Aliasing in the ICONS plugin? No oversampling? (Spoiler: it's a bug)

DLC86

DLC86

Fractal Fanatic
Vendor
Today a guy on TGP posted a thread about aliasing in this new plugin and, at first, knowing who that guy is (the one that constantly creates multiple fake accounts on forums and social media), I didn't trust his results, especially knowing the excellent aliasing performances on Fractal hardwares...
So I installed the demo to test it myself and... it seems he's right this time around! It looks like the plugin has no oversampling at all, and I'm VERY surprised by this.
Is it supposed to be this way or is it something that needs to be fixed? Or maybe the algorithms would be just too heavy to be run with oversampling on a PC?

Screenshot 2026-02-25 110227.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi @DLC86, can you tell me:
  • Which spectrogram program you are using?
  • What test signal you used to generate the spectrogram?
  • What settings/environment you ran the plugin at (Windows/Mac, sample rate, block size, DAW)?
  • What preset you were using when you took the screenshot of the spectrogram?

I can assure you that the plugin is oversampling at the same rate as the Axe-Fx. I'm taking a look to see why the spectrogram would generate results like this.
 
samschachter said:
Hi @DLC86, can you tell me:
  • Which spectrogram program you are using?
  • What test signal you used to generate the spectrogram?
  • What settings/environment you ran the plugin at (Windows/Mac, sample rate, block size, DAW)?
  • What preset you were using when you took the screenshot of the spectrogram?

I can assure you that the plugin is oversampling at the same rate as the Axe-Fx. I'm taking a look to see why the spectrogram would generate results like this.
Click to expand...
Hi, sure.
  • I used the spectralayers ARA plugin inside cubase to generate the spectrogram.
  • The plugin was fed with a linear sine sweep ranging from 1 to 23999 Hz at -12 dBFS.
  • I'm on Windows 11, 48 kHz, 2048 samples, Cubase 15 Pro.
  • The preset of the screenshot was "Dweezil's Bassguy Chunky LT" but with only the amp block engaged.
Anyway, even though I didn't take a screenshot, I also tried changing amp model and got the same result.
Also, I want to point out that I've used the same exact setup and procedure countless other times to test aliasing performances of plugins and hardwares.
Thanks for looking into it!
 
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DLC86 said:
Hi, sure.
  • I used the spectralayers ARA plugin inside cubase to generate the spectrogram.
  • The plugin was fed with a linear sine sweep ranging from 1 to 23999 Hz at -12 dBFS.
  • I'm on Windows 11, 48 kHz, 2048 samples, Cubase 15 Pro.
  • The preset of the screenshot was "Dweezil's Bassguy Chunky LT" but with only the amp block engaged.
Anyway, even though I didn't take a screenshot, I also tried changing amp model and got the same result.
Also, I want to point out that I've used the same exact setup and procedure countless other times to test aliasing performances of plugins and hardwares.
Thanks for looking into it!
Click to expand...

Seeing the same thing on that preset (disabled everything but the amp) - I think it's related to the input boost?

Screenshot 2026-02-25 at 12.33.22 PM.png

With input boost off:
Screenshot 2026-02-25 at 12.51.16 PM.png
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Anyway, just had the chance to play with the plugin a bit and... I don't know if it's the fact that the plugin runs the newest algorithm but it sounds definitely better than my fm9! All amps, with identical settings and same IR, seem to have more character (don't know how to describe it better... a more complex distortion texture maybe?) and a "thump" in the low end that the fm9 simply lacks atm, going back and forth between the two makes it pretty evident.
 
DLC86 said:
Anyway, just had the chance to play with the plugin a bit and... I don't know if it's the fact that the plugin runs the newest algorithm but it sounds definitely better than my fm9! All amps, with identical settings and same IR, seem to have more character (don't know how to describe it better... a more complex distortion texture maybe?) and a "thump" in the low end that the fm9 simply lacks atm, going back and forth between the two makes it pretty evident.
Click to expand...
The plugin is at Axe Fx III modeling level, the FM9 is not yet ;)
 
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