VHT / FRYETTE Deliverance vs FRACTAL AXE FX / FM3 / FM9 - Does the Axe FX sound like the real amp?

[@paulbradshawguitar]

so how close did i get? 🎸 i'll be revisiting/retweaking the preset again in the future, keep your eyes peeled =)

[@enthronedoath8370]

Great video. Love the fryette amps. They're so underrated. You did a great job getting the fm3 so close practically identical. 🤘🏻

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks 🙏 same here, i feel they're really underrated in terms of amps, which is a shame as they're so rewarding to play

[@taylormesa]

Great comparison! The Deliverance is a great amp that doesn’t get enough love out there. Cheers!

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks 🙏and totally agree, wish they'd get more exposure

[@d.a.t.4699]

Love these amp comparisons using the fm3, thx man...a great new year to ya!

[@paulbradshawguitar]

much appreciated 🙏 will be trying to do more in the future as well, borrowing amps from friends 😄 happy new year to you too

[@honeybadger1810]

Thats really, really close. The deliverance is one of my favorites in the fm3. So perfectly stringy.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks 🙏 yeah the older Deliverance model in the FM3 was a close match to this amp (which is a mark1) they updated it around firmware 8 to mark II specs, it's no longer like this, but i'm hoping they bring it back at some point

[@aviator_bryan]

Well done demo! I would say that you've matched them almost identically. The difference between the Fractal and Freyette is smaller than between two different real Fryettes.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks 🙏 yeah, really happy that i got to match them so close, i think there are some more tweaks that can be done, but that'll be another video :) will be doing a playthrough of the VHT at some point too

[@eyonnealchristmas3974]

I'm very impressed with your results.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks 🙏

[@louderthangod]

The Fractal is amazing, I love how it’s so flexible that I can not only get tones just like the real amps but I can mod those amps in was I don’t have the expertise to do with real amps. That being said, I love playing my real amp into an Ox Box for the feel and touch sensitivity and the Fractal doesn’t do that so I’m going to sell my FM-9. I literally enjoy myself more with a real amp and obviously plugging into a full stack just doesn’t compare to anything modeling but even with the Ox going through quality Barefoot monitors I find myself going back to the real amp for fun but it also makes me play better. It’smuch easier to get into a flow state and find some inspirational sound to write a song with.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

i totally know what you mean, it's why i still have pedals and amps at home, there's something about that experience and the feel of a real tube amp that has a certain magic, modellers have their advantages elsewhere, I'm just really happy how close we can get with this technology

[@louderthangod]

@@paulbradshawguitar I think the difference is probably exaggerated by how I play. I use cranked, single channel amps so I ride my volume knob a lot and on the Fractal, Kemper or any of the guitar plugins I’ve used, just doesn’t quite track those subtle changes as well. It’s more subtle on micro changes on pick angle and attack but still noticeable with that as well. For those that are a volume on 10 and play with tons of gain or even dead clean with compression then it’ll be much harder to notice those differences. In a band mix, it’s really hard to tell but it matters a lot to me while I’m playing.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@louderthangod i totally get that, i'm in a similar ballpark, i'm used to playing single channel amps and using boosts/pedals for gain or pulling back on the volume knob for a clean tone, it just seems to suit what i'm doing, some of the best clean tones i've had/heard are pretty gained up but with the volume knob knocked back (Andy Timmons and the BD-2 for example) the fractal does a really good job of cleaning up, but i know what you mean with those nuances, my gut feeling is that those are things that will still improve as the resolution / CPU power of modelling steadily improves, with plugins and oversampling on the PC you can kinda see it, but there'll always be some kind of gap i think, just with how tubes all interact with each other, multiple tube gain stages, there's a lot going on , the sound is only part of the picture, how something feels to the player is something else

[@LucasLeCompteMusic]

I noticed this with my Revv 100R Mk III and the one they just added into the axe fx. It gets VERY close. The mids are a bit different on the axe fx but it gets it close. The axe fx doesnt get some amps correct in terms of sound and feel but it gets close.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks for the feedback 🙏 yeah I'd be curious to test more amps against the fractal counterparts to see, there's going to be differences along the way for sure , a bit like how the same amp models will differ to one another from the factory (be it tubes or maybe drift in components, all that fun stuff) luckily we can tweak so many parameters in the fractal unit to get to that place should we want

[@goandshout1]

This very interesting and nice job!! Thank you. I really enjoyed it.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks 🙏

[@djabthrash]

Great video, great tone. Sounds like the VHT deliverance tone on the Unearth "III : in the eyes of fire" album.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks 🙏 that's a killer album, didn't know that was a VHT on there

[@djabthrash]

@@paulbradshawguitar Indeed ! That's my fav album of theirs (and it has the almighty Mike Justian on drums, who played in : The Red Chord, Madball, Hate Eternal, 108, etc)

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@djabthrash ah sick, didn't know that either, i only ever saw The Red Chord once while they were over in europe, one of the most brutal 25 or so minutes I've seen/heard

[@djabthrash]

@@paulbradshawguitar They were such a sick band !

