How do you feel about people selling Fractal Patches?

[thiswaythatway]

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I see guys who may have a little bit of a following on YouTube or wherever. They get something like the Fractal AX8, then start releasing tid bits of clips on Facebook or Youtube to build up to some sort of release date for them to sell their patches. I thinks it's one thing to buy cab ir's that didn't come with the unit but to buy someone's patches? Isn't part of the fun to tweak and figure the thing out, and isn't there enough free stuff out there. Plenty of guys are nice enough to give free patches out just to see how they tweaked it anyway. And the guys selling patches, I haven't really heard anything groundbreaking from them anyway, at least compared to what anyone else can do after some tweaking.

I don't know, I'm not calling them assholes or anything, just not sure how I feel about it. And how does Fractal feel about it?

 

[danhops]

It amazes me that people buy this stuff with no intent to learn how to use it, so I don't blame the seller one bit.

 

[EXPcustom]

I bet Fractal doesn't care and if they did I am sure they would encourage it because it is a micro economy based on one of their products, it would only be good for them. Think iPhone and apps. You think Apple hates app makers? If Fractal is smart they would let people sell their patches and IRs through their website and take a percentage of the proceeds like Apple does with the app store.

If it really is a bad or stupid idea then no one would buy it and the sellers would go away, self correcting problem.

So I don't really see why there is anything to "feel" or get upset about.

Me personally I would pay to get the Deftones or Billy Howeredel's personal patches.

 

[wIsEbLooD]

problem is other peoples patches do not translate well to other users because of different guitars ect...

 

[mudf00t]

It's the same with Helix patches. I think if they supplied a custom impulse or something maybe then it would be worthwhile... but not just a preset.

 

[eternal_idol]

Well, I'll preface this comment with, I don't own one and am not to terribly familiar with inner workings of fractals unit.

Factal? likely loves the fact they are getting 3rd party support without having to pay for it. you still need a fractal unit to take advantage of those patches. so they win regardless.

as far as patches are concerned, I personally don't see the point. atleast for my understanding its just a glorified slightly modernized Pod Xt/X3 with new firmware and likely significantly better manufacturing. Its not a profile like the Kemper where you can emulate a signal chain versus an emulated node in a signal of other emulated nodes.

I would never buy someone's patches I'd make my own. However i'd contemplate buying unique kemper profiles, there seems to me atleast, to be more art in getting something unique captures than merely messing with blocks and numbers. Maybe its my preception

if someone is charging money for fractal patch, i would hope that you are paying for that persons work and paying for future support. this doesn't seem like the case to me tho.

 

[MrMentaL]

I can't say much.. I sell Kemper Profiles -> http://reampzone.com/...

 

[stratjacket]

I don't have a problem with it at all. If someone wants to find a way to make a little cash and there is a market for it, then go for it. No one has to buy them. I would not buy any because I like to do it myself, although I have downloaded some free off Fractal Exchange and played with them.

Same with IR's. I love the little IR market that's popped up. I love people's innovation in thinking of new ways to do things and carve out a niche market. Trying different speakers and mics and combining, it's great and pretty cheap. So where I have a pretty good grasp of creating patches on the Axe and would not pay, I will pay to get professionally mic'd cab IR's because I don't have all those mics, speakers and cabs to try myself. But I could see where someone would pay a little for a sound they like.

 

[Chris6870]

problem is other peoples patches do not translate well to other users because of different guitars ect...

This. Once I load them into my setup they sound just okay. I actually like the ones I've made on my own better, probably because I tweaked them with my speakers,guitar ect. So from that experience I would never buy patches again.
To answer your question,I have no problem with it, if there's a market for it, knock yourself out.

 

[JerEvil]

I've bought profiles when I had the Kemper. Most rarely sounded like the examples on the retailers site but may were still quite good.

I think it's odd selling presets though. Well maybe I think it's more odd BUYING preset. What I don't like is guys that get on forums that post clips of the stuff they sell but don't actually participate otherwise. That's a bit shady.

