I Gotta Wonder About Fractal's, er, "Perception"

[Boudoir Guitar]

There’s nothing slick about Fisher Price cartoon graphics.

Fisher Price does well with their target demographic

 

[timbuck3]

Fisher Price does well with their target demographic

by slick i meant simple and skitzophrenic or whatever that word it. My point is that fractal doesnt need a touchscreen per se but the knobs on the switches would be nice to control stuff on the screen directly without so many sub menus. Just a more visual gui look. no silly pictures needed.

 

[timbuck3]

I doubt he cares that much, but personally I have my own biases of what I like and pretty clear ideas about how I would restructure an hypothetical Axe 4 to be easier to use, not a ton of rework. If I get really bored one day I might give it a go at mocking it up for giggles. One things for sure aside a larger screen I would double the number of encoders cause the pagination and having to switch rows in order to "duplicate" the number of knobs in the machine's UI is aggravating to me.

another thing I would do is having a real time analyzer view in the background of all eq settings UIs like the Fabfilter stuff for example, getting visual feedback of your tweaks is super useful.

I would also have a touchscreen but use it primarily for navigation, leaving input mostly to the physical dial controls. If we're really trying to make everything accessible you could have a bunch of physical unlabeled buttons across the top of the screen and dials below and skip the touch altogehter, that would also work well and potentially you can put smaller screens in the buttons to change the labels and keep the UI flexible.

Alright, I'm doing it, maybe this weekend I'll post a couple concepts.

Good ideas. A larger screen would be cool and like i said those switches that have knobs on them would be welcome on the fm3/9 and add better control to things without sub menus all the time. I have messed with the editor and its really good-even better then the line6 slider editor for sure. I dont think touch screen is needed or the pics of the effects/amps as thats just alot of wasted space on the screen but looks nice to many but as has been said.When companies release these "slick" gui's the tones and effects seem to suffer-not so with fractal from what i can hear.Of course there is always room to improve and advance but i think cliff has shown he steps up pretty fast in those areas when the competition challenges and he rivals them.

 

[luckymethod]

Good ideas. A larger screen would be cool and like i said those switches that have knobs on them would be welcome on the fm3/9 and add better control to things without sub menus all the time. I have messed with the editor and its really good-even better then the line6 slider editor for sure. I dont think touch screen is needed or the pics of the effects/amps as thats just alot of wasted space on the screen but looks nice to many but as has been said.When companies release these "slick" gui's the tones and effects seem to suffer-not so with fractal from what i can hear.Of course there is always room to improve and advance but i think cliff has shown he steps up pretty fast in those areas when the competition challenges and he rivals them.

a UI can be slick without being idiotic. Good aesthetics help a lot but it's not the same as adding a bunch of pics or shadows or other embellishments and calling it a day. There's tons of example of great UI design for professional gear that looks great and does a good job, you just have to know what you're designing for and do a good job.

A good example that comes to mind is Ubiquiti, putting their stuff in context of the market they operate, they are essentially the Apple of network equipment. It's attractive but very functional:

 

[TSJMajesty]

fixing a bad brand perception is a bitch.

I agree. It's why I never even considered Line 6 when I decided I wanted a multi-effects processor. Whether or not one agrees with my reasoning, a buddy of mine had one of their early digital amps (Spider?) and it sounded terrible to me. I learned of Fractal, first from a different buddy who had nothing but glowing praise for his Axe II, did some research, and went for it. Never been more satisfied with a piece of gear.

Not saying the Helix wouldn't have worked, but I just couldn't shake my past impression of Line 6.

 

[TSJMajesty]

For guitarists callouses would also have an effect.

What guitarist that plays right-handed is going to use their left hand on the touch screen though? Not many.

 

[TSJMajesty]

Seems fractal is one step away from dominating the whole market if the gui was slicker. But maybe cliff thinks if that happens he will never be able to keep up with demand?

I'd bet Cliff's business is still doing just fine with the current generation units. Just look at how many people here have bought a Fractal (or their 2nd one even) just since this place started.

He's probably making notes as he goes along perfecting the algos, as to what things he may want to add/change for the IV, but I'd be surprised if he's much into that headspace just yet.

 

[Boudoir Guitar]

What guitarist that plays right-handed is going to use their left hand on the touch screen though? Not many.

I do enough hybrid picking that any finger that doesn't hold the pick is pretty beat up.

 

[luckymethod]

What guitarist that plays right-handed is going to use their left hand on the touch screen though? Not many.

Some guitarists have real jobs where they use their hands

 

[timbuck3]

I'd bet Cliff's business is still doing just fine with the current generation units. Just look at how many people here have bought a Fractal (or their 2nd one even) just since this place started.

He's probably making notes as he goes along perfecting the algos, as to what things he may want to add/change for the IV, but I'd be surprised if he's much into that headspace just yet.

