Fractal Audio Systems mystery product speculation

[sashimi]

So, you guys were right, my trip to New England wasn't about a vacation. I was picking up a USB stick with the new firmware for the FAS-DOG, it's so secret Cliff won't even put it on the internet, but I'm letting the dog out of the bag.

I won't give away all the details, but basically you let the dog chew your USB cable when it's plugged into your Fractal unit, then he'll know when to operate your FC's or any associated pedals plugged into the Fractal unit. It's pretty badass, IMO. He's actually operating the Whammy right now with head tilts.

View attachment 27137

Sorry, @FractalAudio. I couldn't keep it in any longer. But don't worry, no one has noticed the other thing in any of my pics/vids.

Good boy

Can’t wait to see how much realer he gets with future updates

 

[Tanax]

I always read stuff like this and wonder if I'm neurodivergent or something. You fire the thing up, you go to the Layout page that has, wait for it, the layout that's basically a 1:1 graphical (in the sense of it being a graph, not skeuomorphic) reproduction of a real rig, and you use very-obviously labeled buttons to do stuff. Edit edits a block. Enter selects a parameter or a block to do something with it. Exit... exits. There are pages that you navigate with buttons labelled as such. I'm not a very smart guy and I find it astoundingly intuitive. Is it because I've been using Fractal stuff since 2010? For what it's worth I owned a Pod Go for a hot minute and thought that it was quite similar, just way more limited.

I think you miss the point.
It's not that it's difficult to learn. It just requires too many interactions to do very simple things.

An example is adding a simple block to your grid. With a touch screen you'd press where you want to add it. Done.
With current UX, you'd have to press arrow buttons X numbers of times to get to where you want to add it. Press enter. Done.

This is a simple example and some may say that saving 5 seconds and 7 button presses (or however many it required) is a small thing, but when you do it so often, those things add up. Not to mention it feels incredibly inefficient.

The whole industry of tech products strive towards making things faster for people to use by making the interface easy and fast, while still empowering them to do everything they want. It is certainly possible to have as much tweakability and settings as the Fractal stuff, while still making it easy to use. I honestly don't understand why people are so reluctant towards progress.

If it's easier to use, more people will buy their products, allowing them to spend more money on further development of everything Fractal.
Right now it's like you people (and I'm not pointing fingers at you specifically, more an observation based on comments earlier in this thread and other threads) are fine with "Fractals are only for professionals", implying you don't want them to succeed with other people, which is a very weird position IMO, but what do I know. I'm not a professional :)

And again, just to be clear, I'm not saying it has to have a touch screen - but it's a good example of a better UX than what is currently today.

 

[GTR37]

Sidebar Fractal question:

Why do all the OEM guards I see have cutouts for the array(s) of level LEDs? Are they an interface in any way???

KILLER looking unit imo.

View attachment 27139

Thats one of Chads

Chad Boston from Washington

 

[GTR37]

So, you guys were right, my trip to New England wasn't about a vacation. I was picking up a USB stick with the new firmware for the FAS-DOG, it's so secret Cliff won't even put it on the internet, but I'm letting the dog out of the bag.

I won't give away all the details, but basically you let the dog chew your USB cable when it's plugged into your Fractal unit, then he'll know when to operate your FC's or any associated pedals plugged into the Fractal unit. It's pretty badass, IMO. He's actually operating the Whammy right now with head tilts.

View attachment 27137

Sorry, @FractalAudio. I couldn't keep it in any longer. But don't worry, no one has noticed the other thing in any of my pics/vids.

in true TB3 fashion

Is that a Timber Wolf?


*** beautiful dog BTW

 

[nicolasrivera]

Pretty cool AX8 graphics.

Loved the AX8, still my favorite Fractal formfactor

 

[TubeStack]

I think you miss the point.
It's not that it's difficult to learn. It just requires too many interactions to do very simple things.

An example is adding a simple block to your grid. With a touch screen you'd press where you want to add it. Done.
With current UX, you'd have to press arrow buttons X numbers of times to get to where you want to add it. Press enter. Done.

This is a simple example and some may say that saving 5 seconds and 7 button presses (or however many it required) is a small thing, but when you do it so often, those things add up. Not to mention it feels incredibly inefficient.

The whole industry of tech products strive towards making things faster for people to use by making the interface easy and fast, while still empowering them to do everything they want. It is certainly possible to have as much tweakability and settings as the Fractal stuff, while still making it easy to use. I honestly don't understand why people are so reluctant towards progress.

