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“Status quo! Status quo! Status quo!”
Fractal ICONS Plugin
- Thread starter CorrosiveMatter
- Start date
“Status quo! Status quo! Status quo!”
Chocol8
Rock Star
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- 2,857
Hmmm, not only do I disagree with your characterization, but the way for a new entrant to disrupt a market is most definitely NOT to do everything the same way as the incumbents, especially do not copy the things that are unpopular with their customers.
Dez
Rock Star
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And most NDSP plugin users have voiced that they’d love a master plugin where you can at least mix and match what you own.
Sascha Franck
Goatlord
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I don't know about "Most"
. The single plugin model, like Amplltube, where all your purchased content appears in one plugin is popular because of its flexibility, but the NDSP multi-plugin approach has been wildly successful. One reason for that success IMHO is the narrow focus of each plugin. People like calling up a plugin that is curated for a specific genre.
Dez
Rock Star
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I think it’s the biggest feature request I’ve seen to plugin users - they don’t want to have to spool up a to play Gojira and Nolly together. The curated plugin is absolutely excellent to be able to have the experience in a small package but as soon as you start investing more in their ecosystem, it’s apparent that “this could be a lot easier on me”I don't know about "Most"
Idk - it’s not the biggest deal in the world to open Logic to do this, but it’s definitely a popular feature request
paisleywookiee
Rock Star
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I think it blows goats, and between that and the decent but unremarkable modeling, I don't think I'll be buying any more of their plugins.I don't know about "Most"
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
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Genuinely surprised you think as lowly as that of their modelling. It’s always held up very well for me, and in every blind shootout I’ve done involving them vs real amps, they always fare well with others too
bucephalus
Roadie
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It's not the face that needs to look like a goat.
paisleywookiee
Rock Star
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No doubt others gel well with it, and get great tones. I just don't care for what I've gotten out of it, and it's just nowhere near Fractal for me.
GurthPeedler
Newbie
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- 1
Made an account just to share when I was really pissed about this - when a popular guitarfluencer made a video titled something like "You're using NDSP plugins wrong!" and went on to show how the "proper" way was to combine 3/5/7/100 of them together to use all their unique effects in the same signal chain. It made me realize what a kind of crappy model that can be, and that perhaps the obvious intention is to avoid giving people everything in one so that you feel more compelled to buy more of them.
I sure hope this isn't at all in FAS's mind.
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
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Fair enough. Swings and roundabouts here for me tbh.
Just pulled the trigger. Input Calibration seems to be 1Vp=0.707V RMS=0dBFS, I've added that to the spreadsheet. I applaud the inclusion of reference DI's to calibrate with but I'd really just rather have a set number. It looks like a webpage with a load of information for various interfaces is incoming though and I imagine in due course Fractal will have the most comprehensive guide for input levels out there. In turn that should raise the bar for everyone else.
Tones are great. Being able to get Fractal tones through my usual DI input chain and routing really is a dream come true. The Standalone app is a nice bonus too for just quick noodling.
I can't say I really like the look of the plugin. I think the overall concept and approach is pretty solid but IMO the experience is more like using a Fractal device than using the real thing. For better or worse, thats what it is and will be. The plus side is, having a plugin means its so easy to mix and match with whatever I want - say if there is a particular effect that I want to control like I would the HW.. The good news is, it's nice to use. Snappy and responsive, the things that should appear instantly come first, advanced parameters require more work. It’s much nicer to use than Axe Edit. If I was being greedy, I kind of wish that all the modules had an advanced tab. The amp page probably has JUST enough to make me happy. I love being able to see graphics of the pedals, I wish there was more in that direction but it definitely adds something when you can visualise what you're controlling. Not sure I ever used the Octave Distortion much in the AxeFX but having a great time with it here. All the blocks really need more graphics, for things like microphones where you basically just have a number to go off, having visuals adds a lot.
This alone tells me so much more than what the text and lists in the HW units show.
This doesn't really do that:
Delays are just Analog or Digital. They sound good but realistically I'm going to be reaching for plugins that give the experience of a Space Echo or EP3 or Binson or PCM42 (or something with deeper control). Again, not a big deal - Im stoked to have Fractal FX AND the ability to mix and match with my favourites.
The same is true for the reverbs - nice to have, but too few parameters and we only get bread and butter stuff. In general there's a big lack of weird FX - no pitch things (some pitchy reverbs and octave pedals would suit a lot of these amps IMO). So much of what I associate with Fractal is the ability to come up with absolutely insane sounds and there's nothing of the sort here. I think it would be cool for the reverbs to have some kind of mixer/pan so you can pan the reverbs to the opposite side of the guitar within the plugin. IMO the reverbs and delays are a bit too gimped for me to see myself using them aside for just quick “that’ll do in a pinch” type stuff. It’s fine, but I know Fractal is sat on so much more than what’s in here.
I wish the amp section allowed you to choose a SIC from a list. Even as a creative tool, I love altering the amp response in the AxeFX with that and I miss it here. There's a few other deeper parameters I often jump into that aren't here. I can live without them, but I wish they were there.
Cab engine is cool, but the normalisation feels weird to me (does in every cab sim). The interpolation seems to feel better than other cab engines out there IMO. The blend feature is also a bit weird to me, I don't like that you can't mess with phase much - you essentially get an algorithmic opinion on how it should sound and you can't really escape that to anything else. There are so many mic'd tones that are simply inaccessible as a result. In fact, things have a kind of uniformity to them regardless of what you do that’s a bit strange. I want warts n all throughout the whole chain.
Not sure how I feel about the drive pedals yet. Need to spend some more time with them. I know it's not an ideal solution but some kind of control to mimic a lower input impedance would be cool. Maybe some kind of 2-way communication with the AxeFX input is possible for those using an AxeFX as their DI?
Happy to see MIDI control/learn implemented here.
I'm stoked overall, weirdly the best part for me is being able to mix and match my favourite Fractal amp sounds with all the stupid ass plugins I've been buying for decades. Integrating those before wasn't really a viable option and now it opens things up a TON. The included stuff is a little lopsided towards amps and cabs and not enough on the creative/wild side of Fractals algos. For a Fractal product it's uncharacteristically limiting in some aspects. I think you either have to let the user have the ability to go wild, or you give them a very curated experience. This is a bit of both, not one thing or the other.
FWIW, I think UAD Paradise is a good product to compare it to - it looks a lot nicer, it’s range of FX are more varied, it’s just a bit more refined overall. It’s more curated, but also offers more variety.
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Dez
Rock Star
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Spreadsheet?
MirrorProfiles
Rock Star
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- 5,231
