three_eyed_otter
Groupie
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It’s the opposite, the downside to the FM3 was that it didn’t have gapless switching…
Have a good one,
3EO
Fractal Talk
- Thread starter laxu
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Have a good one,
3EO
Stone
Rock Star
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Jarick
Rock Star
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If we're talking wish list:
Put the same DSP in the top floor modeler as is in the flagship rack unit, so the development and capabilities of the two are similar. You have the rack version with optional foot controller, and then the floor version which has switching integrated. Basically like Line 6 did with the Helix Floor and Helix Rack.
Then you have the stripped down version in a more compact floor unit that can be more easily integrated into a pedalboard. Kinda like what Line 6 did with the HX Stomp.
Form factor, I'd love to see the flagship floor unit be closer to the size of the AX8. You'd have to squeeze the switches together a bit more and maybe drop a couple switches or the scribble strips. No expression pedal. And try to cut the weight down, it's super rugged but heavy as hell.
Put the same DSP in the top floor modeler as is in the flagship rack unit, so the development and capabilities of the two are similar. You have the rack version with optional foot controller, and then the floor version which has switching integrated. Basically like Line 6 did with the Helix Floor and Helix Rack.
Then you have the stripped down version in a more compact floor unit that can be more easily integrated into a pedalboard. Kinda like what Line 6 did with the HX Stomp.
Form factor, I'd love to see the flagship floor unit be closer to the size of the AX8. You'd have to squeeze the switches together a bit more and maybe drop a couple switches or the scribble strips. No expression pedal. And try to cut the weight down, it's super rugged but heavy as hell.
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That's amazing. (And good news, since I really don't care for the reverbs in economy mode.)
LCW
Roadie
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- 247
Probably a package space constraint... maybe even due to cooling. Guessing the rack unit has massive fans??
Achilles
Rock Star
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Would make the Fractal user base ECSTATIC I'd assume.
Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
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If we are getting into wish-list territory, I'd like to see some time spent on really optimizing the Performance Page experience:
(1) It'd be great if there was a global setting that allowed patches to load at either the preset performance page or the global performance page. Doesn't seem like that would be too much work?
(2) Allow more than two rows of controllers on each of the Performance pages -- arrow buttons could take you down to a 3rd or 4th (or 16th for Sascha) row of parameters.
(3) Would be REALLY cool if you could customize what the all of the A-E knob presses send you to from the Performance pages -- having direct access to the amp and cab block from the performance page is GREAT. Would be even better if you could access three other blocks directly via knob press from the performance page. Is the knob-press the only way to access the tuner on the III?
(4) The icing on the cake would be if you could do some very minor customizations to the visual of the Performance pages -- IDEALLY for me would be the ability to turn on/off a solid vertical or horizontal line between any two adjacent parameters. That way at a quick glance I could see the grouping of related parameters - reverb parameters, of delay parameters, of drive 1 parameters, etc. Like everything performance page related, would only be configurable in axe edit. Each performance parameter could just have two toggled options: "right line on/off" "below line on/off". Having different colors for related parameters could also work and might be preferred, honestly -- that could maybe be done automatically, where the same auto-color used for each block is also used for its parameter in the performance pages?.
I am of two minds about the performance pages -- on the one hand, for those that are comfortable going in and customizing and really thinking through how they want to use them, they come really close to making the Fractal stuff easier to use from the front panel than anything else ONCE CONFIGURED (if expanded as above, would completely kill all others for panel use of configured presets). On the other -- they are always going to require a fair amount of configuring so for folks that aren't willing to do the initial configuration Fractal will always feel like a cumbersome UI.
EDIT TO ADD: "hold" knob A-E acts as bypass for the block it accesses.
Some more esoteric stuff would be being able to adjust the range of the knob on the performance page -- so, like, instead of reverb decay time covering like 0-20 seconds or whatever it is, I could limit this to like 1.25-6. This is a lot more work and basically going from "oh, Performance Pages is this pretty simple thing that is just a mirror" to "oh, Performance page is now basically a whole bunch of specialized controllers", but would be great nonetheless.
(1) It'd be great if there was a global setting that allowed patches to load at either the preset performance page or the global performance page. Doesn't seem like that would be too much work?
(2) Allow more than two rows of controllers on each of the Performance pages -- arrow buttons could take you down to a 3rd or 4th (or 16th for Sascha) row of parameters.
(3) Would be REALLY cool if you could customize what the all of the A-E knob presses send you to from the Performance pages -- having direct access to the amp and cab block from the performance page is GREAT. Would be even better if you could access three other blocks directly via knob press from the performance page. Is the knob-press the only way to access the tuner on the III?
