Future Impact now available!! WAS: deep impact reissue!!! interested?

[Quatschmacher]

still use the square wave?

You could use whatever combination you like really, but square would be my first port of call, maybe playing around with the pulse width offset.

 

[drewphishesp]

I tried this morning, I wasnt able to really get anything useable I took your oc2 patch and just shifted the octave up and added in some dry instrument signal

 

[drewphishesp]

am I missing anything by sticking with the V3. I use it a ton but not sure what extra features besides the better tracking (whic I think is already pretty dang good on the v3) I would use. anyone have thoughtS?

 

[Quatschmacher]

am I missing anything by sticking with the V3. I use it a ton but not sure what extra features besides the better tracking (whic I think is already pretty dang good on the v3) I would use. anyone have thoughtS?

V4 improvements: better tracking, better sound quality, finer resolution of onboard parameter editing, full release time of the ADSR even when triggering via audio, hard sync, selectable tracking mode, MIDI and CV output, proper hard-split curves in the Flexis, and a few new goodies that are in the latter stage of testing…

And if you get the VIP version you get a housing that’s half the footprint.

 

[bassbrad]

am I missing anything by sticking with the V3. I use it a ton but not sure what extra features besides the better tracking (whic I think is already pretty dang good on the v3) I would use. anyone have thoughtS?

The ability to use the FI v4 as a midi interface is the biggest plus to me as I have other synths I always wanted to push via bass without needing a special pickup and expensive hardware which the v4 does very well. I'm still happily using my v3 for live and connected to a keyboard and sequencer.

 

[drewphishesp]

is it easy to update v3 patches to v4? I couldnt find it in the new manual

 

[smeet]

I'm planning to put the FI VIP in the send/return of my HX Stomp. This should allow me to put Stomp effects either before or after the FI. Has anybody here done this? Any tips would be appreciated.

 

[Quatschmacher]

is it easy to update v3 patches to v4? I couldnt find it in the new manual

V4 reads all previous formats. It converts patch files automatically when you send them to the pedal. (You can also batch convert the files with the editor if you like but it’s not really necessary.)

 

[Quatschmacher]

I couldnt find it in the new manual

Second item on this page:

https://www.auraplug.com/panda/downloads/FI%20User%20Guide%20v4.11.pdf#page31

 

[bassvirtuoso]

I'm planning to put the FI VIP in the send/return of my HX Stomp. This should allow me to put Stomp effects either before or after the FI. Has anybody here done this? Any tips would be appreciated.

I was eventually planning on getting around to doing this on my Helix, but haven't yet. I was also going to attempt to control the FI via MIDI from the Helix...

 

[sunbeast]

am I missing anything by sticking with the V3. I use it a ton but not sure what extra features besides the better tracking (whic I think is already pretty dang good on the v3) I would use. anyone have thoughtS?

The tracking alone is a HUGE improvement IMO. Another big one for me is the full range of parameter editing on the hardware editing control (instead of just getting 1-10 in hard jumps, you get the full spread of editing you get from the software)

 

[Andras Szalay]

As we planned to take part on the Guitar Summit 2025 in Mannheim, Germany to exhibit and demonstrate the Future Impact V4 and VIP, I encouraged Zsolt Rammer, my fellow engineer in the development of the Future Impact to prepare a demo set. He did so, but in the last minute we had to cancel our presence at the show, since two of us (from three) were sick. Anyway, here is a video recording what Zsolt made about his demo.



Andras Szalay

 

[Al Krow]

As we planned to take part on the Guitar Summit 2025 in Mannheim, Germany to exhibit and demonstrate the Future Impact V4 and VIP, I encouraged Zsolt Rammer, my fellow engineer in the development of the Future Impact to prepare a demo set. He did so, but in the last minute we had to cancel our presence at the show, since two of us (from three) were sick. Anyway, here is a video recording what Zsolt made about his demo.



Andras Szalay

Excellent demo thanks Andras.



