I am the kind of person who finds a piece of gear and sticks with it for a long time (The last pedal that I bought was a digitech rp250 back in 2008.) After weeks of research on different options between the helix, fm3, boss gt-1000, headrush, etc. I decided on the helix LT because every YouTube guitarist I saw couldn’t stop singing their praises for it.
The first day I got it I spent 7 hours on it. Not because I was enjoying it, but because it was taking that long for me to find a usable tone for the type of music that I enjoy; metalcore, death metal, slam. I was getting more and more frustrated that I couldn’t find a tone that would even match the free plugins that I had been playing with prior. I tried everything, EVERY amp/cab available, dozens of community made presets, and as many IR’s as I could download. There was a distinct buzzing noise with every single high gain sound that it could make, as well as the fact that when I plugged it into an amp it sounded like it gave a muffled sound like it was playing through a pillow, which I found unacceptable for a device that I had paid over $1200 for.
I had read online that many people found the fractal tones to be much better and more realistic without the buzzing or the muffled sounds. I had no way to test any of these devices in person but regardless i returned the helix LT and reluctantly ordered the FM3. After setting up I IMMEDIATELY heard a night and day difference. It felt like the $1000 device it was supposed to be! The tones felt so much more realistic, they had the low end which was completely absent from the helix. There was a life in even the factory presets that the helix didn’t have. Even with the hundreds of amps and cable available I was able to find a workable tone within minutes, and I was able to tweak the community presets into something I would consider perfect with minimum effort.
I’m not writing this to gush over the fm3 or to sound like a fanboy. I’m writing this because it’s exactly the thing that I needed to read when I was researching which to buy in the first place. If you play metalcore/death metal/djent/slam or any high gain music, you should know that fractal is used by all of the artists we listen to for a reason. Most devices just aren’t capable of creating the tones that we look for. I can’t speak for many other devices but the fact that it is difficult to find anybody on YouTube who demos other devices for anything heavier than ‘edge of breakup’ level tones speaks volumes. Metal guitarists thrive with fractal devices.
The first day I got it I spent 7 hours on it. Not because I was enjoying it, but because it was taking that long for me to find a usable tone for the type of music that I enjoy; metalcore, death metal, slam. I was getting more and more frustrated that I couldn’t find a tone that would even match the free plugins that I had been playing with prior. I tried everything, EVERY amp/cab available, dozens of community made presets, and as many IR’s as I could download. There was a distinct buzzing noise with every single high gain sound that it could make, as well as the fact that when I plugged it into an amp it sounded like it gave a muffled sound like it was playing through a pillow, which I found unacceptable for a device that I had paid over $1200 for.
I had read online that many people found the fractal tones to be much better and more realistic without the buzzing or the muffled sounds. I had no way to test any of these devices in person but regardless i returned the helix LT and reluctantly ordered the FM3. After setting up I IMMEDIATELY heard a night and day difference. It felt like the $1000 device it was supposed to be! The tones felt so much more realistic, they had the low end which was completely absent from the helix. There was a life in even the factory presets that the helix didn’t have. Even with the hundreds of amps and cable available I was able to find a workable tone within minutes, and I was able to tweak the community presets into something I would consider perfect with minimum effort.
I’m not writing this to gush over the fm3 or to sound like a fanboy. I’m writing this because it’s exactly the thing that I needed to read when I was researching which to buy in the first place. If you play metalcore/death metal/djent/slam or any high gain music, you should know that fractal is used by all of the artists we listen to for a reason. Most devices just aren’t capable of creating the tones that we look for. I can’t speak for many other devices but the fact that it is difficult to find anybody on YouTube who demos other devices for anything heavier than ‘edge of breakup’ level tones speaks volumes. Metal guitarists thrive with fractal devices.