BUT....JUST FINE ISNT REALLY a good business model is it? Way better is usually the goal.

 

[jellodog]

BUT....JUST FINE ISNT REALLY a good business model is it? Way better is usually the goal.

I somewhat disagree on a personal level. What's wrong with a modest business plan of "we make enough that ensures that everybody's mortgage and pension gets paid" ?

That's the kind of business that I'd want (and have been part of over the years).

Does it really have to be growth growth growth and world domination for every business out there? Or to be beholden to shareholders and lose control of your company and life? I certainly wouldn't want that. Bah.

"Just fine" is often... just fine.

 

[Southpaw-DD]

I haven't read this thread in detail, but in a fairly short amount of time I was able to get "proficient" at editing the FM9T on the front panel to the point I'm about as quick as I was with the Helix. There is just more underlying content available in Fractal so you need to dive into more screens should you choose to do so. I think a lot of the hate on the UI is because it isn't modern in its concept and I think most of the complainers have not spent adequate time using it. The Fractal software editor is one of the best, if not the best in the hardware modeler market.

None of this is news, of course. I just think folks are quick to use the popular arguments to help their stance on what they purchased or chose as being "as good as" or "better" than the other options.

 

[timbuck3]

I somewhat disagree on a personal level. What's wrong with a modest business plan of "we make enough that ensures that everybody's mortgage and pension gets paid" ?

That's the kind of business that I'd want (and have been part of over the years).

Does it really have to be growth growth growth and world domination for every business out there? Or to be beholden to shareholders and lose control of your company and life? I certainly wouldn't want that. Bah.

"Just fine" is often... just fine.

maybe not growth growth growth but more pushing the tech envelope to stay relative and compete? I mean others will catch up and surpass with the whole just fine attitude. Look at tesla or the post office...post office sucks but they think they are just fine and doing ok

 

[ian_dissonance]

I agree. It's why I never even considered Line 6 when I decided I wanted a multi-effects processor. Whether or not one agrees with my reasoning, a buddy of mine had one of their early digital amps (Spider?) and it sounded terrible to me. I learned of Fractal, first from a different buddy who had nothing but glowing praise for his Axe II, did some research, and went for it. Never been more satisfied with a piece of gear.

Not saying the Helix wouldn't have worked, but I just couldn't shake my past impression of Line 6.

I was not a Line 6 guy until Helix, but I always thought it was funny that people would make their whole perception on amps that were obviously intended as practice/starter gear. Like imagine if everyone just was like “I had a Rage 158 once, Peavey fucking sucks.”

 

[Achilles]

There is no reason in 2024 to have skewmorphism,

I still think this is purposely done for the old school Fender amp guys. Imagine you're 60 and not very tech savvy and it's your first fully digital solution. It's gotta be grade school easy, right?

What else could have been their thought process? You have to imagine lots of people were involved in the GUI decisions.

 

[DrewJD82]

maybe not growth growth growth but more pushing the tech envelope to stay relative and compete? I mean others will catch up and surpass with the whole just fine attitude. Look at tesla or the post office...post office sucks but they think they are just fine and doing ok

Are you still talking about Fractal?

 

[Foxmeister]

What guitarist that plays right-handed is going to use their left hand on the touch screen though? Not many.

I'm one of the few then!

When I'm working, I often have my phone (or a tablet) to the left of my laptop, and regularly interact with it left hand only.

If anything, I'd suggest that playing guitar has made me more adroit with my left hand for all sorts of tasks.

 

[Ed DeGenaro]

I'm one of the few then!

When I'm working, I often have my phone (or a tablet) to the left of my laptop, and regularly interact with it left hand only.

If anything, I'd suggest that playing guitar has made me more adroit with my left hand for all sorts of tasks.

Me too but simply for the reason that the ipad is placed to my left most of the time.

But callouses are while other subject, since after 5 decades of beating my hands and still doing more hours on strings a day than most in the office my callouses are mire like suede than anything else.

 

[Foxmeister]

Seems fractal is one step away from dominating the whole market if the gui was slicker.

Even with a slick gui, Fractal wouldn't come close to dominating the market for two reasons:

1. Limited production runs - Fractal products often go on a waitlist, presumably because each production run is quite small, so as to not tie up too much capital in stock.

2. Lack of a proper dealer network - you can't walk into a store to try and buy Fractal products.

IMO, both of these are part of the same problem - with a dealer/distributor network holding stock they've paid for, Fractal can increase the size of their production runs and perhaps achieve more economies of scale, but they'd also need to factor in a dealer markup, so prices would probably have to increase quite significantly (see G66 prices vs Fractal direct).

 

[Bruce]

BUT....JUST FINE ISNT REALLY a good business model is it? Way better is usually the goal.

We had a saying in the chicken business: stay small, make money.
When a business grows you have to be very careful the standards of that business do not erode. Volume isn’t always a good thing.