Fractal Talk

[Mongillo19]

I can't wait to see the name you come up with for this!

Hairy Pink Eye (HPE) or Im not playing it

 

[GTR37]

I can't wait to see the name you come up with for this!

This should be the FAS DirtySanchez

 

[OrganicZed]

@GTR37 I wish I hadn't googled that.

 

[saarangnarayan]

I will consider a FAS version of the HBE w/ the gain pot in the "correct" spot.

This brings tears of joy to my eyes...

 

[Frodebro]

I can't wait to see the name you come up with for this!

FAS Barking Spider

 

[dean701]

FAS Barking Spider

The FAS Hairy Hypocrite.
Ouch

 

[Frodebro]

The FAS Hairy Hypocrite.
Ouch

Oof…

 

[holoholo]

FAS chocolate starfish?

 

[JiveTurkey]

FAS chocolate starfish?

 

[GTR37]

@GTR37 I wish I hadn't googled that.

BTW don’t google that

 

[James Freeman]

But as our products became more and more popular the cries of "it doesn't sound exactly like my amp" became more frequent. So Cygnus became all about authenticity. There are still some remnants of Ares left over (i.e., pot tapers) that we have been correcting over time as we discover them but now the models behave like the amps and my tweaks to make things "sound better" have been removed, for better or worse.

Best decision ever, amen to that.
Fractal is in a unique position to preserve a lot of classic amps in digital form with utmost accuracy and continue refining the algorithms as our understanding of tube amps becomes clearer.
Authenticity is the only true goal worth pursuing, tweaks to make things "sound better" can be done anytime by anyone to personal taste.

 

[Rock Chalk]

tweaks to make things "sound better" can be done anytime by anyone to personal taste.

Yeah, but we want those in the box as well......

 

[laxu]

FAS chocolate starfish?

That needs to be some custom Rectifier model.

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

Best decision ever, amen to that.
Fractal is in a unique position to preserve a lot of classic amps in digital form with utmost accuracy and continue refining the algorithms as our understanding of tube amps becomes clearer.
Authenticity is the only true goal worth pursuing, tweaks to make things "sound better" can be done anytime by anyone to personal taste.

Only one caveat:
It has been very clear that a lot of users really appreciate the FAS original models.

Calling authenticity "the only true goal" is a very arrogant opinion, and not shared by a lot of users. You have a lot of Jay Mitchell in you. You think your goals are the only ones worth perusing for everyone. You have a tendency to put anyone not of your mindset as newbies or idiots.

100%.
Fuck the idealized Mark GEQ too.
Preserving timeless classics outweighs pandering to inexperience.

I never played a real Plexi either but the tonestack was too fucked to not notice something is way wrong with it.
Says a lot about the user base.

 

[Mongillo19]

 

[holoholo]

 

[la szum]

Here's the story with the Friedman models:
The BE/HBE have the gain pot before the last gain stage. This is a poor design choice IMO because you're always getting distortion even if you turn the gain down. Bad gain-staging IOW. Before the Cygnus firmware I was more about "make it sound good" rather than accuracy. Hence, non-authentic pot tapers, etc. So I moved the gain pot forward a stage because it sounded better to me that way. I left the treble peaker before the last stage and just moved the gain pot forward. More like a classic Marshall.

But as our products became more and more popular the cries of "it doesn't sound exactly like my amp" became more frequent. So Cygnus became all about authenticity. There are still some remnants of Ares left over (i.e., pot tapers) that we have been correcting over time as we discover them but now the models behave like the amps and my tweaks to make things "sound better" have been removed, for better or worse.

I knew Friedman did something to destroy and maim the Marshall in his line of amps. I knew it!

 

[la szum]

THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS!!!!! Can't tell you how many hours I've spent trying to replicate the Ares sound in Cygnus but never quite getting there despite all the advanced parameter editing tricks I tried. Anyway, I'm glad you made the change simply because it forced me to try new amps in the unit and find sounds I would probably never have chanced upon otherwise.

This does prompt the question though: what other hot-rod marshall amp models would you say have the gain pot forward enough to have that "sounds better" effect? I've tried and loved the JVM, CCV, and the Nitro that seem to do that upper-mid attack thing quite well, but I wonder what other ones would be similar?

P.S.- long shot considering how much is already in there, but a FAS idealised version of a BE/HBE would be awesome!

Nothing can replace a sweet JCM800 in my book. That said, the Atomica, Cornford, and Splawns are
all worthy of checking out, if you have not done so yet.

 

[Stone]

OG gonna be the Og Dawg

 

[James Freeman]

Mark Preamps only, BMT 0,0,10.
All are very similar in response but the IIC+ has some highpass somewhere in the later stages of the preamp, I can't find where in the schematic, should be identical to the IV.
The IIC+ also a little smoother above 10kHz, also can't find in the schematic.

EDIT:
The models are killer, sound and feel great.