Normal pedals vs Fractal VP4

Chase42147

Chase42147

Member
I'm trying to decide whether I should continue to buy regular pedals, or just switch to the VP4. The pedals I need to finish my board is a compressor, Eventide Tricerachorus, and a Strymon Big Sky. Also considering a Micropitch Delay and a SDE-3000D in the future for playing in stereo.

The VP4 would be cheaper than buying all the individual effects, but seems like it could end up outdated much faster. I've also heard people say it has more latency... What are your opinions?
 
My main pedals are an SDE-3000EVH (delay), Eventide Micropitch (detune/chorus) & Golden (Reverb). The VP4 sounds pretty spot on to each of these when A/B'ing each effect individually. However, this (at least for me) breaks down a little when running delay/detune/reverb all at once in the VP4. That is, I think each effect being handled by a dedicated unit sounds/feels better. So instead of replacing all my pedals, it replaced my Golden. Which for me works perfectly, because not only do I have access to a whole lot more types of reverb than the golden, the VP4 can also serve as Dual Delay in the case where I would prefer to use the SDE-3000EVH for a 20ms chorus/widening effect. Or if I want a Dimension style chorus instead of detune, I can do that instead of using the Eventide.... so way, way more versatile. I just wouldn't personally replace an entire pedalboard with it.

I should note I'm running all 3 effect units in parallel through a Musicomb Parallelizer to preserve analog dry through. I don't know if my findings hold up if everything is ran in series with no ADT.
 
I have an Axefx3 and still use pedals. I like to have pedals so I can easily reach for a quick edit, but I don’t think they sound better or give anything different than the Fractal does. You wouldn’t be missing anything with the Fractal.

If I were starting over and didn’t have years of accumulated gear, I’d definitely start with something like the Fractal VP4 or some other multi-effects pedal. Add pedals down the road if you get the urge, but know that you’re covered with just about any sound you need in the Fractal.
 
Chase42147 said:
I'm trying to decide whether I should continue to buy regular pedals, or just switch to the VP4. The pedals I need to finish my board is a compressor, Eventide Tricerachorus, and a Strymon Big Sky. Also considering a Micropitch Delay and a SDE-3000D in the future for playing in stereo.

The VP4 would be cheaper than buying all the individual effects, but seems like it could end up outdated much faster. I've also heard people say it has more latency... What are your opinions?
Click to expand...

I have a Helix Floor, and Fractal FM9; I use the effects in each...however, I have a HX-Effects and recently purchased the Boss GX-100 which I use in 4CM or in front of my tube amps for effects only. I like the integrated expression pedal in the GX-100, and it has a great collection of Boss effects that would cost much more, and be noisier / more troublesome, if I purchased even a few Boss pedals.

Before Christmas, in the US, when I got mine, the GX-100 was $100 off.


Here's a list (and parameters) https://static.roland.com/manuals/gx-100_parameter_v200/en-US/index.html
 
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SonVolt said:
My main pedals are an SDE-3000EVH (delay), Eventide Micropitch (detune/chorus) & Golden (Reverb). The VP4 sounds pretty spot on to each of these when A/B'ing each effect individually. However, this (at least for me) breaks down a little when running delay/detune/reverb all at once in the VP4. That is, I think each effect being handled by a dedicated unit sounds/feels better. So instead of replacing all my pedals, it replaced my Golden. Which for me works perfectly, because not only do I have access to a whole lot more types of reverb than the golden, the VP4 can also serve as Dual Delay in the case where I would prefer to use the SDE-3000EVH for a 20ms chorus/widening effect. Or if I want a Dimension style chorus instead of detune, I can do that instead of using the Eventide.... so way, way more versatile. I just wouldn't personally replace an entire pedalboard with it.

I should note I'm running all 3 effect units in parallel through a Musicomb Parallelizer to preserve analog dry through. I don't know if my findings hold up if everything is ran in series with no ADT.
Click to expand...

What do you notice when running all 3 effects on the VP4? A lot of latency, or what's the main drawback?
 
rsm said:
I have a Helix Floor, and Fractal FM9; I use the effects in each...however, I have a HX-Effects and recently purchased the Boss GX-100 which I use in 4CM or in front of my tube amps for effects only. I like the integrated expression pedal in the GX-100, and it has a great collection of Boss effects that would cost much more, and be noisier / more troublesome, if I purchased even a few Boss pedals.

Before Christmas, in the US, when I got mine, the GX-100 was $100 off.


Here's a list (and parameters) https://static.roland.com/manuals/gx-100_parameter_v200/en-US/index.html
Click to expand...

The GX-100 looks pretty good, can you run a tri-stereo chorus on it? I couldn't tell from my look at the manual
 
Chase42147 said:
The GX-100 looks pretty good, can you run a tri-stereo chorus on it? I couldn't tell from my look at the manual
Click to expand...
The chorus mono, stereo, dual chorus where you can set the waveform to sine or triangle; a more advanced chorus, the prime chorus, with additional parameters, also has a triangle or sine waveform and can be set to mono or stereo.
 
To each their own, I think fractal is world class. I’ve used their products for 10 years.

When I buy a VPfour, I will use it post, and I will commit my four blocks to rotary, delays, reverb, and harmonic Tremelo, in that order.

I basically do that now when I run my IRX into my axeiii.
 
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