Fractal Audio Firmware Update Thread

FractalAudio said:
We're already working on that. Should be out soon.
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Thats awesome to hear :)

I'll be thrilled if this supports standalone with various interfaces (so it can be used with amps+loadboxes as well as modellers), as well as AAX (which is the only reason I didn't buy CabLab3).
 
FractalAudio said:
Oh, and for all the people claiming we "copied" this. We started working on this almost a year ago. These things don't happen overnight. We had to write our own software to control the robot and acquire the data, Matlab processing routines, firmware modules, etc., etc.

That said, it's not a unique idea. I believe ML Sound Labs was the first to do this, or maybe Two Notes. But to give credit where credit is due, the enabling technology is the mic robot. Without that none of this is possible. So the real innovators are the people who created the mic robots.
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Is the robot you use a Dynamount or something else? I read somewhere on the Fractal forum that for 3rd parties to make Dyna-cabs it would require them to rent the hardware and software from you. I imagine this could mean costly shipping if e.g cab vendor is in Europe compared to if they could just buy a Dynamount (or already own one) and could then just the license the software to make Axe-Fx compatible cabs.
 
FASsholes unite!
DrewJD82 said:
When you were there to see someone turn into a Fractal Camp Survivor in real time, you can almost set a watch by when they’ll air their disproval whenever FAS does anything.
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:camp
7g0rpb.jpg
 
So Clif has Hinted that hes also working on DynaCabs for the FM9 or so I read on FAS Forum
 
DrewJD82 said:
When you were there to see someone turn into a Fractal Camp Survivor in real time, you can almost set a watch by when they’ll air their disproval whenever FAS does anything.
Click to expand...
"I don't miss 255 amp models! Who needs that many choices?!?!?"

"Only 3 mics?!?!? How could I possibly dial in my tone without access to the full OH.folder system for all cabs!"
 
I think the coolest bit here is thale auto-impedance curve bit. Would be killer if that could be implemented for the previllviois factory IRs.

I remember way back when I was just a dumb little forum newb think that maybe that was what would be special about the Fractal load box..that it would adjust the load impedance based on meta data within the IR being used. Little did I realize how big/complex such a piece of hardware would be for anything more than like 3-4 different cabs.
 
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This is to me the biggest update since the launch of the Axe FX 3. It's almost like re-learning the Fractal. Going to take some serious time to work through the new cabs and find some great combinations.

For me, there were things I didn't like about both the legacy cab library and the new factory cabs that came out with the Axe FX 3. Legacy cabs are easy to use as they are pre-mixed, but most of them were overly warm and bassy (especially the 4x12's). The newer factory cabs were more raw sounding and could mix together well, but finding the right mic selections was really overwhelming and time consuming.

Just playing for about 15 minutes with the new Dyna Cabs, all three mics are working as expected (dynamic is bright and lean, ribbon is fat and warm, condenser is more balanced). Also as expected, moving the mic from the cone to edge rolls off the highs and moving the distance back rolls off the lows.

Combining microphones doesn't cause any phase issues at all and generally works as expected. I.e. a bright dynamic and warm ribbon make for a balanced and slightly scooped sound, not a weird midrange mush like the old Helix cabs used to have (the new ones work as expected as well).

As I said, I'm going to have to spend some time working with the cabs to identify preferences, then working with mics and positions to figure things out.

BUT, once I have a handle on things, I'll be able to easily tweak things. If a tone is too bright, moving the mic to the edge will take off the harsh edge in a pleasing way that just using a high cut filter cannot. Should be able to reduce the harshness without killing off the presence.

Also, very happy I moved back up to the Axe FX 3 so I can play with this stuff ASAP and not have to wait until the updates trickle down :)

Really well done @FractalAudio !
 
Jarick said:
This is to me the biggest update since the launch of the Axe FX 3. It's almost like re-learning the Fractal. Going to take some serious time to work through the new cabs and find some great combinations.

For me, there were things I didn't like about both the legacy cab library and the new factory cabs that came out with the Axe FX 3. Legacy cabs are easy to use as they are pre-mixed, but most of them were overly warm and bassy (especially the 4x12's). The newer factory cabs were more raw sounding and could mix together well, but finding the right mic selections was really overwhelming and time consuming.

Just playing for about 15 minutes with the new Dyna Cabs, all three mics are working as expected (dynamic is bright and lean, ribbon is fat and warm, condenser is more balanced). Also as expected, moving the mic from the cone to edge rolls off the highs and moving the distance back rolls off the lows.

Combining microphones doesn't cause any phase issues at all and generally works as expected. I.e. a bright dynamic and warm ribbon make for a balanced and slightly scooped sound, not a weird midrange mush like the old Helix cabs used to have (the new ones work as expected as well).

As I said, I'm going to have to spend some time working with the cabs to identify preferences, then working with mics and positions to figure things out.

BUT, once I have a handle on things, I'll be able to easily tweak things. If a tone is too bright, moving the mic to the edge will take off the harsh edge in a pleasing way that just using a high cut filter cannot. Should be able to reduce the harshness without killing off the presence.

Also, very happy I moved back up to the Axe FX 3 so I can play with this stuff ASAP and not have to wait until the updates trickle down :)

Really well done @FractalAudio !
Click to expand...
I'm glad I'm not the only FAS Camp Leader on this one 😆
 
Hahaha having the editor updated for it is definitely making me want to try it that much more. I’m right between songs right now so this is the perfect time for tweaking instead of starting that process mid-song.
 
DrewJD82 said:
Hahaha having the editor updated for it is definitely making me want to try it that much more. I’m right between songs right now so this is the perfect time for tweaking instead of starting that process mid-song.
Click to expand...

When I first heard the beeta was released, I remembered the Axe FX is on a shelf under my desk and I don't have a good way to edit it directly using the knobs. Then the new Axe Edit was released so took care of that issue!

It works pretty well. I think there may be a bug where the position field isn't displayed on cabs 2-4 but otherwise it's very slick.
 
FractalAudio said:
I don't know what was claimed. All I know is the math and the measurements.

Look at it this way:
Say a product allows position from 0 to 10 in 0.1 steps and distance from 1" to 12" in 1/4" steps. That's 100 positions times 44 distances = 4400 unique IRs for a single speaker and mic combo.

Now multiply that by 12 mics x 2 angles x 24 speakers = 4400 x 12 x 2 x 24 = 2.53 MILLION(!!!) IRs.

Now multiply that by 1024 samples x 2 bytes/sample = 5.2GB of data.

Do you really think said product is storing 5.2GB of data when it only has a 32MB memory chip?

Or do you think it's more likely that said product stores, say, two dozen IRs per speaker/mic combination which results in about 28MB of data.
Click to expand...
Memory and storage are completely different things as I'm sure you know. The device doesn't need all the IRs in memory at all times. I haven't seen anything to suggest that the Helix (or any other high-end modeler) has only 32 MB of storage. Storage is dirt cheap and has been for a long time now so that'd be surprising, but maybe you've taken one apart to see.

If you're getting 28 MB from the download size, that is going to be very highly compressed (lossless compression, to be clear for those who don't understand file compression) since the IRs are so similar - compression relies on redundancy in the data. Maybe they're interpolating, I don't know, but it seems like you're basing this theory on some shaky assumptions
 
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