Dr. Dipwad
Experienced
This request is slightly similar to my request for crossfading channel-changes (HERE) but is simpler and can stand alone.
As with that other request, there are some well-thought-out details included in this post. Please read carefully.
THE REQUEST:
To all effect blocks other than Amp and Cab, add a new parameter next to its Bypass Mode parameter. The new parameter is called "Bypass Fade-In/Out Time" and has a value 0-1000ms (linkable).
When this parameter is set to "0" the effect would work as it currently does: When toggling the Bypass State to turn the effect on or off, the change would happen instantaneously.
BUT, when this parameter is set to anything larger than "0," toggling the effect on or off would cause it to fade in or fade out over the desired number of milliseconds.
That way, when you turn on a Distortion Stompbox in front of your Amp, you don't immediately hear a drastic change in timbre and volume. Instead, the change fades in over a short time, creating a smoother transition.
Finally, when you deactivate the effect, the mix should fade out and then bypass the effect when the fade is complete. That way you aren't wasting CPU cycles on an effect whose Mix is currently set at 0%. When you reactivate the effect (or switch to a Scene which has the effect set active) then the effect would first re-enable at a Mix of 0%, and then ramp the Mix up to 100% over the desired time.
WHY FADE-IN/FADE-OUT IS BETTER:
Smooth crossfades between one timbre and another is a more-musical kind of transition. If they have the option, humans nearly always prefer a smooth sonic transition over an abrupt one. That's why DJs don't abruptly change from one track to another; they always crossfade them. If humans liked abrupt transitions better, they wouldn't do that.
For a guitar-player, the smooth crossfade makes a more polished-sounding performance. For example, if the difference between your rhythm sound and your lead sound is that you turn on a Fuzz Face in front of the amp for the lead, a 500ms fade-in for that Fuzz will allow you to...
(a.) push the "effect on" button for the Fuzz on the 3rd beat of the measure before the solo,
(b.) slide ("glissando") a note upward during the 4th beat as the Fuzz is fading in, and,
(c.) land the first note of the solo on the downbeat of the first measure of the solo, just as the Fuzz becomes fully-active.
Which is very, very cool.
RESPONSE TO ANTICIPATED OBJECTION:
I expect that someone will reply, "Wait, you don't need a new feature for this; you can already do it. All you have to do is hook up your MFC-101 to transmit a CC# with a value of 0 for off and 127 for on. And then you hook the corresponding External Controller to the Mix param of the effect block, and add Damping."
My response is: Yes, that would do something similar. But it's not the same, and it's not as good.
Here's why:
Bypass State for a stompbox is one of the things people love to associate with Scene Changes in the Axe III. That way when you change Scenes, all your effects toggle to the correct on/off state for that scene. It would be especially nice to hear them all fade in and fade out, when you hit that Scene Change footswitch.
But if you try to rig up the Mix param to a CC# as described above, there is no way to store the on/off state as part of a Scene. So you wouldn't be able to hear the effect fade in and out during Scene changes.
Currently you can choose either smooth fade-in/out for your effect, or you can control your effect with Scene Changes. But not both.
Why should a user be forced to choose?
UPDATE: Yek correctly notes,
It only has two (admittedly small) disadvantages, when compared against my proposal:
Disadvantage #1: Yek's proposed workaround would not automatically disable the effect to save CPU overhead when the ramp-down to 0% was complete...unless there's some way to do that with the Scene Controller, too. Obviously you can use the Scene Controller to toggle an effect on/off; but I'm not sure how you could time it so that it would wait until the ramp-down time was complete.
Disadvantage #2: My proposal involves a "Bypass Fade-In/Out Time" param, with a value 0-1000ms, which is linkable. That is, you can use an Expression pedal or other external controller to change the fade-out/in time. Yek's proposed workaround would, I think, lack that capability.
COMPETITIVE BENEFIT:
Smooth crossfading between timbres is something that requires a supremely adaptable guitar effects processor, and nobody's done it previously because they either didn't have the attention to detail, or didn't have the power & flexibility in their processor's OS & CPU.
But Fractal is famous for attention to detail, and the OS and CPU of the Axe III are, so far a I know, unsurpassed in power and flexibility.
So, by adding this feature (and the crossfading-channel-changes feature), Fractal could fully embrace the smooth-timbre-transition idea...at a time when nobody else's processors have the ability to do it. It would be yet one more competitive advantage for Fractal.
BIG THANK YOU...
I realize this was a long post. For those who read to the end, thanks for taking the time.
As with that other request, there are some well-thought-out details included in this post. Please read carefully.
