Side effect of disabling PowerAmp

[fmontrasio]

Hi

I'm owner of FM3 v beta11 I’ve had this amazing piece of gear for about two years now, and over time Fractal has made huge advancements.
With every update, the amp modeling — which was already very good to begin with — has become truly excellent.
I’m constantly amazed by what it can do in terms of tonal nuances. It’s such a powerful and professional tool that it really requires a solid understanding of audio to get the sound you’re actually aiming for.

Lately, though, I’ve noticed something interesting: I tend to prefer playing with the Power Amp disabled.
Both on headphones and through PA speakers, the sound without the Power Amp feels less artificial and more realistic to me.
From Forum and manual: with power amp disabled, "Speaker" page controls have no effect.
I’m using a CAB block after the AMP block, and I’m wondering whether the Speaker page in the Amp block might be working against the CAB block.
In fact, when I disable the Speaker page, the overall tone seems to improve.
This makes me think that either the Speaker page should be properly calibrated based on the CAB block settings, or that there may be some overlap between the two.

This is also where Fractal could possibly help by suggesting a few reference configurations, especially when using the DynaCABs.
Maybe it’s simply a case of double processing, and disabling one of the two is enough.

What are your experiences?
What do you think?

 

[2112]

The golden rule is to use whatever you think sounds the best. Having said that...

The speaker tab of the amp block models the non-linear properties of the amp/speaker cab interaction that a cab-IR doesn't capture. Properties like the speaker impedance curve, speaker drive and speaker compression can have a big impact on the tone and the feel of an amp model, not to mention that several amp models get their characteristic tone from power section breakup. Try any one of the Plexi models with the power amp disabled and the signature roar becomes a thin whimper.

Whether these properties are desirable comes down to the individual user, but they're there in the interest of amp modelling accuracy. You can enable automatic impedance curve selection based on the loaded dynacab as a further example of this.

TL;DR. No, you're not double processing anything. No, you're not doing anything wrong if you like the way your guitar sounds.

 

[yek]

Lately, though, I’ve noticed something interesting: I tend to prefer playing with the Power Amp disabled.
Both on headphones and through PA speakers, the sound without the Power Amp feels less artificial and more realistic to me.
From Forum and manual: with power amp disabled, "Speaker" page controls have no effect.
I’m using a CAB block after the AMP block, and I’m wondering whether the Speaker page in the Amp block might be working against the CAB block.
In fact, when I disable the Speaker page, the overall tone seems to improve.
This makes me think that either the Speaker page should be properly calibrated based on the CAB block settings, or that there may be some overlap between the two.

This is also where Fractal could possibly help by suggesting a few reference configurations, especially when using the DynaCABs.
Maybe it’s simply a case of double processing, and disabling one of the two is enough.

What are your experiences?
What do you think?

Like Leon writes, if you prefer the sound set that way, it's fine.
But a person's subjective listening preference is not necessarily a good starting point for broad assumptions.
Especially when the different modeling elements are all science-based (analysis, measurements, etc.).

 

[Rex]

@fmontrasio i’m guessing you play at low to moderate volume. If you play at or near gig volume, I think you’ll gain a new appreciation for what that power amp does.