Fractal Audio Systems AM4 - Amp Modeler

[TSJMajesty]

This x inifinty. Our other guitar player has an Ultra and never plays it anymore as he didn't have the patience. When we do our casino gigs; he has his pedalboard into the absolute dregs of SS combo amp humanity on hand for us. He would be soooooooooo much better with this working as his base tone in that scenario.

My buddy was also asking about a used FXII, and I told him:

They're old, thus you don't know how much life they have remaining
If it needed service, could you get it?
For $700, just get the state-of-the-art unit, w/ a warranty, and have peace-of-mind.

He bought a 15 watt 5150 combo, and he loves it, but when I told him this has a headphone jack, he said, yeah, last night it was like, "Could you turn that down a little?"

I sent him Burg's video.

 

[JiveTurkey]

My buddy was also asking about a used FXII, and I told him:

They're old, thus you don't know how much life they have remaining
If it needed service, could you get it?
For $700, just get the state-of-the-art unit, w/ a warranty, and have peace-of-mind.

He bought a 15 watt 5150 combo, and he loves it, but when I told him this has a headphone jack, he said, yeah, last night it was like, "Could you turn that down a little?"

I sent him Burg's video.

Burgs videos will always send people over the top on gear. Especially if you are someone who doesn't want/need super chug demos. Burgs is great.

 

[TSJMajesty]

He bought a 15 watt 5150 combo, and he loves it, but when I told him this has a headphone jack, he said, yeah, last night it was like, "Could you turn that down a little?"

I sent him Burg's video.

Oh, and he's already asking me which noise gate pedal he should buy. (I don't know.)

I's like, Dude, then you need a chorus, and a delay, and..., pretty soon you could've bought 2 of these, and had SO.MUCH.MORE!!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Burgs videos will always send people over the top on gear. Especially if you are someone who doesn't want/need super chug demos. Burgs is great.

This x infinity! I sat there thinking, damn, how can I get that delay sound? Oh right, I can! haha

 

[JiveTurkey]

Oh, and he's already asking me which noise gate pedal he should buy. (I don't know.)

I's like, Dude, then you need a chorus, and a delay, and..., pretty soon you could've bought 2 of these, and had SO.MUCH.MORE!!

And it's a 15 watt amp so who wants that

 

[GTR37]

The Severe 2 was on the list of deprecated amps, but looks like it was removed. Has that one been consolidated into one model with Severe 1?

I asked that and Matt said yes it is a contour switch like real amp now

 

[TSJMajesty]

.

Hey, congrats on becoming a beta tester!

 

[TSJMajesty]

And it's a 15 watt amp so who wants that

WHAT'S WRONG WITH EL84'S???????

 

[JiveTurkey]

WHAT'S WRONG WITH EL84'S???????

The turd was applied with love!

 

[iaresee]

I know it's no extra AD conversion, hence no additional latency. Which is fine.
All I'm saying is: Every other modeler in this price bracket has a freely routable loop (yes, with additional ADDA conversion and latency) and at least for myself (and likely for some others as well), the lack of such a loop is greatly diminishing the value of this thing as you simply can't do quite some things the competition allows for.

Sounds like you’d prefer another product.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

This is my analog board for my band that's practiced once in a 2 month time period. Imagine how much more productive we could get if I had an AM4 in the FM3's place
View attachment 55473

Ooh I like your patch cables

 

[nicolasrivera]

probably won’t take too long to make a preset around the only three that you actually use…

true that.

 

[synthpenguin]

Constant topics with things like the Tonex, UA amp pedals, Strymon Iridium, Nano Cortex, etc are “if I add post FX, do I need a DI” and “how do I use headphones with post FX?” While it’s not an FX loop, an insert like this is a great latency-free way to solve these issues so someone doesn’t have to buy and take a stereo DI box to a show or hook up to a headphone amp or interface for headphones—two very common complaints with similar amp-centric modelers and capture players.

I get wishing it was something else, but at a certain point you just have to move up a price level in a company’s product offerings, or check out another company’s products, rather than expecting their cheapest product to be all things.

I don’t think this directly competes with the HX Stomp for everybody, because the Stomp is a lot more versatile in a lot of ways. I think it does for most people who only use the Stomp in a more straightforward “one amp plus a couple other things” way though.

And for markets where the price makes sense, I think it easily beats out things like the UA amp pedals unless you’re really set on the WYSIWYG interface (though those aren’t REALLY WYSIWYG in practice anyway), only need one amp sound ever (valid tbh and could be me), or board real estate is very limited and this can’t replace at least two pedals for you.

If you want a full modeler experience, something like this isn’t designed for that, just like the aforementioned competition isn’t either (outside of the Stomp anyway). That’s cool imo because plenty of people don’t actually want that and even actively avoid it.

What’s great about this product imo is that it actually has things like MIDI at launch, an editor that doesn’t require registration to use, an onboard interface where you can edit everything without an app, a headphone jack, versatile foot switching options, and, yeah, a solution to the post fx problem. I don’t think any of the competition in this price range* has all of that except for the Stomp, which again is a different thing with its own pros and cons.

If anything, Fractal is punished a little by fitting so much into it, which is drawing comparisons to larger all-in-one products (which they already offer versions of).

In my mind, it makes more sense to think of it like “get a UA Dream, Ruby, Lion, and [pick a fourth one] across 4 channels, a stereo reverb, a delay, and almost any other effect for 700USD”

/rant lol

*re: price, I’m not going to compare new prices to used prices. This is a brand new product, and people will be able to buy it at cheaper used prices soon too, just like with the VP4. And obviously Fractal stuff is more expensive in general anyway, especially outside the US, that’s just what it is. I do wish it could be cheaper for people outside the US though; that’s a bummer to see.

 

[laxu]

@FractalAudio Do I understand AM4 + VP4 via SPDIF I/O correctly?

AM4 (and I assume VP4) SPDIF IN is always before the first fx block, and SPDIF OUT is after the last block. You can use the VP4 as pre- or post-fx for the AM4, but not both without using analog connections. Afaik there's no way to set SPDIF as I/O source for the pre/post loop like you can with the 4CM option for analog I/O.

So one of these setups:

1. VP4 as pre-fx: Guitar -> VP4 analog In, VP4 SPDIF Out -> AM4 SPDIF in, AM4 analog Out -> speakers
2. VP4 as post-fx: Guitar -> AM4 analog In, AM4 SPDIF Out -> VP4 SPDIF in, VP4 analog Out -> speakers

Is it possible a firmware update would add the option to allow this routing?

• Guitar -> VP4 analog In -> VP4 pre-fx 1 & 2 -> VP4 SPDIF Out -> AM4 SPDIF In
• -> AM4 fx blocks -> AM4 SPDIF Out -> VP4 SPDIF In -> VP4 post-fx 3 & 4 -> VP4 analog Out -> speakers

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

Right it’s an analog insert

View attachment 55469

Damn it. I’m really tempted to just got on the waitlist lol

 

[synthpenguin]

In my mind, it makes more sense to think of it like “get a UA Dream, Ruby, Lion, and [pick a fourth one] across 4 channels, a stereo reverb, a delay, and almost any other effect for 700USD”

Also might be kind of fun for someone to make a preset and/or video that recreates 3 or 4 UA amp pedals using scenes and channels. I think it would be possible in one preset with a drive block, trem block, amp block, and reverb block?

And I don’t mean that to stick it to UA or critics or anything silly like that; I just think it would be genuinely useful for a lot of less-modeler-savvy people looking at this! Sort of like those HX Stomp presets that recreate the Iridium modes.

 

[Baba]

1 x AM4 Amp Block has the Amp and Cab in the same Single Block so you have the Amp Block which contains the Amp and Cab + the 3 other EFX Blocks.

I answered my own question, but what I meant, is can the CHANNEL have more than one amp model loaded into it, and, it can.

 

[Sedaxel]

Kemper Player
Nano Cortex

Ehhhm... the NC is half the price of the AM4.

 

[synthpenguin]

Ehhhm... the NC is half the price of the AM4.

Well, in the US, it’s $569 vs $699.

Location can def play a big part in the math here, which I guess is typical with Fractal stuff and some other brands (Marshall… lol)

 

[holoholo]

Maybe I’m just a size queen but the fact that this fits in front of a gig bag is sweet for a fly rig. Also the form factor for pedalboards will make this attractive for a lot of guitarists.