Fractal Talk

[AutomationBias]

I’d really love for Fractal to make their own cab. That’d probably be the only way I’d give an "FRFR" option a shot is if Cliff designed it specifically to function with Fractal gear.

I can't imagine the cab thing happening for a variety of reasons, but I can see Fractal making a flat rackmount power amp.

 

[GTR37]

I don’t think it is a new product or anything probably just some cool new stuff that he discovered that might involve pulling out the amps for measurements again , that’s takes a while in the past
Like Cygnus , Cygnus 2.0
DynaCab those all came out after months of silence
Although FM0 would be cool

 

[GTR37]

Pretty sure you're referring to SpectrumTrack which has been in the Fractal for years already.

Yep I think he is using some of those patents in Cygnus

 

[Achilles]

Thanks for the tip.

Do you use the Axe with a running laptop directly on top of it? Can't imagine that would be even close to optimum for either unit.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Thanks for the tip.

I have a pair of CLRs that I really like but they are the original ones, not Neo, and weigh 40 lbs. I thought about getting the Neo conversion at Atomic but didn't want to spend hundreds more just to lose some weight.

I can see having one of the EVs for playing out and leaving the CLRs pole mounte in my home studio. They're a bitch to get up and down off those poles so it would be nice to have a grab-and-go alternative.

EV is a bit murky/muddy compared to the CLR. Wedge shape is generally nice (though I certainly prefer a traditional square 112 form factor) and it is fairly lightweight. LOUD and great dispersion.

 

[Stratzrus]

Do you use the Axe with a running laptop directly on top of it? Can't imagine that would be even close to optimum for either unit.

No. Laptop was placed there when neither are in use.

 

[laxu]

Do you use the Axe with a running laptop directly on top of it? Can't imagine that would be even close to optimum for either unit.

It wouldn't matter at all. I have had my Hydrasynth Explorer on top of my Axe-Fx 3 for ages now and there's no issue.

The Axe-Fx doesn't really get hot. It has a fan inside to push some air to the DSP but it's certainly not some particularly complex cooling system on it - tiny heatsink on the DSP and a single fan mainly to blow air around the case.

 

[jellodog]

Continuing my current real world love affair / obsession with fat bottle EH 6CA7 power tubes into the digital realm:

On a whim last night, I switched my main EOB Tucana Clean preset from using the default "KT88 GEN" tubes to "6CA7 AMP" in the power section.

So good with single coil strat pickups. Played that for 2 hours straight and couldn't put the guitar down.

After I thought that I'd wrung every last possible drop of tone out of the FM9, it still continues to surprise me.

 

[GTR37]

Continuing my current real world love affair / obsession with fat bottle EH 6CA7 power tubes into the digital realm:

On a whim last night, I switched my main pushed Tucana Clean preset from using the default "KT88 GEN" tubes to "6CA7 AMP" in the power section.

So good with single coil strat pickups. Played that for 2 hours straight and couldn't put the guitar down.

After I thought that I'd wrung every last possible drop of tone out of the FM9, it still continues to surprise me.

Changing tubes and tone stacks even are great options to get where you want to go and really allow a crazy level of customization

 

[la szum]

The new flavor of "FRFR" is the EV PXM12 MP, plenty of buzz about it on the FAS forum

Yup. Last year it was something else. And the year before it was something something else. And they year before that it was....


Well..... you get the point.

I trust none of them, due to their sordid history with a bunch of different "FRFR" options that were always "the best!"

 

[TSJMajesty]

and solely on this issue of LP,

Uhhh, the acronym 'LP' means only one thing around these parts, Les Paul. M'kay?

 

[Stone]

Yup. Last year it was something else. And the year before it was something something else. And they year before that it was....


Well..... you get the point.

I trust none of them, due to their sordid history with a bunch of different "FRFR" options that were always "the best!"

