I see there's artists presets now being featured on the Fractal website. Pete Thorn, Devin Townsend, and now Steve Stevens! Fractal is wearing me down.
And cliff released fw12.09 yesterday.
Might as well join in
![lol :lol: :lol:](http://www.sevenstring.org/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/laugh.gif)
I see there's artists presets now being featured on the Fractal website. Pete Thorn, Devin Townsend, and now Steve Stevens! Fractal is wearing me down.
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A lot of the forum posted firmware updates are public betas... in fact to some degree I sort of consider all of the forum announcements of FW to be public betas... I pretty much wait for new releases to drop via Fractal-Bot instead of religiously upgrading the second Cliff posts something on the forum. Waiting for the Axe-Edit update is the other surefire way to avoid jumping on something too early. They don't release a new Axe-Edit (most but not all FWs require or drive some update to AE) until the FW is stable.Hi it's me again, the tire kicker! : )
- I've noticed in the last couple updates from reading on the Fractal forum it seems they might be moving a bit to fast or something. It seems like theres been a lot of bugs popping up even in comparison to previous updates.
- I think if (when) I finally get one of these units that I'll always stay a version or two behind and let eveyone else deal with the bugs and whatnot before I do updates myself.
- Then again, the ability to backup and rollback firmware is a huge plus. This is why I'm just gonna have to get two of them so I can experiment on one and play on the other. That's my excuse and I'm stickin to it : )
- I might wait until the Axe IV to comes out though.
@Elric That makes a lot of sense that beta's would have issues. Good advise on handling updates. Thanks for the info!
- Can I ask how you compare the feel and dynamics of the AxeFx III to a tube head and cab? Curious how it responds to pick attack and dynamics. Things like picking really light to really hard on a grit channel and how it responds to distortion amount and breakup etc.
The AxeFx feels pretty ‘alive’ to me... I can throw a tube unit in the loop (preamp or an amp via a Fryette PS2) and get confused as to which is which if I am not looking at the screen and they are dialed in to match up. If you are set to a light crunch on a Marshall you can pick really light and get a clean sound and then bang the strings and it sounds seriously crunchy.
I think the big things with the modelers are:
1. FRFR vs cabs. Modelers can work in either context but most go for FRFR and that Is WAY different than a cab rig. Some can’t stand it, some get used to it, and some like it better but I think this is the deal breaker for most people that genuinely give them a fair shake but never bond with them.
2. The interface/use model. It feels a lot more like using a computer than an amp rig does. This can be really liberating if you are good with patches presets, etc, TBH. But again, some people cannot abide this.
3. The psychology of it... people are always pushing the magical mystical aspect of tubes and it is easy to get caught up in obsessively being insecure about whether you’d be getting “better” tones with tubes or if it really sounds like the amp it models.
I have a good mix of digital and tube gear now and I don’t really see myself ever NOT having a modeler they are so good and so powerful, you can do everything with them. If I had to do a fire sale, the Axe is the last thing out the door. I could replace it with another unit or something someday, because technology, but it would have to be for a comparable unit, at this stage it is my most useful piece.
They've had good dynamics and feel since the ii. Elric has nailed the frfr/cab thing. I switched and literally thought nothing of it, but some folks get very hung up.
I check the forum daily, but not for FW updates![]()