Fractal Audio

[axeman]

I've seen a few of you have the Fractal Audio unit in your complement of gear.

I'd like to get some feedback from those that own or have tried these?

Thanks for the input....

- Keith

[pneil]

I've been running through an Axe-fx Ultra for about a year now.
Absolutely love it! I was a die hard tube amp guy for ages.
Started playing Boogies in the mid 80's and have 3-4 of them.

I tried modeling processors but was never happy with them.
The cleans would be OK but the higher gain stuff would suck.
The high gain would be OK but it wouldn't be touch sensitive
enough... You know, they were never "right".

I hurt my back about a year and a half ago and was looking
for something lighter. Tried the Fractal and it became my
main rig almost immediately. Our sound man is a guitarist
and vintage tube freak. He gave me a sideways look when
I showed up with it, but won him over in just a couple weeks.
It always sounds great, and he says it sits "in the mix" very
well.

So, great tones, great effects, very dynamic and tubey,
support is stellar, and it all fits in 2 rack spaces. There
is a learning curve to it and it requires some work to get
your patches/controller set up, but it's well worth it.
You can go as simple or as complicated as you like.

Let me know if you have any specific questions. Better yet,
go do a search on youtube. There are a ton of folks out
there posting Fractal clips.

pneil

[axeman]

Tell me more about how you use it at a gig... do you run it through main PA with just a monitor mix or do you use a power amp or powered speakers?

Thanks...

[pneil]

It depends. If I'm playing someplace with a good system and a
soundman I trust, I'll just run the Fractal into the house and get
my stage sound from the monitors.

When I want a powered speaker I've been running a QSC K10.
It's a self powered 1000W biamped monitor/pa speaker it has a
wedge cut on one side. It has 2 inputs and is very clean with
a very flat freq. response.

I've used it as an amp for jams and it roars. The fractal has 2
sets of outputs, each with a separate volume control. For gigs
where I want a powered speaker, I send one to the house so they
can get a good level. I send to other to the K10 so I have my
own monitor.

The thing also makes recording simple... plug it into the board
and you're good to go.

pneil