Finally (well, soon...) Axe FX Q9

Roland

Nah, I'll let other people sort out the niggles in the beta version.

octatonic

I had planned to but today's Slate plugin release has taken the rest of my time.
I'll check it out tomorrow and report back.

Jonathanthomas83

I like it so far, not had a lot of time with it but high gain sounds better to me...not sure if it's a placebo effect or not though. The speaker comp stuff seems to be doing the trick in terms of really tightening things up etc.  DMM is glorious, can get a really nice wash behind your playing, sounds quite close.

Jonathanthomas83

@guitarfishbay you managed to try Q9 yet? It sounds glorious! Either that or just that some of the new amps I'm trying have always been that good and I've been shit at dialling them in! The Plexi's in particular sound very special, I couldn't make them work for me before.

guitarfishbay

Not yet. I'm going to wait for the full release at this point - I thought it would've been out this weekend but my guess is it won't be long now

Jonathanthomas83

Yeah, bit strange we've not seen a full release sooner. It'll come, no doubt. Looks like a few are having USB issues.

guitarfishbay

Yeah guess fixing that for final release is the priority.

They do sometimes do more than one beta - I guess they might this time to see if it fixes the issue.

I mostly want the B7K to be honest! 

peteri

Any idea when this will reach the AX8?

guitarfishbay

It'll be after the Axe FX 2 release usually.

I think they get it stable on the Axe FX 2 first and then port the necessary code over to the AX8 and FX8 later.

There have been the odd occasions where firmware has been released on the AX8/FX8 first, but it usually starts off with the Axe FX most of the time

guitarfishbay

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/axe-fx-ii-quantum-rev-9-00-firmware-release.131649/

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9.00
Removed the “Motor Drive” and “Transformer Grind” algorithms and associated parameters from the Amp block. These have been replaced by the new “Speaker Compression” algorithm. This algorithm models the interaction of the power amp with the power compression of the virtual speaker. The “Spkr Comp” parameter controls the amount of virtual speaker compression. This value defaults to 3.0 when the Amp block is reset. It does not get reset when changing the model. If using the Axe-Fx II with a tube power amp and conventional guitar cab you may want to reduce this value to 0.0. The gain reduction meter shows the amount of virtual power compression (select the Spkr Comp knob to monitor the gain reduction). Typical guitar speakers compress between 3 and 6 dB depending upon construction, age, volume, etc. The default value is conservative and yields about 3 dB of compression.
Note that the Master Volume control will interact considerably with the Speaker Compression algorithm as will the Presence and Depth controls. Higher values of Master Volume will cause more virtual speaker compression.

Improved Delay block. Also reworked the Deluxe Mind Guy, Mono BBD and Stereo BBD delay models based on the improvements.

Added “Blackglass 7K” Drive model based on a Darkglass B7K. The model was obtained with the Attack and Grunt switches in the middle positions. The Grunt switch changes the low-cut frequency therefore the Low Cut control can be used to replicate this switch. The Attack switch controls a shelving filter on the input and can be replicated using the Tone control.
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Jonathanthomas83

What do you think of the Darkglass model, mate?

guitarfishbay

Only just saw the update this morning, I’ll see if I can get a go on it this weekend. 

Roland

Good timing. I’ve got a break after tonight’s gig. Long enough to edit and settle down patches with the new firmware.

guitarfishbay

@Jonathanthomas83 ;;;

I've had a go now, comparing to my B7KU

Got to be honest I'm not a huge fan.  It's been modelled with the switches in the middle which on the pedal means boosted treble and cut bass.  It's a bit too harsh for me like this, including vs the pedal.

I've found sticking a parametric EQ block with a low shelf and boosting to taste starting somewhere between 120 and 150 hz anyhwere up to the full 12db helps.  Also dropping the low cut parameter in the model.  Running the tone control lower too.  I also played about with changing the clipping type, I very slightly preferred FET over hard but it's really splitting hairs.

Hopefully it'll be modelled with the other switch positions.

I mean it's definitely possible to get a Darkglass type sound, and a good sound, from it.  But it's not as plug and play as the pedal.  And the Helix model has all the switch functionality including the full EQ and switchable EQ points, so even though I think it's a bit softer/muddier sounding than the pedal it's more usable than the Fractal model which right now I need to tweak and add extra blocks to.  The 4 band EQ on the pedal, with the 2 mid bands, is really quite useful.

It doesn't make any real difference to me as I've been happy with the pedals for ages now.  I was kind of hoping I'd like the model enough to sell my real pedals though, but right now I'm not feeling like that.  It's a nice option though

Clarky

I'm really looking forward to loading this one...
I can't until I come off tour in late November...

nooooooooooo ! ! ! !

Jonathanthomas83

@guitarfishbay I had a feeling some would be disappointed by it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on it. Shame you can’t sell your pedal just yet, always nice to offload them when you’ve found a good replacement!

guitarfishbay

Well it’s mostly because the configuration modelled is the one I’d use least. If additional models are created with different switch settings it’ll probably sound quite good, the basic character is there but you have to use 1 or 2 extra blocks to get the rest of it (Pre EQ for bass shelf to simulate the other grunt settings, post EQ for the dual mid bands)