Welcome back KevinCan you elaborate a bit on your transition to software/plugins?
Right now I am attempting to move to software/plugins. I am currently working with an incredibly talented graphic designer and programmer who are also wonderful human beings, and the first offering is already heavily underway. All things considered, I expected this initial product to be finished by this point in time, but with as many hats as I am wearing, I keep having to get pulled off the project for other things in order to keep the machine as a whole moving along. All necessary for the long term end goal, but, delaying the jumping-off point nonetheless.
Keeping things relevant to what will benefit Fractal Audio users, as this is their forum and I don't wish to use it to promote anything that isn't of value to their customers and keeping them a central theme, as I'm sure everyone expects, we're going to start off with cab sims. Fractal folk can use these to enhance their available tonal options in a recording environment by disabling the cab block and sending such signal into their DAW, where I feel the added convenience of being able to just turn some very sexy looking knobs that control thousands of IR's on the back end will be extremely freeing and enjoyable. This also allows me numerous creative freedoms...
First and foremost is increased functionality and value for money. As everyone knows, I like to pile on options, and I do this for what I feel are honorable reasons. I am not the kind of person that will ever take advantage of someone, my personal ethics are that I work hard and I earn everything I get in an honorable way, and I feel that in order to have a sales item that justifies a price point that is economically viable, I need to be providing significant amounts of content that can satisfy a large and diverse group of potential customers. This can lead to a lot of folders, a lot of files, and a lot of time being dumped into exploring for someone who doesn't have a good audition process set up, or doesn't really know what they are doing/looking for. The ability to have a ton of options available that anyone of any skill or experience level can access in seconds by turning a few knobs, pressing a few buttons, etc, is HUGELY exciting to me, and I am chomping at the bit thinking of the endless possibilities that can arise from it. This increase in workflow efficiency is just monstrously appealing to me from both the point of a creative designer and an end user.
Next is the ability to separate myself as a brand. Flat out, I have always hated having to do the whole "misspelled someone else's trademark" product bit. Always. It's just not me or what I want to do, but it's very hard to get away from with this type of business model. With the Workhorse and to a lesser extent the Moabi, I'm trying to get people used to accepting that things that come from me that aren't using another M.I. company's products and namesake as a sales device can be of extreme value to them; to warm up to the concept of a product that is primarily presented as just "OwnHammer". I will be continuing this more and more with the software. A mechanical engineer friend of mine who is a lifelong woodworker is helping me build proprietary cabinets that I'll be taking everything I've learned having hundreds from other builders over the last 3/4 century to use in a lot of the plugins. Will there be cab plugin options that do the whole "misspelled someone else's trademark" thing? Yes, but minimally, especially at first. I want the rebirth of the brand to be celebrated for me and my team's hard work and accomplishments, not someone else's.
Cab sims are the beginning. They are familiar territory, we already have the logic/technology built for all the required pieces that are going into them, and they will help provide an offering baseline to where I can start pulling the flat file library set products from the active catalog (wave audio impulse response libraries will be discontinued beyond a small handful at some point in the future). While there are many more hopeful plans with the software, this is where it deviates from benefiting Fractal Audio directly and where I feel it appropriate to not use their forum to discuss it. It's also going to not be in any immediate term that we get there, as there are just SO many things I want to do with creative and useful cab sim plugins that I have been dying to do for years.
That's all I feel I can comment on at this point in time, but hopefully it helps a little with the mystery behind it all. It's not ever my intention to be annoyingly vague and to use anxiety to generate attention, but until we are out of the gate with the first offering, it's important to keep some things under wraps. Needless to say, I can't wait to get these rolling, and I really feel it will be of great use in complement with the fantastic Fractal Audio Systems amp modeling and effects!
