Will Fractal commercialize presets?

Guitarist

Guitarist

Member
Contract some talented third party sound technicians to develop killer sounds, maybe two versions of each preset for common guitars / pickups (e.g: one on a strat single-coil style guitar, one on a les paul humbucker style guitar). Preview each preset with a demo of the sound by itself and in a mix (the mix, of course, being the sound's intended use). Make packs similiar to cab packs, except focused on either a genre or a particular artist. Offer customer support at an additional cost that helps users tweak the presets for their gear setup and recording/live playing needs.

Just some ideas - any thoughts of this in the pipeline? I can't be the only one who would love this. If Cliff reads this, would you ever consider some exploratory market research on this? I can only qualitatively state I feel it would be a success, but I am sure quantitatively the money would back this suggestion up.

EDIT: The presets would come with the appropriate user cab if it's not a factory model, to be clear.

EDIT 02: A better title might have been "Should Fractal commercialize presets?" but it's too late now. Still a worthwhile question to ask.
 
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I've downloaded plenty of user presets that sound great when other folks use 'em but then sound like utter garbage when I try them.

Nope, no interest in paying for what I can make for free or at least with some third party IRs. ;)
 
The amp factory has cab preset packs like this, but I have not seen much action about it on the forum since shortly after they were released.
 
Matt_B_77 said:
I've downloaded plenty of user presets that sound great when other folks use 'em but then sound like utter garbage when I try them.

Nope, no interest in paying for what I can make for free or at least with some third party IRs. ;)
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That's the point of the customer service part I ended at end of first paragraph + the cause of having at least 2 versions of each preset to represent some different common gear setups that people can easily tweak (I can tweak my Suhr to sound like a Strat because it is so common).

I like to think I can do this stuff for free too - I have created some more than satisfactory sounds. However, I then hear other sounds and I'm reminded why professional sound technicians exist. I don't believe what you and I can achieve is remotely close to what someone who does this for a living could achieve.
 
kroubik said:
Considering I've probably read 100 threads about how people's presets don't translate for other people, on top of the fact that the firmware changes every two to,four weeks I don't see this happening.
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Then you have cases like Tyler Grund's Little Wing SRV patches that were made on Firmware 11 and sound just as good on Quantum 2.04. Coming back to Life patch was made on firmware 12 and still sounds incredible. You can make it work, but there has to be some level of professional understanding and support that is layered into these offerings to have it work consistently. Even without that support, there is definitely ways of getting this to work.
 
I think ultimately (sorta referencing the first and second post to an extent), it'll come down to what the playback system will be.

Example..
Assuming I had an Axe XL and a CLR (like Yek (I think?!)). And Yek makes a patch or preset whilst using his XL and his CLR. I buy Yek's patch and play it back through my XL and CLR.. Then in theory, it should sound the same, barr pick-ups, guitar, my playing vs Yek's playing etc - the minute stuff. Ultimately, that patch should be practically the same.

But, I don't actually have a CLR, I use something else. So Yek's awesome patch probably won't be as awesome through my rig. No point buying it if you've got a Matrix GT1000 with a OJ 4x12 cab... or trying to replicate that via my ASM or Alto wedge.. For that to be successful and accurate, I would think that the buyer's 'playback system' needs to be the same as what the patch was created on.. at least to give a good example of what the patch should sound like.

I'd be the first, or one of many, to buy some Metallica patches, especially to get their clean tone and even their Black Album and .. And Justice tones, but again, if I ain't gonna be playing that back at band prac or even home via my studio monitors, then they're gonna sound quite different I would think.

I'm not playing this idea down at all, I actually look forward to seeing some examples, but the skeptic in me questions how good/accurate it will sound if my playback system ain't the same as the what the patch/preset was created on/with.

My 2c worth guys..
 
Georgy said:
I think ultimately (sorta referencing the first and second post to an extent), it'll come down to what the playback system will be.

Example..
Assuming I had an Axe XL and a CLR (like Yek (I think?!)). And Yek makes a patch or preset whilst using his XL and his CLR. I buy Yek's patch and play it back through my XL and CLR.. Then in theory, it should sound the same, barr pick-ups, guitar, my playing vs Yek's playing etc - the minute stuff. Ultimately, that patch should be practically the same.