(4) The icing on the cake would be if you could do some very minor customizations to the visual of the Performance pages -- IDEALLY for me would be the ability to turn on/off a solid vertical or horizontal line between any two adjacent parameters. That way at a quick glance I could see the grouping of related parameters - reverb parameters, of delay parameters, of drive 1 parameters, etc. Like everything performance page related, would only be configurable in axe edit. Each performance parameter could just have two toggled options: "right line on/off" "below line on/off". Having different colors for related parameters could also work and might be preferred, honestly -- that could maybe be done automatically, where the same auto-color used for each block is also used for its parameter in the performance pages?.
I am of two minds about the performance pages -- on the one hand, for those that are comfortable going in and customizing and really thinking through how they want to use them, they come really close to making the Fractal stuff easier to use from the front panel than anything else ONCE CONFIGURED (if expanded as above, would completely kill all others for panel use of configured presets). On the other -- they are always going to require a fair amount of configuring so for folks that aren't willing to do the initial configuration Fractal will always feel like a cumbersome UI.
EDIT TO ADD: "hold" knob A-E acts as bypass for the block it accesses.
Some more esoteric stuff would be being able to adjust the range of the knob on the performance page -- so, like, instead of reverb decay time covering like 0-20 seconds or whatever it is, I could limit this to like 1.25-6. This is a lot more work and basically going from "oh, Performance Pages is this pretty simple thing that is just a mirror" to "oh, Performance page is now basically a whole bunch of specialized controllers", but would be great nonetheless.
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Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
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Depends -- if the feeling was that they went with a slightly lesser-than processor to allow for use in both Axe Fx IV and FM9IV, I imagine a core group of Fractal Folks that would be REALLY annoyed at placing any perceived limitation on the flagship rack unit in favor of easier full-platform development.
Stone
Rock Star
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Pretty Much anything Fractal does, even a small bug fix sends them into an uncontrolled ecstatic nirvana
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Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
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Even with the "complications" of multi-platforms, the development of the FM9 is STILL at a much quicker pace than any other floor modeler on the market. It only ever feels "slow" in relation to the Fractal rack unit..
Achilles
Rock Star
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Pretty Much anything Fractal does, even a small bug fix, sends us into an uncontrolled ecstatic nirvana
FIFY.
KHAAAAAAANNNNNNN!!!!!!!!
Shredder
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It's probably possible that Fractal could design the FM3 and FM9 to be smaller. But I think the issue is as a small company having to develop a bunch of different enclosures for different products doesn't make sense.
So they used the FC6 box to make the FM3, and the FC12 box to make the FM9. Fractal's philosophy seems to be to develop the best products it possibly can at 3 price points. They're not trying to cover every possible use case that would require a half dozen or more products. Line6 has the resources to do that. It makes sense for them.
So they used the FC6 box to make the FM3, and the FC12 box to make the FM9. Fractal's philosophy seems to be to develop the best products it possibly can at 3 price points. They're not trying to cover every possible use case that would require a half dozen or more products. Line6 has the resources to do that. It makes sense for them.
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I’m increasingly thinking that the footswitch and UI configurations on these devices is a complete waste of time. Create a black box with, at most, a global volume or IO level controls, and then let the user pick a FC module for whatever precious setup they have. I suppose this makes the case for an FM0, but it’s all a massive tail chase having to make people choose between the processing power vs footswitch amount + size. Make one fucking small box with your best processor and let everyone pick the controller (Either a FAS fc port that’s deeply integrated, and a port for Laxu or Mben to BYO-FS)
This also gets Fractal out of the onboard UI game, which they stink at, and people can use the Edit software (On desktop or a tablet) which is great.
And, there is no more developing for FM3 vs FM9. One box, and a couple FS variants for people to choose from. Done.
Boudoir Guitar
Rock Star
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WHAT IF THERE WAS A DOCK FOR THE BRAIN ON THE FSes!!!!! IT COULD BE LIKE 2006 iPOD RADIO TIME IN FRACTAL LAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kid, I kid. It wouldn't be too hard to under-mount the brain on a pedalboard with the FC mounted on top. So you'd effectively have your cake and eat it too.
But, standing behind my "performance page is pretty great" comment above, I think the FAS onboard UI is actually really great for some things. It's kinda miserable for "start with a blank grid and go!" patch creation, and getting in and out of grid layout is kinda cumbersome. But I much prefer editing the main things I tend to edit in a pre-existing patch on the FM3 compared to a lot of other devices - just need to set up the performance page for it and not be too lazy to remember to immediately hit the page-right button as soon as any preset loads.
I have found Recto2 Orange Modern
FAS has completely changed my stance towards Rectifiers.
That was one of my favorite sounds on my recto, so good…
D
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