Greg Ferguson
Axe-Master
There is always going to be complexity when there are as many parameters as Fractal exposes to us. Their editing panes start at a higher level and increase in detail as you move through them as necessary. Some blocks are very simple and their editor reflects that. Others, like Amp and Delay blocks, can be complex because what they're modeling is complex, but still, the first, top-most, pane is the most simple and is always the starting point when modifying the sound of that particular block.
See my previous paragraph.
Reducing the interface too far just dumbs it down to the point people skip over it and go to the next layer. There's a balance between complexity and simplicity, and, while highly simplified GUI interfaces seem great at first, we outgrow them, and unless there are ways to quickly and conveniently get to the lower-level parameters we'll get tired of the handholding and being confined to the kiddie playground. Fractal doesn't target that "I need simple" audience, they're after people who are serious about their sound and demand the ability to get to what they're imagining.
Fractal has been doing this for a long time and has learned a lot about how to balance simplicity and complexity, though it might not seem so when we first jump in. Based on reading other people's paths that they followed getting to Fractal, very few started with a current generation Fractal modeler, so most people have had an introduction to modeling and the related realms in music that modeling touches. For the novice, uninitiated mortal, Fractal says this 'bout that:
The language, and the controls, are crossing into a lot of different disciplines, all in one box. So, yeah, it's gonna make your head spin, but how much is determined by your previous experiences, both with a modeler but also amps, pedals, guitars, and their mods and what those were based on, recording, acoustics and sound reinforcement, a bit of psycho-acoustics and how our brain works. Many things we can do with a knob or switch would take a soldering iron in the real world, which, if we did it wrong would let the smoke out of the chips, but on the Fractal we can safely experiment. It's a long list of things to know but it's a fun trip experimenting to get there.
PS - Reading the manuals, searching the forums and reading 'Da Wiki, are always the first steps to answering questions you'll inevitably ask. Don't be afraid to twist knobs and try things because you can't break the modeler by doing those things. It might sound bad, but we can revert or reload a preset and get back to the normal sound and try again. After trying and exploring, if you're still stuck write a well-asked question and let us get involved. We love helping.
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