10 YEARS OF FRACTAL AUDIO

Yeah I only read about Fractal Audio until the end of 2006. There were word of mouth happenings among the forums (hugeracks, gearslutz, thegearpage, gearpedia). A bunch of us were incredibly incredulous that there was a box that combined state of the art modeling + eventide quality effects at that time.

But I took the plunge after Cliff responded to a bunch of questions I had back at gearpedia.net in January 2007. I think that was the month that Piing setup a dedicated Axe-Fx forum (freely hosted by setbb.com/axe-fx - which seems to be gone - too bad quite a good history and good info there).

I got my Axe-Fx standard ordered around January 2007, received I believe March/April 2007 - Below is one of the first things I recorded with it (it came with firmware 2.x):


Shortly there after I started and hosted (out of my own pocket BTW) the first incarnation of the Axe-FX Wiki based on the wish request by acwild. Me, javajunkie and Starr (I think that was his handle) started populating it among with other contributors.

Also back then, my environment was kinda noisy and I caused the Axe-FX to crash with just input noise --- emailed Cliff about it and resolved it about a day - not much different from today I guess :)

There was no editor back then - LarsB was working on one written in JAVA - good ol' times: First editor - Fractal Audio Systems Wiki

By firmware 5.x, I think we had user IRs, but only up to 512 samples - JayMitchell came up with an idea to combine a delay and second cab block to extend that to 1024 samples - shortly thereafter I coded up a utility on a spare weekend to help in splicing a source file (so you could load one piece in each cab block) - I added support to convert directly to an IR sysx then - which turned out to be its more popular utility once the Cab block supported 1024 point IRs . Back then the official IR conversion utility was an executable compiled from MATLAB code - which was quite cumbersome to use.
 
This is great! Happy 10th anniversary! Reminds me of the early coverage of the Apple 1 computer in 1977 or so! Congratulations Cliff and FAS team!
 
craiguitar said:
The interesting part for me was, Line6, DigiTech and the other large companies will have seen this coming, and watched it appear and sail right by them, totally incapable of doing anything about it.
In large businesses / corporations, they often get to the stage where they are so busy resting on their laurels, and their management are literally terrified of taking a punt on something daring and new, the risk seems so much greater when your feet are under the table and there is potentially more to lose if it fails. Ultimately you're damned if you do, damned if you don't. Line6 didn't and well, they ended up getting sold off. Digitech lost the plot and went back to making pedals again.
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You make it sound as if the MI industry is like Game of Thrones or something. It's not. A bunch of us at Line 6 are fans of Fractal, and a couple of us own an AxeFX. Cliff makes a great box, and as long as his creations inspire people to play more guitar (instead of pressing space bars), we all win.

I'll freely admit a $2500 box with dual TigerSHARCs is certainly daring and new, but it's obviously not in Line 6's wheelhouse. Our business models are very different, and one isn't empirically better than the other.

Oh, and we weren't "sold off" to Yamaha, because no one owned us before. Yamaha loved our people, technology, and corporate culture, and they offered to make us a wholly owned subsidiary. We looked at the numbers, and an agreement was made. Thus far, very business as usual.

Happy Anniversary, Cliff! Here's to another 10. 8)
 
Digital Igloo said:
You make it sound as if the MI industry is like Game of Thrones or something. It's not. A bunch of us at Line 6 are fans of Fractal, and a couple of us own an AxeFX. Cliff makes a great box, and as long as his creations inspire people to play more guitar (instead of pressing space bars), we all win.

I'll freely admit a $2500 box with dual TigerSHARCs is certainly daring and new, but it's obviously not in Line 6's wheelhouse. Our business models are very different, and one isn't empirically better than the other.

Oh, and we weren't "sold off" to Yamaha, because no one owned us before. Yamaha loved our people, technology, and corporate culture, and they offered to make us a wholly owned subsidiary. We looked at the numbers, and an agreement was made. Thus far, very business as usual.

Happy Anniversary, Cliff! Here's to another 10. 8)
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I decided to learn how to play guitar beyond the same three chords I had learned several times over the decades. :) I had just moved to a condo and all I had was a 65 deluxe reverb with no headphone out. I didn't want to torture my neighbors with my learning curve so off to Guitar Center I went to pick up a Pod. They had none in stock which turned out to be a good day for me.

