Fractal Talk

I mean....

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Orvillain said:
The VH4 I bought on a whim. I do like it, but it is quite vintage voiced, especially compared to something like the Dual Recto or Mark V. I've recorded some great sounds from it, but it always seems a bit undergained and old skool sounding.
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Otoh I see a lot of post-rock bands shifting towards vintage style amps lately. Went to see Mogwai this summer and they only had marshall stacks on stage, new bands playing on KEXP often have Hiwatts, Marshall, Orange or even Fenders...

Btw, out of curiosity, what amp(s) did you use in the Tacoma album (the one with the red face in the cover, don't recall the title)? I listen to it from time to time and really dig those tones.
 
DLC86 said:
Otoh I see a lot of post-rock bands shifting towards vintage style amps lately. Went to see Mogwai this summer and they only had marshall stacks on stage, new bands playing on KEXP often have Hiwatts, Marshall, Orange or even Fenders...

Btw, out of curiosity, what amp(s) did you use in the Tacoma album (the one with the red face in the cover, don't recall the title)? I listen to it from time to time and really dig those tones.
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Yeah, The World Inside. That's the one with the VH4 + SigX on my tracks, and the other guitarist used the Hagen.

That album is hugely Diezel influenced!
 
Orvillain said:
You can get some really good deals on 100-watt amps, coz a lot of people don't want them as they're switching to modellers. Which is fine - better tones for me!!
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At my local retailer they are selling off all the big tube amps without the intention to re-stock them again, the sales manager says they sell 20 modelers for every 1 tube amp, "it's a dead market" in his own words.

I like real tube amps but I also know my Fractal delivers a very close emulation of these amps, playing a Fractal model of the amp I covet mitigates a lot of gas I have towards that specific amp, I still think a boosted JCM800 or 5150 deliver just about the perfect high gain tones in my opinion.
 
James Freeman said:
At my local retailer they are selling off all the big tube amps without the intention to re-stock them again, the sales manager says they sell 20 modelers for every 1 tube amp, "it's a dead market" in his own words.

I like real tube amps but I also know my Fractal delivers a very close emulation of these amps, playing a Fractal model of the amp I covet mitigates a lot of gas I have towards that specific amp, I still think a boosted JCM800 or 5150 deliver just about the perfect high gain tones in my opinion.
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Plus a lot of the time the reason to pick a particular amp is its feature set or form factor. Which disappears with digital models.

I still like the simplicity of most tube amps. It's hard to let go of those "what if the real deal does still sound better somehow?" thoughts, even though I've done my own comparisons to find that I could get e.g Fractal or my BluGuitar to sound pretty much identical to the tube amps I had.

Modelers are also good at revealing some disappointing realities:
  • That a lot of amps don't sound that unique.
  • That a lot of drive pedals are not that unique either.
  • Cabs/speakers matter a helluva lot. You can get more distinctly different sounds swapping the cab on the same amp model, than swapping amp models but using the same cab.
I foresee big tube amps becoming the home/studio thing, sort of like the "vinyl of guitar gear" where you play it for the "real deal" experience and use something more practical for your regular gigs.
 
James Freeman said:
At my local retailer they are selling off all the big tube amps without the intention to re-stock them again, the sales manager says they sell 20 modelers for every 1 tube amp, "it's a dead market" in his own words.

I like real tube amps but I also know my Fractal delivers a very close emulation of these amps, playing a Fractal model of the amp I covet mitigates a lot of gas I have towards that specific amp, I still think a boosted JCM800 or 5150 deliver just about the perfect high gain tones in my opinion.
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I'm of the opinion that the answer to the question of which is better between amps and modelers is yes.

A great amp offers a level of interaction, immediacy, and immersion that has yet to be matched with a modeling device. It is the purest way to experience electric guitar and I think everyone owes it to themselves to have a good amp if it is feasible financially.

Real amplifiers are also very limiting and impractical compared with what is available in the digital realm today. Modeling is so much more flexible and can be exactingly tailored to each player's specific use case in a way that would be impractically expensive or even logistically impossible to achieve with an analog rig.

If I had to choose between a tube amp and my Axe-FX III as the only option for the rest of my life I'd pick the Fractal rig.
 
TubeStack said:
He’s the “slow gasp”! :rofl
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The one thing that impresses me/distresses me the most about Met is how risky he is.
He doesn't just try a new OD or Delay pedal. Nah! That's a rookie move. Not Met, he
slashes and burns his entire rig to the ground, and then plants seeds in the charred and
highly fertile Earth left behind. That's ballsy. Really ballsy! :LOL:
 
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