Fractal Honey - can you taste it?

KingsXJJ

Roadie
Messages
684
Hi gang,

I’vr been giving it some thought. It seems to me that one of the best things about Fractal Audio is the “sweetness” of the upper harmonics. I spent much of my life, trying to tame down harsh tones and smooth things out and get them to be pleasant. EQ has been my constant companion and since developed, chasing the right IR, with the right upper frequency has become a quest.

But with Fractal, that has stopped. It seems to me that Cliff and Co. have finally captured that sweetness. I love it.
I wonder if anyone else has noticed this or felt the same way.

Jason
 
honey GIF
 
My go to for ensuring a sweet top end is using two misaligned mics to move the perceived resonant frequency of the pickups. I find that if I get the right balanced of placement, alignment, and leveling, I have way more freedom to dial in any amp.

E.g., for a Plexi model, I dial it in so that it responds the way I want, and I keep the brighter mic aligned at zero and leveled at 0dB. I then spend the bulk of my time moving the mics, the amount of misalignment, and the level of the darker mic (a wide range between -3 and -15dB) to get the frequencies just right. If things are getting a little harsh, I increase the level of the dark mic for a more midrangey high end, but if I want a more defined sound, I'll reduce the dark mic to between -9 to -15dB.

I may still tweak the amp after that, but if I do, I'm often compensating with the mics again afterward.

To me the firmware DynaCabs here are the most powerful toneshaping device outside of the amps themselves.
 
My go to for ensuring a sweet top end is using two misaligned mics to move the perceived resonant frequency of the pickups. I find that if I get the right balanced of placement, alignment, and leveling, I have way more freedom to dial in any amp.

E.g., for a Plexi model, I dial it in so that it responds the way I want, and I keep the brighter mic aligned at zero and leveled at 0dB. I then spend the bulk of my time moving the mics, the amount of misalignment, and the level of the darker mic (a wide range between -3 and -15dB) to get the frequencies just right. If things are getting a little harsh, I increase the level of the dark mic for a more midrangey high end, but if I want a more defined sound, I'll reduce the dark mic to between -9 to -15dB.

I may still tweak the amp after that, but if I do, I'm often compensating with the mics again afterward.

To me the firmware DynaCabs here are the most powerful toneshaping device outside of the amps themselves.
To me the sweet spot of mic alignment is around 12 or 13mm beyond that it starts to sound a bit more distant
The 13mm between say the 57 and 121 gives a bit of air and space
I will leave the 57 as the prominent mic and move out the 121
 
To me the sweet spot of mic alignment is around 12 or 13mm beyond that it starts to sound a bit more distant
The 13mm between say the 57 and 121 gives a bit of air and space
I will leave the 57 as the prominent mic and move out the 121

Oh cool! Interesting to see how others do it too. I'm always somewhere around 40mm! But by lowering the dark mic to around -12db you're not getting the mid smear so much as just lowering the pitch of the pick attack. Anyway, that's how I hear it.

I'm thinking if I misaligned to 12 or 13mm I might keep the levels of the two mics much closer to each other.
 
This is damn intricate look at all those parts I wonder how much different we are hearing the same thing due to slight differences/damage to these parts in not even including wax, hair, beans or insects


IMG_0591.jpeg
 
This is damn intricate look at all those parts I wonder how much different we are hearing the same thing due to slight differences/damage to these parts in not even including wax, hair, beans or insects


View attachment 20360

I thought about this a lot, every ear canal is different even our left and right are not the same, and no only that with age we lose our ability to hear certain frequencies, plus rock and roll, disease and loud noise related damage. Fascinating that we all are hearing differently things from the same sources.
 
I thought about this a lot, every ear canal is different even our left and right are not the same, and no only that with age we lose our ability to hear certain frequencies, plus rock and roll, disease and loud noise related damage. Fascinating that we all are hearing differently things from the same sources.

My ears hear things at different frequencies depending on the day. If I didn’t realize that was happening, I’d probably have gone insane or fought off everyone on the internet about tone bullshit by now. :rofl
 
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