Fractal Talk

[saarangnarayan]

In terms of response to dynamics, character of breakup, etc, however, the cab plays zero role.

I agree with your sentiment (amp dictates the “feel”) but the can and speaker do have a role to play when it comes to dynamics, breakup, and attack. A lower wattage speaker will compress and distort more. A high wattage one will do the opposite. I agree that these aspects of tone are more apparent with changes in amps, but cabs and speakers do make a difference.

 

[Stratzrus]

I don't completely agree with this conclusion, but I do agree the CAB block makes a MASSIVE difference on the sound.

For clean tones I find most amps sound the same. There'll be a difference in how the GTMB controls behave, but for clean sounds you can pretty much match tones with any amp model given some patience with the control. I believe this is why you don't see a lot of the clean channels modeled for amps in the Fractal world -- there's just nothing interesting and unique happening from clean channel to clean channel on the various amps, electrically-speaking.

That hasn't been my experience in real world usage of amps.

As a Jazz, R&B, and Funk player I spend most of my time at gigs on the clean channel. Amps like the Jazz Chorus 120 and a Twin Reverb sound completely different. The Super Reverb sounds different still, let alone a Dual Rectifier.

I've noticed some clear differences in the clean channels among Fractal's amp models as well. Maybe to someone who lives in the Blues Rock, Classic Rock, Metal world they sound the same but to players who predominantly play in the genres I gig there are clear and noticeable differences in the clean channels of the best known amps.

 

[Frodebro]

What’s a clean channel?

 

[TSJMajesty]

What’s a clean channel?

I think I read somewhere it's the one keyboard players like...?

 

[jellodog]

I think I read somewhere it's the one keyboard players like...?

 

[KingsXJJ]

I think I read somewhere it's the one keyboard players like...?

 

[PLX]

What’s a clean channel?

 

[iaresee]

Amps like the Jazz Chorus 120 and a Twin Reverb sound completely different. The Super Reverb sounds different still, let alone a Dual Rectifier.

Are you running all of these through the same cabinet and speakers though?

It’s pretty easy to make clean models sound near identical if you hold the CAB block steady.

 

[Frodebro]

Are you running all of these through the same cabinet and speakers though?

It’s pretty easy to make clean models sound near identical if you hold the CAB block steady.

It depends on the speakers, though. Greenbacks and Vintage 30s have a distinct tonal “fingerprint”, C90s and EV12Ls are much more neutral, etc.

 

[KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!]

What’s a clean channel?

 

[laxu]

What’s a clean channel?

It's the low gain overdrive channel that you post on YT and say "this is my clean tone" and then play a distorted riff...

 

[GTR37]

It's the low gain overdrive channel that you post on YT and say "this is my clean tone" and then play a distorted riff...

The Jarrod from Tone Wars
signature clean

 

[Frodebro]

The Jarrod from Tone Wars
signature clean

Now there’s an interesting dude. Probably a decent enough guy IRL, but the dyed hair and sleeveless shirts just lean toward bad stereotypes.

 

[norminal]

Now there’s an interesting dude. Probably a decent enough guy IRL, but the dyed hair and sleeveless shirts just lean toward bad stereotypes.

Jarrod seems like a cool dude. He’d probably fit right in here. Has anyone ever reached out to him for an invite?

 

[Whizzinby]

 

[Mongillo19]

Jarrod seems like a cool dude. He’d probably fit right in here. Has anyone ever reached out to him for an invite?

He definitely is. I've chatted with him numerous times.

 

[KingsXJJ]

He definitely is. I've chatted with him numerous times.

NOICE!

 

[TSJMajesty]

Just watched Cooper Carter's latest G66 video on getting a great Recto tone, and I gotta say, for Fractal owners, he is a treasure!!

Just watching how he goes through creating a preset is SO beneficial to using a Fractal product, and tapping into its full potential. His old video in which he dialed in all these tones of cover songs is a big reason why I opted to buy an Axe III in the first place.

If you own a Fractal and have never seen him work, you should check him out!

He dials it in, then posts a link to the free preset too! Here's the video:

 

[FractalAudio]

I don’t think it’s a bug (in that I think the models are working as intended), but also that the real amps do go complete silence when all tone controls are set to 0. I don’t think a bug report or preset would really help because this would be the same for all users.

IIRC from another company (so this might not be true for Fractal), rather than setting the values to 0 (which would cause a 1/0=infinity), they tend to use a really small value as 0 instead - like 0.000000000001.


all he did was ask why it behaves differently, comments like this don’t help anyone, especially those who want to learn. Why get so defensive over someone asking a question about something they want to understand more about?

Correct. Tone controls are limited to a range of, 0.0001 to 0.9999. This prevents divide-by-zero errors.

I don't understand why anyone would turn all the tone controls to zero anyways so seems like a silly complaint.

 

[Frodebro]

Correct. Tone controls are limited to a range of, 0.0001 to 0.9999. This prevents divide-by-zero errors.

I don't understand why anyone would turn all the tone controls to zero anyways so seems like a silly complaint.

That’s the recommended approach for dialing the Mark amps (from the Mesa manuals): Start with tone controls at zero, bring up the treble to taste, then midrange, then bass.