Well have to say i really love my Powercabs whatever one wants to call them, they fit my needs

 

[Stone]

Continuing my current real world love affair / obsession with fat bottle EH 6CA7 power tubes into the digital realm:

On a whim last night, I switched my main EOB Tucana Clean preset from using the default "KT88 GEN" tubes to "6CA7 AMP" in the power section.

So good with single coil strat pickups. Played that for 2 hours straight and couldn't put the guitar down.

After I thought that I'd wrung every last possible drop of tone out of the FM9, it still continues to surprise me.

You mean to tell me that we can tweak a Fractal to the Nth Degree?
Most will say well then your not playing , but your 2 hour session and my 3 hr session would seem to indicate quite the contrary of the general consensus

 

[James Freeman]

My curiosity on Fractal stuff has piqued recently but when I look at the price and remember Fractal's hardware lifecycle I can't help myself but to think twice.
The angst is real, if I buy a Fractal this year I am almost certain the IV is going to drop out of nowhere.
How do I decide?

 

[paisleywookiee]

My curiosity on Fractal stuff has piqued recently but when I look at the price and remember Fractal's hardware lifecycle I can't help myself but to think twice.
The angst is real, if I buy a Fractal this year I am almost certain the IV is going to drop out of nowhere.
How do I decide?

Buy what does what you need today, and what sounds good today. It’s like an Apple fan waiting for the M4 chip. Sure. It’s coming. At some point.

 

[TSJMajesty]

My curiosity on Fractal stuff has piqued recently but when I look at the price and remember Fractal's hardware lifecycle I can't help myself but to think twice.
The angst is real, if I buy a Fractal this year I am almost certain the IV is going to drop out of nowhere.
How do I decide?

Then wait until the IV drops (assuming there will be one), then buy it right away. Hmmm, but then again, maybe it'll have teething issues that need to be worked out. Buying anything first-year could be risky. What to do...?

If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice

 

[Stratzrus]

My curiosity on Fractal stuff has piqued recently but when I look at the price and remember Fractal's hardware lifecycle I can't help myself but to think twice.
The angst is real, if I buy a Fractal this year I am almost certain the IV is going to drop out of nowhere.
How do I decide?

Lifecycle?

If a IV comes out does that mean the III is dead?

I have a FM9. I absolutely love it. The FM9 Turbo came out. I don't care. I still love my FM9.

Three years from now, even if Fractal introduces new and better modelers I'll still love the FM9.

The III Turbo came out. I still love my original III and have no need or desire to upgrade.

To me, the possibility of newer and better modelers coming out doesn't detract from the experiences I'm having today but wouldn't if FOMO prevented me from getting what's available now.

As a wise person once said, a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.

 

[Foxmeister]

My curiosity on Fractal stuff has piqued recently but when I look at the price and remember Fractal's hardware lifecycle I can't help myself but to think twice.
The angst is real, if I buy a Fractal this year I am almost certain the IV is going to drop out of nowhere.
How do I decide?

Just get an FM3 Turbo from G66, and give it a spin - you've got 30 days to test it out and if it doesn't meet your expectations, just send it back for a refund.

When it comes to hardware revisions, I seriously doubt there is an AxeFX IV on the horizon.

AFAIK, the main reason the AxeFXIII was introduced was because the TigerSHARC DSPs in the AxeFXII were discontinued and so they switched to the TI Keystone which has a completely different architecture.

It also seems to me that there is so much DSP power available in the AxeFXIII that it would be largely pointless to produce a new unit that isn't simply another revision of the AxeFXIII (MK2 Turbo XL Supercharger Ultra).

 

[BenIfin]

Just get an FM3 Turbo from G66, and give it a spin - you've got 30 days to test it out and if it doesn't meet your expectations, just send it back for a refund.

When it comes to hardware revisions, I seriously doubt there is an AxeFX IV on the horizon.

AFAIK, the main reason the AxeFXIII was introduced was because the TigerSHARC DSPs in the AxeFXII were discontinued and so they switched to the TI Keystone which has a completely different architecture.

