I'm downsizing my effects. Please help me choose a digital modeler that will work best 5CM stereo with my Synergy SYN-2.

The title says it all. The Planet Waves cables have caused me too much stress, and the stress of trying to maintain and upkeep my analog rig has become detrimental to my health.

Here are the conditions that must be followed:

• The modelling unit must have MIDI.
• Effects only - amp modelling and speaker cab IR loading won't be used.
• Preference will go to rackmountable units, but I will also accept floorboard units if there is a justifiable reason.
• Must do stereo effects very well. Oh my god, have I run into a lot of units that can't even hold a candle against a Strymon BigSky when it comes to delay and reverb effects...I need something that does shimmer, modulate reverb, stereo delay and stereo chorus/detune effects well. Bonus points if it can do true cross-feedback delays and stellar pitch effects well; however, if it is expensive/overpriced for an effects only unit, the price point must be justifiable.
• ADA converters must be transparent.
• Delays and reverb must spillover when changing presets. This is something I will not compromise on for live settings.

I have tried out the Quad Cortex before; however, I hated its effects, and the amp modelling sounded way too harsh to my ears. In addition, the Headrush Pedalboard has known questionable quality control issues where some units will crash and not boot properly.

This leaves us with Boss GT-1000, Line 6 Helix Rack and Fractal Axe-FX III.

Fractal leaves no room for compromise; however, it is expensive AF, and it's difficult to justify it as a good FX-only unit. Line 6 Helix Rack is more affordable, but other than the detune, the pitch effects suck.

So, what do you guys think? Which of the three will be more worthwhile to me?

Is it safe to assume you don't need preamp effects like boost, overdrive, fuzz etc and that you're just putting the unit between your preamp and power amp?

No, I'll definitely be using the boost, OD and compressor effects in the modelling unit. As for the Whammy, wah and volume pedals I haven't decided yet if I wanna hold onto them or if I want to downsize on those as well.

Ooof, that's going to be at least 2 round trip AD/DA conversions if you're doing time based effects after your preamp.

Yeah, I anticipated this would be the case; however, unfortunately, it's come to a point where analog stompboxes will only cause me more hassle in the long run. My health has degraded so much due to stress as of recent days so I can't afford to constantly maintain a switching system with a gazillion patch cables left and right.

Nah. My analog home studio has a gazillion patch cable, you just have a bunch.... it's a shame you can't go all xlr. I still find it ridiculous that strymon doesn't make a rack version of the timeline, moebius and big sky or a giant multi rackspace multi fx with all 3 and some upgraded converters for studio use... I would buy a strymon multifx unit.

Yeah, in a perfect world, Strymon would be developing a multi-FX unit that doesn't require me to bust my bank for a Fractal; however, sadly, I highly doubt that's ever gonna happen within a foreseeable future.

So given the choice of going with a Helix or Fractal for 5-cable method with Synergy...which would you feel more comfortable working with?

And you know, whenever these rig dilemma cases happen, I'm always feeling extremely seasick. Why? Because of how the forum folks on Facebook and other places are constantly providing conflicting advice. Oh, do I miss the good old days when I used to be so oblivious to the stereo setups...

"Go with Fractal! It's the creme de la creme of modelling technology!"

"No, go with Helix! You're gonna be wasting money down the drain by going with Fractal!"

"Bruh, you dun screwed up by deciding to go with digital. Analog 4 LYFE!"

It's like, for Christ's sake, you just can't WIN AT THIS JOB!

Well you can just do what you like and not worry about technological advances or being able to create every sort of sound someone could ask you for.

Sigh...anyways, it all boils down to Helix vs Fractal at this point for effects. I'm done trying to deal with patch cable blues or overcomplicated switcher/line mixer rigs. At this rate I don't know how much longer I can live if the stress continues to affect my health.

Helix's latest firmware did update the delays and reverb, but I have doubts as to whether or not it'll be good enough to avoid having to go with Fractal. What do you say?

Sigh...anyways, it all boils down to Helix vs Fractal at this point for effects. I'm done trying to deal with patch cable blues or overcomplicated switcher/line mixer rigs. At this rate I don't know how much longer I can live if the stress continues to affect my health.

I guess you don't have kids. Look if you want a fractal get a fractal. They're well regarded for a reason and are packed with I/O

Yeah, no, I'm 25 years old and still single. And even then I still suffer due to high blood pressure.

Let's hope that Fractal can deliver the promise of a no-compromise setup that won't force me to revert back to an overcomplicated setup.

I'm technically old enough to be your dad (it's weird thinking that if I had married my college girlfriend I could have a kid your age now)... if you have high blood pressure then you're definitely right to simplify. When I was your age I could feel my blood pressure spike every show right before sound check and I wouldn't calm down until 2 songs into our set. You don't want rig fears on top of the pre show jitters. If you're making yourself crazy about your rig outside of band situations then you have got to prioritize my young friend.

Thing is, no one in an audience cares what you're playing through but the guitarists from the other bands on the bill. Normal people barely hear the difference and don't get the fuss. As long as you have the connections you need and all the fx you want to use you're going to be fine, man. This is mainly for you because you're going to feel more confident with a sound you love.

