Is there a swearing rule? Because I want to, IN A GOOD WAY!!

Just got the FM3, a few hours ago. Turned it on ever so briefly to make sure it didn’t have any evident issues. Did oddly freeze up once, but a reboot and it’s been fine since.

Now I’ve had some time to play it. First: presets don’t wow me. At all. I mean, less “whacky” than other companies do on their devices, but nothing that said “so this what all the fuss is about”. In fact, I had a bit of a pit in my stomach, because I just shipped out my Stomp, and felt that perhaps I made a mistake.

But I did what I always tell others to do; find a blank space and do your own preset. I play a Mark V:25 “in real life”, so I went with USA Lead, added a USA 4x12 (haven’t figured out how to import IR’s yet), added a delay and reverb block, and that‘s it. After all, that’s what I mainly use IRL, and if I can’t get it sounding good with those four blocks, I’m not interested.

Wow. This is it! I tweaked the “Mark IV” like a real one, and it’s there. Exactly there. The GEQ isn’t even wonky. Then, the capper: I changed the power tubes to EL84. Yup, that’s my amp!

So, honeymoon? Yeah, obviously. But this much I can say; without even scratching the surface, I’m already at the point where I know the tone is there. I just need to learn it, because it’s a travel sized spaceship with the number of options.

Thats all for now. Thank God it’s a long weekend.
 
Yeah so the presets aren’t going to please everyone all the time. The first (many) presets are basically set up as a shot at each amp with a kitchen sink of effects to get you started and tweak. These are mostly meant for people that are brand-new to this stuff. The last half-ish of the presets are kinda showcases of all the weird and beautiful things the Fractal is capable of. Several are inspired by sci-fi and fantasy TV and movies. Others are inspired by songs.

We had some fun a few years ago trying to figure out the meaning behind all the names. Here’s my post in that thread summing up my Google Fu and general nerding out, knowing that @FractalAudio is (also) a Trekkie, as well as everyone else’s guesses, suppositions, and outright correct answers.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/preset-name-meanings.85258/page-2#post-1211148
 
Yeah totally get it with the presets, and honestly was expecting to get started immediately with my own patches anyway, which I stumbled through successfully. Next thing to do is really learn the switching; then start experimenting with effects. I think this will end up being a great unit for my regular amps too.
 
You didn't explicitly ask, but to import IRs:

In FM3 EDit:
Tools > Manage Cabs > ("show" browser in top left corner of Cab Manager) > Drag you IRs to that gray area > Click "okay" in dialogue that pops up > highlight all the cabs (or click on one and hit Ctrl + A) > Drag the lot into an empty slot > Hit Save.
 
You didn't explicitly ask, but to import IRs:

In FM3 EDit:
Tools > Manage Cabs > ("show" browser in top left corner of Cab Manager) > Drag you IRs to that gray area > Click "okay" in dialogue that pops up > highlight all the cabs (or click on one and hit Ctrl + A) > Drag the lot into an empty slot > Hit Save.

Awesome thanks! Yeah I know I should read the manual, but being a techy geek, I consider it something of an adventure to see how far I can get without reading anything. The Tim Allen Approach. 😂
I’ll give that a go today, though at this point I don’t know if I need to fix what isn’t broken; the stock cabs are really good.
 
There's just so many of them to sort through. I like my ML Sound Lab & Ownhammer - Much easier to sort through about 100 that I KNOW are spectacular than thousands and trying to find the diamond in the rough :D

Yeah I’m a ML Sound Lab and Celestion+ guy, so if nothing else it’ll be interesting to see how they play here. I’m sure quite good. Still need to pick up the Mikko plugin, for making your own IR’s.
 
Just got the FM3, a few hours ago. Turned it on ever so briefly to make sure it didn’t have any evident issues. Did oddly freeze up once, but a reboot and it’s been fine since.

Now I’ve had some time to play it. First: presets don’t wow me. At all. I mean, less “whacky” than other companies do on their devices, but nothing that said “so this what all the fuss is about”. In fact, I had a bit of a pit in my stomach, because I just shipped out my Stomp, and felt that perhaps I made a mistake.

But I did what I always tell others to do; find a blank space and do your own preset. I play a Mark V:25 “in real life”, so I went with USA Lead, added a USA 4x12 (haven’t figured out how to import IR’s yet), added a delay and reverb block, and that‘s it. After all, that’s what I mainly use IRL, and if I can’t get it sounding good with those four blocks, I’m not interested.

Wow. This is it! I tweaked the “Mark IV” like a real one, and it’s there. Exactly there. The GEQ isn’t even wonky. Then, the capper: I changed the power tubes to EL84. Yup, that’s my amp!

So, honeymoon? Yeah, obviously. But this much I can say; without even scratching the surface, I’m already at the point where I know the tone is there. I just need to learn it, because it’s a travel sized spaceship with the number of options.

Thats all for now. Thank God it’s a long weekend.
I’m still on my FM3 honeymoon months later... I’m pretty sure there’s a Mark Day Recto Preset in there. That was my first WOW moment with this amazing device... You gotta play in stereo to appreciate this thing fully. That Dual Detune stereo spread is absolute sonic bliss. You’ll be laughing out loud all by yourself🤣
 
You didn't explicitly ask, but to import IRs:

In FM3 EDit:
Tools > Manage Cabs > ("show" browser in top left corner of Cab Manager) > Drag you IRs to that gray area > Click "okay" in dialogue that pops up > highlight all the cabs (or click on one and hit Ctrl + A) > Drag the lot into an empty slot > Hit Save.

thanks again on this; I’ve been going nuts on this thing this weekend, and I finally got my IR’s imported, thanks to your help. Still haven’t looked at the manual!! 😂 but yeah, got some crank in’ presets with my favs (Mark, Recto, Jubilee), and also took Leon Todd’s recommendation to try the Atomica, which is way cool. Stock cabs are great, but Celestion and ML are my comfort zone, and they sound great here.
 
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