Rob Chapman: "Gear has reached a level where it's good enough." Whaddya think?

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CoreyW said:
I went to digital load boxes around 2017, I absolutely loved the convenience of being able to play my amps in their sweet spots any time of day or night without disturbing the wife or kids.

I tried the Helix family, while it was ok sounding I struggled with getting it to a point to even consider replacing my amps and pedals.

A few months ago I bought an Axe FX3, and was absolutely blown away with just the stock patches. I haven't even bothered to power up any of my amps since I got the Axe.

I do not have the luxury to play my amps though normal cabs with volume like I did when I was younger and single. I am able to power on my Axe and get great tone without disturbing the peace of my house, and my digital rigs are more consistent when moving from place to place. I don't see myself getting rid of my amps because on that rare occasion I can blast them and its great, and I don't want to lose that. Its also pretty cool seeing someone play through a cranked plexi for the first time.

I will say this though after going from analog to hybrid to digital... while it took a little while to get use to not feeling the sound pressure from the cabinets, I have gotten to the point where I really don't understand the amp in the room argument. As soon as you try and transition the sounds coming from the guitar speakers to any other speakers.. the amp in the room is lost. If you're micing up in another room... amp in the room tone is irrelevant, using an iso booth, again its irrelevant. As soon as you put a mic in front of that cabinet and send that signal to another listening source, then the amp in the room doesn't matter, you can record dry and play through a loud speaker in different rooms to get the room reverb.

But back to the point of the video since I did watch it.. gear surpassed the "good enough" point years ago... he is saying that now it should be a matter of what you can do with said gear that should be important, what are you creating with that gear.

One final point on how much closer can digital get... there is always room for improvement in analog and digital, how many boutique versions of a Vox AC30 are there? The amp has been improved upon but just because a Matchless exists doesn't make the surfaced mounted pcb versions not sound like a Vox AC30, one can sound better without removing the ability for the other to sound good.

I don't think analog will ever be fully replaced by digital, there is no scarcity to digital, there isn't much of a collectors market for digital. There isn't a code equivalent of the NKT275 transistor, in that aspect of it becoming unavailable. Besides, digital needs something to be able to model.
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What speakers are you using with the fractal?
 
Philosophy prof said:
How does the ISP Theta pro compare to the fractal? I have tube amps and the fractal axe fx. I struggle to get a good gain tone from the fractal that doesn’t sound so digital and thin compared to my real amps. The cleans are great but every gain preset I hear and play sounds so fake. Might be on my end, but I’m not sure
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I would give ToneX and NAM a try. I have used Fractal for years for chugga tones, but always fought over tweaking it. Over the last year ToneX has blown me away to the point where I am playing into the computer more than my tubes. Making your own IR helps a lot also.
 
Shask said:
I would give ToneX and NAM a try. I have used Fractal for years for chugga tones, but always fought over tweaking it. Over the last year ToneX has blown me away to the point where I am playing into the computer more than my tubes. Making your own IR helps a lot also.
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Thanks! A friend of mine swears by ToneX. I’ll likely get one soon. At the moment I’m selling off gear I don’t use much anywhere. It’s crazy how quick and easy it is to accumulate nonsense
 
Philosophy prof said:
Thanks! A friend of mine swears by ToneX. I’ll likely get one soon. At the moment I’m selling off gear I don’t use much anywhere. It’s crazy how quick and easy it is to accumulate nonsense
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I have multiple rooms of gear, lol.

I have bought several sounds for ToneX, but my #1 sound is where I loaded my 5153 with a loadbox reamped through a poweramp into a cab and I took a capture of it. Now I basically have a copy of that sound and feel I can run into my real cabs, or through an IR through my computer.

I love Fractal also, but I always struggle with getting the feel correct. It is like it is always too smooth, or cocked- wah. Ir is hard to just get a punchy quick attack. It is part of thier sound. Even using it for effects in the loop of a tube amp still has that impact to the feel.

However, to use the Fractal, I would recommend making your own IR to use, and cut 500hz. Use the output compressor in feedback mode.
 
Philosophy prof said:
How does the ISP Theta pro compare to the fractal? I have tube amps and the fractal axe fx. I struggle to get a good gain tone from the fractal that doesn’t sound so digital and thin compared to my real amps. The cleans are great but every gain preset I hear and play sounds so fake. Might be on my end, but I’m not sure
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I think the ISP Theta is easier to dial in than Fractal and Helix; it's not a modeler.

it's a solid state preamp with effects; the cab simulation is limited, I use the 4x12 cab and it sounds very good; sounds even better going into my Engl power amp and cabs; I have a solid state ISP Stealth power amp, and use it to go into a Mesa 2x12, which also sounds good.