So I got the Axe-FX III, and had a chance to try it out.

Wow, is this ever a trainwreck! Fractal Audio has somehow finally managed to make me seriously regret downsizing.

The amp tones from Fractal feel very plastic! Like sure, the clean and high-gain tones sound great, but the mid-gain tones do not respond the way real amps do! I checked and rechecked the settings in my presets and yet IT'S ALL THE SAME! FRACTAL'S MID-GAIN TONES ARE FREAKING TERRIBLE!

If that wasn't bad enough, just don't use the pitch block ever, unless you're planning to use the Dual Detune algorithm for the 80's chorus sound, 'cause the Virtual Capo and Advanced Whammy suck so much. If you want to use high-resolution delays and reverb, the pitch block creates a very nasty digital artifact. WHO THOUGHT IT WAS A GREAT IDEA?! Yeah, there's design blunders, then there's Line 6 levels of design blunders...

This is extra-super-special far-beyond-the-sun levels of incompetence. Fractal Audio screwing up the pitch block has somehow managed to present redeeming factors of Kemper...

Oh, and I tried out the Fractal and Synergy in a 5-cable method. While the ADA conversions weren't too bad, the tube preamp hiss was impossible to remove. Using the hardware noise gate will make matters worse as you will run into serious gain loss, and while you can turn down the hiss to tolerable levels, it'll still be noticeable in the studio environment.

The only redeeming factor of Fractal? Stereo outboard effects. The modulation and time-based effects are actually pretty damn impressive, perhaps far better than Strymon's. But amp modelling? It's all marketing bullshit. Please do not make the same mistakes I made, and avoid Fractal like the plague. The only reason why you should use it is if you absolutely positively need the stereo effects, but even then, Fractal has somehow managed to make me miss my old Strymon setup.

I still can't believe I sold off my Strymon's for this...now I'm left up shit's creek with no way to revert my setup back without risking another financial loss...

I'm sorry to hear that. Unfortunately you have the best converters in multi FX as far as I know.

I'm really concerned to hear the synergy system has hiss. The first step is to determine whether the hiss is a gain staging issue which is very possible. If you've done that and your signal is right in the optimal RMS range of dB specified by fractal on the manual then sadly the hiss is likely coming entirely from cheap resistors in the synergy preamp which is disappointing in a boutique item like that. Your pedals likely had restricted bandwidth at the analog input stage, all pedals tend to as a guitar amp andspeaker have very restricted bandwidth... whereas the fractal is probably passing 20hz to 20khz to the converters. Sp the pedals were rolling out the high frequency components of your hiss before apply9ng effects while the fractal isn't. By going through a 6 cablemethod it's likely magnifying the issue exponentially.

But while some hiss may be coming from the fractal itself, there's so few analog components in there that the bulk of it is must be coming from the preamp. High gain pres are prone to this and it can only be tamed dy careful parts selection at the design phase.

You really shouldn't have sold your existing rig to fund the fractal. I didn't realize that was your plan as I'm not in the habit of flipping non-redundant gear to find different gear.

But if you haven't done so, make sure you're not sending +4dB studio line levels where they're not expected. Running +4 to -10 or instrument level ins is a classic blunder that causes insane hiss and/or unwanted distortion artifacts. Consult the manual if you haven't done so. Going the opposite way, -10 to +4 is also a classic source of home studio white noise issues. If you're getting hum as well you have a ground loop.

I leave you with a thought you won't like... I've never been happier with my sound and hassle level than I've been since abandoning my old multi amp and pedals/fx/poweramp touring rig and following that midi based studio setup in favor of a single amp with an exhoplex and occassionally a fuzz or chorus out front. No one ever misses all the gimmicky effects and the broad palette of tones I used to feel obliged to offer. I just maintain my amps and tape echo now. Which is a quick once over every year or 2 that occassionally results in replacing a 60s factory part that finally wore out. I use 4 cables at most, typically 2.

I'm serious, whoever designed the pitch effects over at Fractal needs to be fired. Somebody needs to show them a clear comparison between the Fractal pitch effects and a real Digitech Whammy V and/or Ricochet. Maybe Fractal can try to ACTUALLY improve the pitch block for once.

And yeah, it was a mistake of me to sell off most of my analog rig. I mean, the only saving grace that I can think of at this point is the fact that Fractal's outboard stereo effects actually sound better than Strymon...

...so yeah, I managed to get the best stereo effects for my guitar rig, but at what cost?

I don't buy into the amp modelling crap either. "YoU cAn'T tElL tHe DiFfErEnCe BeTwEeN a ReAl AmP aNd A fRaCtAl~!" Well, I did a review video recently, and the empirical evidence does not lie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDQo2e8-MAs

I plan to reacquire front-end effects in the coming months, as well as a switching system (i.e. Voodoo Lab HEX) and an RJM Mastermind GT-16 MIDI controller. This way, I can still retain the best of the front-end analog elements while just using Fractal for stereo outboard effects. In other words, I'm basically planning to do what John Petrucci and Steve Vai are doing these days, just using Fractal for stereo effects.