Fractal Talk

I can assure you it's

New Girl Ugh GIF


100% of the time.

I know. It's a pretty thankless task and you guys do a really great job on this site. I was mainly poking fun at a particular jobsworth.
 
In case you're wondering whether the improvement/difference of the new firmware is hearable, here's a sloppy A/B comparison, plus a quick try of the new stuff.


Gotta be honest here, listening on YouTube through my home audio system, the differences are negligible, at least to my ears. Like you stated, I recon the feel and dynamics are more noticeable. As guitar players, we “play” the amp, so I can see the improvements to the modeling engine yielding a more amp-like experience.

I won’t be able to give a better opinion until I actually try for myself through a set of monitors or headphones.

Finally, the Class-A 30W Brilliant is lovely!

Thank you for sharing!
 
Gotta be honest here, listening on YouTube through my home audio system, the differences are negligible, at least to my ears. Like you stated, I recon the feel and dynamics are more noticeable. As guitar players, we “play” the amp, so I can see the improvements to the modeling engine yielding a more amp-like experience.

I won’t be able to give a better opinion until I actually try for myself through a set of monitors or headphones.

Finally, the Class-A 30W Brilliant is lovely!

Thank you for sharing!
Yeah, expecting huge improvements at this point is probably unrealistic, I think they're just chasing that last 1%.
But even if subtle, the difference is hearable and "feelable"
 
My t-shirt is black, I'll have you know. It doesn't show Cheetos stains as easily as blue does.

I always wear a black shirt when dining out with others, particularly at Chinese Restaurants, so that if I spill food on it people won't be looking at the stain for the entire rest of the evening.
 
In case you're wondering whether the improvement/difference of the new firmware is hearable, here's a sloppy A/B comparison, plus a quick try of the new stuff.



Gotta be honest here, listening on YouTube through my home audio system, the differences are negligible, at least to my ears. Like you stated, I recon the feel and dynamics are more noticeable. As guitar players, we “play” the amp, so I can see the improvements to the modeling engine yielding a more amp-like experience.

I won’t be able to give a better opinion until I actually try for myself through a set of monitors or headphones.

Finally, the Class-A 30W Brilliant is lovely!

Thank you for sharing!

Yeah, expecting huge improvements at this point is probably unrealistic, I think they're just chasing that last 1%.
But even if subtle, the difference is hearable and "feelable"

Thanks Paisano ! Really good simple but very effective raw demo.

Obviously I cant comment of the feel or dynamics but I listened back up loud through my Matrix GT800 and Celestion FX-200 Cab:-

=> audible differences are very minor
=> low strings seem to have a whisper more clarity and ring to them
=> high strings seem a whisper less-strident
=> interestingly - to me - the CX3 mids seem quite different - it was like a combination of them being more scooped along with a change to their "Q range" ... probably not explaining that very well

I personally do like a healthy dose of mids in my tones ... I cant stand scooped mids in any electric guitar tones ...... so listening back I found myself ever-so-slightly preferring CX2 ...... however ...... I am %100 certain that a slight bump or adjustment to the mids in CX3 would instantly totally resolve this for me.

Overall, seems like a really good upgrade.

As you say ... we are at levels of excellence where short of a massive breakthroughs in measuring and application of those measurements ... modelling changes in 2024 to the top end gear like Fractal / L6 etc..... are quite marginal ... but nevertheless they are still there.

Lavoro eccellente !

Thanks again and Ciao.
Ben " the Italian from Downunder" Ifin

PS: I was born here in Oz but my families dialect is from the Latina region so it is very-un-Roman .... and very un-refined .... but I was able to follow you about %60 of the time which for me, is a miracle :)
 
Thanks Paisano ! Really good simple but very effective raw demo.

Obviously I cant comment of the feel or dynamics but I listened back up loud through my Matrix GT800 and Celestion FX-200 Cab:-

=> audible differences are very minor
=> low strings seem to have a whisper more clarity and ring to them
=> high strings seem a whisper less-strident
=> interestingly - to me - the CX3 mids seem quite different - it was like a combination of them being more scooped along with a change to their "Q range" ... probably not explaining that very well

I personally do like a healthy dose of mids in my tones ... I cant stand scooped mids in any electric guitar tones ...... so listening back I found myself ever-so-slightly preferring CX2 ...... however ...... I am %100 certain that a slight bump or adjustment to the mids in CX3 would instantly totally resolve this for me.

Overall, seems like a really good upgrade.

As you say ... we are at levels of excellence where short of a massive breakthroughs in measuring and application of those measurements ... modelling changes in 2024 to the top end gear like Fractal / L6 etc..... are quite marginal ... but nevertheless they are still there.

Lavoro eccellente !

