🔥Introducing ICONS - Amp Modeling + FX - Plugins & Standalone

[vangrieg]

ou don’t need a DI box or to re-amp.

If you define reamping as something that involves physical connections to external hardware then yes.

To me it's all the same stuff, just staying in the digital domain, the use case and purpose is the same.

But whatever.

 

[Admin M@]

Bletchley Park

The syllable "BLETCH" shall never appear in any product unless I am also provided with a lifetime supply of anti-nausea medication.

 

[Admin M@]

If you define reamping

Semantics?

 

[Randalljax]

This is something I thought would never come, mostly because we were told it would not.

I do not want to be one of those that is critcal of the new goodie we get, expecting FAS to cater to my needs/wants and negating the time, effort and money they have invested in the development, not just the programming but the time dedicated to how the product should be offered.

Here are some things I think would be cool to see in the future but completely understand if its not something FAS sees value in.

A generic ICONS Plugin (maybe with some FAS models included) that also have the same FX that are in the current release. (or one amp of your choice but still including the FX) - Possibly Free or deeply discounted for existing owners of an FAS product?

You purchase ala carte amps to build the rig you want. All to be used in the same plugin.
For me that would be a 5150, Mark (IV or II but prefer IV), a High Gain Marshall (410 maybe?) and maybe a Recto, maybe a Vox style. This actually be overkill but would probably handle 85-90% of my projects. I work in a handful of generes but mostly hard rock.

Dynamic discounting.- Say an amp model is $99 but if you buy 2 the second maybe $85, buy 3 and the third is $75 etc.. so for the 5 above maybe I could get out with $300-$350

-OR-

Create your own bundle - choose 5 amps of your choice for something like $300 (intro price).


Of course its easy for me to suggest these things as its not my company, my product or my profit line.

At the end of the day I am thrilled to have FAS modleing in plugins, I have taken some heat over the years from others for expressing my opinion that FAS is missing out a share of the market for not having these.

The create your own bundle is a really cool thing maybe in the future once a few packs are out
I don’t know how challenging that would be to do but 5 or 6 amps for $299 I think would be fair

 

[ElonMask]

Waiting for the demo and the Apple Pay button

 

[Admin M@]

Waiting for the demo and the Apple Pay button

We're working on setting up trial versions.
There are no plans for Fractal Audio to begin to accept ApplePay.

 

[RiffDuck]

We're working on setting up trial versions.
There are no plans for Fractal Audio to begin to accept ApplePay.

I think the trial availability will really shift the discussions about these plugins toward a more productive tone pretty quickly. Plugins are a whole different thing than hardware units, with an entirely different market as well as different usage, on top of it being an entirely new direction for FAS altogether, so a lot of the hesitancy about this announcement people have vocalized here I think is expected (minus some real nitpicky ones), but will certainly change once people are able to test them out and answer many of their own questions or reservations.

 

[vangrieg]

Semantics?

You be the judge of that. A user asked whether plugins could be used for reamping, the response was that reamping with plugins wasn't needed, and the person was apparently quite confused.

I personally would be very confused by such an answer since for me it's the same thing whether you do it in a virtual world or in the physical one. But maybe that's just me.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Agree about trial mode being super important for adoption. People have never been able to try Fractal modeling before without actually buying a device, paying for that shipping, and potentially return shipping too.

If demoing costs nothing, is always in stock, ships immediately, worldwide, and you don't risk having to ship it back, the barrier to trying it out just got WAY lower.

Once people try it themselves, it's game over

 

[RiffDuck]

Agree about trial mode being super important for adoption. People have never been able to try Fractal modeling before without actually buying a device, paying for that shipping, and potentially return shipping too.

If demoing costs nothing, is always in stock, ships immediately, and you don't risk having to ship it back, the barrier to trying it out just got WAY lower.

Exactly. And it'll also take a little time for FAS plugins to make their way into the broader plugin word-of-mouth economy and become a common mention or recommendation for others. Think of how many threads out there are titled "beginner here, what's the best amp plugin for [genre] right now?" Hell, those threads are how I've learned about a lot of plugins myself. And we all know guitarfluencers are always in need of content, so we'll get plenty of demo videos spreading the word too. Be sure to hit like and subscribe and smash that notification button

 

[sixtystring]

You be the judge of that. A user asked whether plugins could be used for reamping, the response was that reamping with plugins wasn't needed, and the person was apparently quite confused.

I personally would be very confused by such an answer since for me it's the same thing whether you do it in a virtual world or in the physical one. But maybe that's just me.

While you can reamp with a plugin, unless you really need to conserve memory/cpu in a DAW project, there is no reason to do so.

From a workflow standpoint, it's much easier just to leave the plugin on the DI track. From there, you can tweak the plugin's settings in real-time and playback will always reflect those settings. This also means you can edit the DI track and everything will still just "work".

Reamping with the plugin means that you print the current DI track with the plugin's current settings "burned in" to a separate, re-amped track. That track is a point-in-time snapshot of the DI that went through the plugins settings during the "re-amp".

