Reverb & delay - Helix vs Fractal

S

sashimi

Roadie
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To my ears a lot of the reverb and delay I am hearing in fractal demos, while objectively very good, it maybe doesn’t align with my taste so much, I lean more toward a wobbly analog or tape delay into an amp with spring reverb kind of sound, or a cab with a short room reverb, bordering on lo-fi, which I think the helix excels at. Everything kind of melts together. Whereas the fractal time effects sound super highly defined, it sounds like post processing.

Is it just a matter of moving the delays and reverbs before the amp/cab or selecting the correct ones to get closer to that pedalboard sound on fractal? Or is that hi-fi lexicon rack sound inherent to fractal reverb and delay?
 
We could fight for days about this, but fundamentally, we hear what we hear and I have a pint glass of pills to swallow.
 
Have both units in front of you and demo them through the exact same monitor setup
doing a solid A-B.

Fractal wins that one every time from my experiences.

I actually like Kemper ambience better than Line 6 too.....
 
I prefer my Boss RE-202 to any of the comparable delays in my stomp or that I've tried in the axe III :sofa



I do like the oddball delays and reverbs in the stomp when the occasion calls for oddball delays and reverbs. Have not had an opportunity o go to deep down the rabbit hole with that kind of stuff in my time playing on a fractal
 
No need to fight, or swallow pills, I said myself the fractal sounds very good. Just wondering if the hi-fi post processing sound is inherent to the fractal, or if it’s just the way people are using it or the presets they’re demoing.
 
sashimi said:
To my ears a lot of the reverb and delay I am hearing in fractal demos, while objectively very good, it maybe doesn’t align with my taste so much, I lean more toward a wobbly analog or tape delay into an amp with spring reverb kind of sound, or a cab with a short room reverb, bordering on lo-fi, which I think the helix excels at. Everything kind of melts together. Whereas the fractal time effects sound super highly defined, it sounds like post processing.

Is it just a matter of moving the delays and reverbs before the amp/cab or selecting the correct ones to get closer to that pedalboard sound on fractal? Or is that hi-fi lexicon rack sound inherent to fractal reverb and delay?
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Moving delays and reverbs before the amp/cab, surprisingly, makes them sound a lot more like delays and reverbs that are in front of an amp/cab.

"choosing the right one" -- sort of. If you are looking for a REALLY characterful delay (like, I consider Helix's take on the Space Echo to be over the top in that regard), then you may need to get in and tweak the EQ/modulation section of the delay a bit.
 
I prefer dialling stuff in on Helix (the controls relating to a specific effect just speaks to me better), but the sounds in Fractal are generally just higher quality. Especially for reverbs, Helix sounds a bit like stock plugins from 2009.
 
I'd say most Fractal reverbs and delays are dialed in more like rack or studio effects. That doesn't mean they have to be, as you have plenty of parameters to make them something else.

IMO Fractal's delays and reverbs always sound more multidimensional compared to Helix. Helix is still quite alright.

I tend to like Strymon's delays and reverbs a lot because they seem to blend in easier with the dry sound because Strymons tend to be on the darker side by default.
 
sashimi said:
No need to fight, or swallow pills, I said myself the fractal sounds very good. Just wondering if the hi-fi post processing sound is inherent to the fractal, or if it’s just the way people are using it or the presets they’re demoing.
Click to expand...
It’s the way they’re using it.

If you try the Worn Tape or Memory Man models in front of the amps you can get the lower fidelity ambience that you seek.
 
I have both. The fractal does the stuff you’re looking for, but most clips are the more hi-fi thing. If you like the super DARK verbs and delays (which I do on occasion), you may want to run them in parallel of your dry sound to filter them even more.

Pretty different flavors between the two devices though. Helix may get you to a given tone faster, but it will be more limited and can’t do a lot of sounds. Fractal can do almost anything but if you are chasing something super specific it may take you some hours to get it perfect.

Personally, I have long found Helix reverbs to not live up to my standards. I added a Ventris in the loop to be happy on the reverb front. Never considered running outboard reverb with fractal. For delays, both units make me happy and I like a really wide range of delay sounds from super messed up stuff to pristine hi-fi stuff (helix struggles on this front IMO, but I could get close enough to be happy no more often than I use that side of the delay spectrum).

The only thing Helix can do in this space off the top of my head that fractal can’t is the granular delay stuff like glitch delay. The list of delay and reverb stuff that fractal does that helix can’t is very long.

D
 
When you guys say helix reverbs are sub par, are we talking about the new ones or just as a whole?

I pretty much exclusively use the new dynamic reverbs and hot springs. To me, those sound as good as my other points of reference for good digital reverbs, like strymon and some UAD plugins. I can’t speak for the hall reverb as I don’t use it, and I don’t really mess with the legacy reverbs, but imo dynamic plate and hot springs sound as good as anything else I’ve tried. But maybe I just don’t have great ears, idk. And I haven’t tried fractal yet.

I’m just trying to decide if I really want to dive in to fractal with an FM9, or if I just want to spend half as much and get a helix LT, because I already know I like what helix has to offer.
 
sashimi said:
When you guys say helix reverbs are sub par, are we talking about the new ones or just as a whole?
Click to expand...
I had high hopes for the new ones but they’re still lacking IMO. Fine as a gap filler but I typically always use something else instead.

I had high hopes for Strymon too but was a bit underwhelmed. They were fine, but I assumed it would be an instant buy for me but I decided to pass.
 
sashimi said:
When you guys say helix reverbs are sub par, are we talking about the new ones or just as a whole?

I pretty much exclusively use the new dynamic reverbs and hot springs. To me, those sound as good as my other points of reference for good digital reverbs, like strymon and some UAD plugins. I can’t speak for the hall reverb as I don’t use it, and I don’t really mess with the legacy reverbs, but imo dynamic plate and hot springs sound as good as anything else I’ve tried. But maybe I just don’t have great ears, idk. And I haven’t tried fractal yet.

I’m just trying to decide if I really want to dive in to fractal with an FM9, or if I just want to spend half as much and get a helix LT, because I already know I like what helix has to offer.
Click to expand...
I actually prefer the legacy '6whatever spring in Helix to Hot Springs, and prefer Fractal's newer spring reverbs over both - usually go with the vibro king and dial the tone down a little in front of amp, using the bias tremolo in the amp block.
 
JiveTurkey said:
If you want neck beard beep boop, Helix. That's it's jam, imo. Fractal for everything else by miles imo.
Click to expand...
Dance Disco GIF by Todd Rocheford
 
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