Anyone else have the default input gain on their FM9 be way too high?

FractalAudio said:
Depends on the guitar. On my Warmoth strat with a JB in the bridge and 9s I run around 65%. If I plug in my Tom Anderson with 10s I have to lower it to 20%.

That's why it's adjustable. The alternative is to have it fixed at some very low value and then people with low output guitars would have worse SNR than is ultimately possible.
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I find that if I only adjust the A/O Sensitivity of Input 1 down to 0-10% it avoids the clipping. Not sure if that's the preferred method, but that has worked for me. I run hotter pickups close to the strings as a metal guy, and the current incarnation of the FM9 is the only one I've had to do this with. The FM3 before and the Axe FX II, I don't think I had to make this adjustment, so it seems weird to me that I do now, but it's fine I guess. It's just not something I have experiences with FAS units until a recent update.
 
desertdweller said:
I find that if I only adjust the A/O Sensitivity of Input 1 down to 0-10% it avoids the clipping. Not sure if that's the preferred method, but that has worked for me. I run hotter pickups close to the strings as a metal guy, and the current incarnation of the FM9 is the only one I've had to do this with. The FM3 before and the Axe FX II, I don't think I had to make this adjustment, so it seems weird to me that I do now, but it's fine I guess. It's just not something I have experiences with FAS units until a recent update.
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The FM3 and Axe Fx II don't have the Input Clipping warning logic.

This was added back in firmware 5.00 or 5.01, which is why you haven't experienced it before.

The preferred method is to adjust it until you're not getting the warning.
 
It would be interesting to have a visual halo ring on the Editor like on some audio interfaces instead of numbers?? To see when its clipping and no have the obsession for the number??
 
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FractalAudio said:
Depends on the guitar. On my Warmoth strat with a JB in the bridge and 9s I run around 65%. If I plug in my Tom Anderson with 10s I have to lower it to 20%.

That's why it's adjustable. The alternative is to have it fixed at some very low value and then people with low output guitars would have worse SNR than is ultimately possible.
Click to expand...
Interesting. I now have to fess up that I just checked what mine is set at and it's around 50%! I was sure I had reduced it way down to avoid the clip warning coming on, but evidently not.
 
This is interesting. I had put my amp block input trim on the performance page to tweak for different guitars. Looking at this tread, it makes far more sense to put the Input 1 Gain from the Input Level configuration on the performance page to adjust for different guitars as that doesn't need to be saved with the preset.
 
Lance Holland said:
This is interesting. I had put my amp block input trim on the performance page to tweak for different guitars. Looking at this tread, it makes far more sense to put the Input 1 Gain from the Input Level configuration on the performance page to adjust for different guitars as that doesn't need to be saved with the preset.
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Keep in mind that Global Input Gain affects everything from the Input block, too, whereas Input Trim only affects the level into the Amp block and not anything before it.

So Global Input Gain (or lowering the Level of the Input block) is probably the best way to address guitars with different levels.
 
Dear all, I'm new to the forum and the Fractal world in general. I recently purchased a used but just few weeks old FM9 unit and I have a very similar issue as the OP. I've searched the manual and the forum but really did not clear my doubts.

Have two guitars, a Strat and a Les Paul, both with vintage spec'd and low output pickups (les paul is just under 8k).
All presets and amps seem way too hot, and especially with the les paul I can barely get any clean sound from any amp. Even a JC120 is already clipping with the amp gain between 2 and 3. A JTM45 or Plexi is already very overdriven with the gain at 1...
As said I am new to Fractal but I find it quite unexpected and very different from my experience with real amps and sw plugins. With my amps (a Brunetti Singleman and Boogie Express) I have a hard time to overdrive clean channels at all and I have to really push the gain.

Some details:
  • The A/D conversion seems very healthy: at the default 50% the meter never hits the red even strumming hard, which confirms the guitar is not too hot. Even the DI signal from USB channels 5/6 has tons of headroom.
  • The global input gain is set at unity
  • I have made a firmware update (6.0) and reset all global parameters and factory presets after purchase

So it seems that a lot of gain is added by the system AFTER the A/D conversion. I understood that the FM9 has a circuit that auto-compensate any change in the A/D input to hit the grid with the correct level, so that the amps would receive the same level as the corresponding modelled gear. Is it possible that this circuit is not working correctly and applying too much gain?

Now, my problem has a simple fix, which is reduce the global input gain to around 0.5. This way I get results more in line with my expectations (and sounds amazing!!!). But one of my goals when buying the unit was to learn how to use amps I cannot access, and Fractal claims absolute accuracy in amp modelling that however can be obtained only hitting the grid with the "right" level.

Sorry for the very long post but I am trying to learn how to use the modeller in-depth and at the moment I am quite puzzled...any help appreciated!!
 
gsharp said:
Dear all, I'm new to the forum and the Fractal world in general. I recently purchased a used but just few weeks old FM9 unit and I have a very similar issue as the OP. I've searched the manual and the forum but really did not clear my doubts.

Have two guitars, a Strat and a Les Paul, both with vintage spec'd and low output pickups (les paul is just under 8k).
All presets and amps seem way too hot, and especially with the les paul I can barely get any clean sound from any amp. Even a JC120 is already clipping with the amp gain between 2 and 3. A JTM45 or Plexi is already very overdriven with the gain at 1...
As said I am new to Fractal but I find it quite unexpected and very different from my experience with real amps and sw plugins. With my amps (a Brunetti Singleman and Boogie Express) I have a hard time to overdrive clean channels at all and I have to really push the gain.

Some details:
  • The A/D conversion seems very healthy: at the default 50% the meter never hits the red even strumming hard, which confirms the guitar is not too hot. Even the DI signal from USB channels 5/6 has tons of headroom.
  • The global input gain is set at unity
  • I have made a firmware update (6.0) and reset all global parameters and factory presets after purchase

So it seems that a lot of gain is added by the system AFTER the A/D conversion. I understood that the FM9 has a circuit that auto-compensate any change in the A/D input to hit the grid with the correct level, so that the amps would receive the same level as the corresponding modelled gear. Is it possible that this circuit is not working correctly and applying too much gain?

Now, my problem has a simple fix, which is reduce the global input gain to around 0.5. This way I get results more in line with my expectations (and sounds amazing!!!). But one of my goals when buying the unit was to learn how to use amps I cannot access, and Fractal claims absolute accuracy in amp modelling that however can be obtained only hitting the grid with the "right" level.

Sorry for the very long post but I am trying to learn how to use the modeller in-depth and at the moment I am quite puzzled...any help appreciated!!
Click to expand...
Exact same experience here.
 
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