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@djabthrash they're still great live too , i organised a show of theirs last year here in Luxembourg, was awesome

[@millman82]

I’d love to see you do this over when the new firmware drops. Fractal updates power tube modeling and the D60 models are one of many that have been tweaked as well. Also, on the new firmware the Speaker Drive is defaulted to 1.0 and the Speaker Thump is defaulted to 1.25. Currently the defaults for those values are 2.0 and 2.5 respectively. I noted you had both of those values set to 0 in your comparison.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

for sure, I'm really looking forward to trying that out when it comes to the FM3, it's apparently updated to series II specs, so very curious how that will sound and feel, i think the gain (which i compensated for with the input trim) will be the big one to try I'll certainly do a 'part 2' as it were once i get that update my main patch uses the d60 model so it will definitely see use regardless

[@DISSONVNT]

It is officially updated so you have the Series II on the fm3 now, would definitely love to see a new version of this video now that it's been updated!!

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@DISSONVNT ah great thanks, is it on a beta? I'll definitely revisit this once i get the firmware , curious on the differences, just have a gig this week so will wait a bit before updating

[@DISSONVNT]

@@paulbradshawguitar I heard it was, if they rolled it back again then it should be out pretty soon

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@DISSONVNT ok , i haven't seen anything on the forums just yet, i'll keep an eye out though , as my main sounds all use this amp, it'll be quite a potential change

[@progpogs]

Damn dude the amp sounded so good. When I play this one in the AxeFX its a little too dry for me. The post tweak settings sound great.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks, yeah it's a keeper 😄 i made an updated comparison with the new model in the axe fx3 on my channel with some newer tweaked settings, the newer model is definitely different kzbin.info/www/bejne/qJPNfH6fi5lsfMU

[@FastRedPonyCar]

I sold my Runt 50 after getting the FM3 and gigging with it for a while. We all use IEM's with an FRFR behind us now and it's an effortless setup and the EXACT same sound every single show and venue. I only use 1 amp model the whole show and just a few effects so the FM3 is perfect and I could get by just as easy with an HX Stomp (which I keep in my bag as a spare "amp")

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks for the comment 🙏 this goes way back but your splawn nitro demos put that amp on my radar way back when, and jet city stuff, good times the FM3 has been the best piece of gear i got back in '22, i just have a pedalboard/case my guitar bag and a backpack for cables + power amp should i need it the irony being the bulkiest thing i have to carry now after the case is the 10m 2x XLR cable snake 😄 I'll be going through my main preset soon with Drogher, it's also just one amp with scene controlling for gain/clean, does everything i need, and keeps my back from needing to visit the chiropractor 😄

[@FastRedPonyCar]

@@paulbradshawguitar HAHA I still have ol Mufasa. That Nitro is without a doubt, the loudest, meanest, cleanest hardest hitting amp I've ever plugged into. It's absolutely ridiculous but it's a huge mess on stage with how loud and hard hitting it is. It's comically easy to just bury the bass player and it really does kinda need to be at that kill mode volume to really sound it's best. I've got a 2notes captor X which helps but yeah.. .it weighs a ton and doesn't deliver the consistency that the FM3 does. I've just recently moved to using a duncan powerstage 200 and my old mako amplification 1x12 cab instead of the FRFR and the FM3 makes that super easy just splitting the output before the IR block going out ouptut 2 to the powerstation and the main outs can still go to the house. It sounds WAAY better than the FRFR. Much more natural. We've debated going totally cabless with no sound on stage but with a loud drummer, I just don't know how that would work. Like... I feel like you gotta have SOME sound coming from the stage. Our singer plays rhythm and he goes into his quad cortex and only to the PA and even standing out in the crowd area, he gets buried in the overall mix and raising him in the mains doesn't really help. Bass players runs a DarkGlass Omega 900 and 2x12 cab on stage and runs a Quad cortex in front DI out to house and a second signal to his amp behind him. This past week I had a failed experiment trying to see if I could somehow break free of the FM3. I got a Friedman IRX and it sounds great but the preamp only signal from that pedal sounds so bad and I don't get it. With the built in IR's out of the main output it sounds SO good but it's just so bad from the FX send or with the IR disabled. I was hoping to use that with my cloudburst, dig and tricerachorus pedals and just run an all-pedal setup but I would have had to ditch the powerstage and cab and go back to FRFR behind me and honestly, the FM3's amp model straight out into the power amp and cab sounds SO much better. Honestly, what I want at this point from Fractal is an FM6 with the processing power of the FM3 turbo but 6 buttons. I just want to be able to use a second reverb block LOL as I'd prefer a slightly dry-er sound on stage vs what goes to the house. I've considered just using the mixer's reverb for that but it sounds pretty blah.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

