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Post subject: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 5:00 am
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Hobbyist
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Joined: Sun Jul 17, 2011 12:21 pm
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Dear Moderators,

I hope this is the appropriate place to post the following.
There are two improvements I would love to have in the Mustang I & II (which I both use regularly), that can be implemented totally in firmware and, I am convinced, would be beneficial to many people by improving the versatility an usability of these already great devices:

    1. Allow an alternative configuration of the one-button switch for toggling between two effect settings (without changing the amp/preset) rather than between presets. I think this is a frequent need e.g. to add some reverb and/or delay for soloing. Currently one needs to use two different ones of the precious preset storage places for this. This is even worse when one wants to add the same effect combination to different basic sound presets (say clean and crunchy) for soloing, in effect doubling the number of required preset storage and reducing the number of available different basic sound presets accordingly.

    2. Provide direct access via the amp to more amp settings, including (some of) the advanced settings without Fuse. I am aware that I have control of each and every parameter of the device via Fuse. However, I regularly use my amps in situations in which I do not have acces to a computer and where this would be inconvenient anyway. Moreover, these often are the situations in which I use the devices in a band, i.e. this is where I can accurately judge how the amp should sound. This is not so easy when playing alone or even via headphones. Hence, it would be very useful to be able to control some more key parameters like the mid settings or the master volume control (e.g. on the "British 80's" model) directly without requiring Fuse.

I have the following suggestion on how this could be implemented using the existing user interface:

- Pressing and holding the "save" button for some time (or any other appropriate button combination) enters an "advanced settings" mode, which could be indicated by having the save and exit buttons flashing in an alternating manner.

- Now some of the available knobs could be used for a different purpose like this
    Bass now controls the mids
    Treble controls presence (where available)
    Volume controls master volume (where available)
    Gain controls gain II (where available)
    Mod controls sag
    Dly/Rev controls bias

- Pressing the one-button switch enters its alternate configuration mode. This could be indicated by alternating between green and red flashing of the foot switch LED. Now the Mod and Dly/Rev knobs are used to select (or deselect) an effect combination, that is to be used later on upon pressing the footswitch once. Once configured this way, the foot switch could be used to toggle between the configured effect settings and (preferably) the previously used effect settings (or alternatively the effect combination stored with the current preset).

- Pressing the exit button would return the amp to its normal operating mode. In this mode the alternative foot switch configuration can be overwritten by using its standard programming procedure.


All of the above suggestions require only minor modifications to the user interface control part of the amp's firmware, without interfering in any way with the sound processing. They also essentially rely on already existing mechanisms which are available when connected to Fuse.

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Philippe


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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:55 am
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Great suggestions, Philippe. However, I can't help but notice that your suggestions would give the Mustang I and II a lot of the functionality of the Mustang III, IV, and V. Perhaps you should just buy an MIII.

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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 12:37 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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I have to agree with Loren on this, Iphilippe. Try to remember that we're talking about $100 and $200 amps here. As they are now, they already give much much more than other amplifiers in the same price range do. The MI especially, is in my opinion, the best value on the market today. Period. As far as I know, there is no other modeling amplifier that offers what the Mustang I & II offer in terms of flexible, deep yet easily understood controls over the sound of the amp via Fuse.

As much as I too would like to see a more convenient (no computer) method of altering the presets in the amp, I can't see it happening in this price range. However, I still think that a USB connected control pedal that can give the user access to ALL the presets in all the Mustang amp models would make a lot of gigging users happy. It would also be one more product that Fender could sell. What do you say, Loren?

O.


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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:09 pm
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I don't need my Mustang I to have the functionality of a Mustang III. HOWEVER, it would be really NICE to be able to control the mids from the amp's panel!


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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 2:12 pm
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Sounds like a killer product. Perhaps we'll see something like it in the future.

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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 4:53 pm
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Joined: Thu Nov 10, 2011 7:19 am
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Location: Crete
You wont need a killer product ;) Its just a question of some simple software enginering. For example you gave the M-mini the possibility to rule the bass with the treble knob together with pressed exit-key. Was it whichwork? Should be equally simple to give the possibilty of ruling the mids on M1 and M2 with the treble knob. And so on.
I really miss the ability of controlling many important parameters on M1 and M2 without connected Notebook. How important is the mid-controll on Fender-modells, or the master volume on the Vox ("british 60s"). And no part of the amp has to be changed, just some lines of code in the firmware and in the interface.

Greets,

Frente


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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 9:43 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:11 am
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Frente

Other than possible reasons relating to limited DSP capacity, the REAL reason you won't see most of these features on the smaller Mustang amps anytime soon is clearly product differentiation and the impact on sales potential.

In other words, they want you to buy a III, IV or V to get those features; they don't just want to give them away.

Loren's post on behalf of Fender earlier in this thread makes that as clear as day, and I quote : "I can't help but notice that your suggestions would give the Mustang I and II a lot of the functionality of the Mustang III, IV, and V. Perhaps you should just buy an MIII".


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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 10:12 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Tue Feb 22, 2011 11:26 am
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Location: Lake Charles, LA
Some people are never satisfied and can't look at the big picture, Depepat.

"I want a new car. I want it to have all-leather bucket seats, dual climate control, all wheel disk anti-lock brakes, automatic, tilt, cruise, GPS, On-star, multi-disk changer, sunroof, collision detection..... But I only want to pay $3,000 for it. Anyone? ....please...?"

Seriously, people. You only paid $200 for an amp. You paid less than you did for your guitar in most cases. Think about it.

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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 3:33 am
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Loren Howard - Fender wrote:
... I can't help but notice that your suggestions would give the Mustang I and II a lot of the functionality of the Mustang III, IV, and V. Perhaps you should just buy an MIII.

I was already expecting the product differentiation argument when writing my original post. In this respect I have the following comments:

1. Before getting my MII and later my MI I owned a series of 3 MIIIs for several months. I really loved the user interface, unfortunately I had to return those amps one after the other because to me they were unsatisfactory for clean sounds (this is a topic discussed elsewhere which I do not want to reopen in this thread). Otherwise I would own two MIIIs today instead of the two smaller devices.

2. My original suggestions were kind of a max wish list, that is no big deal from a pure technical point of view. The differentiation issue could be managed by providing only a subset of those features. In order of (my) preference I would like to see the following features:
    - effect switching (i.e. the alternative footswitch mode),
    - mid control,
    - master volume control.

3. Even when implementing my complete wish list I would still consider the MIII to be significantly different:
    output power,
    great display,
    reverb knob,
    76 more presets,
    individual switching of effects (generally much more footswitch functionality),
    now the new expression pedal and associated parameter control feature,
    direct access to most effect parameters,
    ...

4. I did not ask for a free beer. I bought my mustangs being completely aware of their functionality and limitations. Since my suggestions are not bug fixes but product improvements I would be prepared to pay a reasonable price for such a new "advanced" firmware version.

Philippe


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Post subject: Re: Mustang I & II firmware feature request
Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 4:08 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:11 am
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If sensibly priced, paid-for firmware upgrades matched to upgradeable amps might indeed be an interesting new marketing approach, but I suspect :
- that the onboard DSP capacity on the whole of the existing Mustang range is close to the bare minimum needed to run the existing feature sets; and
- that kind of small scale and incremental stuff is simply not part of the current primary Fender sales model - it's just not what they do.


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