Fractal Audio Systems mystery product speculation

[Aleksi]

How can these companies survive when everything they release is for no one?

 

[Orvillain]

What are you using to build those pedalboard screenshots?

Pedal Playground

PedalPlayground.com is an interactive planning tool for planning your guitar effects pedalboard.

pedalplayground.com

 

[Orvillain]

Someone said a while back that it can't transmit midi tempo, is that really the case? I got excited when I saw the mini jacks but that kinda negates the excitement. Yeah yeah I know, run it last in the chain, but

Yes, this surprises me. Especially since the Axe3 just added this.

 

[mbenigni]

Holy s*** I'm about 30 pages behind now. I'm not even going to try.

VP-4... a vocal processor, obviously?

(P.S. Reverb gave me my $30 back as "Statement Credits". So I think I'm good... as long as I keep using Reverb.)

 

[paisleywookiee]

Unless it’s around $599. That and the NanoCortex in the Loop and it’s a massive win!

When did you become such a cheapskate? For years, your nose was so far up Fractal’s ass with their $2000 products, but now this needs to be $599 to be worthwhile?

 

[Orvillain]

When did you become such a cheapskate? For years, your nose was so far up Fractal’s ass with their $2000 products, but now this needs to be $599 to be worthwhile?

He's just here to mine for content for his Facebook group. Ehhhhh.

 

[fetishfrog]

Someone said a while back that it can't transmit midi tempo, is that really the case? I got excited when I saw the mini jacks but that kinda negates the excitement. Yeah yeah I know, run it last in the chain, but

A. that would mean needing a second 25ft 1/8" cable, one already goes from my board to my bass players board, then would need the second one to return back to my board. That's just inefficient and annoying

B. his QC also can't receive + send midi clock so thats another case of something needing to be last in the chain

Not sure why Fractal/NDSP would not include this type of functionality... its like... super basic...

Yes, this surprises me. Especially since the Axe3 just added this.

Hopefully it can be added in the future. One thing about Fractal, they never seem to stop adding features at a pretty good clip.

 

[JiveTurkey]

He's just here to mine for content for his Facebook group. Ehhhhh.

Non-toxic!

 

[SonVolt]

Hopefully it can be added in the future. One thing about Fractal, they never seem to stop adding features and a pretty good clip.

They stopped adding features to the FX8 alarmingly fast.

 

[TubeStack]

Few setup ideas:
View attachment 30678

View attachment 30679

View attachment 30680

What are those Lehles... orthotic inserts?

 

[namathan_zirwir]

A bit surprised at the 4 blocks per preset. Was hoping that would be more. I think the HX Effects allows 9?

 

[Orvillain]

What are those Lehles... orthotic inserts?

Volume pedal lol

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

 

[Jarick]

They stopped adding features to the FX8 alarmingly fast.

The FX8 and to a lesser extent the AX8 really seemed to break from the rest of the Fractal line in terms of updates. The newer hardware has been a lot more cross compatible and enjoying more support. But it's something in the back of the mind for sure.

One question would be, say the Axe 3 gets some new drive pedals. Will those cascade down to the VP4 as it seems to be a different platform?

 

[norminal]

 

[SonVolt]

The FX8 and to a lesser extent the AX8 really seemed to break from the rest of the Fractal line in terms of updates. The newer hardware has been a lot more cross compatible and enjoying more support. But it's something in the back of the mind for sure.

One question would be, say the Axe 3 gets some new drive pedals. Will those cascade down to the VP4 as it seems to be a different platform?

I think it totally depends how well the VP4 sells.

 

[yek]

Here's a bit of fun.

We now know that the VP4 doesn't have amp and cab modeling.

But... building on past contributions of Cliff and Cooper, there are workarounds.
Here's an Axe-Fx preset, consisting of 4 blocks (plus In/Out), no amp/cab. Created in 5 minutes. Can be improved a lot with further finetuning.

The exact preset/sounds should be be possible using just a VP4.

 

[fetishfrog]

They stopped adding features to the FX8 alarmingly fast.

The FX8 was definitely the one that got the least amount of updates. I think it only had 5 major releases, with any number of smaller releases and bug fixes. In other words, it got a lot more releases than most any other digital guitar pedal.

One big issue with the FX8 is the dev who wrote the base code left the company, and so it may have become cost prohibitive to update it again. If everything is more 'modular' now, that may not be an issue.

One question would be, say the Axe 3 gets some new drive pedals. Will those cascade down to the VP4 as it seems to be a different platform?

It seems the cycle is develop on the III, then port down if possible. The FM3 and 9 tend to trend behind on new features, but they do manage to get quite a bit of what the III offers. I should think the VP4 will get some of this too. If not, it'll still probably be worth it. I mean, people still use the Line 6 DL box from 20 years ago to good effect. I don't think that thing has ever been updated.

 

[OrganicZed]

The FX8 and to a lesser extent the AX8 really seemed to break from the rest of the Fractal line in terms of updates. The newer hardware has been a lot more cross compatible and enjoying more support. But it's something in the back of the mind for sure.

One question would be, say the Axe 3 gets some new drive pedals. Will those cascade down to the VP4 as it seems to be a different platform?

This is mostly hearsay and some conjecture on my part, but this is how I understand the history.

There was a thread at TOP where the person claimed he was the lead engineer for the AX8 and FX8. He explained that he decided to port the code from the Axe-FX II firmware to these new products in the way that made most sense to him rather than in the way that was consistent with how Cliff had coded the Axe-FX firmware. He explained that he felt it was necessary to take a different approach due to the differences in the core DSP. It was his opinion that doing things Cliff's way was needlessly complicated and that it would have made the products worse. Cliff was not pleased with this choice and they parted ways sooner than was anticipated. That ended up leaving the AX8 and FX8 in a bit of an orphaned state.

I suspect that part of the reason why it takes so long for updates to get ported to the FM3 and FM9 is that the project teams are required to do things in a manner that is consistent with the Axe-FX III firmware code. Although it takes longer, it allows for nearly seamless interoperability of patches between devices and it will mitigate mess caused by a firmware engineer leaving unexpectedly.

Again, this is just what I remember reading on an internet forum years ago from a guy who claimed to have inside knowledge. It may be totally untrue.

Edit: See Fractal Audio's response later in this thread.

 

[fetishfrog]

This is mostly hearsay and some conjecture on my part, but this is how I understand the history.

There was a thread at TOP where the person claimed he was the lead engineer for the AX8 and FX8. He explained that he decided to port the code from the Axe-FX II firmware to these new products in the way that made most sense to him rather than in the way that was consistent with how Cliff had coded the Axe-FX firmware. He explained that he felt it was necessary to take a different approach due to the differences in the core DSP. It was his opinion that doing things Cliff's way was needlessly complicated and that it would have made the products worse. Cliff was not pleased with this choice and they parted ways sooner than was anticipated. That ended up leaving the AX8 and FX8 in a bit of an orphaned state.

I suspect that part of the reason why it takes so long for updates to get ported to the FM3 and FM9 is that the project teams are required to do things in a manner that is consistent with the Axe-FX III firmware code. Although it takes longer, it allows for nearly seamless interoperability of patches between devices and it will mitigate mess caused by a firmware engineer leaving unexpectedly.

Again, this is just what I remember reading on an internet forum years ago from a guy who claimed to have inside knowledge. It may be totally untrue.

For the record, I recall it almost the same way.