The Fractal Thread

Gadget

I agree with @Roland ;

The factory presets were created some time back, on firmware which has been updated several times (including complete re-designs of amp, effects and cab components), which is why some probably don’t sound as good as perhaps they did originally.

But I think people perhaps judge modellers unfairly in this regard: when you buy a valve amp, does it come with hundreds of pro-designed presets? Do you complain that the knobs arrived all set in the wrong places? No, you expect to have to use your ears and DIY for what you want. There might well be a ‘suggested settings’ sheet supplied, but that’s surely accepted as a starting-point, just as presets on a modeller should be.

Presets produced by anyone (celeb, pro or amateur) are always going to sound different through your headphones / studio monitors / PA and with your own guitar / pickups / cabling and above all, playing style. You might be lucky and hit on one that works perfectly, but most will need adjusting for your purposes, no matter how skilled the player who made them. For example, that tonal space that Guthrie has to fit into with his gig might be totally different to the one you need to fit into with yours. Does that make his preset ‘poor’ just because it doesn’t work for you and your situation / band / setup?

I use other people’s presets mainly to assess and learn from their design, routing and control choices, then tweak actual tones for myself.

I regularly download Leon and Burgs’ presets to name but two, and they ALWAYS sound different with me playing them to how they do on their videos.

DavusPG

Anyone tried the version 27 firmware beta on the III?

If the comments are to be believed then it's a night and day improvement.....

Roland

Not me. I’m applying the two week rule, and waiting for early adopters to find the bugs. 

Night and day improvement depends on what type of sound you’re using. There’s a lot of talk about one of the Friedmanns. I play at the clean end of the spectrum, so I’m not expecting too much.

sweepy

twiddles thumbs with FM9, I suppose we'll go straight to the mirror of 27.2 of the axe Fx3 FW

FarleyUK

I always ignore the usual comments in the Fractal forums about it being a 'night and day' difference. You get the same people saying it every FW update.

Good ol' Cult of Cliff.

FarleyUK

Also, just saw this thread - there's a new Fractal product coming that is NOT a replacement for any existing Fractal product...

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/new-fractal-product-coming.207160/

AndyJP

Fm1 is my guess. The tonex / tonex  one vibe maybe?

sweepy

I’d still put my money on a replacement for the FX8 in a small form factor 

exocet

Most likely thing would be a Tonex type product - small form factor / low price point. The market has developed massively at the lower end - without a product in that space, Fractal will suffer.

DavusPG

FarleyUK said:

I always ignore the usual comments in the Fractal forums about it being a 'night and day' difference. You get the same people saying it every FW update.

Good ol' Cult of Cliff.

Agreed

My comment was a little tongue in check for that very reason.

DavusPG

sweepy said:

I’d still put my money on a replacement for the FX8 in a small form factor 

Apparently it's not a replacement for any of their current products.... now granted the FX8 is no longer in production but I can't see them re-releasing another version of it, even though it was a superb bit of kit and my gateway to the III and FM9

DavusPG

A question for those of you in this thread who gig: what backup do you have in the event your Fractal product claps out mid gig?

My FM9 shut down twice during our last gig, thankfully it was down to a dodgy power cable, but I really should have a contingency for that day if/when my board does die or drowns under a pint of Stella.

welshboyo

DavusPG said:

What those of you in this thread who gig, what backup do you have in the event your Fractal product claps out mid gig?

My FM9 shut down twice during our last gig, thankfully it was down to a dodgy power cable, but I really should have a contingency for that day if/when my board does die or drowns under a pint of Stella.

Line 6 Pocket Pod…

DavusPG

Yeah I was thinking an affordable all in one pedal that I can go direct to the PA with that'll give me a usable tone or two to get me through the gig..... maybe the mystery new Fractal product will be just that

Nerine

I’ll be watching with interest. 

supes

Trying to get to grips with an FM3. Loving the sounds but struggling to sort this. How do you change the volume of a scene from the FM3 unit? No problem doing it from laptop using edit, but can't find how to do it when not connected to the laptop. Trying to get volume right between rhythm and lead presets in rehearsals and gigs. Thanks

Roland

supes said:

... How do you change the volume of a scene from the FM3 unit? ..

It took me a while to get volumes right. That’s because it’s not just volume, but also EQ, guitar volume and tone settings, and what the rest of the band is playing. Then you’ve got the problem that a heavily compressed sound doesn’t get much louder as you turn up. 

First off, I don’t use Scene volume because I found that I was getting problems with jumps in delay and reverb spillover volume. Instead I aim to do it by setting the Amp block output level. As a first step I use the levelling feature in the editor to get into the right ballpark. At rehearsal I write notes on a pad rather than try to change things on the fly, unless of course it’s badly wrong. In that case I’ll go into the Amp block and adjust the level. 

At a gig I have two other tricks: a volume pedal to bring things down if I’m way too loud, and can’t stop playing to touch the guitar volume (I haven’t needed to do this in years). I also have a button dedicated to adding a +3dB mid boost at around 1kHz if I need to cut through the mix. This is using an AxeFX with MFC or FC12. I appreciate that you might not have a button to spare on the FM3. I”ve heard of people using two external buttons, one to step the volume up, and the other to step it down.

welshboyo

supes said:

Trying to to grips with an FM3. Loving the sounds but struggling to sort this. How do you change the volume of a scene from the FM3 unit? No problem doing it from laptop using edit, but can't find how to do it when not connected to the laptop. Trying to get volume right between rhythm and lead presets in rehearsals and gigs. Thanks

@supes ;;Output Block, 2nd tab I think - should give you per scene parameters- been a while since I used them so I might be wrong!!

exocet

supes said:

Trying to to grips with an FM3. Loving the sounds but struggling to sort this. How do you change the volume of a scene from the FM3 unit? No problem doing it from laptop using edit, but can't find how to do it when not connected to the laptop. Trying to get volume right between rhythm and lead presets in rehearsals and gigs. Thanks

There are many different ways of achieving this. The output block “scene levels” is easiest to use without actually messing around with the various level controls on the blocks that make up your preset. It’s worth looking into scene controllers, these allow you to vary the levels of many different parameters such that when you move from scene to scene you can adjust drive pedal gain / tone / output level; Amp input gain, EQ, Drive, Output level etc etc without using different “channels_ A, B, C, D” within each block.

I certainly agree with Roland in that making notes during rehearsals makes a lot of sense. A lot will depend upon what style you are playing and most importantly, what everyone else is playing when you need the level change. Some of my level changes are quite significant, + 6dB on Scene Level increase for a solo played where the amp itself doesn’t change but a drive pedal is kicked in, but that’s just on one song. The same approach on others wouldn’t work - I’d be way too loud.

supes

welshboyo said:

supes said:

Trying to to grips with an FM3. Loving the sounds but struggling to sort this. How do you change the volume of a scene from the FM3 unit? No problem doing it from laptop using edit, but can't find how to do it when not connected to the laptop. Trying to get volume right between rhythm and lead presets in rehearsals and gigs. Thanks

@supes ;;;Output Block, 2nd tab I think - should give you per scene parameters- been a while since I used them so I might be wrong!!

@welshboyo ;How do you do that on the FM3 unit then? I've googled, searched the forums, looked at the user manual etc.