THE REQUEST:
To all effect blocks other than Amp and Cab, add a new parameter next to its Bypass Mode parameter. The new parameter is called "Bypass Fade-In/Out Time" and has a value 0-1000ms (linkable).
When this parameter is set to "0" the effect would work as it currently does: When toggling the Bypass State to turn the effect on or off, the change would happen instantaneously.
BUT, when this parameter is set to anything larger than "0," toggling the effect on or off would cause it to fade in or fade out over the desired number of milliseconds.
That way, when you turn on a Distortion Stompbox in front of your Amp, you don't immediately hear a drastic change in timbre and volume. Instead, the change fades in over a short time, creating a smoother transition.
Finally, when you deactivate the effect, the mix should fade out and then bypass the effect when the fade is complete. That way you aren't wasting CPU cycles on an effect whose Mix is currently set at 0%. When you reactivate the effect (or switch to a Scene which has the effect set active) then the effect would first re-enable at a Mix of 0%, and then ramp the Mix up to 100% over the desired time.
WHY FADE-IN/FADE-OUT IS BETTER:
Smooth crossfades between one timbre and another is a more-musical kind of transition. If they have the option, humans nearly always prefer a smooth sonic transition over an abrupt one. That's why DJs don't abruptly change from one track to another; they always crossfade them. If humans liked abrupt transitions better, they wouldn't do that.
For a guitar-player, the smooth crossfade makes a more polished-sounding performance. For example, if the difference between your rhythm sound and your lead sound is that you turn on a Fuzz Face in front of the amp for the lead, a 500ms fade-in for that Fuzz will allow you to...
(a.) push the "effect on" button for the Fuzz on the 3rd beat of the measure before the solo,
(b.) slide ("glissando") a note upward during the 4th beat as the Fuzz is fading in, and,
(c.) land the first note of the solo on the downbeat of the first measure of the solo, just as the Fuzz becomes fully-active.
Which is very, very cool.
RESPONSE TO ANTICIPATED OBJECTION:
I expect that someone will reply, "Wait, you don't need a new feature for this; you can already do it. All you have to do is hook up your MFC-101 to transmit a CC# with a value of 0 for off and 127 for on. And then you hook the corresponding External Controller to the Mix param of the effect block, and add Damping."
My response is: Yes, that would do something similar. But it's not the same, and it's not as good.
Here's why:
Bypass State for a stompbox is one of the things people love to associate with Scene Changes in the Axe III. That way when you change Scenes, all your effects toggle to the correct on/off state for that scene. It would be especially nice to hear them all fade in and fade out, when you hit that Scene Change footswitch.
But if you try to rig up the Mix param to a CC# as described above, there is no way to store the on/off state as part of a Scene. So you wouldn't be able to hear the effect fade in and out during Scene changes.
Currently you can choose either smooth fade-in/out for your effect, or you can control your effect with Scene Changes. But not both.
Why should a user be forced to choose?
UPDATE: Yek correctly notes,
...and this seems like a usable workaround.You can when using a Scene Controller. E.g., in Scene 1 the Mix value would be 0 and in Scene 2 it would be 100, through the Scene Controller. And its modifier menu would let you apply damping.
It only has two (admittedly small) disadvantages, when compared against my proposal:
Disadvantage #1: Yek's proposed workaround would not automatically disable the effect to save CPU overhead when the ramp-down to 0% was complete...unless there's some way to do that with the Scene Controller, too. Obviously you can use the Scene Controller to toggle an effect on/off; but I'm not sure how you could time it so that it would wait until the ramp-down time was complete.
Disadvantage #2: My proposal involves a "Bypass Fade-In/Out Time" param, with a value 0-1000ms, which is linkable. That is, you can use an Expression pedal or other external controller to change the fade-out/in time. Yek's proposed workaround would, I think, lack that capability.
COMPETITIVE BENEFIT:
Smooth crossfading between timbres is something that requires a supremely adaptable guitar effects processor, and nobody's done it previously because they either didn't have the attention to detail, or didn't have the power & flexibility in their processor's OS & CPU.
But Fractal is famous for attention to detail, and the OS and CPU of the Axe III are, so far a I know, unsurpassed in power and flexibility.
So, by adding this feature (and the crossfading-channel-changes feature), Fractal could fully embrace the smooth-timbre-transition idea...at a time when nobody else's processors have the ability to do it. It would be yet one more competitive advantage for Fractal.
BIG THANK YOU...
I realize this was a long post. For those who read to the end, thanks for taking the time.
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