If it's easier to use, more people will buy their products, allowing them to spend more money on further development of everything Fractal.
Right now it's like you people (and I'm not pointing fingers at you specifically, more an observation based on comments earlier in this thread and other threads) are fine with "Fractals are only for professionals", implying you don't want them to succeed with other people, which is a very weird position IMO, but what do I know. I'm not a professional :)

And again, just to be clear, I'm not saying it has to have a touch screen - but it's a good example of a better UX than what is currently today.

@laxu, you don’t have to make alt accounts here.

 

[TubeStack]

So, you guys were right, my trip to New England wasn't about a vacation. I was picking up a USB stick with the new firmware for the FAS-DOG, it's so secret Cliff won't even put it on the internet, but I'm letting the dog out of the bag.

I won't give away all the details, but basically you let the dog chew your USB cable when it's plugged into your Fractal unit, then he'll know when to operate your FC's or any associated pedals plugged into the Fractal unit. It's pretty badass, IMO. He's actually operating the Whammy right now with head tilts.

View attachment 27137

Sorry, @FractalAudio. I couldn't keep it in any longer. But don't worry, no one has noticed the other thing in any of my pics/vids.

Man, that is a beautiful dog, wow.

 

[DrewJD82]

in true TB3 fashion

Is that a Timber Wolf?


*** beautiful dog BTW

Well, he certainly opens his mouth and whines a lot!

 

[DrewJD82]

@laxu, you don’t have to make alt accounts here.

 

[laxu]

@laxu, you don’t have to make alt accounts here.

Dude, I'm nursing a hangover after drinking too much last night in an all-you-can-drink bar in Tokyo.

 

[norminal]

This is a simple example and some may say that saving 5 seconds and 7 button presses (or however many it required) is a small thing, but when you do it so often, those things add up.

 

[timbuck3]

Dude, I'm nursing a hangover after drinking too much last night in an all-you-can-drink bar in Tokyo.

For a non drinker like me Tokyo would not be much fun then

 

[unix-guy]

Sidebar Fractal question:

Why do all the OEM guards I see have cutouts for the array(s) of level LEDs? Are they an interface in any way???

KILLER looking unit imo.

View attachment 27139

The are raised above the top of the unit... The covers sit on the top, so it needs to allow space.

 

[laxu]

For a non drinker like me Tokyo would not be much fun then

I mean, it's not like there isn't a million other things to do...like all the guitar stores where you could go try out a Fractal!

 

[mbenigni]

Couldn’t agree more.

Sincerely,

Obnoxious Plugin Guy

Be careful - the You’re Repeating Yourself Police are out in full force today.

 

[mbenigni]

Who can come up with a chattpg prompt to create a vid like this regarding ability to deal with UI:



I dealt with zoom 9000, digitech 2101…how hard can it be?

The point everyone keeps neglecting is that all of these older devices with comparable UIs had much, much simpler underlying systems. The more those systems grow (in number and complexity) the more important it is to optimize presentation and controls.

I get that “it is what it is”, and that - with a bit of effort - it works as is. But I also maintain that improvements are improvements, by definition.

 

[mbenigni]

Everybody at TOP and the Fractal forums keep trying to will the Fractal ecosystem into being an iPad instead of what it is: a box that makes guitar noises. I'm typing this from a MacBook but I swear Apple has ruined peoples' expectations of what consumer products are supposed to be.

Strange way of looking at things. Henry Ford ruined my expectation of how to start my car in the morning (look ma, no crank!) but I eventually forgave him for it.

(Editor’s note: not necessarily historically accurate.)

 

[GTR37]

I mean, it's not like there isn't a million other things to do...like all the guitar stores where you could go try out a Fractal!

Oh yes that would go well
“ why do you come here for 3 days and you do not buy anything
Get out

 

[Josetxu]

I think there're several UI flaws could be corrected. I'll never understand why the big wheel doesn't act (or can be configured to do so) like an enter button, or why to enter a block you must use the edit button and if you press the enter button you enter the connect/disconnect mode. Or why to finish storing a preset you must go from the store button to the enter one, which are in opposite sides of the wheel.

They're simple changes that would made It a lot more intuitive and don't need a new gen hardware or a touch screen.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Sidebar Fractal question:

Why do all the OEM guards I see have cutouts for the array(s) of level LEDs? Are they an interface in any way???

KILLER looking unit imo.

View attachment 27139

LEDs aren’t flush the panel, I don’t think (I’ll have to go look). So he’d have to make cutouts.