Sophisticated thread about Globally turning off all Cabs in the FM3.

Can also just be ear wax, as someone mentioned. In high school I was sure I had blown out an ear drum. Had a professional cleaning by the doctor, and all I could perceive was treble for a couple of days. Hell of a way to listen to the cassette of Seasons in The Abyss, the pure treble version, on the way home!
 
Can also just be ear wax, as someone mentioned. In high school I was sure I had blown out an ear drum. Had a professional cleaning by the doctor, and all I could perceive was treble for a couple of days. Hell of a way to listen to the cassette of Seasons in The Abyss, the pure treble version, on the way home!
So like I said, in the past it has always been extremely harsh without the "cab" block. At the same time I would possibly say there is not a "tremendous difference" in the tone of everything, but, for whatever reason, this sounded very good. I listed the amps above that sounded good like this. More than "tone" perhaps it is the sudden lack of "boxiness" sound everyone talks about with monitors. I got an ISP box the next day, and using cabs, I was not as into the tone. But I prefer clean amps, not even "edge of breakup" but clean. I actually prefer no amp at all, but then what kind of guitar player would say that? Prince recorded his guitar DI allegedly...


So like I said, when I turned off the cab the other night. I suddenly could REALLY HEAR the difference in all the amps. It was a moment where the FM3 sounded the highest end I have ever heard at this point, yes I'm sure my monitors are "worn in."
 
I just turned off Globally all cab sims, while playing through a Yamaha HS.

HOLY F+++++++++++++!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


NOW I CAN HEAR THE FRACTAL


OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DID I PAY ONE MILLION DOLLARS FOR THIS????????


I MUST HAVE........................................................................................... OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this means you just love the amp tones with out cabs?
 
To each their own I guess, but on my HS8s any modelled gain sound without cab is extemely bad, not in a bad tone way, but like something is broken - no way I could even label it as a tone of any sort. Maybe this sound is more/less pronounced depending on how the amp is set. But cleans, ya, there are great cleans to be had without a cab block, or even an amp block.
 
What you’re saying completely makes sense for cleans. I recorded cleans DI on a VS-1680 back when people had social skills, and it was awesome! I totally thought you were saying this for any kind of gain. These days even my cleans have gain, just satiating high and low frequencies mainly, so I subconsciously thought you were me! Wait, you’re not me, right?
 
I've seen FAS forum (members) tell unsatisfied FAS customers that they're "doing it wrong".

Now we're seeing satisfied FAS customers being told they're "doing it wrong".

Maybe nothing is wrong/broken, maybe OP just likes really trebley/mid heavy tones - in his particular room, guitar, amp settings, and after his ears have adjusted to hearing whatever tone he had just been playing.... 🤷‍♂️
 
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Yes. If it sounds good to him, all is good.

BUT, I think we can all agree that, generally speaking, turning off Cab sim for high gain sounds (when using FRFR or studio monitors) does the opposite of creating a desirable sound. So, I can understand the comments of people suggesting that either OP's hearing or hardware might be compromised.
 
I'm confused
Whats confusing?

I listed the amp models, they are almost consecutive presets. I listed the monitors. I stated repeatedly that in the past the amp sims without cabs sounded like shit (as others are stating, shrill). Somehow, magically, clearly UN believably, the listed presets above, without the cab sim (which sounds... shocking, wait for it... wait for it... BOXY as hell to me, and apparently to all fans of real amps and non-modeler units), and through those "flat" ish said monitors--- SOUNDED GREAT TO ME. I know, this is extremely confusing. I like clean Fender tube amps and have four of them. I play Telecasters. I have a Fender Custom Shop guitar. I know nothing about tone. How about you, ? I can take time in the next two days to try this again and see if I hear or think the same.

To me, this was the biggest "now I can hear the different amp styles and it was incredible and hi fi and clear" moment since getting the FM3.

The following day after making this post I hooked up an ISP box to two fender closed back cabs with the cabs disabled in the fractal and... wait for it... thought it kind of sounded like shit. Like paper. Or cardboard.
 
I have a Fender Custom Shop guitar. I know nothing about tone. How about you, ? I can take time in the next two days to try this again and see if I hear or think the same.
I do not have a custom shop fender guitar, no... And to be clear: I don't think there's some moral obligation for you to use IRs in your set up.

(Unless you're playing some show with just monitor sound, distortion on, without any relevant tweaks to compensate for lack of proper IRs.. which would probably lead to substantial suffering on the part of the audience).

