Using an Ultra/Standard in 2022

C

Chris Hurley

Power User
Happy 2022- another year to enjoy the still-amazing first generation of Fractal technology.

I have been enjoying the 2290 delay patch the last few days, after having used the 2290 style delay in the FM3 a LOT lately. There is something magic about the phase reversed repeats.

I was also able to get very close to my favorite FM3 reverb "wide hall" so that the Ultra can stand in for my FM3. I run my tube preamp into the ultra and that into the FM3 then back out to stereo tube poweramps. The Ultra is an FM3 expander. Or is the FM3 an Ultra expander? It does let me enjoy the newer Fractal technology when that itch flares up.

Finally, I have rediscovered the (FAS) Brown model in the Ultra- they certainly got that model right. To my ears, it does a better BE than the BE model does. I've been using it as a preamp with my tube power amp with great success.

I find myself wanting an Axe-FX II again, or an Axe-FX III again, but have to frequently remind myself how much horsepower is already at my command.
 

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Ah, the Ultra... my original gigging Fractal Audio device. It was my introduction to all things FAS, which must have been an awfully good intro, as I am still here and still using the gear over a decade later! The Ultra (and Standard) is still a great unit, and I am always glad to see people using them creatively into 2022. After all, my old Super Reverb hasn't had a factory update in nearly 60 years, and it still sounds fantastic!
 
Still loving my Ultra. Using it every day for recording, rehearsing, and practicing. It's been the main guitar sound on all my productions for ages now. Several years into it, I still find myself getting lost in just creating patches, finding new sounds, and pushing the boundaries of what this unit can do.

The Brown is killer, the Hiwatt is unreal, and lately I've been getting into the Deluxe Reverb like crazy. Something about that model on the ultra just hits the sweet spot for me.

Thanks for the presets, I'll give those a rip when I've got some free time.
 
Checkyrtune said:
The Brown is killer, the Hiwatt is unreal, and lately I've been getting into the Deluxe Reverb like crazy. Something about that model on the ultra just hits the sweet spot for me.
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I need to do a deep dive into the Ultra models and find the stuff I've been missing all these years. Its easy enough for me to set aside the notion of "does it sound absolutely like a particular amp" and instead pursue "does this sound like I want it to sound."

And then, what can you make with the tools that are there. I like to take the top boost model and give it a plexi tonestack. There are probably hundreds of things like that in there.

The core magic of Fractal is in the gen-1 units: You can wire things up pretty much however you want without really tight limitations. The Ultra had and has that.
 
I bought a FM3 in 2020 and sold my Ultra for it.
If I had the money at this time I would have kept it too but needed the cash for the FM3 and so there was no choice.
 
JasonE said:
You guys have me rethinking my decision to sell my Ultra...
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In my defense, I had an Axe-FX III I could always fall back on. I recently traded that for an FM3 and cash and mostly have been fine. I miss the I/O and horsepower but at least the FM3 gives me access to some of the newer stuff Fractal is working on since the Ultra... eventually....

The two make a pretty good pair and they can split up and be in two different locations at the same time if needed.
 
Chris Hurley said:
In my defense, I had an Axe-FX III I could always fall back on. I recently traded that for an FM3 and cash and mostly have been fine. I miss the I/O and horsepower but at least the FM3 gives me access to some of the newer stuff Fractal is working on since the Ultra... eventually....

The two make a pretty good pair and they can split up and be in two different locations at the same time if needed.
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Still not helping.... lol I have an FM9 as well as the Ultra.
 
I've had an Ultra for about 6-7 years now, and have it dialed in to where it does everything I need it to do. I run some pretty complex rigs in that thing that the AX8 and FM3 can't handle. Tried an AFXII a few times, and never felt it really added all that much over my Ultra.
I just got an FM9, and while I can gush about that thing until you're tired of reading it and there are definite improvements, when I fire the Ultra up at practice right after playing the FM9, it still sounds ridiculously good, and still sounds better than 90% of everyone else out there.
 
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Chris Hurley said:
The core magic of Fractal is in the gen-1 units: You can wire things up pretty much however you want without really tight limitations. The Ultra had and has that.
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This has been my justification for putting off getting the III for so long. I know it’s got a million more of everything, and the scenes & channels would be awesome, but I can’t help but think that every sound I could ever want is already in the ultra. Just takes a little more digging, which is part of the journey that I love.
 
The Ultra also powers on very quickly, unlike the new devices which have to boot up. The bootup time was one of the things I didn't like about the Kemper.

The other day, I set out to do some headphone playing with the Ultra. Since there wasn't a thousand IRs, I quickly picked one that worked and started playing. It was pretty cool. When you have so many IRs to pick from, its easy to get into the situation of "this one is a little better or is it about the same as the last one?".

I was using my FM3 as a headphone amp. :)
 
I've been using mine for 5 years no complaints. Admittedly it wasn't as good sounding out of the box as yours was, for me at least. But I also didn't have powered monitors then and used a home stereo. So it took some serious tweaking because the stereo colored the sound so much. Scrapped that nonsense about a couple months in and bought some PreSonus monitors and have luckily been happy ever since. (I really am mostly just using stock cabs, mics, amps, effects like reverb and chorus and then a rat box for a minuscule amount of dirt.

I'm now learning I can record into my MPC One with it, and man is this thing paying for itself! I got mine used back in the day for $600 and I just looked on eBay...i see ultras listed at $1600-$1700 even with dozens of people watching to bid even higher than that.

Anyone got a clue as to why such an old piece of kit is being sold second hand at prices like that?
 
Cmurph240 said:
I've been using mine for 5 years no complaints. Admittedly it wasn't as good sounding out of the box as yours was, for me at least. But I also didn't have powered monitors then and used a home stereo. So it took some serious tweaking because the stereo colored the sound so much. Scrapped that nonsense about a couple months in and bought some PreSonus monitors and have luckily been happy ever since. (I really am mostly just using stock cabs, mics, amps, effects like reverb and chorus and then a rat box for a minuscule amount of dirt.

I'm now learning I can record into my MPC One with it, and man is this thing paying for itself! I got mine used back in the day for $600 and I just looked on eBay...i see ultras listed at $1600-$1700 even with dozens of people watching to bid even higher than that.

Anyone got a clue as to why such an old piece of kit is being sold second hand at prices like that?
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I am getting pretty close to selling mine. I guess I need to do some more research on what they are actually selling for. I didn't think it would be anywhere close to that.
 
Chris Hurley said:
I don't think any are selling for 1600- I see them sitting for sale for many months around 600USD. I think the ones listed at 1600 are hoping someone will make a mistake and think its an Axe-FX III or something.
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I always look at sold listings. I figured they were probably not selling for anywhere near that. I did a quick look a few months ago and saw prices closer to what you mentiond.

Cmurph240 said:
Figured there was something fishy. EBay can be so shade
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You have to look at the sold listings. People can list them for whatever they want. What really matters is what they actually sold for. You can find this information on Reverb as well. I usually look at both sites and see if they agree on the "going rate."
 
I think eBay also lies about "watchers". Why would someone watch a listing that's priced 3 times what they are worth? That's where I'm calling out the shade a bit with them
 
Cmurph240 said:
I think eBay also lies about "watchers". Why would someone watch a listing that's priced 3 times what they are worth? That's where I'm calling out the shade a bit with them
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There are a lot of reasons to watch a listing. I do it sometimes because I have the same unit and am wondering if it will actually sell at the price it is listed at. Many times the people watching the listing have no intention of buying the item.
 
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