introduce sag and bloom that I don't want.

Clarky

it's not the MV you want to change because that alters tone.. it's the level of the amp block..

I do agree that turning on the sat switch and losing level is not the best idea…

and even if some real amps exhibit this behaviour it's not a cool one that needs replicating

in my presets, the amps that have the sat switch active never have it assigned to a modifier

I could see this creating a needless prob.. 

and yeah.. the community can get a bit zealot like at times..

they're not all like that though

Drew_TNBD

Another little clip. Really like this one... loving the dual delay on the bass....
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6hggdywmlm6rt7y/Melodic01.mp3

Si_

I've always hated Fractals approach to firmware updates.. and I've been vocal about that on here.. quite frankly, it's crap!. Often releases have bugs in them that should never get out. 

It's all down to the fact that 1 person does it all, then it's passed to a handful of testers and releases a few days later, there is no proper testing, no apparent life cycle. I've said lots of time before they should release firmware update less often, but make then right first time rather than loads of fixes coming out.

It really is a 1 man band operation..

Drew_TNBD

They should give me a job as QA manager. I'd whip that shit into shape within weeks! grrrrrrrr.

There *is* a reason that Line 6, Roland, Yamaha, and to a certain extent Digitech don't have regular firmware updates. They get it right in the first place. For their target market anyway.

In very few cases does design by committee+community input+regular point releases result in good design.

Si_

Clarky said:

@Si_

you're CPU is up over 90%, that screws the scene change timing..

Thanks for all the tips.. I've just updated to FW15 and CPU has dropped to 79% so will see if that helps.

Si_

I've re-done the patch and it seems much bette now.. CPU is down to 71% and switching between scenes is a LOT better.  Next rehearsal is wednesday so I'll know for sure after then.

Drew_TNBD

Next firmware will have a preference for saturation behaviour, authentic and "ideal" which will be the non-attenuated version.