Glowing review of the FI v4 to share with the forum

 

[Al Krow]

As we planned to take part on the Guitar Summit 2025 in Mannheim, Germany to exhibit and demonstrate the Future Impact V4 and VIP, I encouraged Zsolt Rammer, my fellow engineer in the development of the Future Impact to prepare a demo set. He did so, but in the last minute we had to cancel our presence at the show, since two of us (from three) were sick. Anyway, here is a video recording what Zsolt made about his demo.



Andras Szalay

Question for you: how difficult would it be to provide us with a Boss SY-200 style display?

It's a similar size display, but being able to read the patch name is so much more useful than just numbers when playing live and we have 101 things to be on top of!

Could be a game changer and also steal a march on both the C4 and wildly selling recently released MXR Bass Synth?

 

[Quatschmacher]

Question for you: how difficult would it be to provide us with a Boss SY-200 style display?

It's a very similar size, but being able to read the patch name is so much more useful than just numbers when playing live and 101 things to be on top of!

Could be a game changer and also steal a march on both the C4 and wildly selling recently released MXR Bass Synth?

But you still wouldn’t buy it/keep it though would you?

 

[Al Krow]

But you still wouldn’t buy it/keep it though would you?

Very presumptuous! Particularly as I've had multiple FI's over the years - so it's not for want of trying is it, haha?!

Great that you finally seemed to have fixed the poor tracking and glitch-iness that plagued earlier versions (but was routinely dismissed as down to poor bass playing technique by you) and that in the VIP you now have a model that isn't unnecessarily large with a lot of dead air in the box. Both are suggestions that took years to take up, but have been put through.

So no harm in suggesting something to Andras that might make this even more usable to the average gigging bassist? At the end of the day we will vote with our wallet and buy and hold onto kit that works for us.

 

[Quatschmacher]

Great that you finally seemed to have fixed the poor tracking and glitch-iness that plagued earlier versions (but was routinely dismissed as down to poor bass playing technique by you)

“Poor tracking and glitchiness” is bit of a stretch; the FI has always had better pitch tracking than anything else out there. I still stand behind the technique thing (and this isn’t directed at anyone personally); even with the superior tracking of v4, one still needs to feed the tracking routine clean monophonic lines, with good between-note muting. (This has been discussed many times.)

Obviously the screen thing has been raised over the years and I completely agree with you that it would be a huge improvement. However, the current hardware with its expansion plans is here for some time yet. (I had wondered if we could perhaps incorporate the recently-announced Pirate MIDI Scribble to give preset/data feedback.)

 

[Al Krow]

@sunbeast has written some excellent posts on how different brands have solved the tracking & latency issues - dunno if you have come across them, but made for very informative reading.

Not sure the tracking comment is unfair: if folk are saying the tracking on the v4 "is hugely improved" then you can easily work backwards to figure how good it was perceived as being before. The glitchiness / tracking issues was a major reason for many bassists not holding onto their FIs; a lot of us are in successful bands, so we can't all be bass players with poor technique?

Great that the screen thing has been raised. Would it make a significant cost difference to the product to have a Boss style display? Tbf it seems it's only Boss who have incorporated it into their synth pedals - but their relentless focus on what actually makes a pedal useful to the gigging musician is a huge reason for their success IMO.

 

[Quatschmacher]

Would it make a significant cost difference to the product to have a Boss style display?

It’s not just a cost consideration; it’s also the memory/programming resources that would be needed to address it compared to a 3-digit, 7-segment display. That would likely require other significant upgrades to other bits of the hardware.

I do hope at some point we can do a ground-up redesign to take onboard lots of potential improvements but realistically that is likely a very long way off yet.

 

[Bassheart365]

Excellent demo thanks Andras.



Glowing review of the FI v4 to share with the forum

I agree with his statement: “But almost none of the sounds are actually useful for 'normal' synth bass playing in a working band context” I’m in an R&B cover band (eg Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Bruno Mars, Whitney Houston, etc) and none of the 99 presets are useful in this context, whereas the MXR bass synth, with only 8 presets has at least 3 that cover classic bass synth lines from my band’s song list. I know the FI is capable of classic bass synth lines, and would probably sound even better than the MXR, but they should be baked into the pedal.