The Fractal Thread

Jonathanthomas83

Roland said:

@Jonathanthomas83 Stereo imaging can be done it two steps. Moving part of the signal left or right is what Robert Neve called panned mono. Delaying the part of the signal that is sent left or right is the other. If you set the delay to a certain value you can trick the ear/brain into thinking that the sound comes from further left than the left speaker, and vice versa. A good example of stereo imaging is Reverb. In real life parts of the signal are reflected back from walls, ceiling, and objects in the room. Simulated Reverbs try to do the same. Some sound quite realistic. It’s possible to simulate the listener’s position in the room by how much delay is added to reflections from front, back and side walls. Your brain works this all out. 

One of the things which annoys me is when members of a band apply different reverb types and values to their signals. We once had a singer who applied different, and overly large, reverbs to his voice and to his guitar. I’m sure each in isolation sounded good in his bedroom. At a venue, where we added a common reverb at the desk, and the room added its natural reverb, it sounded like a mess.

A similar thing is going to happen if several stereo field FX are used together. Each will apply its own rules about which parts of the signal are panned where, and by how much they are delayed. Put them in parallel, and you’ll have three virtual sound sources, one Chorused, one Flanged, and one straight through. Put them in series and each will re-process its predecessor. What was once going left might go right, and be double delayed. It will sound confusing.

Forgot to say thank you for this. I read it when you posted it and it's very informative and thought provoking for my particular needs and methods, it's made me think twice about adding more and more stuff that might stifle the stereo field, so thank you.

Nerine

Question about the footswitches on the FM9.

I think mine have gotten a little bit dirty. The bottom row don't feel as smooth as the top 3 switches, so I'm assuming a tiny bit of dust/dirt ingress might have occurred on the bottom row. They feel a little bit "grabby" when I step on them 

What's the best thing to clean them with?

Assuming some electrical contact cleaner will do the trick?



Also, still absolutely loving the Fractal FM9t. Rehearsed with IEMs with my metal band for the first in ages last night and it  sounded ridiculously good. 
I've not found a scenario where it feels like it's lacking. 

In fact, nowadays, I always laugh my bollocks at all the pseudo-macho posts you see on social media (to be fair, usually by posters from America) panning digital rigs, and proclaiming "t00bs for EVAR!!11!, "can't beet cooking t00bz!!", "i can't live without my toobs", "digital sux!" "i CAN'T pErFoRm WitH a DiGiTaL aMp?Q!/" 

It's absolute bollocks. If you can't make a Fractal product sound good, it isn't the units fault. And there's definitely none of these bozos being able to consistently pick out the modeller in blind AB testing.

FarleyUK

Also reports of USB issues since the FW22 release for AFX3...

exocet

Nerine said:

Question about the footswitches on the FM9.

I think mine have gotten a little bit dirty. The bottom row don't feel as smooth as the top 3 switches, so I'm assuming a tiny bit of dust/dirt ingress might have occurred on the bottom row. They feel a little bit "grabby" when I step on them 

What's the best thing to clean them with?

Assuming some electrical contact cleaner will do the trick?

I've used a bit of Silicon Spray on the shaft of the switch - appeared to do the trick.

mrkb

That’s been mentioned in the Fractal forum, suggested solution was a small dab of lithium grease I think. The switches are weird - the electrical part is on the motherboard and the mechanical part is on the casing.

Post in thread 'FM9 Footswitches feel a little rough while pressing them'

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/fm9-footswitches-feel-a-little-rough-while-pressing-them.181479/post-2237779

Nerine

mrkb said:

That’s been mentioned in the Fractal forum, suggested solution was a small dab of lithium grease I think. The switches are weird - the electrical part is on the motherboard and the mechanical part is on the casing.

Post in thread 'FM9 Footswitches feel a little rough while pressing them'

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/fm9-footswitches-feel-a-little-rough-while-pressing-them.181479/post-2237779

Thanks!

I'll have a read of that thread.

Nice one. 

fretmeister

Are Fractal products passive cooled or do they have fans?

Nerine

fretmeister said:

Are Fractal products passive cooled or do they have fans?

Fan-cooled, I believe. 

