Dave Friedman and Steven Fryette discussing modeling

electronpirate said:
-'Will it or won't it' syndrome. How will my rig sound tonight? Will the sound guy mike it with a Guitar Center bargain bin mic and it sounds like a radio with asthma. With venue variations, my tone is the same everytime I plug in.
Click to expand...
This!
 
As for the sound not having "weight" comment if it was 10 years ago I would agree. But not today.
And I love to plug into a tube amp! (Although I don't own any anymore)I love it all really! Modelers/tubes guitar cabs/FRFR.
Actually I still own one tube amp, a Fender Champ 600, one volume no EQ's. I leave it on 10 and control everything from the guitar. It's a $150 practice amp, I like it to practice with, all my flaws come out with this amp, keeps me honest.

John
 
Last edited:
I don't know the modeling seems to work well for Metallica now days. Their latest album plus live clips I have seen have them still on top of their game.
 
Funny, when I was at NAMM (I think 3 years back), I went to the Friedman booth and one of the sales guy was showing us an Amp Modelling software that Friedman was developing. I don't know if it every launched, don't really care....mainly because Friedman was a douche (that's another story). But the other sales guy we were talking to said - oh man, the Friedman amp modeling is amazing and it will be the new big thing...and I quote: "it blows away the Fractal stuff".
I said - ok, well is it done yet? ...answer: no not yet.
...um...so how do you know it blows away ANYTHING?

When people start talking stupid, I just mentally check out. On to the next booth....
 
BBN said:
Funny, when I was at NAMM (I think 3 years back), I went to the Friedman booth and one of the sales guy was showing us an Amp Modelling software that Friedman was developing. I don't know if it every launched, don't really care....mainly because Friedman was a douche (that's another story). But the other sales guy we were talking to said - oh man, the Friedman amp modeling is amazing and it will be the new big thing...and I quote: "it blows away the Fractal stuff".
I said - ok, well is it done yet? ...answer: no not yet.
...um...so how do you know it blows away ANYTHING?

When people start talking stupid, I just mentally check out. On to the next booth....
Click to expand...

Friedman isn't a computer guy, how could his modeling be anything great? He'd have to rely on employees and have huge cash reserves to pay them during the development stage.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I can get my pants a-flappin' pretty darn well with a Matrix and a cab. Just because you use a modeler doesn't mean you can't get loud ;-)
 
luke said:
Friedman isn't a computer guy, how could his modeling be anything great? He'd have to rely on employees and have huge cash reserves to pay them during the development stage.
Click to expand...

Friedman developed it with Brainworx and Universal Audio.....There's the BE100 & Dirty Shirley plugins for the UAD-2 platform.
 
Sales talk. He is doing what he's supposed to do.

A single amp plugin is not going to blow my skirt up. It might be great...don't know.
 
The Friedman UAD plugin is pretty good and the interface is easy enough to navigate. Does it blow the Fractal stuff away? As we say in Australia "Yeah, nah mate!"
 
I have the UAD Apollo (which is great in and of itself), and I bought the Friedman plugins mainly to see how they compared. They sound great when used correctly, but they don't compare to the AxeFx, especially for feel and responsiveness. It's nice having them as a plugin which is a little more easy to use after the fact than re-amping, but for quality I would always go with the AxeFx.
 
Interesting; I've been Axe-only since the Ultra (upgraded to an AxeFX II), but recently got both a MetroPlex and a JJ-100. A big part of this decision was inspired by my go-to Axe amp models (Plexi and BE), since I'd been pretty much a Mesa-only guy before Fractal allowed me to explore hundreds of alternatives. I wanted the occasional experience of plugging into a very good tube amp, and these with my Mark IV give me just about every tonal palette I'd want for "real amp" tones (though I can possibly see a Fender-inspired boutique combo down the road).

I have no intention of leaving Fractal, however. I also got an AX8, to use for both footcontrollable effects *and* to run the amp sims (either FRFR or power amp & cab). I *also* picked up a Fryette Power Station to run the AX8 through if I want some variety from my CLR or the amps (or to use for silent-recording the tube amps).