The DI track with plugin doesn't just disappear after printing to the re-amp track, so it's not really one-way-or-the-other. Just...one way is less of a hassle, at least for me.


Me personally, if/when Fractal releases all the amps + fx I use, I'm switching over to the DI+plugin method. Right now I have my studio Axe-FX and my live Axe-FX. I look forward to seeing how easily I can "one-to-one" my live rig patches as the Fractal plugins expand. Most of my questions are around how my current workflows will translate.

 

[Øutsider]

The syllable "BLETCH" shall never appear in any product unless I am also provided with a lifetime supply of anti-nausea medication.

What about if it's in the realm of BLETCH...maybe just BLETCH-ISH?

 

[javajunkie]

While you can reamp with a plugin, unless you really need to conserve memory/cpu in a DAW project, there is no reason to do so.

From a workflow standpoint, it's much easier just to leave the plugin on the DI track. From there, you can tweak the plugin's settings in real-time and playback will always reflect those settings. This also means you can edit the DI track and everything will still just "work".

Reamping with the plugin means that you print the current DI track with the plugin's current settings "burned in" to a separate, re-amped track. That track is a point-in-time snapshot of the DI that went through the plugins settings during the "re-amp".

The DI track with plugin doesn't just disappear after printing to the re-amp track, so it's not really one-way-or-the-other. Just...one way is less of a hassle, at least for me.


Me personally, if/when Fractal releases all the amps + fx I use, I'm switching over to the DI+plugin method. Right now I have my studio Axe-FX and my live Axe-FX. I look forward to seeing how easily I can "one-to-one" my live rig patches as the Fractal plugins expand. Most of my questions are around how my current workflows will translate.

Funny, I literally just provided the same reply in another thread before reading this

I missed the stereo input processing.That would be awesome!

 

[Johnkenn]

For a minute there, I thought I might be able to resist buying this. I was wrong.

I have more guitar plugins than songs written this year. Sigh. Guess the robots are going to kill us all anyway. Yolo.

 

[Johnkenn]

^^^And THAT is why I have never even bothered going direct into UA machines.

I'd use them happily (with Unison) if it was all I had. I just have a different method.

I need to try this again because I just never bothered to do it again, but I usually just go through my pedal board with a TKIP into line in 1-2 of my Apollo. Then use the gain from the Apollo pre if needed. But I also have a pair of Helios and a Capi DI…and I don’t really remember there being much or any appreciable difference. I mean - sure - if you cranked the input, they would break up differently, but we’re just looking for clean gain, right?

 

[vangrieg]

with a TKIP

Temporal Key Integrity Protocol?

 

[vangrieg]

I also have a pair of Helios and a Capi DI

DIs are often much worse than instrument inputs on those audio interfaces

Here’s Radial J48, for example:

Input impedance 220K (wut)
Maximum input level 10dBu (lol)
Dynamic range 109 dB (noise fest)

Distortion also isn’t stellar

And then you get more noise and distortion from the interface mic preamp.

 

[KFF]

I need to try this again because I just never bothered to do it again, but I usually just go through my pedal board with a TKIP into line in 1-2 of my Apollo. Then use the gain from the Apollo pre if needed. But I also have a pair of Helios and a Capi DI…and I don’t really remember there being much or any appreciable difference. I mean - sure - if you cranked the input, they would break up differently, but we’re just looking for clean gain, right?

I mostly look for clean gain... so I gravitate to highest headroom device I have (AXE-FX). I S/PDIF to an X8 from, there. I focus on the clean/dry/DI signal so I can do what I like from there.

Some synths I'll run through X8 pres with Unison to just commit (often mangle) on the way in. Other external Pre's/EQ's/Comps... I'll just go in through Line Ins 5-8 (on my X8's), bypassing everything... straight to AD convertors.

I've never captured a clean signal through any of my Fractals that I've later said... damn... that could've been better if I used... ... ...

I sometimes run Bass in through an RND DI... but could live happily without it. GAS is real.

 

[KFF]

DIs are often much worse than instrument inputs on those audio interfaces

Here’s Radial J48, for example:

Input impedance 220K (wut)
Maximum input level 10dBu (lol)
Dynamic range 109 dB (noise fest)

Distortion also isn’t stellar

And then you get more noise and distortion from the interface mic preamp.

I have a Radial four-unit DI (model escapes me). I'll use it for synths to go into X8's at Mic level to mangle the shite out of stuff going in.

Wouldn't dream of using it for guitar/bass, though. Not in the studio, anyway. Maybe live, I guess.

Fractal(s) == One less thing to think about.

(a LOT of trial and error, too. Like years worth.)

 

[Zang Angelfire]

Of course you can. Not everyone owns an Axe-Fx though.

I noticed when I take the USB out of my AXE FX III into my Apple MAC Studio M1 Ultra and trigger other brands of amp models plugins in my DAW there is a lot of Latency. I noticed that the new AM4 has the newer USB-C connection. If I bought a AM4 and used the USB-C to trigger plugins in my DAW would there be less latency than I get from my AXE FX III?