​@@FastRedPonyCar mufasa 🤘that's the one, that really sounded killer in the demos, glad you still got that fire-breathing monster 😄 IEMs were the biggest difference maker for us, we have an in ear rack so we can each do our own mixes, wireless transmitters/receivers for the in ears, really makes a difference everything coming out of the FOH is up to the mix engineer i know what you mean otherwise about stage volume, there is something about having at least some stage volume, or a lot even 😄 to get that interaction between guitar and speaker, not to mention front row audience and what they hear I've got a power amp which i an use (an orange pedal baby) sounded good at home, but yet to use it at a gig, it's just not needed as to the reverb/FM3 have you played around with the ambience in the cab block of the fractal?, could be an idea have you tried the synergy preamp stuff otherwise? that's something I'd be curious to try out, should interface well with power amps + cabs for stage volume too

[@FastRedPonyCar]

@@paulbradshawguitar Actually about a year or so ago, we all went to IEM's.. Well, our singer has always used them because he's former military and has hearing loss so he really needs them but I resisted for years but Rick Beato's vid on tinnitus kinda scared me straight on using some form of ear protection on stage. my old band back in the day actually recorded with Rick and Ken. we did a 3 song EP with them and Rick offered us the chance to sign with Sony but it would have basically meant leaving our jobs, income, family, etc behind to make zero money on the road and as a group of guys who wrote music for fun, it wasn't really the path we were willing to take. Anyways, so yeah I tried a couple of the high fidelity earplugs but they all suck and I was looking at the active ear plugs that do the thing like the airpods do and let you still hear the room but I just happened to stumble on one of Pete Thorn's videos of the ASI Audio active IEM's which do the thing where you can hear the room but you can blend in how much of the room sound you want, you get your own EQ on the phone app and can control the limiter and stuff. I've been using those for about a year now and they're excellent. It's ALMOST like not wearing anything at all but you can still tell that it's being captured by the IEM microphones. That's really the main reason I don't really care about an amp on stage. I need the consistency in my ears and the digital stuff does that. I ran an amp and two notes captor X for a while and got my DI sound that way and it was fine but again, the FM3 came close enough to the real deal that I was ok with leaving the amp at home and just going from the FM3 to the board/IEM's.

[@johnbach2380]

The axe fx input is made to where hitting the red in the input stage is just like an amp. Its fine to clip the input.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

good info, to be fair i haven't tried just leaving it at 0 or 6 with super high output pickups , it works great with all my guitars set at 12db in terms of response , where it tickles/hits the red from time to time might be something to try out

[@johnbach2380]

@@paulbradshawguitar yeah. Some people run real drives into the input to great effect. Theyre slamming the input stage. As long as youre not clipping out you should be fine.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@johnbach2380 cool thanks , I'll have to experiment, always been wearing about clipping on digital units

[@steveweilhart2359]

without seeing this video - you could not tell it's so close (tweaked version)

[@ksharpe10]

John Cordy found out he liked the Carol Ann Tucana so well in the Fractal that he bought the actual Amp. but was disappointed that it did not live up to the Fractal Model at least for him.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

ah yeah, i can imagine that would be disappointing, there are some really good. models in the fractal world, there's a few I'd like to try in real life, a SLO 100 is still on my bucket list, but since the last 15 years 😄

[@davidlemmer]

Yeah you nailed it. Both sounds very practically identical, there is more „pression“ in the Amp sound and that feels better every time you play the real thing. But yeah digital is more easy to carry and to setup when the sounds are dialed up (as you mentionned, would take some time to dial it up and need a little bit of knowledge) 😁✌🏼 Cheers mate

