Covid ended my band, i had an amp (still have, but im selling it) and a really nice pedalboard (still have it, but it's goiing to change a bit and the FM3 will be the centerpiece). So rehearsals and gigs have now become home recordings only. I don't like having gear i don't use, so it bother me having a tube amp i don't use, it's just too loud to get the full effect and benefit at apartment levels so i mainy record with the HX Stomp that's on my pedalboard or a plugin like SGear(mostly this one).
While i really like my pedlaboard, the tones i get from Hx Stomp were always the weakest part of the unit (here's a quick photo of my board).
Sure on a mix it will sound as good as any thing else, but as much as the Line6 crowd denies it lacks a lot on the feel department. It just doesn't feel like your playing a tube amp, it's miles apart form something like a Kemper (wich i owned in the past) or even the Sgear plugin.
It does a lot of things well, just not amp modeling for my own specific taste.
The unit was fine for it's original purpose (being a FX unit, that substituted a pair of previous Strymon units), but for recording only...meh.
So i decided to try something new, and still utilise some "ideas"of this present board (il still want some of theses pedals).
I toyed with the ideia of buying back a Kemper, but the head format was a bit troublesome for my home setup. Plus you don't have usb recording on the Kemper, and even if i went the Stage route i would still need to use a pair of cables into a usb interface and that's just an hassle. And one of things i liked about the Hx Stomp was the ease of use for recording, something i will find here too.
Plus i like to try new things and this will be my first experience with Fractal, and that's also an exciting thing.
So i bought an FM3 today, let's see if i will enjoy it.