Fractal Audio Systems AM4 - Amp Modeler

[Boudoir Guitar]

So, can you as well use an external switch to control literally *any number of operations* at once?

Yeah. The parameter needs to be one that can have a modifier applied to it. Then the switch is the source. The same source can be tied to a whole lot of modifiers.

 

[Mongillo19]

Is there an easy way to flip the order of blocks around? Or do you have to change the entire block?

 

[Sascha Franck]

Yeah. The parameter needs to be one that can have a modifier applied to it. Then the switch is the source. The same source can be tied to a whole lot of modifiers.

Thanks! That makes the AM4 a pretty interesting thing then. We shall see.

 

[AlbertA]

Fractal's modifier system is still unmatched IMO - is there any other guitar focused product that comes close?

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Fractal's modifier system is still unmatched IMO - is there any other guitar focused product that comes close?

It's very powerful, but does also come with minor annoyances. That you can't adjust a parameter itself once a modifier is applied to it is frustrating. In the Axe Fx III I love using the amp block bias tremolo...but it is annoying that once I assign that to a pedal on the FC, adjusting the depth of tremolo becomes a much bigger hassle.

And the layers and relationships (and shear vocabulary) with modifiers and controllers and sources pretty much always requires me to revisit the manual every time I want to use them.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

AM4 ordered. It will come as no surprise that I have ideas that involve saw dust production.

 

[bucephalus]

Katana gen AM4

 

[AlbertA]

It's very powerful, but does also come with minor annoyances. That you can't adjust a parameter itself once a modifier is applied to it is frustrating. In the Axe Fx III I love using the amp block bias tremolo...but it is annoying that once I assign that to a pedal on the FC, adjusting the depth of tremolo becomes a much bigger hassle.

Wait, how would that even work? Like you want it to automatically remove the link to the modifier once you try to manually adjust the value?

And the layers and relationships (and shear vocabulary) with modifiers and controllers and sources pretty much always requires me to revisit the manual every time I want to use them.

Interesting - I can't say I've had that issue.
For me its just

• Controllers => source of values, normalized to the range 0 to 1.
• Modifiers => maps that range of 0 to 1 to a parameter, min, max, the curve etc. i.e. I think of it as "controller value modifiers", or "controller value mapping"

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Wait, how would that even work? Like you want it to automatically remove the link to the modifier once you try to manually adjust the value?

Easy? I have a pedal assigned to toggle a parameter back and forth between 0 and 6. The pedal is currently in the "6" state. I go in and tweak the parameter to 5. I hit the button and it takes the parameter to 0 and if I hit the button again it takes it to 6.

Yes, in a performance situation the better approach is PROBABLY to instead go in to the modifier and adjust its max value.

As with everything Fractal, none of this is hard when you are doing it very regularly. For those of us that 99% of the time aren't using modifiers to adjust things, though, when you DO need them...it's not necessarily intuitive. Just remembering the difference between a modifier and controller sends me to the manual if I haven't done it in 3 months.

 

[AlbertA]

Easy? I have a pedal assigned to toggle a parameter back and forth between 0 and 6. The pedal is currently in the "6" state. I go in and tweak the parameter to 5. I hit the button and it takes the parameter to 0 and if I hit the button again it takes it to 6.

I see - so more of a special case (like pedals, or switches), if its attached to an LFO or an envelope, etc, they are constantly running so I was thinking as soon as you change the parameter its just going to change.
Even with an expression pedal the actual values are changing constantly (little variations) - but yeah sure, Fractal can work it out, quantize it/filter it, etc.

But yeah for sure, good UIs are full of little edge case handling like that to make the experience smoother.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

I see - so more of a special case (like pedals, or switches), if its attached to an LFO or an envelope, etc, they are constantly running so I was thinking as soon as you change the parameter its just going to change.
Even with an expression pedal the actual values are changing constantly (little variations) - but yeah sure, Fractal can work it out, quantize it/filter it, etc.

But yeah for sure, good UIs are full of little edge case handling like that to make the experience smoother.

Not really special, just one of the many possible cases? I don't think having a few parameters tied to a single footswitch press is THAT unusual -- pretty sure it's exactly what @Sascha Franck is hoping to do. Its a simplified version of scenes/snapshots without the headache of having to remember what blocks you want to not have impacted by scene/snapshot selection and which you do.

If you threw a Helix at me right now and asked me to set that up I'd absolutely have to think about it for a bit, might even need to reference the manual. But I wouldn't feel like I was having to relearn a whole new vocabulary and layered relationship the way I do in Fractal.

I think Kemper's "morph" or whatever it's called is the only one that is simple and intuitive to set up...and is also by far the most limited.

Not bashing the modifier system at all -- it's great and really powerful. But my PM box is evidence that I'm not the only one that finds it to always require manual reading and to, despite its power, almost always add a layer of "well, now that doesn't work the way I wanted" -- see also "wait, modifiers and controllers can do all of this stuff but I still can't just attach a switch to toggle between two amp channels on a box that is advertised as an amp in a box? It's gotta be a powered MIDI that sends a CC#?!?!?