I'm guessing that 90% of active forum members, which are also a huge makeup of the consumers, are not pro musicians with huge budgets, high end recording studios, and access to staff to setup, calibrate, tweak amp setups etc. I have a guitar friend who often tells me that the "real amp in the room" is only what he wants to play through. Fair enough.
We live in different states, so last month I suggested that we start creating some scratch tracks to share musical ideas, guitar licks, arrangements, sounds, etc. That exercise bloomed into me creating 3 fairly decent songs. which were derived from initial lyrical soloing over some simplistic but interesting harmony. I guessing it's what most of us do.
Each tune developed into 6 guitar parts (or so), with a variety of clean, edge of breakup, distorted, fine-tuned reverb/delays, etc. I play bass and keys as well, and use SD3 for drumming. The exercise is fun, for it really pushes you to write in interesting and intriguing ways, work hard on economy of sound, but having something valid to say, and continued to grow my mixing skills. A part of the exercise was to send him arrangements with guitar parts left open for him to contribute and send back as a collaboration.
The end result was that I created, performed, mixed, and evolved music, and his contribution with his amp rig has been nothing. The fractal enables me to dial up "test sounds" for each part, making sure that the frequencies mesh well together, the counterpoint is grooving, and the "band mix" is accurate and high quality. I'm pretty sure that when he tries to record his addition to the tracks, inspiration is low, and that he can't get his sound to fit with the mix.
IMO, this is why we own fractal products. It's an unlimited paint brush, that sounds fantastic, and when used correctly, produces super high-end results. It's easy to return to the project the next morning, and re-record the bass part, or punch -in a lead bend that wasn't up to the recording standard.
So when I hear that someone can't get a proper recorded tone on the fractal that is "as good as the amp", I wonder what they are really creating. It makes me think they aren't creating anything, for they seem focused on perhaps the least important part.
Music is a wonderful world, and as musicians we are learning every day all the time. New content, new expression, new sounds, new skills with multitrack recording is a vast world. Those with open eyes and ears, revel in enjoyment and personal success. For me, music is about utilizing my influences, my preferences in harmonic and rhythmic sound, and creating "my take" on expressing it. The best gear is the setup that enables you to do just that - celebrate music.
