Fractal Audio Systems mystery product speculation

What is it not it is? Is it?

  • None of the above

  • Electric sex pants

  • Unsliced Bread

  • Prosthetic "tone fingers"

  • JiveTurkey's resolve to "innovate" with audio signal routing

  • Lab grown "safe & guilt-free" toe meat


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Outside of people who improvise with effects live, I’m never going to wrap my head around “tweak at a gig” when it comes to anything more than an amp/model’s B/M/T.

For me, it really depends on the kind of gig. For regular ones, I could possibly cover all controls with goop.
But I'm also doing plenty of telephone-band gigs, like getting a call the day before or even just some hours before. And with those gigs, I never know what's supposed to happen, no way to prepare any sounds at all. So, while I have a set of allround sounds prepared all the time, there's almost always some tweaking involved, including some fine tuning between songs. And as the last thing I want to do is crawling on the floor, I'd rather just have a tablet on a stand (which I use for those kinda gigs anyway).
Besides, sometimes I just like some change, so I play the same kinda gigs with different sounds (something I'm usually allowed to as long as things work).
 
RE: Tweaking live.

I've done it a lot in the past. When I was using single pedals. It is a particular part of my approach, because I like to run my delays and reverbs up front before the preamp; even in high-gain situations. So getting the mix and feedback/decay of delays and reverbs can be tricky in such a situation. I've even tweaked the Boss level knobs with my shoe, part way through playing a song live.

With modellers, that isn't really too much of a thing. Although a little bit - like putting together a patch at home, and then getting into the rehearsal room, and needing to change things because all of a sudden the patch I made isn't cutting through or is OTT when I'm alongside another guitarist and a bassist and drummer.

But it mostly comes down to "in an emergency, do I have a super fast way to get back to basics?" - and I do think that is kind of important to know. Plan ahead, measure twice and cut once, etc etc etc.
 
Even the HX Stomp has the ability!

I’m not a coder, but how hard would this be to implement? The library is just ascii right? @FractalAudio ?
I'd imagine that a block preset is some kind of XML or JSON data structure under the hood, and that enabling storage/browsing of them on the HW is a case of building a browser and parsing the files solely on the unit. I wouldn't imagine it is too difficult an engineering challenge, but probably it is lower priority based on the amount of requests coming in.
 
Well, the "favourite" functionality is pretty weak IMO, simply because it's one global list, so you only see the type of block but not exactly what model you're using.
Yeah definitely agreed. It should be sub-listed, or allow you to make custom categories or something. Scrolling through a bunch of delays and then accidentally putting an amp block in front of another amp is REALLY annoying!
 
I've never seen a rock band with a bunch of tablets up on stage.

Is does come across weird but thinking about it more I'm not sure why it should.
How much would a simple small stand detract with everything else going on?

Full-Band-Layout.jpg
 
Btw, in all seriousness (and sorry for repeating myself because I've already said this a few times in the past), re: live tweaking. IMVHO, the lack of fast tweaking on pretty much all modelers is one of the reasons for them to often not sound as great as they could. Simply because there's just no time to adjust anything in a meaningful way.
As an example (yes, you may have read this coming from me before, too): Let's suppose you needetd to do something that be the most trivial tweak in a typical analog (or hybrid) setup, such as simply raising the level of your clean channel. How will you do it with just, say, 3 preprogrammed clean patches (all supposed to use the same basic amp sounds but different FX and what not, so you could possibly not squeeze them in a kitchen sink preset anymore)? Tweak the level of one. Re-save. Remember how much level you've added. Call up 2nd patch, adjust, re-save, call up 3rd patch, adjust, re-save. Soundcheck goes on, you may notice you've raised the level too much. Rinse and repeat. Oh, you only noticed it during the show? Well, that was it, no way to adjust these patches anymore. A typical amp setup would require one (!) single action, namely twisting your channel's level knob. You can even do that while a note/chord is ringing out. And you could as well even do it while another patch is selected, so before you switch back to your clean patch, the level is adjusted. Etc.

This is precisely where programmable modelers (and that's pretty much the whole lot of them) lose big time. Ways to fix it are global blocks, more encoders, LED rings and, well, touchscreens. Good luck finding any to combine all these. Closest contender: Boss GT-1000.
 
Edit has already proven that you can take all of the depth and complexity of the platform and boil it down into an easy to use interface. Edit literally shows you how it could work on a touchscreen. When you open the amp block in Edit it goes to the basic tab which is where 90% of editing occurs. Then Fractal has the advanced tabs grouped directly underneath it. (Ideal, Poweramp, Preamp etc) These already existing tabs would be pages in the block on a touchscreen. The QC has pages on their blocks. It’s literally a single tap to get to a 2nd or 3rd page of controls. Fractal could have the main basic tab open and then pages at the top for the advanced options. The Edit software and the QC literally show how this could be achieved without sacrificing any of the depth of controls or tweakability.

If people don’t want a TS that’s one thing, but to say that FAS is too complex for a TS at all is absurd.
Honestly I don’t think you need all those parameters
Cliff said himself he would like to simplify and just have a tweaks page that didn’t have a million parameters as some of them don’t even work depending on the model

But realistically a tweaks page w like 10 advanced parameters would probably be enough for most
 
FWIW ...... I do all my FM3 editing via FM3 Edit and only ever touch the unit live to turn it on, adjust my Volume level and then adjust my Global EQ.

The Helix UI is brilliant for 2 reasons ..... (a) it is exceptionally well designed and laid out -and- (b) it has f$ck all deep Amp and EFX parameters to expose to the user on the unit itself.

I personally don't think there is any way to implement a much better or simpler UI for the Fractal gear as there are simply too many deep / important parameters to expose to the on-board UI.

Also ... imho ... if you are adjusting anything other than very basic Amp controls live .... G / B / M / T .... on your presets, you are on a road to no-where for that show .... it will only get worse with each adjustment you make.

After one song, your ears will very quickly adapt to whatever sound you have dialed in .... then just play and enjoy the show ... and entertain the people who are paying to be entertained.

For non-live use .... FM3 Edit is superbly easy to use .... so I kind of can't really see the problem ....... but w.t.f would I know.

Ben "dont touch my f%cking cup cakes" Ifin
 
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