The Fractal Thread

bloodandtears · October 2018

Are there any Fractal users based in the North West that would be able to give me a demo??

mrkb · February 2019

New beta firmware for the AXEFXII ! That’s a surprise for a product that’s been obsolete for the last 12 months! Hope that makes it onto the AX8.

kennedydream1980 · August 2019

Anyone want to chime in and share their live presets for their Fractal units? I made the move from a Helix to the AX8 around 6 months ago and have been loving the feel and sound of the AX8. I've found it much easier to dial in than the Helix. It just seems to sound right right off the bat.

I'm interested to see how other people dial their Fractal units in for live use. Is everyone using stock cabs or IR's, what is everyone's go to amps? Anyone want to share?

I've been using the Mesa IIC+ for a good while but just started to explore the Atomica High and the Friedman models. I'm using IR's from the York Audio Bipolar pack and also Celestion IR's.

I'll post my presets up on here later today (Minus the IR's).

octatonic · August 2019

kennedydream1980 said:

Anyone want to chime in and share their live presets for their Fractal units? I made the move from a Helix to the AX8 around 6 months ago and have been loving the feel and sound of the AX8. I've found it much easier to dial in than the Helix. It just seems to sound right right off the bat.

I'm interested to see how other people dial their Fractal units in for live use. Is everyone using stock cabs or IR's, what is everyone's go to amps? Anyone want to share?

I've been using the Mesa IIC+ for a good while but just started to explore the Atomica High and the Friedman models. I'm using IR's from the York Audio Bipolar pack and also Celestion IR's.

I'll post my presets up on here later today (Minus the IR's).

I don't have a problem sharing my presets but I've found they have always been of limited use to others because the playback/amplification devices is different between people.

I'm monitoring on Kii Three's and soon a set of ATC SCM45a Pro's- other people will have amp fx returns, powered monitors, powered guitar cabs and other devices and the inherent EQ curve, despite what FRFR professes to solve, is different per device so you always end up having to dial it in.
For this reason I don't use presets myself and just make my own sounds.

That said, I'm happy to share mine (I'm have an Axe FX III and an FX8) and interested to see how others are structuring their presets.
I was impressed with @Clarky's Axe II approach where he was able to use an expression pedal to dial in clean to outrageous gain using two amps, although I don't use that approach myself.

kennedydream1980 · August 2019

octatonic said:

kennedydream1980 said:

Anyone want to chime in and share their live presets for their Fractal units? I made the move from a Helix to the AX8 around 6 months ago and have been loving the feel and sound of the AX8. I've found it much easier to dial in than the Helix. It just seems to sound right right off the bat.

I'm interested to see how other people dial their Fractal units in for live use. Is everyone using stock cabs or IR's, what is everyone's go to amps? Anyone want to share?

I've been using the Mesa IIC+ for a good while but just started to explore the Atomica High and the Friedman models. I'm using IR's from the York Audio Bipolar pack and also Celestion IR's.

I'll post my presets up on here later today (Minus the IR's).

I don't have a problem sharing my presets but I've found they have always been of limited use to others because the playback/amplification devices is different between people.

I'm monitoring on Kii Three's and soon a set of ATC SCM45a Pro's- other people will have amp fx returns, powered monitors, powered guitar cabs and other devices and the inherent EQ curve, despite what FRFR professes to solve, is different per device so you always end up having to dial it in.
For this reason I don't use presets myself and just make my own sounds.

That said, I'm happy to share mine (I'm have an Axe FX III and an FX8) and interested to see how others are structuring their presets.
I was impressed with @Clarky's Axe II approach where he was able to use an expression pedal to dial in clean to outrageous gain using two amps, although I don't use that approach myself.

I was mainly interested in direct to FOH live presets. I probably should have mentioned that :-)

Also I tend to use one amp for clean to full on overdrive. I set the amp up for the maximum amount of gain I need for my heavy rhythm sound. I then use a volume block with a scene controller attached to the level. I can then vary the amount of level the volume block lets through to the amp per scene. In effect the volume block is mimicking the volume knob on my guitar.
I then use a drive block on top of my heavy rhythm sound for leads.

firepaulmusic · August 2019

kennedydream1980 said:

Anyone want to chime in and share their live presets for their Fractal units? I made the move from a Helix to the AX8 around 6 months ago and have been loving the feel and sound of the AX8. I've found it much easier to dial in than the Helix. It just seems to sound right right off the bat.