But, I don't actually have a CLR, I use something else. So Yek's awesome patch probably won't be as awesome through my rig. No point buying it if you've got a Matrix GT1000 with a OJ 4x12 cab... or trying to replicate that via my ASM or Alto wedge.. For that to be successful and accurate, I would think that the buyer's 'playback system' needs to be the same as what the patch was created on.. at least to give a good example of what the patch should sound like.

I'd be the first, or one of many, to buy some Metallica patches, especially to get their clean tone and even their Black Album and .. And Justice tones, but again, if I ain't gonna be playing that back at band prac or even home via my studio monitors, then they're gonna sound quite different I would think.

I'm not playing this idea down at all, I actually look forward to seeing some examples, but the skeptic in me questions how good/accurate it will sound if my playback system ain't the same as the what the patch/preset was created on/with.

My 2c worth guys..
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Your room is going to effect your sound the most. Not the gear. You could have identical setups and play in two different rooms and be worlds apart. I think the presets will help people dial in a specific tone they can't figure out, or for them to engineer and learn new forms of sounds.
 
Well, I moved this because it was an opinion thread. Seeing as Cliff chimed in...we'll see how long it lasts here.

Do I detect the distinct odor of the 'Resident Artist in house' with a project he's in charge of? Come on Mark Day, tell us a story.

R
 
SHEPPARD said:
Your room is going to effect your sound the most. Not the gear. You could have identical setups and play in two different rooms and be worlds apart. I think the presets will help people dial in a specific tone they can't figure out, or for them to engineer and learn new forms of sounds.
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Thanks Shep. Forgot that detail.

Whatever.
 
Read all of your posts... I agree there are a ton of hiccups in what could happen here. But I do feel there are solutions that would produce more than ideal results. The playback system is huge, I agree on this one - and there's no real easy solution for that although I think professional IR's are a good start.

As for the room affecting the sound, that's another big one although again, it can be adjusted for quite a bit with some good reverb. The point isn't that you'll have this perfect emulation of the sound that was achieved by the technicians, but instead you will have a foundation stronger than what you could have produced yourself.

One of the huge advantages of digitial is the ability to reproduce sounds because it is NOT as variable as analog is. Of course there are differences between setups, but they can be compensated for much better than anything else out there. I imagine many of us here have had successes with others' patches before just as we have had failures. I tend to think "successes" are not flukes, and they are reproducable with real support.

And no, I am not working on any related project, electron. I don't know if your post was poking fun at me or being appropriately cautious, as it's hard to tell tone from text, but I wish I did. I and many others are powerless to provide this sort of service. It's why I feel Fractal's support (especially with Cliff's level of QA) would be incredible.
 
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Maybe it was a good idea to include some bypassed eqs before and after the amp block, so people could turn one on or off depending on their guitars and listening preferences. If I had to build and sell presets I'd do that. Ok, people could set them up theirselves, but that is too tedious when you walk through a big list of presets.

Another thing is that I think a loudness block was a good idea. I know that there is no loudness stomp box in the real world of guitar stuff (Is there one?), so how could fractal copy one? Anyway, for a modeller that should work in bedrooms and in rehearse rooms with the same presets, a loudness block was a good idea. Maybe as a control in the output section, that's even better?
 
It's a great idea. Do you think Moog, Korg, Yamaha etc worry about what room you are playing back their presets in when you buy one of their synths? Mark is always posting great sounds with the Axe.
Only problem I see is that they will be 'broken' as soon as there is a FW update. By broken, I mean they will not sound exactly the same and if people have paid, I can't see them being happy about that.
 
I think its a great idea.

That is one area where I like the Kemper. You can purchase profiles from seasoned veterans that have great ears and dial in sounds for professional use. They don't have as wide a range of variability like the models in the Fractal though. But are really great as is.

To handle the FW upgrade issue, maybe FAS could have a subscription model?
 
I think it would be awesome. For me I like to use them as starting points to tweak for my own use. For instance Moke's Eruption preset. Sooooo good. I could've never come up with the delay block for that dive bomb effect. I had to tweak the amp block EQ for my guitar and setup but other than that it was good to go and works great.
 
Terrible idea. I would not pay a dime for someone else's presets because in my experience they rarely translate. And with the constant firmware epiphanies, presets would be dated before you even had a chance to fine tune them.
 
Webb said:
Terrible idea. I would not pay a dime for someone else's presets because in my experience they rarely translate. And with the constant firmware epiphanies, presets would be dated before you even had a chance to fine tune them.
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I don't use anyone else's presets either but I would not stop anyone else from having that option.....
 
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