Fractal Talk

[metropolis_4]

Can you give me specifics on what you find deficient in the drive pedal models? Perhaps post some clips exhibiting this.

When I do A/B tests against the real pedals I can't hear the difference.

I wish I could describe it better, but I don’t really know how. It might be just the inherent qualities of digital that my ears seem sensitive to, I don’t know. Compared to my analog drive pedals the models seem just a little more… hi-fi… in a way. There’s this “edge” and extra definition where the analog pedals seem to sort of meld together. It kind of reminds me a little of the old complaints about the delays - that they were a little too clean and pristine.

I don’t know. I’m sorry, I know that’s a terrible description. I don’t think the drive pedals in Fractal are bad at all, and they’re light years beyond what digital modeled drive pedals used to be like. And the recent updates to them have been massive improvements! It’s just a little different to me in ways that are hard for me to put into words.

 

[yek]

I wish I could describe it better, but I don’t really know how. It might be just the inherent qualities of digital that my ears seem sensitive to, I don’t know. Compared to my analog drive pedals the models seem just a little more… hi-fi… in a way. There’s this “edge” and extra definition where the analog pedals seem to sort of meld together. It kind of reminds me a little of the old complaints about the delays - that they were a little too clean and pristine.

I don’t know. I’m sorry, I know that’s a terrible description. I don’t think the drive pedals in Fractal are bad at all, and they’re light years beyond what digital modeled drive pedals used to be like. And the recent updates to them have been massive improvements! It’s just a little different to me in ways that are hard for me to put into words.

You have an FM3 I think, how do you compare the real pedal and the model?

- Analog pedal before the FM3, or in its loop, with "FRFR"?

- Or FM3 as a pedalboard before your traditional amp?

 

[DLC86]

Here’s a question that just popped into my head while watching an interview with Jim Gaustad…

Given the fact that FAS tries to replicate physical gear in the digital space, if I throw say, one of the vintage pedal models into my chain, does it replicate the tone suck that might have occurred with the actual pedal? Is there interaction in regards to input impedance when adding blocks to the signal chain?

For sure it happens if that pedal is the first in the chain and input impedance is set to "auto", but I don't know if it also simulates impedance matching between blocks, or if it's needed at all...

One fascinating thing I discovered recently by messing with the powerboost model is that, when I roll off the volume knob on my guitar, it replicates the low frequency roll-off the real pedal shows when doing so (sorta like a treble bleed mod), and that also happens with input impedance set to 1M and doesn't happen if I turn the input level down in the digital realm, so it's basically caused by the interaction with the pickups but doesn't seem much dependent on the input impedance or level.

I don't know what kind of sorcery Cliff made but he totally nailed the behaviour of the pedal in that regard (even though it doesn't match other aspects of my real pedal like gain amount/taper and output volume), I wish the same sorcery could be applied on the fuzz face model as well, cuz my real one behaves very similarly to the powerboost but the model does not.

 

[hemmelight]

Interesting, I’ve never used a real fuzz face but I do quite like the one in the Fractal stuff. It seems to do the same behaviour you described with the volume knob on my guitars. I suppose the real thing is even more exaggerated / dramatic?

 

[metropolis_4]

You have an FM3 I think, how do you compare the real pedal and the model?

- Analog pedal before the FM3, or in its loop, with ""FRFR""?

- Or FM3 as a pedalboard before your traditional amp?

I did two things:

• Ran my pedalboard before the fm3 and toggled between my drive pedals and the fm3 drives into the Fractal amp models. Monitoring through headphones
• Ran the fm3 in front of my amp as a pedalboard

 

[DLC86]

Interesting, I’ve never used a real fuzz face but I do quite like the one in the Fractal stuff. It seems to do the same behaviour you described with the volume knob on my guitars. I suppose the real thing is even more exaggerated / dramatic?

Yeah, it sounds quite good regardless, but my real one (which has silicon BC108 transistors) does it much more noticeably, just like the powerboost.

Btw, here's what Power Boost > Fuzz Face > Twin Reverb sounds like
(Rhythm part is Power Boost > Hiwatt)

 

[DrewJD82]

Interesting, I’ve never used a real fuzz face but I do quite like the one in the Fractal stuff. It seems to do the same behaviour you described with the volume knob on my guitars. I suppose the real thing is even more exaggerated / dramatic?

Some of that is going to be dependent on the guitar’s output and the particular Fuzz Face itself, but I wouldn’t say there’s a big difference between the physical/digital models. I made these clips a few months back when some TGP crowd was claiming you couldn’t roll the volume back and clean up a Fractal Fuzz Face or whatever TGP crap they were spewing.

 

[- ★ - BROCKSTAR - ★ -]

JAZZ WITH THE FRACTAL AUDIO FM9

Signal Path: Kiesel Zeus Guitar - Fractal Analog Compressor - Fractal Jazz 120 Amp - Two Fractal 2x12 Jazz 120 121 A Cabs - Fractal Quad Tape Delay

 

[GTR37]

JAZZ WITH THE FRACTAL AUDIO FM9

Signal Path: Kiesel Zeus Guitar - Fractal Analog Compressor - Fractal Jazz 120 Amp - Two Fractal 2x12 Jazz 120 121 A Cabs - Fractal Quad Tape Delay

Nice tones
But ya we don’t do that here

 

[- ★ - BROCKSTAR - ★ -]

Nice tones
But ya we don’t do that here

Do what exactly lol

 

[Mongillo19]

Do what exactly lol

Actually play our instruments

 

[GTR37]

Do what exactly lol

Encourage Jazz playing
Metal , Doom , hard rock
Hair rock , is ok but Jazz and Bro country seems to be frowned upon

 

[- ★ - BROCKSTAR - ★ -]

Well you all can have your butt rock I'll swing with jazz any day!

 

[DLC86]

Some of that is going to be dependent on the guitar’s output and the particular Fuzz Face itself, but I wouldn’t say there’s a big difference between the physical/digital models. I made these clips a few months back when some TGP crowd was claiming you couldn’t roll the volume back and clean up a Fractal Fuzz Face or whatever TGP crap they were spewing.

That's probably the same crowd that says fuzzes on the Helix are a lot better than fractal ones. I think those guys are used to broken fuzz pedals, there's no other explanation... Cuz I'm currently trying to replicate that Time tone on Helix Native and there's an abyss between that and my FM9 imho (and not only on fuzz models).
The L6 fuzz face is good only if you want to produce lo-fi tones or thin sounding farts, and the powerboost (legacy model) sounds like one of the drives in my 20 years old Zoom G1 and nothing like a real one.

 

[norminal]

wait until you try the solodallas basketweave M25

Tell me about these. Are they comparable in character to the Ownhammer M25?

 

[- ★ - BROCKSTAR - ★ -]

Great video @2112