Fractal Audio Systems mystery product speculation

[Achilles]

THE CROW AND DARK CITY ARE THE TWO BEST NOIR TYPE FILMS EVER MADE!

Seriously though, Alex Proyas is awesome.

The Crow director Alex Proyas relentlessly slams the reboot's failure

The Crow 1994 director Alex Proyas is having fun watching the new reboot turn out to be a critical failure and box office bomb

www.joblo.com

 

[SpaceMan]

Back to speculation… a combo amp? Boss Katana/Line 6 Catalyst-esque

 

[Frodebro]

Fractal robotic marital aids. Firmware Fridays will never be the same again.

Indistinguishable from the real thing in blind tests.

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

 

[laxu]

Simply put: anyone who is thinking that Fractal are going to radically redesign their workflow... well... keep dreaming. It aint happening. There will no doubt be some incremental improvements and some low hanging fruit stuff. I seriously doubt that even Axe FX IV (if it ever happens!!) will address any of the issues too. 1: Cliff doesn't see a lot of it as an issue, and 2: the philosophy and more important the codebase will most likely not support the kind of huge rewrite people are hoping for.

My 2p.

I can agree with the rest, and agree the current platform won't support a big UI rewrite. But for the next gen, it's a must.

I was checking out more guitar stores in Tokyo yesterday (ESP Museum in Shibuya was awesome), and there were a couple of young Japanese guys trying out a FM9. Seemed like they had a hard time figuring out how to work it so they had to ask an employee. I was tempted to go help them but I was not confident in my Japanese.

I think someone will figure out a QC, TMP or even Helix much easier because you have less "how do I get there?" issues compared to Fractal. Fractal already has a successful template for this too - Axe-Edit.

For next gen they have to figure out how to translate Axe-Edit to a small touchscreen and have the physical control to support it.

 

[unix-guy]

10000% disagree. Global blocks is nothing to do with this. We're not talking about updating a block across multiple presets, or making all blocks use the same settings. We're talking about having 100+ variations of a reverb block that we've programmed (or purchased from Fractal?!?!) that we simply want to scroll through without a computer being connected.

Global blocks can also be used to load stored settings without linking, which is the same thing the block library does.

That's why I said "sort of"... You only get 10 per block instance and you can't name them, but you can load saved settings without a computer.

 

[Sascha Franck]

10000% disagree. Global blocks is nothing to do with this. We're not talking about updating a block across multiple presets, or making all blocks use the same settings. We're talking about having 100+ variations of a reverb block that we've programmed (or purchased from Fractal?!?!) that we simply want to scroll through without a computer being connected.

People like to mix these things up. Conversely, I'm often told that instead of (the lacking) global blocks in the HX familiy series, I could just use the favourite function as it'll be "pretty much the same". Ideally, this is coming from folks telling me global blocks would be pointless - yeah, right.

 

[Orvillain]

I can agree with the rest, and agree the current platform won't support a big UI rewrite. But for the next gen, it's a must.

I was checking out more guitar stores in Tokyo yesterday (ESP Museum in Shibuya was awesome), and there were a couple of young Japanese guys trying out a FM9. Seemed like they had a hard time figuring out how to work it so they had to ask an employee. I was tempted to go help them but I was not confident in my Japanese.

I think someone will figure out a QC, TMP or even Helix much easier because you have less "how do I get there?" issues compared to Fractal. Fractal already has a successful template for this too - Axe-Edit.

For next gen they have to figure out how to translate Axe-Edit to a small touchscreen and have the physical control to support it.

Did you take them to a love hotel to walk them through it?

Ahem.

 

[James Freeman]

Regarding the UI, I havn't touched the UI in months, a few days ago I tried to check the firmware version through the UI because I could jot see it in Axe-Edit due to its long ass name, a few button clicks and my preset was fucked beyond repair... I never reached the About menu.

 

[mbenigni]

Regarding the UI, I havn't touched the UI in months, a few days ago I tried to check the firmware version through the UI because I could jot see it in Axe-Edit due to its long ass name, a few button clicks and my preset was fucked beyond repair... I never reached the About menu.

The EXIT button should be renamed PANIC. Or was it the HOME button? F*** it, rename all of them PANIC.

 

[Piing]

The EXIT button should be renamed PANIC. Or was it the HOME button? F*** it, rename all of them PANIC.

And the "STORE" button should be renamed as "FUBAR"

Regarding the UI, I havn't touched the UI in months, a few days ago I tried to check the firmware version through the UI because I could jot see it in Axe-Edit due to its long ass name, a few button clicks and my preset was fucked beyond repair... I never reached the About menu.

It takes more than one click and a confirmation screen before fubaring it, though. How did you do it?

Backups... Snapshots?

The button with the Camera on Axe-Edit is your friend. I click it every couple of tweaks. I have hundreds of versions of my presets on the snapshots folder.

 

[Elric]

I can agree with the rest, and agree the current platform won't support a big UI rewrite. But for the next gen, it's a must.

I was checking out more guitar stores in Tokyo yesterday (ESP Museum in Shibuya was awesome), and there were a couple of young Japanese guys trying out a FM9. Seemed like they had a hard time figuring out how to work it so they had to ask an employee. I was tempted to go help them but I was not confident in my Japanese.

I dunno about the “mustness” of it. I’m not sure Fractal cares that much about appealing to the guys in a guitar store trying to demo something. They’re doing pretty well by focusing on performance vs ease of use.

Honestly, the current UI with a wireless mobile axe-edit would be a world beater. On device UIs are overrated/critiqued here. IMHO. I think it is because everything sounds so good it’s one of the few things left to argue about.

 

[Lysander]

On device UIs are overrated/critiqued here.

Not by me. I learned this lesson the hard way: i won't buy any gear which cannot be fully edited/programmed on-device.

Phone apps, desktop editors, Bluetooth, are all great. Until they're no longer maintained.

 

[Elric]

Not by me. I learned this lesson the hard way: i won't buy any gear which cannot be fully edited/programmed on-device.

Phone, desktop editors, Bluetooth, are all great. Until they're no longer maintained.

That’s a good point, but the existing on device UI for the Fractal stuff is completely usable, esp if you have had one for years and have taken just a little time with it; and any mobile solution they offer will be absolutely solid and usable for years, just like Axe-Edit. The editor works great on my long retired Axe II, f. Ex.

Everyone here acts like the Fractal UI is completely borked; which is complete BS.

 

[Lysander]

That’s a good point, but the existing on device UI for the Fractal stuff is completely usable, esp if you have had one for years and have taken just a little time with it;

Ah, yes - sorry. My critiques of Fractal's UI apart, there's absolutely nothing you can't do from the front panel.

 

[mbenigni]

Ah, yes - sorry. My critiques of Fractal's UI apart, there's absolutely nothing you can't do from the front panel.

Block library?

 

[metropolis_4]

 

[Lysander]

Block library?

IIRC, block libraries don't exist on-device. I see those more akin to a copy-paste feature exclusive to the editor than anything else.

 

[norminal]

Block library?

Dump the “Legacy” cab section (and offer them as a free download) or a large number of the 1,000,000,000,000 cabs to free up space and make it happen FAS!

 

[mbenigni]

IIRC, block libraries don't exist on-device. I see those more akin to a copy-paste feature exclusive to the editor than anything else.

Exactly, but that's just restatement of the problem. First world "problem" to be sure.