FM3 As Pedalboard with Backline

A

ALL411987

New Member
Hi All

I am playing a backline gig on Friday and they will not allow DI from my Fractal. So it looks like I'm stuck using the FM3 solely for effects going into an unknown amp. I'm assuming it'll be a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or Blues Jr. Does anyone have any tips for setting up an effects rig in advance of this?

Thanks!
 
ALL411987 said:
Hi All

I am playing a backline gig on Friday and they will not allow DI from my Fractal. So it looks like I'm stuck using the FM3 solely for effects going into an unknown amp. I'm assuming it'll be a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or Blues Jr. Does anyone have any tips for setting up an effects rig in advance of this?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
If you think that'll be the amp you'll end up with, design a patch as normal for direct (with an amp block) and then put all of your blocks in front . will be a good way to test the sonic waters. You can put the Deluxe on channel A and Junior Blues on B, and see if it works with both, too. When you're getting ready for the gig, copy your patch and eliminate the amp/cab block, and just replace with the output block you'll be using. Adding the parameters you'll be adjusting to the performance page will help you get it all locked in at the gig.
 
T
Sean Ashe said:
If you think that'll be the amp you'll end up with, design a patch as normal for direct (with an amp block) and then put all of your blocks in front . will be a good way to test the sonic waters. You can put the Deluxe on channel A and Junior Blues on B, and see if it works with both, too. When you're getting ready for the gig, copy your patch and eliminate the amp/cab block, and just replace with the output block you'll be using. Adding the parameters you'll be adjusting to the performance page will help you get it all locked in at the gig.
Click to expand...
Thanks, Sean. Would I change the output to Output 2 and just use a regular instrument cable to connect it to the front of the amp?
 
ALL411987 said:
T

Thanks, Sean. Would I change the output to Output 2 and just use a regular instrument cable to connect it to the front of the amp?
Click to expand...
I believe the 'best practice' would be using a Humbuster cable (someone correct me if im wrong). But that will get it done!
 
ALL411987 said:
Hi All

I am playing a backline gig on Friday and they will not allow DI from my Fractal. So it looks like I'm stuck using the FM3 solely for effects going into an unknown amp. I'm assuming it'll be a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or Blues Jr. Does anyone have any tips for setting up an effects rig in advance of this?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Just tell them you’re a keyboard player and require a stereo pair with a keyboard amp for monitoring.
 
I did a large gig once where they wouldn't let me use my Victory deluxe reverb clone, a key part of my sound at the time. I had to plug my pedalboard into a JCM900 and Quad backline rig, a setup I had never used, and it sounded shit to my ears no matter what I did to it. I played ok I guess, but it was a big shearing shed with thousands of drunk partiers, and it was SO LOUD even with earplugs in I couldn't hear anything properly. The drums bouncing off the back wall of the venue were louder than the drums I could hear on stage and I had to keep looking over at the drummer to see which drummer I was syncing to!! :tearsofjoy::eek:. I think they would have looked at me like I had 2 heads if I'd turned up with a Fractal. Seems very unprofessional to me.
 
If it's a clean amp, turn off the Cab and plug straight into the front of the amp using the FM3's modeling. Did that for a few months with the AX8 and a couple of times with the FM3 and it sounded great.
 
Are they not micing the guitar amp or something? Makes very little sense to me otherwise. I’ve plugged the FM3 directly into the backline guitar amp mic cable in similar situations and gotten gushing rave reviews from the sound person. Of course I told him I was going to do that first. :) And I put it back when I was done…

-Aaron
 
Last edited:
Nado said:
I did a large gig once where they wouldn't let me use my Victory deluxe reverb clone, a key part of my sound at the time. I had to plug my pedalboard into a JCM900 and Quad backline rig, a setup I had never used, and it sounded shit to my ears no matter what I did to it. I played ok I guess, but it was a big shearing shed with thousands of drunk partiers, and it was SO LOUD even with earplugs in I couldn't hear anything properly. The drums bouncing off the back wall of the venue were louder than the drums I could hear on stage and I had to keep looking over at the drummer to see which drummer I was syncing to!! :tearsofjoy::eek:. I think they would have looked at me like I had 2 heads if I'd turned up with a Fractal. Seems very unprofessional to me.
Click to expand...
unbelievable.. if i cannot have MY sound on stage i wouldnt play..playing modellers shoud be standard in 2022
 
Piing said:
Good idea! And if they don't buy it, tell them you are a MIDI guitarist and they have to take the stereo signal from your synth.
Click to expand...
That’d probably work if they’re so uninformed to think using a modeler will somehow be a bad thing.

If the band likes the sound of the modeler, it might be useful to talk as a band to figure out how to work around that situation in case it occurs again, maybe see if the keyboard player has a mixer with a channel free, then give it the modeler’s output, and send it to the FOH through that feed.
 
Blues/Hot-Rod Dlx both have a "power-amp-in" effects loop connector (can't remember if blues jr does tho). I'd just disable speaker cab emulation on my existing presents and go straight in that way, bypassing the amp's preamp sction.
 
ALL411987 said:
Hi All

I am playing a backline gig on Friday and they will not allow DI from my Fractal.
Click to expand...
Wait, what?!? I was a house engineer at a mid-sized venue for 7 years (and a freelance engineer for a decade before that) and cannot fathom preemptively “not allowing” a musician to use their own gear. I’m sure there were a few instances of it not working out, but to the best of my recollection, we never told someone that up front.

The more I think about it, the only time I remember us saying “no, we’re doing it this way” was when a band had their own monitor rig and their split was really noisy… we rewired the stage so everything was plugged in like it would be for any other band, unplugged our own monitor split and ran it to their board. Problem solved. And even there, it wasn’t so much us dictating things to the band, it was more us reaching the same conclusion the band was coming to, just a bit before they got to it.
 
You could, deactivate Cab & Power Amp Modeling in the global settings and plug the FM3 in the FX-Return or, (as suggested by @JoKeR III) setting the EQ neutral and go to the amp input.
 
I am surprised at the surprise in this forum about venues not allowing guitar/keys or whatever in the house PA, it's common in some places for various reasons. I always accept the answer and politely ask when I get there to understand their concerns, but for a lot of places it is just easier and the norm to have all instruments bring their own amps/speakers
 
JRkelley said:
I am surprised at the surprise in this forum about venues not allowing guitar/keys or whatever in the house PA, it's common in some places for various reasons. I always accept the answer and politely ask when I get there to understand their concerns, but for a lot of places it is just easier and the norm to have all instruments bring their own amps/speakers
Click to expand...
Oh, is that what’s this is about? The PA is only for vocals so you have to bring an amp? I remember doing a gig once where I thought the room was small enough that I didn’t to mic the guitarist’s. He looked at me funny when I suggested I’d just ask him to turn up or down a bit as-needed, but agreed to go along with it.

Anyway, that lasted until the first set break, which was the earliest opportunity I had to fix my obvious mistake.

I can’t imagine why that’d be standard practice anywhere, but given that is it, in that case, yes, I can understand why they’d say that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom