Hoping to get amp/cab captures in Fractal gear in the future, does that appeal to anyone?

Note the “product” is in singular though, if history is an indication that’ll be a rack unit probably.
I won’t speak for Cliff, but in this context, the word “product” can be used as plural, such as a product line, or in this case, the next generation of product.

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the word “product” can be used as plural
He also used plural in the earlier comment

Just saying that it’s not very likely that the whole lineup will be launched at once, companies typically milk early adopters who can’t wait with the higher margin offering, and when that’s done expand the line down. And that’s how Fractal did it as well, whether for this reason consciously, this reason intuitively, or because of engineering considerations.
 
Thanks for the info.
I cancelled my order for the Stadium, which I had mainly bought because of Proxy and their hint about possibly implementing NAM—though they never clarified whether it would be truly 100% accurate playback without any conversion, unlike some low-end Chinese products.
So now I’m keeping €2–3,000 aside for the next FAS product. I’m pretty confident that:
  • Whitebox modeling will remain the best on the market thanks to Cliff’s persistence in constantly refining their models.
  • NAM will be implemented as seriously and professionally as possible, not in a lazy or anecdotal way.
  • And as I’ve read elsewhere, using NAM will allow them to offer state-of-the-art capture technology for those who want it, without having to build an entire ecosystem like ToneX or Kemper did. On day one of the Fractal Next Gen Product (FNGP), we’ll basically have the full Tone3000 offering
But I do have a few questions:
  • Will they only support the standard NAM architecture (for inference), or also a custom FAS architecture—like some models you can find on Tone3000, such as the great “slammin’ mofo” models that use the slightly more demanding “Xstd” architecture?
  • Offering a new architecture isn’t inherently difficult—it’s more of a training tweak than diving into the guts of the open-source project itself—which is why I’m asking. I’m also not a fan of the lighter architectures available, and I really hope FAS will continue prioritizing the best possible accuracy instead of smaller, lighter models… but I trust Cliff to stay on top of the tech.
  • Will FAS offer premium NAM captures—either standard or custom—like they currently do with Dynacabs?
  • Will there be some kind of intermediate block between the NAM block and Dynacabs to handle direct amp/power amp captures and properly model load or impedance interactions? Or will that be handled inside the NAM block itself?
All of this is super exciting, and I’ll probably put ToneX aside for a while to focus more on NAM now that Cliff’s few words have made it genuinely believable that this format could become pro level!
 
My only question is if the legacy product line up will be supported for more years and if new features or improvements will downscale to them.
I think something similar happened in the past with next gen amp modelling coming down to older units.
 
My only question is if the legacy product line up will be supported for more years and if new features or improvements will downscale to them.
I think something similar happened in the past with next gen amp modelling coming down to older units.
Some of the new features, NAM for instance, need next gen hardware, so do they can't be back-ported to the now-current generation. Others, we'll have to wait and see, depends on both technical feasibility and company focus.
 
I think something similar happened in the past with next gen amp modelling coming down to older units.
Last time, IIRC, previous gen wasn’t supposed to get the new modeling, but after some backlash they gave up and ported it there. So support was extended for a while.

Cliff will be even grumpier than usual being dragged to doing things about old stuff when there’s fun stuff ahead for the next months.
 
My only question is if the legacy product line up will be supported for more years and if new features or improvements will downscale to them.
I think something similar happened in the past with next gen amp modelling coming down to older units.
I think we can’t ask a company to keep updating and adding features for years after releasing a new product line. FAS is pretty generous in that manner but they’ll have to focus on the new gen for sure.
They use to update their side products (software) to keep the hardware running properly but they don’t need to keep offering new candy stuff to old devices… for guy who purchased an AxefxIII day one, he had nearly a decade of great and innovative updates/free upgrades. You can’t ask for more without extra cost I believe. Spending 3k even for 8 years of continuous updates is pretty cheap imo. About 30$/month! I spent more on stupid archeplugins and stuff I never use :)
 
I think we can’t ask a company to keep updating and adding features for years after releasing a new product line. FAS is pretty generous in that manner but they’ll have to focus on the new gen for sure.
They use to update their side products (software) to keep the hardware running properly but they don’t need to keep offering new candy stuff to old devices… for guy who purchased an AxefxIII day one, he had nearly a decade of great and innovative updates/free upgrades. You can’t ask for more without extra cost I believe. Spending 3k even for 8 years of continuous updates is pretty cheap imo. About 30$/month! I spent more on stupid archeplugins and stuff I never use :)
I don't expect FAS to be head's deep on legacy products. It's just good practice to keep supporting expensive equipment to some time until production and warranty totally expires. Competition is fierce nowadays.
 
Last time, IIRC, previous gen wasn’t supposed to get the new modeling, but after some backlash they gave up and ported it there. So support was extended for a while.
You’re conflating new features with support. Even Fractal’s nearly-20-year-old legacy products are still supported.

Historically, when Fractal releases a next-gen product, they cram as much of the new stuff into the old model as will fit. It’s not about “backlash.” When Fractal releases a next-gen product, there’s always backlash from the I-don’t-have-the-best-anymore crowd.
 
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You’re conflating new features with support. Even Fractal’s nearly-20-year-old legacy products are still supported.
Can you elaborate on this? If i had an axe fx standard could i find spare parts or get official service if needed?
 
Historically, when Fractal releases a next-gen product, they cram as much of the new stuff into the old model as will fit.
Well that’s not how I remember last time at all. To my memory, the announcement was that it’s impossible to fit new modeling in, and it’s out of the question. Then after some whining it became possible to fit it in and it was fit in, so previous gen lived with updated algos for a while.

I don’t recall any open issues with the previous gen so that wasn’t much to be fixed.

Not sure what other “support” is relevant here.
 
I had the AX8, and they did give us Firmware 10 update. That was the new amp modeling based on the AXE-FX III code.

I hope they would release the "FM" version sooner than 3 years after the rack version. Going from the AX8 to AXE-FX III rack made it much more difficult for me to set up and I often just used my AX8 because of convince.
 
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I hope they would release the "FM" version sooner than 3 years after the rack version.
I bought the Axe-FX III sooner than I should have, so had it sitting at home for months and still gigging with the II because some important things weren’t implemented in the beginning (don’t remember all of them exactly now). But back then I was using a rack unit anyway, it made sense because all of the band equipment was in a rack and connecting stuff was just way easier this way.

This time around, I certainly don’t need a rack and a separate footswitch, so I want to believe I’ll be able to resist the temptation lol.
 
I’d be more inclined to use Dynacabs on next-gen if they had Ultra-res length inside the hardware.

(considering there is significant info >40ms as stated in wiki)

also

Cue this thread being a next-gen wish list
This is an all-new platform. Standard IRs (including Dyna-Cabs) will be 170 ms long (user adjustable if you want shorter). Ultra-Res has be deprecated as it's no longer needed.

I don't want to turn this into an announcement or a feature request thread but it's a significant leap from the current products. I'd love to share the specs but I don't think that's prudent.
 
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