Well, the FM9 and AFX3 are. Less sure about the FM3. I'm guessing so. 

mrkb

fretmeister said:

Are Fractal products passive cooled or do they have fans?

They have fans that kick in when needed. My FM9 never seems to run the fan, the AxeFXIII seems to have a it running at a low level most of the time, but it’s only audible if you put your ear near the vents.

welshboyo

@Nerine yep, mine were the same, mushroom toppers made it worse! A bit of white lithium grease applied with a cotton bud around the shafts has sorted it out..

Interestingly, my FM3 or FC6 never had the same issue so not sure if the FM9 used slightly different buttons?

ToneControl

mrkb said:

fretmeister said:

Are Fractal products passive cooled or do they have fans?

They have fans that kick in when needed. My FM9 never seems to run the fan, the AxeFXIII seems to have a it running at a low level most of the time, but it’s only audible if you put your ear near the vents.

depends on the person, to me the AF3 and AF2 fans were way too noisy
I replaced them anyway
Does anyone have an AF3 with vents?

Didn't occur to me that FM9 might have a fan too

mrkb

FM9 and FM3 have air intakes on either end, and a 2” ish fan on bottom (towards front LHS.)

Kultschar

Hi guys,

No longer have room for rack gear and thinking about the FM-9 Turbo.

Is it more powerful then my Axe FX III Mark 1?

Also what would you estimate I would have to add in cash if I was to sell my MK1 and FC-12?  Hoping to break even but im out the loop on markets

Cheers

Jonathanthomas83

Kultschar said:

Is it more powerful then my Axe FX III Mark 1?

I don't believe it is, no.

mrkb

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Kultschar said:

Is it more powerful then my Axe FX III Mark 1?

I don't believe it is, no.

It isn’t in pure CPU terms, but due to differences in the way the DSP is allocated, the FM9 can run complex presets in a similar CPU usage. The FM9 dedicates a core to Amp sims and another for 2 reverb blocks, and offloads cabs to an external processor. I have AXeFxIII mk1 and a FM9 so if you send me a preset I can compare CPU usage for you if needed.

Nerine

welshboyo said:

@Nerine yep, mine were the same, mushroom toppers made it worse! A bit of white lithium grease applied with a cotton bud around the shafts has sorted it out..

Interestingly, my FM3 or FC6 never had the same issue so not sure if the FM9 used slightly different buttons?

My WD40 lithium grease turned up today. Bit of lubing up to do later.

Kultschar

mrkb said:

Jonathanthomas83 said:

Kultschar said:

Is it more powerful then my Axe FX III Mark 1?

I don't believe it is, no.

It isn’t in pure CPU terms, but due to differences in the way the DSP is allocated, the FM9 can run complex presets in a similar CPU usage. The FM9 dedicates a core to Amp sims and another for 2 reverb blocks, and offloads cabs to an external processor. I have AXeFxIII mk1 and a FM9 so if you send me a preset I can compare CPU usage for you if needed.

Thanks for the info.    Ive not really a complex preset person so think I will be fine.    Think I might do the swap if I can

DavusPG

For all you fellow FM9 users the beta version of firmware 5.0 which includes Dyna-Cabs is up:

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/fm9-firmware-version-5-00-public-beta-1.196266/#post-2441958

FarleyUK

Not sure if I get on with DynaCabs; seems much easier to just stick with legacy IRs, unless you want to fanny around at a gig / rehearsal getting the mic positions right.

Great that you can use either approach though.

Gadget

DavusPG said:

Anyone using any external pedals before or in the loop with their Fractal gear? If so which ones and where?

I'm using my whole rack in a loop of my Axe FX.

FarleyUK said:

Not sure if I get on with DynaCabs; seems much easier to just stick with legacy IRs, unless you want to fanny around at a gig / rehearsal getting the mic positions right.

Great that you can use either approach though.

I must admit, I haven't been blown away by the dyna cabs yet. I caveat that I haven't spent a lot of time playing with it yet and I'm no kind of expert, but I expected more tonal variation from the adjustments. In my limited experience of micing a real cab, I'm sure I got much more dramatic changes (?)