I think we will see a major product release very shortly from fractal!

[TheAnalogKid]

Fractal approved FRFR would be nice.

 

[ruso]

If I’ve learned anything, it’s that FAS doesn’t “react” to every new product that hits the shelves. They march to the beat of their own drum. And I’m ok with that.

 

[Rex]

If I’ve learned anything, it’s that FAS doesn’t “react” to every new product that hits the shelves.

Not only that, but it’s actually impossible to react to a new product. It takes years to develop and release a technical product. You can’t just say, “Fender just released a new product. Let’s release one of our own.”

 

[Rex Rox]

I think aliens will land on the White House lawn soon and blow magic fairy dust up all our asses so we will be able to fart technicolor rainbows.

Sorry, but why even post this pedantic BS?

 

[cybermgk]

I watched Leon's demo vid on the Fender modler and wasn't very impressed with what I heard. Every driven sim sounded somewhat the same, maybe with later firmware updates that might get better. The cleans sounded pretty good IDK it seems like there are enough modlers in the marketplace already.

I've watched jut about every demo of the Fender product. About the only thing it has over the FM9, is arguably the on device interface. I was impressed with that. But, it is just lacking everywhere else. One demo showed the only way to have one output to a non FRFR power amp and CAB, and one to FOH, is to set up the preset with dual paths, one output with CAB sims turned off.

Another vid, he started taxing the DSP with a fairly simple preset, a couple of preamp fx, verb and delay after, but 2 amps.

And though they technically have 27 selectable Amp 'models', that really isn't the cae in practice. 2 are Mic Preamps, on is an Acoustic Amp. 3 of them are 3 Silver Jubilee channels, 2 are 2 different channels of an AC30. It's really just Fender Blackfaces, plus a Blues Jr and Bssman, 3 different similar Marshall amps, a Friedman and 2 High gain amps.

The Fender models sound pretty good. The Others are really so-so.

There really aren't many FX options.

Granted that can grow. But as is, it's the same price as the FM9, and just not even close in what's under the hood,

 

[dongzo]

Unnamed sources tells me that Cliff is close to release a kazoo to strat emulator.

 

[Zedhed]

They match to the beat of their own drum.

Judging by your picture...you have a thing about matches.

 

[Andy Eagle]

Axe 3 already does a ton more than anything else on the market and with better connectivity but the updates have gone quiet (by FAS standards) so I agree. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Axe 4. I would expect it will only really see a new interface probably with touch screen on essentially a otherwise similar product with more memory and DSP available.( Once again I think the interface is easy to navigate and as simple and intuitive as it could be to do all the things it does already ). I personally hope not but there is a product cycle here and you can predict this fairly easily.
Original product; Mark 2 (the same with a tiny upgrade), XL Turbo mega (same thing with added memory CPU) firmware goes quiet and then out comes the next one.
I hope this is not the case because axe3 is easily king of all digital solutions by a large margin and if it did come out soon it would be detrimental to the FM9 as it would be part of the older generation and therefore seen by many as old tech even though it's the best floor unit by a mile.
The trouble for FAS is a great flagship product stops you spending money when you have bought and FAS is a business. What I really want to see is a dedicated FR FR system with software support and a "control" that can ensure constancy across presets from one user to the next.

 

[firepile]

AXE FX Native?

 

[Piing]

 

[State of Epicicity]

I say we skip the IV and go straight to XI

Maybe we could have a global setting that allows all gain and level knobs to display 0 to 11.

 

[DLC86]

AXE FX Native?

That would be the greatest news of all time

 

[666was999]

I want a flux capazitor. Playing with negative latency must be shocking.

 

[ElectricPhase]

I think aliens will land on the White House lawn soon and blow magic fairy dust up all our asses so we will be able to fart technicolor rainbows.

That was last year. Try to keep up.

 

[sprint]

I want a flux capazitor. Playing with negative latency must be shocking.

1.21 jiggawatts!

 

[axes]

AXE FX Native?

I would love to see that although I consider it highly unlikely.

 

[Thomas Obester]

That would be the greatest news of all time

would love this too, but I remember Cliff saying NO.

 

[Piing]

 

[axes]

would love this too, but I remember Cliff saying NO.

Which also kinda makes sense. Since Fractal has the most advanced modeling methods and algorhythms in the business it doesn't make sense to separate it from the proprietary hardware - there might be limitations to that, too but I'm not an engineer to be able to determine that.

 

[Sixstring]

Axe 3 already does a ton more than anything else on the market and with better connectivity but the updates have gone quiet (by FAS standards) so I agree. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Axe 4. I would expect it will only really see a new interface probably with touch screen on essentially a otherwise similar product with more memory and DSP available.( Once again I think the interface is easy to navigate and as simple and intuitive as it could be to do all the things it does already ). I personally hope not but there is a product cycle here and you can predict this fairly easily.
Original product; Mark 2 (the same with a tiny upgrade), XL Turbo mega (same thing with added memory CPU) firmware goes quiet and then out comes the next one.
I hope this is not the case because axe3 is easily king of all digital solutions by a large margin and if it did come out soon it would be detrimental to the FM9 as it would be part of the older generation and therefore seen by many as old tech even though it's the best floor unit by a mile.
The trouble for FAS is a great flagship product stops you spending money when you have bought and FAS is a business. What I really want to see is a dedicated FR FR system with software support and a "control" that can ensure constancy across presets from one user to the next.

Agreed with about everything you have posted!

I think Cliff had mentioned years ago that he didn't really want to get into the FR market as it is pretty saturated which it arguably is. From a business sense it does offer another stream of income and as you mention constancy when it comes to reproducing the intended sound. We are past the 5 year mark with current version of Axe FX and the rest of the platform with respect to sharing parts.

The one thing that most will agree on that needs to be updated is the interface! A lot of people seem to want that color touch screen and encoder knobs in the foot switches etc. To me it seems like more to go wrong with hardware wise and it would look as if FAS was adding things that other offerings have already done. Whether or not that's a bad thing from a company standpoint would be up to FAS to decide.