Multiple issues with Cab-Lab.

[Greg Ferguson]

-For the FM3 only, it is impossible to use FM3-Edit and Cab Lab at the same time. But it works for the Axe FX III.

Unh uh, I just tried it and it affects both. With Axe-Edit III running, Cab-Lab 3 times out and can't connect.

Both applications can run, but Cab-Lab will not connect, which is true with both devices and their editors.

-At startup, Cab Lab will need 24 seconds to scan the FM3 for current IRs. There is no way to avoid that or speed it up. This is by design. Hopefully this could also be improved in future updates.

Mine takes 27+ seconds, so you're already faster.

The speed is tied to the number of slots, the speed that the hardware can iterate over the factory, user, and scratchpad slots, and the speed and type of the USB connection. Those are fixed in the device. Fractal might be able to only scan the User slots, which, if those are the only ones we can use with Cab-Lab, would be a sensible decision.

 

[Greg Ferguson]

I would be curious to know how other FM3 users are currently using Cab-Lab Standalone. Cause in this current form, it has almost no use to me.
If I can't use it simoutaneouslty with the FM3-Edit, to workflow is pretty much unpractical. It would have been nice to get that info somewhere before purchasing. It may have bought the plugin version instead...

Cab-Lab is a niche high-end product for people who have to use the IR mixer to blend multiple IRs and mangle and convert them. Most people don't need it because the factory cabs are good and the smaller version of it that's built into the editor is sufficient. It's quite possible that your decision doesn't work well for you based on your choice of workflows, and that adjusting your workflow will work as well.

I've only neeeeeeeded Cab-Lab once, and that was to make a custom blend of some 3rd-party cabs for @Burgs FX3-based 8 Shades of Brown preset to reduce the CPU usage on my FM3. And even then, once Burgs found some factory cabs that worked as well (or well enough that I didn't care) I didn't even need the blended version. YMMV, or, your ideas of the need for using external IRs might be... misaligned... with the reality of the quality and variety of Fractal's factory cabs; those of us who wandered for forty years in the He-double-toothpicks-ix desert thought IRs were the promised land so we initially gravitated to them when moving to FAS. As Fractal repeatedly tells us, use our ears, not our eyes, to find the sound, and they deliberately obfuscate the already confusing cab names from the vendors to try to get us to rely on our ears. So, perhaps the need isn't as great as you think right now?

I wouldn't count on Fractal changing the need for the exclusive lock. As an ex-developer, I'd have done the same thing because it's a lot simpler than trying to work around keeping two apps' knowledge of the device's configuration in sync, while keeping users happy because there's no delay as the apps continually ask the device if there's been a change and then reload the buffers when something changes.

 

[Piing]

Me too. Is it a Win/Mac difference, maybe? I have a Mac....

Windows 10

 

[DJD100]

Cab Lab 3.5 has a number of problems that need addressing, as it's much more important for the FM3 than the AF3/FM9 due to the FM3's single two slot Cab Block and limited DSP.

In my case I use one slot for an acoustic IR, so I need to mix guitar cab IR's for the other guitar cab slot, hence the Cab Lab (I cross-fade between the acoustic and electric sounds, so presets are out).

Cab Lab 3.5/FM3 4.01 Problems:

LIVE Mode fails when the FX Loop is in use, and many use external H/W with the FM3 due to it's DSP limitations, so hopefully that gets fixed.

Having Cab Lab connected along with the Editor would be great since it's being able to do that is in the manual, as well as perhaps having it only scan the User Cab Bank since that's all it can access which would speed up it's launch.

That said, it is a powerful tool with HPF, LPF, and Smoothing (which is not available in the FM3), and I'm glad to have it!