Fender Tone Master Pro: Episode IV - A New Hope

[Jarick]

I re-bounced all the tracks without normalization so the levels should be much more consistent. You should be able to hear the sonic differences between the two units a lot easier now.

With these clips I dialed effects levels down much more to focus on core amp tones. I also went back to my favorite old Ownhammer IR's from many years ago. With better ears and equipment to me these sound much fuller and more balanced than earlier clips.

 

[Tritium3H]

I re-bounced all the tracks without normalization so the levels should be much more consistent. You should be able to hear the sonic differences between the two units a lot easier now.

With these clips I dialed effects levels down much more to focus on core amp tones. I also went back to my favorite old Ownhammer IR's from many years ago. With better ears and equipment to me these sound much fuller and more balanced than earlier clips.

Excellent comparison, Jarick. I just listened to it on my Kali Audio IN-8 V2s. They both sound great, although I have a very slight preference for the Soldano, the AC-30, and the BE-100 on the TMP. These models on the TMP have a tighter and more accentuated mid-range, which I prefer.

 

[Mongillo19]

I re-bounced all the tracks without normalization so the levels should be much more consistent. You should be able to hear the sonic differences between the two units a lot easier now.

With these clips I dialed effects levels down much more to focus on core amp tones. I also went back to my favorite old Ownhammer IR's from many years ago. With better ears and equipment to me these sound much fuller and more balanced than earlier clips.

Nice! So you used the Ownhammer IR for both TMP and III?

 

[Jarick]

Nice! So you used the Ownhammer IR for both TMP and III?

Yes I used some of the older ones from the mid/late 2010s. They sound great!

 

[[Nathan]]

Crazy how close they sound

 

[Jarick]

So here's my thoughts on the sound. Recommend listening to the clips before getting my opinions.

Some amps are closer than others sonically, and with the clean amps they tend to sound more similar. As the amps get more gain, the Fractal tends to sound more mid forward and in some cases boxier where the Fender amps tends to sound a lot more like a smile curve with more bass and treble. On the Soldano and BE-100 I had to crank the treble and presence way up on the Fractal to get close to the Fender, where I had to dial the high end back a bit on the BE (Soldano I think I cranked the presence up because it sounded awesome that way).

The Fractal amps also at times sounded more compressed. You can hear on the Plexi clip that the Fractal has a lot more sag on the individual notes near the end of the clip where the Fender does not. It's something I had to watch as well when matching volumes, the Fender has much more of the low end thump when palm muting than the Fractal does. You can hear that on the Soldano clip about half way through, the notes on the Fender jump out a lot more.

One thing though, the speaker impedance curve is drastically impacting the sound on the Fender, much more so than the Fractal. The default SIC on the Fender is the 4x12 Brit GB which is louder and much more scooped sounding than almost any other 4x12 SIC on the Fender. Swapping out to the same Friedman 4x12 I would say gets closer sonically although I still need more extreme settings on the Fractal to get close to the Fender, which sounds closer to my actual Friedman.

Overall I generally prefer the sound of the Fender as it's a bit more aggressive and engaging sounding, but I'm wary about the speaker impedance curve being implemented incorrectly. Still, the tone is excellent and of course the UI is significantly better too.