Thanks again and Ciao.
Ben " the Italian from Downunder" Ifin

PS: I was born here in Oz but my families dialect is from the Latina region so it is very-un-Roman .... and very un-refined .... but I was able to follow you about %60 of the time which for me, is a miracle :)
I played with the new firmware a bit tonight , I have honestly not played that much in a while , really did not get through many of the amp models as I got stuck just playing , I noticed a difference , definitely the low end is tighter clearer with ,more note separation the feel on some models is a bit stiffer .

I would not say its mid scooped , I would say it has more upper mid snarl and less congestion in the low mids, probably when the low end seems cleaned a bit , if I had a complaint prior about the Fractal sound it was that there always seems to be a bit of the low mid , blanketed sound on some of the models , that appears to be gone


The biggest difference is on the clean to EOB to me , the Matchless DC, the Fenders , Deluxe and Bassguy. and the new AC brilliant are sounding great , to me there is more dynamic range and rolling off volume m is great to clean up , they also seem to be taking dirt boxes a bit better after the update , maybe it the clarity in the lows but the ODs sound more natural and transparent ..




I guess I find the biggest thing is that now its much easier IMO to Get a great sound from a wider range of models
I am sure there is more that just my after 2 hours of playing first impressions , its a step fwd for sure
 
I personally do like a healthy dose of mids in my tones ... I cant stand scooped mids in any electric guitar tones ...... so listening back I found myself ever-so-slightly preferring CX2 ...... however ...... I am %100 certain that a slight bump or adjustment to the mids in CX3 would instantly totally resolve this for me.
It's funny cuz I hear the opposite actually 😅
That probably tells we are talking about small details here.


PS: I was born here in Oz but my families dialect is from the Latina region so it is very-un-Roman .... and very un-refined .... but I was able to follow you about %60 of the time which for me, is a miracle :)
That wouldn't have been the case if I spoke my own dialect 😂
It's like we have 50 different languages in the same country.
 
My take? I dunno i dont have the CX3 yet but I can tell you this what you or me or anyone will hear will always be different, it will come down to you, your gear and your environment, and then you and only you can decide if you notice a difference and what those differences translate to you
Im sure that i will hear a difference, and it won't be night and day for sure none of the updates have been night and day, just small increments to get better
I welcome all Improvements no matter how small

Cheers
Mike
 
Like previous revisions, it's more noticeable if you're really familiar with a particular amp model at different settings than just taking one particular amp you've set and forget. The way you dial in one amp might not highlight the differences as much as another, or at different settings and I'd imagine the more aggressive any post EQ's are used, those differences can get chopped down a bit more.

Hahahahha I can say after recording a real amp/cab for several hours yesterday, unless I have a great room and that robot mic stand I can operate remotely, it's 1000x easier getting exactly what you want for a recording tone with an AxeFX than it is with an amp/mic/cab.
 
My take? I dunno i dont have the CX3 yet but I can tell you this what you or me or anyone will hear will always be different, it will come down to you, your gear and your environment, and then you and only you can decide if you notice a difference and what those differences translate to you
Im sure that i will hear a difference, and it won't be night and day for sure none of the updates have been night and day, just small increments to get better
I welcome all Improvements no matter how small

Cheers
Mike

oh yeah I forgot to mention --->

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It must be a game changer if you can have a take on it without even trying it.........
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I do compliment Fractal a lot on the tones and variety the one thing I do wish is better integration between cab lab and Axe Edit , I know the hardware cannot support all the Dyna cabs packs and mics and that not a problem , but it would be nice if Axe edit and cab lab connected so that you could just use one program

The fact of having to go back and pause each is a bit of a pain , I am in no way saying the sound is better, it’s not ,but that is one nice thing in The NDSP environment the cab editor is part of the desktop editor and it’s all in one place
 
I do compliment Fractal a lot on the tones and variety the one thing I do wish is better integration between cab lab and Axe Edit , I know the hardware cannot support all the Dyna cabs packs and mics and that not a problem , but it would be nice if Axe edit and cab lab connected so that you could just use one program

The fact of having to go back and pause each is a bit of a pain , I am in no way saying the sound is better, it’s not ,but that is one nice thing in The NDSP environment the cab editor is part of the desktop editor and it’s all in one place
Yes, that workflow is horrendous…..that’s why my hope for the Axe-IV is being able to import your own Dyna Cab Packs to the unit.

Then again, I seem to be one of the very few that’s ready for a IV.
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Yes, that workflow is horrendous…..that’s why my hope for the Axe-IV is being able to import your own Dyna Cab Packs to the unit.

Then again, I seem to be one of the very few that’s ready for a IV. View attachment 21595
Yeah, the cab selection of the current on-device DynaCabs is kind of sparse. I’m guessing it’s due to a memory limitation?

I would totally be down with being able to load purchased 3rd party DynaCabs. There are a few existing cabs that I’ll likely never use. It’d be nice to be able to pick which ones are and aren’t loaded to free up memory for 3rd party ones.
 
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