While there are many possible sounds, I call it my- "'80s hair/thrash in a box" and it works great for that.


In addition to no IR support, there isn't a software editor, or software firmware upgrade path; it's back to '80s/'90s tedious editing on a small screen, with the pre-3-band semi-parametric EQ and post-5-band semi-parametric EQ, it can get very precise tone shaping...but tedious. Reminds me of my ADA MP-2.

This is a good example:

 
Philosophy prof said:
How does the ISP Theta pro compare to the fractal? I have tube amps and the fractal axe fx. I struggle to get a good gain tone from the fractal that doesn’t sound so digital and thin compared to my real amps. The cleans are great but every gain preset I hear and play sounds so fake. Might be on my end, but I’m not sure
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What would you say of this:



Ignore the singing. I used Chris Brightwell's Quad Cortex with a Mark IV capture. He plays the Lead stuff in the Metallica tribute: Damage Inc.

I get similar results with my FM9T. I never find it thin or lacking...
 
I dont have any issues with my fractal sounding thin. Does it sound different than an amp cab sitting next to me? Yeah... but if I took that same cab and mic'ed it, the mic sound would sound different than the amp sitting next to me.

I wanted to love the helix, I really did but I struggled with it, the more I tweaked the worse it sounded for me. I know the fractal is "harder" to edit, but I dont have to edit that much. If I want to build a patch after I select the amp and cab, its already most of the way there in its default settings, add whatever effects I want to add, that takes care of probably 80-90% of the sound I am after, the rest is small eq tweaks, or try a different cab or IR. You could most definitely get lost in the amount of stuff you can edit, but I havnt found a need yet to get that deep with it.
 
Fusionbear said:
What would you say of this:



Ignore the singing. I used Chris Brightwell's Quad Cortex with a Mark IV capture. He plays the Lead stuff in the Metallica tribute: Damage Inc.

I get similar results with my FM9T. I never find it thin or lacking...
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Is that just QC to the board? Sounds pretty good.
 
CoreyW said:
I dont have any issues with my fractal sounding thin. Does it sound different than an amp cab sitting next to me? Yeah... but if I took that same cab and mic'ed it, the mic sound would sound different than the amp sitting next to me.

I wanted to love the helix, I really did but I struggled with it, the more I tweaked the worse it sounded for me. I know the fractal is "harder" to edit, but I dont have to edit that much. If I want to build a patch after I select the amp and cab, its already most of the way there in its default settings, add whatever effects I want to add, that takes care of probably 80-90% of the sound I am after, the rest is small eq tweaks, or try a different cab or IR. You could most definitely get lost in the amount of stuff you can edit, but I havnt found a need yet to get that deep with it.
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I've been considering trading my FM9 for a Helix rack setup, mainly for the effects, cause its so much cheaper, but the interface and routing seems so limited compared to the Fractal. Instead I might just bite the bullet and go whole hog on an FX3.
 
GreatRedDragon said:
I've been considering trading my FM9 for a Helix rack setup, mainly for the effects, cause its so much cheaper, but the interface and routing seems so limited compared to the Fractal. Instead I might just bite the bullet and go whole hog on an FX3.
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I love my Fractal FM9T. I think Fractal is the most versatile and has the best feel and sound of what is currently available. I'm sold....
 
Fusionbear said:
I love my Fractal FM9T. I think Fractal is the most versatile and has the best feel and sound of what is currently available. I'm sold....
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I love it too. I do bump up against the CPU limit quite a bit though. Right now I’m starting to integrate more analog gear back into my rig, and transitioning into a rack rig in general. Hence, I figured a Helix rack would be an economical alternative running IRs and post-FX but I just don’t think it has the horsepower.
 
Fusionbear said:
What would you say of this:



Ignore the singing. I used Chris Brightwell's Quad Cortex with a Mark IV capture. He plays the Lead stuff in the Metallica tribute: Damage Inc.

I get similar results with my FM9T. I never find it thin or lacking...
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That sounds awesome. I’d kill for that tone with my fractal
 
GreatRedDragon said:
I love it too. I do bump up against the CPU limit quite a bit though. Right now I’m starting to integrate more analog gear back into my rig, and transitioning into a rack rig in general. Hence, I figured a Helix rack would be an economical alternative running IRs and post-FX but I just don’t think it has the horsepower.
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The VP4 could work well now that it can load IRs. If you are OK with a pedal.
 
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