I do heavily use the UAD platform for recording. While they make some great plug-ins of studio gear, their amp emulations are not nearly the quality of Fractal's in terms of tone or feel, IMO.

As far as Dave Friedman, I've got nothing bad to say about him… his customer service is stellar, and he makes a great amp (and is passionate about what he likes to do). It's got to be tough to be constantly asked your opinion on things directly competing with your product line.
 
I like digital and tube amps.... both are great depending on the situation. I will say for me I agree with them that playing a tube amp and digital modeler aren't the exact same playing experience even if they are both run into a guitar cab. Which is better or not is up to each player.
 
Pretty much since I've been playing electric guitar I've been using modelers, from the old Line 6 units through to the Axe FX II today. I've had real amps, but primarily I've used modelers, so I'm very used to the workflow.

But form factor is important. It's a different experience, sitting in front of the axe's front panel or axe-edit, looking at the grid, tweaking settings with a mouse and going through menus, and adding eq's and effects. Totally different than sitting in front of an amp, tweaking physical knobs and having limited options to work with.

It's a different mindset, one that I welcome from time-to-time, when the options paralysis gets to be too much on the axe fx. Sometimes not having the ability to go into advanced options or just drop in a PEQ can help you think differently and find other solutions to tone problems.

It's easy to laugh at, but smell is a big emotional trigger. What do you feel when you smell your girlfriend or wife? There are certain feelings and memories triggered by the smell of a hot tube amp. Memories of jamming with your friends, or playing gigs, etc. If that's how you played for years, I can totally get how something would feel like it's missing when they play a modeler.

Everyone will call us out-of-touch old men when the kids are playing their digital VR hologram guitars, and we're still playing physical guitars made of wood.

Furthermore, both Dave and Steve clearly aren't anti-modeling as they have amps in the axe fx and allowed the use their trademarked names, as well as helped Cliff model them, from what I undetstand.

You've also got a couple guys whose entire business is building and modding tube amps, have done it all their lives, and don't look like they're about to switch to computer programming. I would expect them to be pro-tube amp in the same way that I would expect a book printer to prefer books over a Kindle.


Overall I enjoyed that video. The Fryette D60 is my new favourite model in the axe fx, so much so that I've been considering buying a powerstation to power the axe, or just getting a GP/DI, so it was interesting to hear the history behind it all.
 
2112 said:
The Friedman UAD plugin is pretty good and the interface is easy enough to navigate. Does it blow the Fractal stuff away? As we say in Australia "Yeah, nah mate!"
Click to expand...
+ 1
I've used them off and on and, yeah, pretty good, but they're not at the next level with Fractal
 
Realizing this is an older post but I've been looking at the UAD Apollo a bit. Loving my AX8 for both amp/cab models and or just the effects when 4CM with EVH 50w III, and recording through scarlett 6i6 audio interface into Pro Tools 2018, I feel like I may be yearning for the Apollo for a "nice to have" but probably wouldn't have a significant impact on recording process or results. I mean...is the Apollo hardware doing something more or better than the 6i6? Are the UAD plugins any better than my models/effects inside the AX8 + any Pro Tools plugin effects (like EQ, reverb/delays) I might layer on top of direct recording.
 
gwilliams08 said:
Realizing this is an older post but I've been looking at the UAD Apollo a bit. Loving my AX8 for both amp/cab models and or just the effects when 4CM with EVH 50w III, and recording through scarlett 6i6 audio interface into Pro Tools 2018, I feel like I may be yearning for the Apollo for a "nice to have" but probably wouldn't have a significant impact on recording process or results. I mean...is the Apollo hardware doing something more or better than the 6i6? Are the UAD plugins any better than my models/effects inside the AX8 + any Pro Tools plugin effects (like EQ, reverb/delays) I might layer on top of direct recording.
Click to expand...

I went from a Scarlett to an Apollo twin and both the sonic and workflow improvements were very noticeable on my end. The UAD channel strip and compressor plugins are to studio gear what the Axe is to amp modelling IMO.
 
First off - thank you for responding so quickly and love your tutorials Leon. It's what my transition to Fractal so quick! And I would assume nothing less than Duo but preferable Quad for processing? Thanks again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom