FM3 Mk2 Turbo - Here we go!

ColWilkie

Following my previous thread here, deciding if I wanted to jump into digital - I well and truly have!

I've just taken delivery of the FM3 from G66.  First of all, I must state how awesome their service was.  Sukh was fantastic, great communication and really friendly and personal experience.  If only all purchases were like this!

Secondly, I've ordered some new monitors - Neumann KH120ii.  I will be working on the acoustics in my room, as I'm repurposing it now so I should be getting the most out of them.

On to my first experience with the FM3.  Blown away!  Most impressive are the clean amps and edge of breakup.  I knew high gain was going to be fine, but the other areas are always tricky.  The FX also appears to be excellent.  It's probably the honeymoon period, but I'm so happy with it that I'm offloading my other kit.  And this is all with my current iLoud micro speakers....

In terms of complexity and user interface - the interface is not as bad as some make it out to be.  It's fairly quick to navigate, and with the editor is not really an issue.  The tweakability is endless, but you don't need to dive into every single setting to get some great tones.

CHRISB50

Welcome to the club. 

I’ve had mine a month or so now and love it. 

It sounds fantastic.  

And I’d echo your comments about the learning curve. I’ve found everything quite intuitive until now. It’s really as complicated as you want to make it. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to get a decent tone out of it. 

exocet

I recommend forcing yourself to learn how to create / edit patches on the unit itself, It's not difficult once you learn the basics. 
This really helps if you are going to be playing live - certainly in the early days, you'll find that your patches require tweaking - much easier to be able to do this during the gig, playing at gig sound levels (time permitting), than trying to remember what was "wrong" after the event.

CHRISB50

exocet said:

I recommend forcing yourself to learn how to create / edit patches on the unit itself, It's not difficult once you learn the basics. 
This really helps if you are going to be playing live - certainly in the early days, you'll find that your patches require tweaking - much easier to be able to do this during the gig, playing at gig sound levels (time permitting), than trying to remember what was "wrong" after the event.

I still haven’t actually connected mine to a PC yet. So this is all I’ve been doing. 

Navigation is a bit painful. But other than that it’s fine. 

ColWilkie

Thanks guys, and good tip on practicing it on the unit.  I don't want to be tethered to the desktop all the time, so will be worth doing both!

Nerine

Once you make the leap into Fractal land, the competitors seem a bit toy-like in comparison IMO. 

ColWilkie

Nerine said:

Once you make the leap into Fractal land, the competitors seem a bit toy-like in comparison IMO. 

I was really close to going down the QC route, but I've wanted to try a Fractal product for years. 

ZenRigsMan

Glad you’re having fun with it Col!

AlbertC

I’ve just bought an FM3 II Turbo too. Up until now I’ve been using an HX Stomp (and previously a Strymon Iridium and UA Dream 65). My main use is for recording at home – I don’t gig now.

It’s very early days, but some first impressions are

1. I think the overall quality of sound may be better than the Stomp but not dramatically so. Law of diminishing returns etc..
2. There are a few decent presets but most of the ones I’ve tried so far I’ve not been that impressed. I will be creating my own
3. It’s not quite as intuitive or simple to use (e.g. creating presets) as the Stomp but it’s got more depth of features
4. Reverbs are a lot better, though only 1 per preset

 I didn’t realise the main outs (Out 1) was XLR only, so I need to get some new cables. In the meantime I’ve connected jack cables to Out 2 but that means I have to change the Out block to every item I switch preset. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to universally to route the sound to Out 2.

ColWilkie

I've never owned a Helix, but from trawling through reviews and performances with all current devices - I'm quite sure the sounds are incredibly close now, nobody would tell.  Owned a Kemper before, and the FM3 feels better to play (I think), but without playing them back to back it's hard to tell.  

The build quality appears to be excellent.  I'm just using it at home, but would not worry about taking it out.

Before mine arrived, I spent quite a bit of time reading the manual (otherwise I would be in the same situation with the cables!) and also watching Leon Todd's videos.  I've also bought the Cooper Carter FM3 guide, which has been incredibly helpful.

I feel that in a couple of days I'm comfortable with the unit, and can navigate and build tones rapidly on the device direct or with the editor.  Of course the editor is the main choice, but I wanted to learn the unit's controls as well as mentioned in a comment above - it's useful to know!

I've found some of the presets ok, with a little tweaking they can sound great.  However, I've just been creating my own and I am far happier with the outcome.

The Dynacab feature is really cool, but on recommendation I've mostly been using Leon Todd's LT TV Mix 7 IR.  I also add cuts of 80/8000 in the CAB pre.  I've set a template up on this basis and build from there.

Reverbs really are lovely, as are the delays.  I'm selling off my old pedalboard.  There's nothing that feels significantly worse in the FM3 (in most cases there is an improvement).

I'm sure there must be a way to setup the routing as you describe.  In Tools/Setup/Audio there appears to be the option to copy sound to Output 2.  Output 1 is an option here, so would guess that might solve it for you globally.

duotone

Would love to try one of the Fractal units for a few weeks, just to see how it compares to Helix (which I’ve been using since 2017).

I know it’s been mentioned about Kemper being ‘long in the tooth’ but I do really like the idea of a modelling amp with a screen & speaker all in one unit. Will be interesting to see what the Kemper Mk.2 looks like whenever it comes out.  

I can see the newer modellers showing an accurate visual of the actual amp & FX like the Fender Tone Master Pro screen shows: https://www.russomusic.com/blogs/reviews/fender-tone-master-pro-guitar-multi-effects-workstation-review

mrkb

AlbertC said:

I’ve just bought an FM3 II Turbo too. Up until now I’ve been using an HX Stomp (and previously a Strymon Iridium and UA Dream 65). My main use is for recording at home – I don’t gig now.

It’s very early days, but some first impressions are

1. I think the overall quality of sound may be better than the Stomp but not dramatically so. Law of diminishing returns etc..
2. There are a few decent presets but most of the ones I’ve tried so far I’ve not been that impressed. I will be creating my own
3. It’s not quite as intuitive or simple to use (e.g. creating presets) as the Stomp but it’s got more depth of features
4. Reverbs are a lot better, though only 1 per preset

 I didn’t realise the main outs (Out 1) was XLR only, so I need to get some new cables. In the meantime I’ve connected jack cables to Out 2 but that means I have to change the Out block to every item I switch preset. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to universally to route the sound to Out 2.

@AlbertC ;  In Setup - set "Output 2 Copy" to be "Output 1" rather than "None" - that copies the Output 1 audio to Output 2 for all patches (unless an OUT2 block has been added to a patch in which case that overrides the "Output2 copy" setting).

AlbertC

I find Leon Todd a bit of a tough watch - too much gurning and everything has to be demonstrated with 5 seconds of heavy riffage
I’m sure there’s some good tips in there, but need to keep pressing the skip-forward button. 

AlbertC

ColWilkie said:

I've mostly been using Leon Todd's LT TV Mix 7 IR. 

Is that in the FM3 already or an import? 

ColWilkie

AlbertC said:

I find Leon Todd a bit of a tough watch - too much gurning and everything has to be demonstrated with 5 seconds of heavy riffage
I’m sure there’s some good tips in there, but need to keep pressing the skip-forward button. 

Haha, that's a fair comment!  His tips are really helpful, but yeah a lot of chugging going on if that's not your thing

AlbertC said:

ColWilkie said:

I've mostly been using Leon Todd's LT TV Mix 7 IR. 

Is that in the FM3 already or an import? 

It's an import, but can be found in the axe exchange.

AlbertC

mrkb said:

AlbertC said:

I’ve just bought an FM3 II Turbo too. Up until now I’ve been using an HX Stomp (and previously a Strymon Iridium and UA Dream 65). My main use is for recording at home – I don’t gig now.

It’s very early days, but some first impressions are

1. I think the overall quality of sound may be better than the Stomp but not dramatically so. Law of diminishing returns etc..
2. There are a few decent presets but most of the ones I’ve tried so far I’ve not been that impressed. I will be creating my own
3. It’s not quite as intuitive or simple to use (e.g. creating presets) as the Stomp but it’s got more depth of features
4. Reverbs are a lot better, though only 1 per preset

 I didn’t realise the main outs (Out 1) was XLR only, so I need to get some new cables. In the meantime I’ve connected jack cables to Out 2 but that means I have to change the Out block to every item I switch preset. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to universally to route the sound to Out 2.

@AlbertC ;  In Setup - set "Output 2 Copy" to be "Output 1" rather than "None" - that copies the Output 1 audio to Output 2 for all patches (unless an OUT2 block has been added to a patch in which case that overrides the "Output2 copy" setting).

Ah, cheers. I’ll give that a go 

Wazmeister

AlbertC said:

I find Leon Todd a bit of a tough watch - too much gurning and everything has to be demonstrated with 5 seconds of heavy riffage
I’m sure there’s some good tips in there, but need to keep pressing the skip-forward button. 

I agree with this - Leon Tood, nice chap but tone deaf.

Check out the very good Rosh Rolin on YT for a good series;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27b3ABRWcCE&t=75s

ColWilkie

Wazmeister said:

AlbertC said:

I find Leon Todd a bit of a tough watch - too much gurning and everything has to be demonstrated with 5 seconds of heavy riffage
I’m sure there’s some good tips in there, but need to keep pressing the skip-forward button. 

I agree with this - Leon Tood, nice chap but tone deaf.

Check out the very good Rosh Rolin on YT for a good series;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27b3ABRWcCE&t=75s

Thanks for sharing mate, I'll check this out as well.

Wazmeister

The Cooper Carter Masterclass are well worth it too - worth buying in fact

ColWilkie

Wazmeister said:

The Cooper Carter Masterclass are well worth it too - worth buying in fact

Yeah, bought this using the discount code provided with my purchase.  Nicely indexed as well, found them the best and worth the investment.  

ZenRigsMan

Excellent stuff - glad you're enjoying it mate!