Further proof that Fractal blows everything else out of the water

FractalAudio said:
The problem with capturing an IR using the amp's power section is that an IR is linear.
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I know what would say the poweramp stage if it could speak, paraphrasing Hannibal Lecter: "Do you think you can disect ME With This blunt, little tool?"

Don't get me wrong, IR concept is great, but can do what can do
 
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What always blows me away is how subjective the nuances of the tone are within different tonal domains. For instance, I personally have a hard time catching the differences up in the speed/death metal zone, and I'm always amazed at how players that are into that are "tone chasing" down to tiny little things. It all just sounds like "phhht" to me. This video pushes a little bit into that territory for me.

On the other hand I was floored when one of those guys, in a thread here months ago, said something like, "I don't see how you guys can spend some much time on tone for clean amps, they all sound the same to me". There's a lesson in that somewhere, I think.
 
StickMan said:
There's a lesson in that somewhere, I think.
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Yup: We're picky about what we care about. When you 'live' in a zone you become very particular about things that feel completely arbitrary to someone who just 'visits' it occasionally.

Think cars... if you are not into sports cars, but just wanted to feel the occasional thrill of speed and acceleration of driving fast, you might rent a fast car for the day/week or if your budget allowed buy a second car you drive four or five times a year. In that scenario, it probably makes sense to just look at specs and rent a reputable car with a good zero to sixty speed, solid handling characteristics, top speed, etc (and airbags ;) ) and maybe even most important *looks* cool. :cool:

But, if you race them or collect them and drive several very high spec vehicles day in and day out and become very familiar with them or use them in specific scenarios (i.e. that is the zone you 'live' in): they will feel and perform completely different from from one another for that guy. Things that are completely inconsequential to the casual user are instantly recognizable. You will develop strong preferences for one vehicle in certain conditions (say top speed, straight line, weather conditions, etc) or find a particular brand suits your driving style and taste. You would be able to tell them apart instantly even if there was way to do a blind driving test (do not attempt).

So, the casual 'visitor' can drive a Ferrari or a Porsche or the New 'Vette for the day and be like 'that was fun, I could enjoy any of those bad boys' they might have some initial or weak preference for one or the other based on testing, etc, but for the most part "those are all pretty cool". Whereas, the collector/enthusiast is like "that new Porsche 911 completely blows compared to last year's model, I can't believe they ruined it" and the other dude just scratches his head.

So in tone land, for some reason the edge of break up guys always seem to understand that there is deep variation for their own stuff but more frequently than other tone fans seem to not understand that it applies to other types of tones... IMHO. But, in truth, all of us tone hounds sound like goofballs of the same stripe to an outsider which is probably something we would do well to remember.
 
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Guitar players are a weird bunch. Thinking about how relatively unimportant guitars are in the overall mix in most cases, and the fact that we are such a low priority for FOH, and the fact that very very few people in the audience actually care unless you are a special kind of band built around a famous guitarist, it is insane how much we spend on gear and how we care about it.

High gain, come to think of it, is one of only a handful of genres where guitars actually matter to an extent where you simply cannot do without them. Well, high gain isn't a genre, but you know what I mean.

Also, metal with its numerous varieties is the only MODERN type of music where something is happening AND where guitars are essential, since the death of grunge/alternative in the 90s.
 
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zenaxe said:
But, in truth, all of us tone hounds sound like goofballs of the same stripe to an outsider which is probably something we would do well to remember.
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I'm always in a state of "getting there" with my tone. At the same time, I find our other guitarist's tone most unpleasant (older Line6 stuff). To my wife, we all just sound like noise.
 
vangrieg said:
High gain, come to think of it, is one of only a handful of genres where guitars actually matter to an extent where you simply cannot do without them.
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Apart from the idea that this statement, just by being made, makes my point - I don't agree. What about Surf? What about early Beatles? What about Folk? Pretty much any band made up of guitar-bass-drums-singer is going to lean pretty heavily on the guitar as the only melodic instrument.

What about Dire Straits? What about The Police? It's hard to imagine those bands with guitar.
 
StickMan said:
What about Dire Straits? What about The Police? It's hard to imagine those bands with guitar.
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I just asked my wife, who is a big The Police fan, if there's a guitar in her favorite songs, she said that maybe in some of them there is, but not all. So yeah, there is guitar there, and we all know it is there, and most of us know who played it, but I'm not sure most people would care.

Also, I can easily imagine Every Breath You Take with just synths. I mean, it would probably be worse, but, just for the sake of comparison, take guitars out of Meshuggah and there will be nothing left.
 
Btw - Regardless of the manufacturer, how often did you ever see the top dog of a company provide this level of input?
 
I wasn't cataloging them in my head, but I can't image "Roxane", "Message in a Bottle" or "Walking on the Moon" without guitars. The bass is obviously important in those songs, but they'd sound empty without the guitar.

I can't imagine many Eagles songs would sound like much without all 4 guitar parts.

Also, I feel that, "unless you are a special kind of band built around a famous guitarist", is almost too tight a restriction. A lot of bands that have a distinctive, essential guitar element are what they because they have a great guitar player. They lean hard on the guitar because it's one of their strengths, and in many cases the only melodic instrument. So, does that exclude Boston, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Cream, and those kinds of bands? Or were you intending to only exclude artists like Hendrix, SRV, Satriani and Jeff Beck?

It sounds a little bit like what you were saying is, "Any band that isn't specifically built around the guitar as part of its sound is going to rely on the guitar for its sound less than a typical high gain band". Which is probably true, because bands like Meshuggah are specifically built around a guitar sound. But bands in any genre can be built around the guitar part.
 
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