As it said in the subject line, I've been using the Helix, and have been in the Line 6 ecosystem, for quite some time. One of my best friends is a guitar tech (Steve Howe, Adrian Belew, Al Dimeola, currently Pat Metheny) who was working with an artist who used the Helix, and he recommended it to me (thus offering himself up as free tech support). I've used it in a couple of different form factors (Helix floor and Helix rack), and also used the HX Stomp. I used them for years, really learned how they work, and was a beta tester for the last couple of years (more because I'm a software engineer, and have a QA background than due to any great proficiency as a guitarist, which I don't have at all). It's been a great experience, but...I have exactly zero brand loyalty, and was looking for a change from the form factor that I have been using for the last two years (the rack version), and didn't really want to buy another Helix Floor, so when the FM9 was announced, I decided to come over to this side of the street, and see what the fuss was all about.
My FM9 arrived on Friday, and I spent the better part of the afternoon proving all the management types right about remote work, completely ignoring my job and playing with the FM9. I went through all of the presets, not really playing, just a couple chords to see what each one sounded like. This took hours. And over the weekend I did very little playing, instead going through Cooper Carter's FM9 masterclass, mainly focusing on modules 2.1 (top panel overview) and 2.2 (footswitch overview), which also took quite a bit of time, as I was taking notes (8 pages!) and going back, trying each thing he demonstrated.
I did finally do some playing, though, going through the patches (I've not attempted to build any patches yet), just trying to get a feel for it. And this is what I liked and disliked*.
Things I liked, in no particular order:
- Fit and finish - the first thing I noticed as I took it out of the box, it feels every bit as solid as the Line 6 stuff. The buttons and switches all feel great, as well.
- Form factor - this type of floor unit fits me, right now.
- Stock patches - a lot of great, usable stuff, right out of the box. There are two things that I don't understand Line 6's thinking about, their ridiculous stock patches, and the decision to not put great hardware meters on their devices, which brings me to
- Meters! - both hardware and software, you can't give me enough meters, but Fractal sure did try. I think the meters that show the output on each step of the signal chain is an especially nice touch
- Reverbs - one thing I noticed, as I went through the stock patches, the reverbs are insane. When I first got my first Helix, the reverbs were ok, not great...but later they did bring some nice ones in. But the Fractal reverbs are significantly better.
- Blues Jr! - I don't know why it makes me happy that the Fractal has a Blues Junior in and amongst its amp models, but it does.
- Cooper Carter - a huge hat tip for the videos he put together for this unit.
Things I didn't like as much:
- Gaps between scenes - this surprised me a little bit; I expected this to work much more like the Helix snapshots, with totally gapless switching from one snapshot to the other. I expect there are ways of mitigating this, but if not, that is something that I will miss.
- Speaking of scenes, I noticed as I scrolled through the patches that some patches weren't on the first scene, I would change it to the first scene, switch to a new preset, then switch back, and find that it was back on the scene that I switched it from. I'm assuming that you can set a default scene when you create multiple scenes for a preset, but it was triggering my OCD a little.
- It's very complex. This is something I expected, and something that I also dealt with in the Line 6 world, but I took the slow road to mastery with the Helix, and it's been a while since I've had to do any real digging into manuals to figure out how and why things work. The slow road to mastery begins again.
- This is my fault - there were several patches that stood out to me, as I went through the stock patches. But I didn't write down the patch numbers, and I can't remember what they were. :-(
I can't say that the amp models are better or worse than the Helix, as I sold mine before the FM9 arrived and can't compare them side by side. I will say, however, that out of the box, it's a very impressive tool, with a couple things that I already like better (still drooling over those reverbs, and absolutely love the footswitch layouts - they make so much sense). I had the sounds that I hear in my head with the Helix, I'm sure I'll be able to get them again with the FM9, and I'm wondering if those sounds will be better. Impossible to have a real comparison, since the Helix is gone (and I've not kept a backup of the patches), and by the time I've gotten to the point where I've developed some patch building chops, I'll be a different, hopefully better guitarist. Also, I don't really care about comparisons...Linux vs Mac, iOS vs Android, Line 6 vs Fractal...I just don't give a shit. This is the tool that I have now, this is what I'll be focusing on, and I'm very much looking forward to learning more about how to use it.
* I understand that Fractal users can be very...protective of the Fractal line. My dislikes are nothing more than first impressions, and will probably dissipate as I develop a better understanding of the Fractal way of doing things.
