Fractal FM: what’s the point of channels, with that big ass gap?

[paisleywookiee]

Seriously guys, what’s the point of channels, if there’s a big old gap between switches? Seems kinda pointless if the only real way to mitigate is A. use two amp blocks with scenes, or scenes with overdrive pedals or gain changes within the channel. I’m kinda bummed.
Is there a secret I’m missing?

 

[fretworn]

Seriously guys, what’s the point of channels, if there’s a big old gap between switches? Seems kinda pointless if the only real way to mitigate is A. use two amp blocks with scenes, or scenes with overdrive pedals or gain changes within the channel. I’m kinda bummed.
Is there a secret I’m missing?

Switch on the beat?

I don’t do the 211 bmp thing…

But, a big but, I haven’t tried on the recent FAS fw releases and I think I’ve seen people have an issue w new? gaps.

(I’ve been recording and the gaps don’t matter.)

How slow is it? Which device?

 

[Frodebro]

You can get quite a bit of mileage out of scene controllers. Most of my presets are built on a single amp model, with variations in gain and EQ. Scene controllers make the transition from clean to dirty pretty seamless.

 

[norminal]

 

[norminal]

But seriously. Scenes.

 

[paisleywookiee]

Scenes doesn’t really help with an amp change though. You can’t really go from a Band Master to a gained out rectifier.

 

[Lysander]

Is there a secret I’m missing?

I don't think channels were ever meant to be gapless - this was explicitly mentioned in the FM3 manual too, if i recall correctly. Channels allows one to build very flexible presets, but a change on, say, an amp, means effectively reloading the DSP in the process.

If you want fully gapless, you have to go scenes.

 

[TubeStack]

I guess it's never been an issue for me, the way I set things up. Main sound is crunch and I use pedals to boost gain. And it's fast enough for me when going from clean to crunch, using two different amps on two different channels.

 

[Will Chen]

I don't think channels were ever meant to be gapless - this was explicitly mentioned in the FM3 manual too, if i recall correctly. Channels allows one to build very flexible presets, but a change on, say, an amp, means effectively reloading the DSP in the process.

If you want fully gapless, you have to go scenes.

This. And really, in a lot of analog gear there is latency built into channel switching/bypass to avoid a pop. No issue timing switches to work around it for me.

EDIT: Should add...scenes won't be gapless if switching amp channels between 2 scenes either.

 

[Mongillo19]

This. And really, in a lot of analog gear there is latency built into channel switching/bypass to avoid a pop. No issue timing switches to work around it for me.

EDIT: Should add...scenes won't be gapless if switching amp channels between 2 scenes either.

I guess the issue may be however that other digital gear does in fact have gapless switching. Now, like you said it may not be a deal breakable but does seem obtainable

 

[metropolis_4]

One of the reasons I went with the AxeFX instead. The gaps are much smaller, and with 2 amp blocks you can usually plan it out to be hapless by switching between them.

Still, one of the things that I loved about Kemper was having no gap between any of my amp changes

 

[Orvillain]

Yeah it's a bit annoying. Ultimately you have to use two amp blocks and scene controllers if you want to emulate 2+ channels within a single preset.

Make sure you don't have the amps in series too. Have them in parallel and set their bypass to 'mute' - then use scenes to switch between the two.

 

[Stone]

Yeah this is where the Helix Shines though "Snapshots" totally seamless

 

[Stone]

Yeah it's a bit annoying. Ultimately you have to use two amp blocks and scene controllers if you want to emulate 2+ channels within a single preset.

Make sure you don't have the amps in series too. Have them in parallel and set their bypass to 'mute' - then use scenes to switch between the two.

This^^ but Channels should bee able to perform this gapless like say a real life amp with multiple channels and a footswitch
Maybe Cliff is working this out

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

Yeah this is where the Helix Shines though "Snapshots" totally seamless

To use two different amps in Helix, you HAVE to use two amp blocks. It doesn't even have channels.

Channels are perfectly fine for everything but changing amps while holding a chord. And because of channels, a single preset in the FM3 can use two (or four!) different amps and still have plenty of DSP to do loads of stuff (since the FM3 has roughly same amount of DSP horsepower as Helix).

If you want true instant amp change, then step up to a 9/III and do what you have to do in Helix...put two amo blocks in your preset.

Channels are probably most helpful on the FM3, or for the weird people that want to only use one (super complicated) preset in a 9/III for a while set to "simplify" things.

On the FM3, channels means that for stuff where you only get one block (reverb), you can still have two different sounds in a preset. Or if you are wanting to save DSP but want two different delay sounds you MIGHt be able to get away with using one delay block but two channels.

 

[2112]

The beauty of channels is with effects usage IMO. Being able to use a single drive block and delay block have clean boost/OD/fuzz and bright/dark/crusty delays to bring in with a given amp setup is something I enjoy. If you've got an FM9 then there's 2 amp blocks if you need seamless switching.

The Helix snapshots thing is cool but on the stomp it's easy to run out of blocks. Different strokes for different blokes I guess.

 

[metropolis_4]

This^^ but Channels should bee able to perform this gapless like say a real life amp with multiple channels and a footswitch

Most real life multi-channel amps channel switching isn’t gapless. There’s a quick gap while the hardware relay changes over.

I’d say the gap on the AxeFX seems comparable to the gap on a multi-channel amp.

Maybe there are ones out there that don’t have any gap that I haven’t tried before

 

[Will Chen]

I guess the issue may be however that other digital gear does in fact have gapless switching. Now, like you said it may not be a deal breakable but does seem obtainable

Which? The Boss GT was the closest I tried. Can't recall if the KPA does. Line 6 stuff absolutely does not unless using 2 amp blocks, something you can do on the FM9 and AXEIII

This^^ but Channels should bee able to perform this gapless like say a real life amp with multiple channels and a footswitch
Maybe Cliff is working this out

A great many real amps delay/fade in the channel switching or have a pop up of varying degrees of loudness when switching channels. Mesas we're notoriously bad for this and on the flip side lots of older EHX pedals opted not to use a pull down resister and you get a very loud pop when they are engaged.

 

[JCW308]

Never had this issue. I guess it all depends on how you set it up.

 

[TubeStack]

This^^ but Channels should bee able to perform this gapless like say a real life amp with multiple channels and a footswitch

As mentioned, real amps often have a gap. Also, keep in mind, each channel of the real amp is its own model in Fractal-land, so expecting it to seamlessly load the whole model instantly is expecting a lot.