It also seems to me that there is so much DSP power available in the AxeFXIII that it would be largely pointless to produce a new unit that isn't simply another revision of the AxeFXIII (MK2 Turbo XL Supercharger Ultra).

This is just pure speculation on my part ... but the original Axe 3 was announced/released late 2017 / early 2018.

Had there not been a Global Pandemic and subsequent pandemic parts shortage and chip manufacturer fires etc..... I have no doubt we would already have and be using and Axe 4.

However .... factoring in the pandemic and the subsequent pandemic parts shortage and chip manufacturer fires etc..... I would be willing to be $1 [ thankyou "Trading Places" :)] that an Axe 4 is very close to release .... my guestimating is Q1 2024 ... get over the Christmas / NY period ... announce it and start taking waitlist / pre-orders.

Just my 2c.

Ben

 

[laxu]

Just get an FM3 Turbo from G66, and give it a spin - you've got 30 days to test it out and if it doesn't meet your expectations, just send it back for a refund.

When it comes to hardware revisions, I seriously doubt there is an AxeFX IV on the horizon.

AFAIK, the main reason the AxeFXIII was introduced was because the TigerSHARC DSPs in the AxeFXII were discontinued and so they switched to the TI Keystone which has a completely different architecture.

It also seems to me that there is so much DSP power available in the AxeFXIII that it would be largely pointless to produce a new unit that isn't simply another revision of the AxeFXIII (MK2 Turbo XL Supercharger Ultra).

The Axe-Fx 2 came to be because the Axe-Fx Std/Ultra ran out of firmware space. The Axe-Fx 3 was made because the Axe-Fx 2 DSPs got discontinued like you said.

Looking at TI's DSP range, the Axe-Fx 3 TMS320C6657 DSP chip is $47.85 / 1000 units. This has 2x C66x cores.

The next step up is a model with 4x C66x cores, so double the performance of the Axe-Fx 3, if good parallel processing utilization can be achieved. Except this chip costs $130.5 / 1000 units. So almost triple the price of the current ones.

Ok, but what about using two of the original chips? That's still $95.7 per device and incurs more latency penalties.

So for Fractal to make a faster than Axe-Fx 3 device, they would have to put down a lot of money for the DSP alone before they even have a full product to sell and recoup those costs. At the same time, I would wager 99% of users are not maxing out even the original Axe-Fx 3.

While throwing more processing power at it could potentially mean further accuracy for amp/cab modeling and fx, realistically the needle doesn't move a whole lot when all of those are exceptional already.

But the problem is that Line6 is going to release something with a more modern user interface and more processing power, probably using a similar DSP to what the Quad Cortex uses unless Line6 decides to go with ARM instead.

Let's imagine an alternate world where the Quad Cortex didn't have all its problems. What if the last 3 years the QC life looked like this:

• There were never any power/noise/wifi/security issues.
• Computer editor has already been out for a good while.
• Latency issues have been fixed.
• A lot more amp and fx models have been added and their overall performance improved.
• Capture quality has been improved and compares favorably to Tonex and NAM. I mean it kinda does anyway but let's say even for sticklers about null tests etc.
• MIDI capabilities have been improved so even if you don't like the spacing of the footswitches, just add your favorite controller.
• Content management is a lot better, with offline backups via editor etc.
• There's an online marketplace for buying/selling captures, presets and IRs.

How many people would still flock to Fractal, if we assume they did nothing different in the same timeframe? The company whose Axe-Fx 3 product page still reads "A large 800×480 color display" as one of its highlights. I feel NeuralDSP's incompetence has been a big boon for both Fractal and Line6. If NDSP did better, they could have captured a big chunk of the modeling market. Including yours truly, most likely.

For the next gen, I feel like Fractal doesn't need to do anything but modernize their user interface. But at the same time people are going to be expecting them to overhaul a bunch of stuff or to offer even better modeling capabilities.