Is Fractal “better” than Line 6?

Personally, the one thing nobody seems to mention when it comes to 'best' digital modeller etc. is the feel. Everyone talks about the tone etc., but for me, the feel of a modeller is a MASSIVE thing that needs to be right.

Personally, I always felt Kemper was great, and the Fractal stuff is just on a par with it I'd say.

FarleyUK said:

Personally, the one thing nobody seems to mention when it comes to 'best' digital modeller etc. is the feel. Everyone talks about the tone etc., but for me, the feel of a modeller is a MASSIVE thing that needs to be right.

Personally, I always felt Kemper was great, and the Fractal stuff is just on a par with it I'd say.

I agree pretty much.

Its all about the feel these days, especially edge of break up and digging in.   - they all get the tone.

Kemper v Fractal is more about workflow to me.

I never gelled with Kemper/captures as I have a sound in my head Im trying to get - and to find that means trawling though LOTS of captures to find something even close.  In the early days you couldnt stray much from teh captures either - and removing the cab if you wanted to use a power am p and real cab was more of a removing some generic EQ curve - ait had no way of knowing what cab you needed to remove.   The cab bit - and also with multi captures some of that has been rectified BUT Im still relying on what someone else think is right not what I think is right.  I have Tonex Software to test amp types out - but still prefer the Axe-FX.

Fractal/Models means I can tweak away to nail the sound I hear in my head - and i can get it bang on.

In general - I have come to the conclusion Captures (whichever platform) is great if you have amps you dont want to take live (weight, cost, reliability etc) or i you've borrowed or used amps in a studio and want to take that tone life to reproduce.   Modelling is more about being able to get a sound to fit a song or a mix perfectly or to get the sound in your head from scratch.

Roland said:

rossyamaha said:

There's no such thing as better. Only preference. But you can also like both. 

That’s something which irritates me about a lot of these conversations. Better is a relative term, and depends totally on your criteria. However, what the conversations often flush out are what different people’s criteria are. 

Yup. 

For me, "better" is more about UI and workflow. Not much made in the last 20 years doesn't sound good enough. 

Workflow is one of my criteria. Both Fractal and Line6, and many other devices, can provide a decent live sound. When I’m playing I want as little distraction as possible. I want to step on a button labelled “Bridge”, and have the Amp sound, the FX, and the lighting rig all to change in the space between two beats without me having to think about it. Certainly i don’t want to stop playing while I tap dance. I want any echo or reverb to play itself out while I get on with playing the next section. Last time I looked Fractal had the edge in these things.