Is It Possible: More Drive Blocks?

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EricMC

Member
Would it be possible to allow more than 2 drive blocks in a given preset so long as you have the available DSP? Im not sure how it works, but it would be nice to have that flexibility.
 
The device needs to know how many of each block can be added, so you can assign MIDI controls or footswitch controls among other things. There has to be a known number of instances. These were determined by the developer.
 
chris said:
The device needs to know how many of each block can be added, so you can assign MIDI controls or footswitch controls among other things. There has to be a known number of instances. These were determined by the developer.
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I guess my question would be could the developer not change that? (not trying to stir the pot, genuinely curious)
 
schecterc1lh said:
Interesting. Do you know what is preventing that option on the backend?
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Nothing is preventing it, strictly speaking, except that dynamic allocation of resources like that can be more complicated to implement. You have to balance the extra work it would take to make that happen against the benefit users would accrue in having that flexibility.
 
schecterc1lh said:
I guess my question would be could the developer not change that? (not trying to stir the pot, genuinely curious)
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The developer probably could, but drive blocks use a lot of CPU and most people will be happy with having 2 drives because each drive block has 4 channels, so unless you want 3 drives on at the same time most users probably wouldn't need it. Edit: Theres also the drives built into the amp block so plenty of options.
 
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With Channels, you can currently have 2 drives out of 8 on at the same time. Are you trying to have 3 drives on at the same time?
 
GlennO said:
Nothing is preventing it, strictly speaking, except that dynamic allocation of resources like that can be more complicated to implement. You have to balance the extra work it would take to make that happen against the benefit users would accrue in having that flexibility.
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That makes sense, I assume not many people will need more than 2 so if there isnt much demand, totally makes sense.
blackmoreguitar said:
The developer probably could, but drive blocks use a lot of CPU and most people will be happy with having 2 drives because each drive block has 4 channels, so unless you want 3 drives on at the same time most users probably wouldn't need it. Edit: Theres also the drives built into the amp block so plenty of options.
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chris said:
With Channels, you can currently have 2 drives out of 8 on at the same time. Are you trying to have 3 drives on at the same time?
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I am really just playing around. I am copying Dans pedalboard from TPS and he has a ton of drives, sometimes more than 2 one at once (especially since to actually emulate a KOT, you have to use both drive blocks to do so).
 
More than 2 drive blocks at once is not a feature of the FM3. CPU usage would have to be reduced drastically to make it happen, and is certainly a possibility, but I would expect Fractal to already have everything as optimized as possible at any given time. So it’s a possibility, but not something easily done.
 
schecterc1lh said:
I am really just playing around. I am copying Dans pedalboard from TPS and he has a ton of drives, sometimes more than 2 one at once (especially since to actually emulate a KOT, you have to use both drive blocks to do so).
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I do wish we had a KOT or even just the high gain version of the POT.
 
Often certain kind of drive blocks can be emulated by using the filter or parametric eq’s to boost both gain and freq certain drive have.....that gives together with both drive blocks tons of options...... I often just use the filter block as a regular ‘Boost’......
 
unix-guy said:
Is that model not on the FM3? Tone of Kings?
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Kind of. The current KoT is two OD circuits in one enclosure, which we could emulate by stacking two drive blocks I guess. L6 actually models both sides of the KoT in one block on the Helix. What I'd really like to see modeled is the high gain option that you can order the KoT and PoT with. With the gain maxed on the Tone of Kings model you barely get any grit and it's nowhere near the amount of gain available on my PoT. There's probably a way to tweak the model to increase the gain, I haven't really poked around to see.
 
unix-guy said:
Is that model not on the FM3? Tone of Kings?
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Like Marshall said, it is modeled but to get a true representation of a KOT, you have to use both drive blocks. That is what triggered the question for me. I agree with him that if we could get a higher gain version or a KOT type drive with both circuits available, it would be awesome!
 
schecterc1lh said:
Like Marshall said, it is modeled but to get a true representation of a KOT, you have to use both drive blocks. That is what triggered the question for me. I agree with him that if we could get a higher gain version or a KOT type drive with both circuits available, it would be awesome!
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Well, you learn something new every day... While I vaguely familiar with the KoT, I have never used one and didn't realize they were a dual circuit.

I enjoy the one that's already there.

I bet if we asked nicely that Cliff might model the higher gain circuit...

Sounds like a Wish Listitem to me ;)
 
Carpercen said:
I wonder if it will be possible or if it would require a lot of cpu like precision Drive and the axe 3 firmware 13 algorithm
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My guess is it will take quite a bit of cpu, but I’m just assuming. I know in the helix stuff it takes a ton of cpu.
 
Anand Mahangoe said:
Often certain kind of drive blocks can be emulated by using the filter or parametric eq’s to boost both gain and freq certain drive have.....that gives together with both drive blocks tons of options...... I often just use the filter block as a regular ‘Boost’......
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For sure...I've said for years the the best Drive pedal is an EQ before the amp and used one with my tube rig.

Since many guys use a Drive for more for tone shaping and a clean level boost in a lot of cases an EQ works better in this regard as you have so much more flexibility and the EQ is generally less colored overall.

I have a test preset on my FM3 that has various Drives and EQ's setup for different Scenes so I can compare Drives vs EQ's easily. For most things I get more mileage out of the EQ's but since you have so much control over the various Drive parameters in the FM3 sometimes it's all moot.

I like to use the EQ's as Drives since I can save a ton of CPU that way.
 
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