I'm interested to see how other people dial their Fractal units in for live use. Is everyone using stock cabs or IR's, what is everyone's go to amps? Anyone want to share?

I've been using the Mesa IIC+ for a good while but just started to explore the Atomica High and the Friedman models. I'm using IR's from the York Audio Bipolar pack and also Celestion IR's.

I'll post my presets up on here later today (Minus the IR's).

Best place to start is Austin Buddy’s Naked Amps pack. Dialled in Amps with matched cabs...

kennedydream1980 · August 2019

firepaulmusic said:

kennedydream1980 said:

Anyone want to chime in and share their live presets for their Fractal units? I made the move from a Helix to the AX8 around 6 months ago and have been loving the feel and sound of the AX8. I've found it much easier to dial in than the Helix. It just seems to sound right right off the bat.

I'm interested to see how other people dial their Fractal units in for live use. Is everyone using stock cabs or IR's, what is everyone's go to amps? Anyone want to share?

I've been using the Mesa IIC+ for a good while but just started to explore the Atomica High and the Friedman models. I'm using IR's from the York Audio Bipolar pack and also Celestion IR's.

I'll post my presets up on here later today (Minus the IR's).

Best place to start is Austin Buddy’s Naked Amps pack. Dialled in Amps with matched cabs...

I already have the dream rigs pack. It came with my AX8 :-)

Roland · August 2019

kennedydream1980 said:

I was mainly interested in direct to FOH live presets.

A lot of the packs focus on Amp and Cab settings. Whilst these are important they are, as @octatonic says, they often very personal and linked to instrument, playing style, and choice of monitoring equipment.

@wiredreamsdisaster once remarked that the big benefit of the Fractal approach is how it helps you manage workflow on stage. For example, the ability to have patches for particular song types, and scenes which correspond to intro, verse, chorus, bridge etc.

I would also add the ability to configure separate outputs for PA and monitor, and separate inputs for wireless and cable. So for example, I use the Global EQs on Output1 and Output2 to match my Matrix Q10 to my Mackie SRM450s. I’ve also got a filter block on Input2 to approximate the EQ of using a cable on Input1. If the wireless goes down mid gig I can switch to cable without losing the top edge, (my hearing is limited above 3kHz so I could not do this on the fly).

A particular benefit for me is the ability to run an acoustic guitar simulation and an electric guitar path in parallel in the same patch, which helps with Crazy Little Thing Called Love and Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

kennedydream1980 · August 2019

Here is my current live stereo preset using the Mesa II C++ amp. It's heavily based on Leon Todds Mesa 2C++ presets (I've taken the best bits from his various versions). The IR's used are from the York Audio Bipolar pack. The specific IR's are:
YA RECTO ST 412 57M C
YA RECTO ST 412 121 1
But I guess any IR of a vintage 30 loaded cab with an SM57/Royer 121 would work.

The 4 scenes go from clean, crunch, heavier crunch and lead.

I've tested this live with my band at high volume and it sounds great and cuts through well.

Anyway enjoy.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/h3iyf6by1s8glc8/DAVE MESA.syx?dl=0

Clarky · August 2019

octatonic said:
I was impressed with @Clarky's Axe II approach where he was able to use an expression pedal to dial in clean to outrageous gain using two amps, although I don't use that approach myself.

key point to note there is that I'm not cross-fading a clean amp with a dirty one
it's actually two hi-gain amps side by side that both morph clean to dirty simultaneously [and so retain that thick stereo spread]..
as you can imagine.. the two amps rate of change from clean through to hi-gain are different, so dialling in the modifier curves for each amp such that both the rates of change of gain and level match was where all the time and effort went..
get it wrong, and one side [one amp] starts pumping up faster than the other and so you get this moment where [in the stereo field] where you're a bit one sided..
not difficult to dial in.. just takes a little time getting the curve shape and mid-point values right

Vibetronic · August 2019

I used the Mesa IIC+ for ages too - I bought the Fremen preset pack and modified his settings a bit, using a slightly dialled back version for rhythm - worked well for both FRFR and going straight into the desk. At the moment I'm mostly using the Brit 800 with different scenes (mainly a volume boost) for rhythm/lead...find it a bit smoother, although it doesn't cut through quite as much as the Mesa. Tend to use slightly different stuff for recording - bought some great prog presets from a site I can't remember offhand, and some other really good metal amp models from 'Sinmix' (think he's a Polish producer?) which are really tight and made to be balanced going straight into a DAW (so are the prog ones). The only thing I'm trying to balance at the moment is using different settings for different guitars - I swap between a Strandberg 7 and my usual 6-string live, and the Fishmans on the Strandberg have so much punch that I think I need to dial that back a bit.

@Clarky is a genius at this stuff - I've got an expression pedal but I'm nowhere near getting it to do that clean to gain thing. Years ago he spent a good hour on the phone with me explaining how to set up a similar patch on a Digitech 2120 (think that was the model!) which sounded amazing. Probably don't remember but it was so useful and I used that for years

DavusPG · August 2019

I went from FX8, to AX8 (which I'm about to sell if anyone interested) and now the III and am a total convert.

Whilst I've downloaded and even bought other presets I've never found one that didn't need at least some tweaking.

Currently using one of the Friedman BE models based on a YouTube Leon Todd preset video, but have taken bits and bobs from others (including Fremen & Moke) such as block settings, scene controller settings etc. Over time I've learnt that there are many ways of achieving the same thing and that there are no rules.

My only bug bear that I've yet to truly conquer is that it does sometimes feel like there's a bit of midrange oomph missing and I'm fighting not to be drowned out by the other guitarist in the band. I think this is probably the "amp in the room" debate that perpetually crops up on the Fractal forum and I've yet to find the answer, but he has a Vox AC30 Custom head and cab and whilst I'll take the sounds the Axe gives me all day long, his just seems to be a bit louder without actually being louder if that makes sense? It could well be my (knackered) ears and a bit of the grass is always greener as even when he had a Helix I often felt his guitar had a thicker sound in isolation. Perhaps it's to do with the frequencies he's hitting?

I'm probably not making much sense! I really need to spend an afternoon just auditioning different IRs and playing with the EQ, but right now I just don't have time. In the context of a band mix at gig levels though the Axe sounds amazing and set up is such a breeze

Vibetronic · August 2019

DavusPG said:

My only bug bear that I've yet to truly conquer is that it does sometimes feel like there's a bit of midrange oomph missing and I'm fighting not to be drowned out by the other guitarist in the band. I think this is probably the "amp in the room" debate that perpetually crops up on the Fractal forum and I've yet to find the answer, but he has a Vox AC30 Custom head and cab and whilst I'll take the sounds the Axe gives me all day long, his just seems to be a bit louder without actually being louder if that makes sense? It could well be my (knackered) ears and a bit of the grass is always greener as even when he had a Helix I often felt his guitar had a thicker sound in isolation. Perhaps it's to do with the frequencies he's hitting?

I'm probably not making much sense! I really need to spend an afternoon just auditioning different IRs and playing with the EQ, but right now I just don't have time. In the context of a band mix at gig levels though the Axe sounds amazing and set up is such a breeze

Does make sense - had slightly similar myself. Can be a difference in the guitar - the other guitarist in one of my bands has a guitar which is hugely punchy in the mid-range whatever he plays through. Also if you're going through a PA you may need to tweak the EQ on your channel (or set it flat). We've got one of those Behringer PA things and it takes a bit of playing with that and a bit of tweaking on the AX8 to get the mix right (and 'real' amps can be quite directional too). Nothing would make me go back to a proper amp now though!

Clarky · August 2019

Vibetronic said:

I used the Mesa IIC+ for ages too - I bought the Fremen preset pack and modified his settings a bit, using a slightly dialled back version for rhythm - worked well for both FRFR and going straight into the desk. At the moment I'm mostly using the Brit 800 with different scenes (mainly a volume boost) for rhythm/lead...find it a bit smoother, although it doesn't cut through quite as much as the Mesa. Tend to use slightly different stuff for recording - bought some great prog presets from a site I can't remember offhand, and some other really good metal amp models from 'Sinmix' (think he's a Polish producer?) which are really tight and made to be balanced going straight into a DAW (so are the prog ones). The only thing I'm trying to balance at the moment is using different settings for different guitars - I swap between a Strandberg 7 and my usual 6-string live, and the Fishmans on the Strandberg have so much punch that I think I need to dial that back a bit.

@Clarky is a genius at this stuff - I've got an expression pedal but I'm nowhere near getting it to do that clean to gain thing. Years ago he spent a good hour on the phone with me explaining how to set up a similar patch on a Digitech 2120 (think that was the model!) which sounded amazing. Probably don't remember but it was so useful and I used that for years

has yes I remember that call... seems like a lifetime ago...

Dannic · September 2019

kennedydream1980 said:

Anyone want to chime in and share their live presets for their Fractal units? I made the move from a Helix to the AX8 around 6 months ago and have been loving the feel and sound of the AX8. I've found it much easier to dial in than the Helix. It just seems to sound right right off the bat.

I'm interested to see how other people dial their Fractal units in for live use. Is everyone using stock cabs or IR's, what is everyone's go to amps? Anyone want to share?

I've been using the Mesa IIC+ for a good while but just started to explore the Atomica High and the Friedman models. I'm using IR's from the York Audio Bipolar pack and also Celestion IR's.

I'll post my presets up on here later today (Minus the IR's).

Just seen this thread. I’ve had an XL for about 3 years now. I'm a prolific collector of paid and free presets as I don’t have the time, inclination or patience to create my own. I have several in ax8 format which I convert with Fractool, including Vinny Burns set list that he used on a Dare festival tour about 18 months ago. These were posted by Vinny on the Fractal forum for free.

Not sure what style of music you play but I have most areas covered. I can share here or pm me any requests. They all use factory IR’s but I use some that suit me better (pair of Focal Alpha 80’s)

Im pretty happy with my sounds now so have slowed down on the searching front, but still on the lookout for a creamy, bluesy Les Paul type of sound if anyone has anything to share.

Jonathanthomas83 · September 2019

Dannic said:

kennedydream1980 said:

Anyone want to chime in and share their live presets for their Fractal units? I made the move from a Helix to the AX8 around 6 months ago and have been loving the feel and sound of the AX8. I've found it much easier to dial in than the Helix. It just seems to sound right right off the bat.

I'm interested to see how other people dial their Fractal units in for live use. Is everyone using stock cabs or IR's, what is everyone's go to amps? Anyone want to share?

I've been using the Mesa IIC+ for a good while but just started to explore the Atomica High and the Friedman models. I'm using IR's from the York Audio Bipolar pack and also Celestion IR's.

I'll post my presets up on here later today (Minus the IR's).

Just seen this thread. I’ve had an XL for about 3 years now. I'm a prolific collector of paid and free presets as I don’t have the time, inclination or patience to create my own. I have several in ax8 format which I convert with Fractool, including Vinny Burns set list that he used on a Dare festival tour about 18 months ago. These were posted by Vinny on the Fractal forum for free.

Not sure what style of music you play but I have most areas covered. I can share here or pm me any requests. They all use factory IR’s but I use some that suit me better (pair of Focal Alpha 80’s)

Im pretty happy with my sounds now so have slowed down on the searching front, but still on the lookout for a creamy, bluesy Les Paul type of sound if anyone has anything to share.

This is precisely why you should definitely invest some time in learning about gear setups and what works. Also looking at gear setups of your favourite guitarists and finally, investment of time in creating your own presets. A creamy bluesy "Les Paul" (strange request, given that's a guitar, not a tone in the Fractal) type of sound is easily achievable with the XL without spending on presets.

hope this doesn't sound like a rant, but I'm gutted you had to spend money to collect presets...the fractal stuff is so easy to use, I find that a massive waste. Apologies.

Dannic · September 2019

Ha, no need to apologise, it’s all good. I’m totally happy with my sounds and love what I can get out of the Fractal, it’s not important to me how that was achieved.

Just to clarify, I have a Les Paul guitar and would like to have a preset that has a creamy/bluesy feel to it.

Jonathanthomas83 · September 2019

Dannic said:

Ha, no need to apologise, it’s all good. I’m totally happy with my sounds and love what I can get out of the Fractal, it’s not important to me how that was achieved.

Just to clarify, I have a Les Paul guitar and would like to have a preset that has a creamy/bluesy feel to it.

My go to would be a Plexi (with a Greenback) and a bit of reverb on that. Get the gain on an expression pedal so you can manipulate to taste. Have a TS or SD-1 model in front for a bit of juice when you need it. It's so simple to pull off it'd be a shame to spend money on it. Genuinely.

peteri · September 2019

My 'new' amp at the moment is the Trainwreck Express, for me it's just the most wonderful, thick plexi - have it 'clean' and put a Fuzzface in front and wow!

As above, despite having bought the Austin Buddy sets for both my AX8 and the III, I never use them.

Cab packs yes but there are too many variables in these amp packs, guitars, playing style, speakers etc.

I just never end up using them

octatonic · September 2019

I’ve never used a preset that I didn’t create myself.
It really isn’t hard, especially in the later units.

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