If there's a market though, someone will help fill it.

 

[thiswaythatway]

I bet Fractal doesn't care and if they did I am sure they would encourage it because it is a micro economy based on one of their products, it would only be good for them. Think iPhone and apps. You think Apple hates app makers? If Fractal is smart they would let people sell their patches and IRs through their website and take a percentage of the proceeds like Apple does with the app store.

If it really is a bad or stupid idea then no one would buy it and the sellers would go away, self correcting problem.

So I don't really see why there is anything to "feel" or get upset about.

Me personally I would pay to get the Deftones or Billy Howeredel's personal patches.

Yeah good point. HAHA

 

[ghosty999]

My main points

1. Amp research and development needs people buying amps to further innovation. Competing companies are a good thing for the consumer. If you build a box that takes that away through re-packaging tone as a non-tangible good then you essentially could destroy the amp industry.

2. People buying a Bogner amp profile means you get the Bogner product (their guitar tone) without paying Bogner one single penny. All the research and development to make that amp is cloned and sold on by a 3rd party.

3. Digital law has not caught up with this legal grey area, by selling a profile essentially you are profiteering from someone else's hard work. That in UK consumer law is stealing but the patent to the amp design is lost since you are profiling the sound of the amp and not the circuitry... and you can't copyright tone.

4. All keyboards have piano sounds with the attempt to make them sound as real as possible. No one pays the piano companies royalties, is it the same for amp modelling?

Possible solutions to the problem:

Kemper team up with major Amp brands and re-sale their own profiles (could turn consumers away from buying actual amps)

Kemper pay a a tax on using branded profiles (will result in "piracy")

Amp brand make and sell their own high end profiles (will result in "piracy" and private re-salers)

DRM is placed on Kemper profiles, basically once they are on your Kemper they can't be exported or sent on to anyone else (will prevent a social community and possible sales of the Kemper)

 

[RedB4Black]

I don't have a problem with people selling patches. I would never buy one because most of the ones I've down-loaded before weren't very good. I liked the stuff I made a lot better. The third party IRs I bought were great though - especially the Celestion IRs I bought from Celestion. Without those, I'd have sold the Axe off sooner. Still sold the Axe though because I prefer the amp/cab and I really don't do recording.

 

[AmpliFIRE]

Selling profiles and patches is lame as hell IMO

 

[Mattfig]

I can't say much.. I sell Kemper Profiles -> http://reampzone.com/...

I'm with you bro....

 

[godgrinder]

That in UK consumer law is stealing but the patent to the amp design is lost since you are profiling the sound of the amp and not the circuitry... and you can't copyright tone.

You can't really copyright a circuitry design either. (Otherwise lots of amps/pedals wouldn't exist haha.)

 

[Monkey Man]

I can't say much.. I sell Kemper Profiles -> http://reampzone.com/...

I think you can say plenty, Dan.

Profiles cannot be programmed from scratch, unlike the presets in question in the thread.

 

[nigelpkay]

I think Kemper profiles are different, as you are capturing a full signal chain not just an amp.
A full signal chain of often high end mic's, pre's, speakers, not to mention knowledge of how to capture a good recorded sound.
I've paid for that, but more often than not, when I had the Kemper, my favourite profile was my own

 

[ejecta]

I don't have a problem with it.... more power to them. That said I can't wrap my head around why anyone would buy them.

 

[Anonymous]

I say in either the case of the Kemper or the Fractal, I don't care about people selling patches or models. If they can sell 'em, more power to 'em. We all have the option to buy them or not. With the Fractal, I always had to tweak presets (sometimes a lot, or I just gave up and deleted the patch) to get what I wanted or what I heard in the maker's clips, so they would have almost zero value to me. A Kemper profile pack of an amp I don't have is worth a bit more to me, and to be honest, most of the commercial packs I've bought have been pretty damn good. At $5-$10 bucks a pack, nobody is making much off of these anyway. IMHO, people charging significantly more than that are high, but the cult around who created something can influence purchases of anything, so, as I said, more power to ya...

Steve