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks 🙏

[@mhoff7722]

The feel of the real deal (VHT Pittbull CLX) is always soooo much more inspiring for me to play. I use modelers for convenience sometimes for learning covers and practice etc but only a couple of times live. I don't mind carrying around a half stack and full pedal board even for small gigs...but that's just me. 🤘🤘🤘

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@mhoff7722 totally know what you mean, it's why i still have a vox and Pedalboard lying around my room, amp in a room with pedals just has a feel thing that a modeller through monitors doesn't, but given DI needs, IEMs and what not the fractal wins out and sounds great too, completely switched over with my band Drogher end of 2022, haven't looked back since i think the inspiring side of a modeller is in part due to the searching/tweaking to get that inspiring sound/idea that you have in your head, or crazy signal chain idea, which is sometimes more tone related than necessarily to do with actual music that you play sorry for babbling on 😄🤘

[@mhoff7722]

I get that too. In the studio I've had some fun digging through the Kemper trying to mimic my favorite amps. I do need to update my IEM system so that will be the next rabbit hole 🤣 @@paulbradshawguitar

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@mhoff7722 IEMs are more than a rabbit hole, they're a parallel universe 😄i upgraded to some custom molded 3 driver IEMs last year, best investment ever

[@alexmortar]

In this case on tweaked section i hear 99% identical sound and has concluded that fractal can replace the amp at least for recording puropses

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks , yeah i was really happy how close it got, especially for a recorded tone, in a full mix i doubt you'd be able to hear the difference

[@alexmortar]

​@@paulbradshawguitar in the terms of tone the picture is is obvious but how it lies in feel. In the case of 50 w head fractal can do it identical, but in the case of 100w head i hear some well recorded things that the digital cant do one to one

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@alexmortar that's the hardest thing to bring across over video , i think that comparison is a great way of looking at modelling, e.g seeing a photo of the mona lisa, or seeing the actual mona lisa in person in the museum, different experience we're getting a lot closer in any case, and the practical benefits of something so small and portable is crazy

[@208414]

The end result was really close to the amp / load box. I'd be interested to see a comparison of how the model and the amp respond to rolling off the guitar volume as well. Fractal models generally respond well in that regard, but the Deliverance is a super touch sensitive amp so this would be a very telling test.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks, yeah i think there's more nuances and a deeper dive that can be done with regards to how sensitive the amp is, or how good the model cleans up with the volume knob, i think that might be a bit trickier given how dynamic the real amp is but will need to experiment, i think scene controlling, adjusting the input trim would help increase the range or maybe in the dynamics/output compressor of the amp block lots to try out I'll need to revisit at some stage, i was really happy in any case to get close to the actual real amp in terms of tone with the amp set up like that, I usually run the second gain lower, with the same settings and boost depending on how much saturation i want, and /or clean up with the volume knob, absolutely love the amp I'm waiting on a power supply for another tiny board, where I'll do a proper playthrough , I'll look at replicating again with the fractal IRs play a huge part here as well I'll add

[@davidsalinas4872]

i love these comparisons, sounds great, but playing live you just can't get the sound and tone of a crank up tube amp.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

thanks, i know what you mean, there's nothing like a live amp in the room, stage volume and that interaction you get between the guitar and a cranked amp through speakers, we've been on in ears for the last 2 years almost, we progressively changed to all digital solutions, i sometimes miss the small pedalboard /amp setup i had here before, but given how close i can get for direct tones and good sounding in ear and FOH mixes, while saving my back from carrying gear 😄 it's not too bad

[@davidsalinas4872]

@@paulbradshawguitar i'm not using a tube amp anymore either i gig with a Tone Master deluxe blonde 24 LBS. with a helix effects only, no modeling that i mic up with a 57, it just works for me. i just bought an FM3 turbo that I'm trying to get gig ready. i wish it came with an expiration pedal. lol. this old man had to lighten up.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

@@davidsalinas4872 enjoy the ride 😊 i know what you mean about weight, gone are the days for now ;) of bringing a 4x12 and amp/pedalboard to a gig i think my guitar + fm3 pedalboard and backpack weighs less than the 4x12 or bigger combos i used to own

[@joejohnson8966]

12:20 lol

[@Andersrain]

real amp it full of richness, although the simulator has the tone, I'll still go with the amp.

[@paulbradshawguitar]

yeah i still prefer the amp, but the fm3 ultimately is a better fit for our setup with the band, i was real happy to get the tone close in any case