All one would have to do is a small amount of EQ in the FM and you would not be able to tell the difference. I ran down this road 15 years ago and I'm still running FAS gear to this day! Don't get me wrong Tube amps are cool but today have become more impractical with respect to gigging.
With proper headphones its very easy to tell the difference. I'm using the Bose QC45 and the difference is very apparent. Now if you had just iphone speakers or computer speakers (not monitors), you probably wouldn't tell the difference.
You could change 1000 parameters in the FM3 as you could change the sound on the Marshall...This is a demo of nice sounds at a point in time... Once in a mix, in a blind test and mucking around with thousands of variables, I'm not convinced I would be able to tell which was an amp and which was a modeler Certainly, the biggest variable that can fool people is volume level...If something is a couple of db louder, it will often sound more impressive.
When you’re playing alone in your room and you don’t feel the tubes under your fingers (assuming you’ve ever appreciated a $2000+ amp before) you can definitely tell the difference.
In a mix, 95% of the time you probably can't tell a difference, I would agree. That said, the 'difference' that guitarists often prefer about tube amps is not 'how it sounds in a mix,' guitarists who love or try to play tube amps as often as they can do so because of how it 'sounds and feels while playing'. I'm not knocking modelers or profilers at all, they're absolutely phenomenal and for a lot of people are the best option for their situations, I think the point I'm trying to make is its not always 'the guitar in a mix' that is important, the 'sound/feel' while playing 'can' play a big part in a guitarists performance.
To me the Marshall sounds better, especially in the high end. The fractal sounds nasally with more high mids an no high end. I have found the same tendency when comparing my helix to my real amps and the reason was that the master volume in the helix was set much higher which makes the sound rounder and more mid focused. With the helix model master down I can get close to my real amps. Maybe it's similar with the fractal?
Could be similar, I had the master cranked on the Fractal cuz I had the Master on the Marshall cranked pretty damn high as well, and used the Captor as an attenuator
Agreed on your conclusions! Modeler's seem to have trouble replicating the lower frequencies of tube amps. They also have problems trying to replicate the 'liveliness and feel' of a tube amp. Not knocking modelers/profilers at all, they're amazing, but its important to call out the differences because 98% of RU-vidrs will make you believe that there is almost no difference. Great video!
Use your multi effects unit (any) THROUGH any tube amp to shape and color your sound. You then have the best of both worlds. WHY ARE PEOPLE NOT DOING THIS??
I'm guessing you mean running the unit through a tube power amp? A lot of people do that, but it means that you don't use the power amp modelling in your unit and are instead stuck with the characteristic of your power amp. I prefer to run through a neutral, solid state power amp solely for amplification power and leave the power amp modelling to the Fractal.
Did that with my Kemper when I used to have one. Sounded massive through my 4x12. Had an ISP stealth power amp as well, but obviously the tube power amp souned better.
Even if you “EQ” the feeling back in it’s not exactly what the amp is doing. The amp is an organic machine that reacts to what you put in. The models are code that tries to mimic that.
Huge bands are starting to use fractals. Metallica and Def Lepard have switched to using fractal. So If they’re good enough for them to play stadiums with, they must be pretty good. Consistent sound and reliability. The back up rig will sound exactly like the main rig. No back breaking amps and cabinets to set up and take down night after night. Metallica isn’t setting up their own gear, so they don’t give a shit about having to move those heavy amps around every night. They have roadies for that. So if they didn’t think digital rigs didn’t sound as good as traditional tube amps they’d have no reason to switch.
Huge bands are mostly using Axe FX for it's effects. Delay, reverb, chorus, and so forth, because it's amazing for this type of thing. Other amazing guitarists like John Petrucci has showcased digital stuff before where they have captures his tone, but he still use real Mesa Boogie tube amps live, but he has been using Axe Fx for a long time for it's effects. I have even seen Joe Satriani in a recent youtube interview where he has his Axe Fx on top of the amp in the background, when asked about this he says it's basically a really expensive reverb and delay. So even though you might see an Axe Fx in their rig it doesn't mean that this is their amp. But I have read the Ultimate Guitar interview regarding this switch by Metallica. What I see when a question is asked regarding what is better then the question gets dodged. I see many comments who say they don't notice the difference and I also see people noticing the difference. It is a never ending debate, but it might not matter to those who don't notice it, but it matters to those who notice it. I am pretty sure they still use tube amps for studio recordings. I'll stick to watching what guitarists like John Petrucci, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai does, just to name a few, who are constantly chasing and perfecting tone.
i prefer the sound of the amp but fractal was still great especially for how simple it is to use and all the other bells and whistles coming with it. for live def fractal
I think that if you add more low freq you ll get closer, the difference is massive in this aspect !! Maybe a graphic Eq or something (Sorry for my english)
Yeah sure but it’s such a slight difference the FM3s advantage of having that sound and many others PLUS a ton of effects makes it better imo plus more cost effective for sure
The real amp sounds a million times better but you could take out all that honky mids in the fractal and probably dial it in to barely tell the difference
Think you need to tweak your FM3 a little more. If you listen with your ears and not your eyes it’s very close but you could have gotten closer. Nice job though. BTW I own a JCM2204, JCM2000, JVM210 and an Fractal FM9. It’s close.