My confusion was out of thinking the sound may be getting colored in some way we do not understand. Because sure, it's pretty rare for people to like guitar tones without IRs through such monitoring.

But I didn't realize you were just using clean tones. Disabling IRs can sound good to a lot of people in that case, for sure. Or using a different IR better suited to what you want. I had a very "acoustic" sounding clean tone on the Kemper, source profiled without cab/mic.

Another source of confusion was wondering if fractal firmware has changed so radically to where direct amp sim tones (or some of them?) sounded bad before, without IR, the way you'd dial them.. if I'm understanding your posts right.. but now sound amazing without IRs.
 
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Whats confusing?

I listed the amp models, they are almost consecutive presets. I listed the monitors. I stated repeatedly that in the past the amp sims without cabs sounded like shit (as others are stating, shrill). Somehow, magically, clearly UN believably, the listed presets above, without the cab sim (which sounds... shocking, wait for it... wait for it... BOXY as hell to me, and apparently to all fans of real amps and non-modeler units), and through those "flat" ish said monitors--- SOUNDED GREAT TO ME. I know, this is extremely confusing. I like clean Fender tube amps and have four of them. I play Telecasters. I have a Fender Custom Shop guitar. I know nothing about tone. How about you, ? I can take time in the next two days to try this again and see if I hear or think the same.

To me, this was the biggest "now I can hear the different amp styles and it was incredible and hi fi and clear" moment since getting the FM3.

The following day after making this post I hooked up an ISP box to two fender closed back cabs with the cabs disabled in the fractal and... wait for it... thought it kind of sounded like shit. Like paper. Or cardboard.
To me it still does sound like "you are doing it wrong". That doesn't mean you can't enjoy what you did but it's going very much against the experience of most users.

With cab sims turned off, through studio monitors, clean sounds can work. Any overdrive or distortion should sound like a can of bees. Like really horrible. If this is not what's happening then my guess would be that the tweeters in your monitors are not working correctly and you get a big rolloff in highs. I used to run a FRFR setup like this with the adjustable tweeter turned fairly low so it's not harsh but brings in some brightness.

If the unit sounds shrill with cab sims ENABLED then that sounds like a problem. While most users use the low/high cut features to trim any fizziness in the top end or excess lows, even without those it should not sound piercing. If it sounds dull and boxy then it might again be an issue with your monitors.

Maybe try making an empty preset, add say just the Fender Deluxe Reverb model and add a cab block with a Fender Deluxe Reverb IR and see if this sounds better or the same as before.
 
To me it still does sound like "you are doing it wrong". That doesn't mean you can't enjoy what you did but it's going very much against the experience of most users.

With cab sims turned off, through studio monitors, clean sounds can work. Any overdrive or distortion should sound like a can of bees. Like really horrible. If this is not what's happening then my guess would be that the tweeters in your monitors are not working correctly and you get a big rolloff in highs. I used to run a FRFR setup like this with the adjustable tweeter turned fairly low so it's not harsh but brings in some brightness.

If the unit sounds shrill with cab sims ENABLED then that sounds like a problem. While most users use the low/high cut features to trim any fizziness in the top end or excess lows, even without those it should not sound piercing. If it sounds dull and boxy then it might again be an issue with your monitors.

Maybe try making an empty preset, add say just the Fender Deluxe Reverb model and add a cab block with a Fender Deluxe Reverb IR and see if this sounds better or the same as before.
Yep. Mystery solved pages ago.
 
I think another big factor is also just finding the right IR. There are no rules at all, and, for cleans especially, you can totally avoid an IR and still sound great. But to me almost any IR will cause a tone to be EQ’d in many spots, just before the cab, just after, maybe Pre Power Amp, depending on the tone, but the great thing is you still get the character of the IR. But mine is also a guitar that can totally sound shrill if you don’t watch it! The other thing I’ve done is use Smoothing in the Cab Block liberally to get the tones that work for me.

But tone is so so personal. If you were playing though any kind of rock or metal gain, I think you’d want an IR, but cleans are their own category, and many IRs are kind of based on the mids, so getting rid of them will open up everything and allow the Fender to sing more like an acoustic. You’d not want an IR on an acoustic either, so this totally makes sense to me now.
 
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for cleans especially, you can totally avoid an IR and still sound great
Our own Leon Todd made an awesome video of creating 80s clean preset with just compressor and effects. Using clean amp without IR as some kind of mega-compressor for crystal cleans should also work.

Edit: also, he made a video of using eq block to shape the sound similar to cab's response, which OP could probably apply to stay away of cab block while still having different sounds available with the same amp to get many great clean tones
 
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