Fractal FTW !!
and yeah no shit this FW has been significant for me
other than probably the impedance stuff its probably my favourite firmware .
To me , one the most important things in the hi gain amp design is how the low end is handled.
prior to this firmware . I though the Axe was great , I could get it to sound EQ wise pretty much exactly like my buddies SYN HBE, or SLO modules through the same IR , and the feel was really good but where I noticed it was the low end attack and transients, the Tube preamp has a very immediate pick attack , there is no smear , in most of the high gain amps other than by design ( recto) the clarity is there and that response I struggled with any of the modellers to get to be honest the closest I heard was the NDSP prior and that what had me thinking I might try one out again if they had a smaller box . In Cygnus3 , I hear it and feel it a lot more so my suspicion was it came from the preamp .
But back to the low end and attack , for me that is the hardest thing to find as it is a delicate balance, you want it to be immediate fast and responsive and have cut and not to smear but at the same time you don't want it to be to sharp and thin or you get that nails on a chalkboard metal sound clink clink clink clink . which to me is ear fatiguing , so getting the notes to have weight behind them and articulate on the low strings , I think is a design challenge in the real world let alone to try an replicate that in software so hats off the Cliff for figuring that one out
Although maybe you don't love the sound I have always used this clip as a good reference point on a low end response , to me its a perfect balance , you can hear when he chugs on the 5th and 6th strings , that the notes are clear , even though there is a weight to them . if you listen you can tell that he plays a different note, on a different string in that pattern on the 2nd pass , many high gain amp in modellers to me would not have kind of a
definition and would tend to smear the low end and you would just hear a bunch of chug
