Why I ditched Fractal for good.
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I switched from Fractal to Kemper and my life has been 1000x easier since!
But I’m not here to just shill Kemper… I’m here to show you HOW I MADE the decision. ????
NOTE: Tone tests were done on my Music Man Majesty Monarchy. I had already previously done the same tone dialing process for my JP7.
1:32 – Challenges with Fractal
3:28 – My goals + Kemper Rack
4:55 – Reason #1 – Footswitch density
5:28 – Reason #2 – Latency
7:40 – Reason #3 – Less tweaking
9:34 – Reason #4 – Easier leveling
10:40 – Reason #5 – More processing power
11:00 – Kemper Love!
13:43 – Kemper challenges…
17:08 – Kemper Player
19:30 – My rig
21:40 – Tone tests
22:40 – Final result
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Sources for Latency:
https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Presets#:~:text=Note:%20The%20number%20of%20blocks,of%20blocks%20can%20affect%20latency.&text=%5B2%5D%20The%20latency%20is%20fixed,oversample%20and%20oversampling%20adds%20latency.
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/problem-adding-few-effects-even-in-disabled-state-affects-latency.156425/#post-1862812
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/fm3-internal-passthrough-latency-measurements-surprising-results.165025/
Kemper Latency test by Leo Gibson
Attribution for lightbulb graphic:
Idea icons created by Good Ware – Flaticon
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#ditched #Fractal #good
Originally posted by UCiZ7_2imrQj36Eq4ea_ZmZQ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uTtlm4Y-RA
I get $10 every time someone comments XYZ is better before watching the whole video. ????
NOTE: This video was not paid for or sponsored in any way whatsoever. I bought all of the equipment with my own money and these are my own opinions.
Fractal fanboys are gonna rip you apart 😀
For a lot less money you could get ToneX and VP4 though, to have superior captures and the best effects – on a smaller board. (You may need to add a Mimiq for the doubling but it's still not much money or space). If you ever had stage divers you would not want that huge exp. Kemper board out front.
I love modellers like the fractal and especially kemper but they are just too expensive for me. 🙁
I have an FM3. I absolutely love it. the best tone I’ve ever had I think what it boils down to is. Everyone is different and has different needs. I thought about using the Kemper player for church, but as I looked into it, they charge you for upgrades or levels of upgrades
I use my Mesa Mark IV and one pedal (delay), I am glad did not fall for the modellers hype. I just want one tone well done, Mesa gives me that.
„Why I ditched Fractal for good“. Maybe you're paid for this statement. Right?????
Whatever works best for you, cool…but I can't imagine making such a move.
Great video! btw I did same for me Kemper sounds great. I owned all fas products and never worked for me.
On the Kemper Player you have five switches, 1/2/3 and dual 1/2 and 2/3.
Plus if you add a two switcher pedal for $20.00 you'll have seven switches.
And that's the stock Player with no paid upgrades.
I never liked the sounds from Kemper and I can’t support them in any way after their scummy business decisions.
I get your pain I spend more time trying to dial in tones on digital stuff when I went right back to my tube amps then I can capture montonexe or whatever when I want but I definitely get where you're coming from
eh, buddy, fractal has the Axe Exhcnage built right into the interface of axe-fx-edit. It also has "AUdition"
Make your own board, noob
Kemper modern high gain tones are terrible comparatively. Having a Headrush turd in your jam room isn't helping your argument.
Odd, you start off, denigrating lookg at who uses a particular device. Then you give a 'pro kemper' story touting how a 'pro musician' liked the Kemper better. Just going to point out there are incorrect statements in this video, One doesn't need an expression pedal to do the equivalent of a morph. Axe exchange can be accessed from Axe Edit, just like mentioned for Kemper.
I ran both for quite awhile, back in Axe FX 2 days. I kept to the Fractal for several actual reasons. 1. The Kemper's limited routing capability just wasn't sufficient. 2. It was only as good as the profiles and profiler that made them. SO, SO many that are just awful, including those I made. 3. Needing multiple Profiles to get the true range of eq interaction, gain structure and response of an amp. 4, No abilty in Kemper to more or less create my own FX pedal, or even amp. With the fractal having toe ability to change down to essentially the circuit level I could.5. Kemper software was just useless.
It's sad we have to defend our rigs. We are all different. The people that bark the loudest are the ones that don't have a clue. Great video. Love my Kemper because it works for me!
You don't need an external expression pedal to fade in and out effects on a Fractal device. There are internal modifiers that can be mapped to effect parameters and you can control the ramp rates and whatnot. It is a more advanced bit of programming, but totally doable if you take a few minutes to read the manual or watch a YouTube tutorial.
As a singer/guitarist, the Kemper Stage was a gigging godsend the week it was released. I set five different sounds per band/gig/venue from crystal clean, Matchless clean, maybe an 80's chorus or funk sound, Marshall rhythm, and Soldano solo… then I use the morph as "More" so each sound will have a combination of solo boost, wetter delays or whatever is needed to step forward when using that tone (without having to look down and tapdance). What also made a huge difference was loading up Michael Britt profiles that were gig ready with some favorite Matchless or Soldano tones even before the Rig Exchange was a thing. I've also changed the order of the delay/reverb/always on effects loop in the effects block so I can easily patch my external looper for solo gigs and each looped track is after the cab sim. ☮????????
At the end of the day you should use what works for you and what inspires you to play.
I am a fan of scribble strips, once you use them, they are just so convenient
Congratulations, you found the "reasons" to stay with Kemper. I suggest doing a blind AB test to see if you can really notice the difference in latency.
To me, there is only one prio: The amp sound. Kemper, to this date, for me, is #1. Then, why does PLINI not play one? One of the greatest instrumental song writers and player? Well, because for the longest time he never played a tube amp (got that from an Intevals interview). What happens, if you are young, and don't have the budget, today you use plugins, as it is the most affordable entry point. Therefore THAT sound you hear of a "Marshall" model becomes your REFERENCE. So, the whole perception on what a good amp tone is changed for the generations to come. Mind you, I am not criticizing. I remember what an immense effort it was to buy my first Marshall Artist 30W / cab back in 1987. After decades playing tube amps and transistor amps, in rehearsal, loud and very loud, recording more or less successfully, of course my reference is the real amp, not the modelled / emulated one. I cannot undo this. And I do not need to, ha ha. One advantage in being an old fart is you can just buy what you want (and the wife allows). Cheers from Germany!
XYZ floor is better!
Congrats on finding the gear that works best for you. I did the opposite. I had a Kemper Stage and then got a Fractal Axe FX III. I sold my Kemper the next day. I purchased the kemper for the profiling. It did that job horribly, which can be summed up in one word…inconsistent. I have a Tonex and it does the profiling thing …perfectly…. every time. The key to using a Fractal are 3 things: 1) find the right IR (factory ones IMHO-Suck), 2) Make sure you are using the correct Speaker Impedance Curve for the IR you choose and 3) roll tubes and adjust bias as you would in a real amp.
Kemper added a fixed latency around 12 years ago, at the time some people were complaining that when reamping using different profiles with the same stem there was a phasing issue when combined as the latency would change pending on what you had loaded so Christoph added the constant latency mode