So I went online and searched out guitar modelers and came across the Peterson thread. Hmmmm this black box sounded interesting. I called FAS to get some info and was taking to this guy that seemed very knowledgable about the field as well as the product. I asked his name and he says "Cliff". Go figure. The Ultra had just come out and I ordered it on the spot and have never looked back.

Being new to the whole electric guitar scene I was a tad overwhelmed at all this gear I now had in front of me. The Ultra, a Fireface 800, studio monitors, and cables galore. It took me a few days but I got it all up and running with the help of guys like Scott, Sean, and AlbertA. Lars came out with his editor and that changed the game for me a lot. It's almost comical to me when I see people posting about what a pain it is to update firmwares or have issues with their USB connection etc. Those of us who have gone through the progression know what I am talking about.

We all know what a sensational tool the Axe is for the guitar player be they a hobbyist or seasoned pro. I have always said this and still believe it today. The Axe is a remarkable teaching tool for all aspects of the signal chain. I have learned so much over the seven years. I know many complain about the constant upgrades and having to redo things but for me it has been an invaluable environment to learn from. I would have spent a small fortune buying all the gear that is incorporated in the Axe. What the heck is a flanger? Ohhhh I have one to try. Compressor? Do I need one? Oh I have one! ...and on and on.

It's been a fun ride and I have made dozens of good friends along the way. Thanks FAS! May your next ten years be a relevant and fruitful as the last!
 
Wow - 10 years - what a ride!

Congrats to Cliff and the team, I believe a celebration is in order :)
 
wow. time flies. i had just become interested in modelers, read a bunch of nasty stuff about line 6 and was considering a boss rack unit when i somehow found an early version of this forum. soon i was reading it every day, and threw my name on the wait list around march 2007. i got my email, placed my order and took delivery of my standard in june 2007! almost exactly 4 years later i got my AxeFX II.
 
iaresee said:
It was Scott's "This thing is a monster" thread on TGP that hipped me to Fractal and...well...changed my guitar-playing life. Good times indeed.
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I first read about the Axe in the Line 6 forums, then read the Cliff interview where he said that you can't have too many cats ; but a year later, it was that "This thing is a monster" thread that was the deciding factor for me too, even in the Axe seemed out of i reach - I had to sell a tube combo, a DigiTech GSP1101 and a Variax 300 to get a used Standard from a guy in France. Best decision ever.
 
fremen said:
I first read about the Axe in the Line 6 forums, then read the Cliff interview where he said that you can't have too many cats ; but a year later, it was that "This thing is a monster" thread that was the deciding factor for me too, even in the Axe seemed out of i reach - I had to sell a tube combo, a DigiTech GSP1101 and a Variax 300 to get a used Standard from a guy in France. Best decision ever.
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I felt it was really out of reach and I wasn't that far away, geographically, in Canada -- I can only imagine what it'd be like to get one shipped to Mauritius!
 
iaresee said:
I felt it was really out of reach and I wasn't that far away, geographically, in Canada -- I can only imagine what it'd be like to get one shipped to Mauritius!
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I was on the wait list for an Ultra of the first batch made. got on it right the minute it was announced (which was more of a post somewhere on a forum, that a bigger unit would maybe come out and Standards also had a waitlist anyway). took almost a year until the first units showed up and finally I received mine. seemed like a lifetime, but same as Scott, playing the "Eruption" preset made it very clear from the beginning that this was gonna be it.

congrats to ten years of revolutionizing the guitar world !
 
iaresee said:
I felt it was really out of reach and I wasn't that far away, geographically, in Canada -- I can only imagine what it'd be like to get one shipped to Mauritius!
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That was for the II ; I asked a friend in the USA to buy me one and I send him the money. For the used Standard, I had to take a 10 000 km flight to France - fortunately I get my air tickets at 10 % the price. I did the same for the CLRs, I took a plane to Paris and back
 
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Turd Ferguson said:
who possesses "no. 1" ? It should be in the Smithsonian.
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Certainly not No.1 but I'm pretty confident that my Ultra was the first to hit Australian soil... At that time, Fractal wasn't shipping to Australia so i had a friend receive it in the US and post it on to me here in Oz. I remember doing a gig at Adelaide Convention centre soon after and at sound check the sound guy was like "oh, where's your amp?" to which i pointed to my black box followed by him scoffing, shaking his head and mumbling something under his breath. Towards the end of the last set i see the guy side of stage waving at me frantically, so i sidled over to see what was wrong to which he said "I just wanted to tell you how great your guitar sounds through that thing!" I just smiled and said, "yeah, it's pretty cool right".
 
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