FM3 Firmware Version 10.0 public beta

Status
Not open for further replies.
unix-guy said:
It's good to be prepared.

It's not good to make 20 posts declaring that the sky is falling without doing anything but reading this thread.

Also, if you're read up to this point you've inevitably seen several posts from people saying their CPU use dropped by 4-5%.

Why didn't you quote any of those and say "wow! The support life for my non-Turbo FM3 just got extended!"?
Click to expand...
OK, so I don't offend you further, here is my final take on what I think. Probably a great update. But I stand behind my statement that non-turbo units are end of life cycle as they are no longer sold, but are upgradeable, with the caveat that it might require users to do a little to a lot of tweaking.
It is OK for you to see things differently, people don't have to agree. As to your last statement, you put it in quotes. Where was that previously stated? I don't think it extended the support life of my non-turbo. Ultimately as firmware updates proceed, it is a path to ending the support life. Maybe not yet, but it will happen sooner or later. In my case I think sooner. You obviously feel differently. I respect that.

I agree, let's stop arguing. You are correct, I will backup my FM3 and load FW10 and see what happens. Perhaps I will be completely happy. I was just concerned by the Fractal worded cpu warning, and some of the comments made on this thread.
 
Probably a dumb question but, updating from a very old firmware to this, say firmware 4 (no dynacabs and many more), could be a problem? Should I do an intermediate firmware update between the two? Also i guess I'll have to reset a ton of things...
 
SpudMan said:
As to your last statement, you put it in quotes. Where was that previously stated?
Click to expand...
Re-read what I wrote.

That was a fictional quote from you about the people who have posted about CPU reduction after loading this firmware. You seem to have ignored those posts...
 
unix-guy said:
Re-read what I wrote.

That was a fictional quote from you about the people who have posted about CPU reduction after loading this firmware. You seem to have ignored those posts...
Click to expand...
Agreed. And I think maybe I should just avoid the forum for now as really we are discussing a beta. I imagine eventually Fractal will release a fully supported firmware upgrade which if supported on my unit will show up when I power it on. Otherwise your statements hold true and I should just avoid the beta updates and respect that if the final release of FW10 beta shows up on my unit at power up, then it is supported, and is OK to use.
 
Akeron said:
Probably a dumb question but, updating from a very old firmware to this, say firmware 4 (no dynacabs and many more), could be a problem? Should I do an intermediate firmware update between the two? Also i guess I'll have to reset a ton of things...
Click to expand...
No problem. You can go directly to this version... Be prepared to update your presets as there have been lots of changes.

You should probably read through the Release Notes of all the intermediate releases here:

https://wiki.fractalaudio.com/wiki/index.php?title=Firmware_release_notes_-_FM3
 
SpudMan said:
Are you non-turbo? Mine is non-turbo and I am concerned that I can no longer safely update to newer firmware.
Click to expand...
I'm on non-turbo as well.. updated last night and all my presets sound better. I don't use a ton of blocks in my presets - just amp, drive, cab, pitch and reverb
 
SpudMan said:
Agreed. And I think maybe I should just avoid the forum for now as really we are discussing a beta. I imagine eventually Fractal will release a fully supported firmware upgrade which if supported on my unit will show up when I power it on. Otherwise your statements hold true and I should just avoid the beta updates and respect that if the final release of FW10 beta shows up on my unit at power up, then it is supported, and is OK to use.
Click to expand...
I was like you in my hesitancy to update being a non Turbo FM-3 owner. My main preset that was very close to the danger zone (85% before update) mainly because of my need for a pitch block to do harmonies in a couple of songs. I only needed quick tweak in the reverb block (see Matt's suggestion.) It sounds SO freakin' good. I would urge you to just backup, go for it and GET it.

I understand that the updates will someday surpass this little guy's ability to keep up, but I bought it 6 or 7 years ago knowing this. You probably did too. Good news: We're not there yet!

Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. I played last night for about 4 hours!
 
I read all the posts… with all the general excitement I don't know if I'll be able to wait for the stable version. I really hope it won't take too long to get out of the beta version
 
I've had an issue with latency suddenly jumping from being unnoticable to ~1s while using USB as the input. Reselecting the FM3 in Ableton or Garageband resets the latency back to unnoticable levels. This didn't happen in MacOS 14.
MacMini 2024
M4 Pro
24GB
MacOS 15.4.1
 
SpudMan said:
Sure Fractal hasn't prevented the update ability on non-turbo, but if the unit lacks processing power needed to take full advanatage of the new firmware, and in some cases requires lots of tweaking of existing presets, than I still think it means the firmware update is not really recommended.
Click to expand...

This is true of the Turbo units as well. Several of my presets were at 91% after updating. I had to make adjustments to take advantage of as much of the new FW as I could. If I want to take FULL advantage, I'll have to get an FM9 or an AxeFXIII.
 
I was hesitant, but it's all good. Several of my presets actually went down in CPU buy a few percentage points. The reverbs were the culprit in the ones that jumped up to 91%.
 
SpudMan said:
OK, so I don't offend you further, here is my final take on what I think. Probably a great update. But I stand behind my statement that non-turbo units are end of life cycle as they are no longer sold, but are upgradeable, with the caveat that it might require users to do a little to a lot of tweaking.
It is OK for you to see things differently, people don't have to agree. As to your last statement, you put it in quotes. Where was that previously stated? I don't think it extended the support life of my non-turbo. Ultimately as firmware updates proceed, it is a path to ending the support life. Maybe not yet, but it will happen sooner or later. In my case I think sooner. You obviously feel differently. I respect that.

I agree, let's stop arguing. You are correct, I will backup my FM3 and load FW10 and see what happens. Perhaps I will be completely happy. I was just concerned by the Fractal worded cpu warning, and some of the comments made on this thread.
Click to expand...

That just seems like a modern phone / Apple type of mindset. Why so worried they are not being sold or that newer models come out?

My 13 year old Axe Fx II still works. It hasn't been updated in 6 years. I have tons of old rack units that are 30-40 years old now. Guess what, they still work. I still use them as effects units with my tube amps.

Until the day they physically die and replacement parts are no longer available, they are not obsolete.
 
danwei said:
The thing is that I cannot delete the old preset. The unit crashes immediately after selection. You cannot delete a preset without the unit selecting it.
Therefore I can’t override the old preset with the new one via preset manager because the unit crashes while trying to deal with this preset.
Click to expand...

From P. 113 in the manual:
1746898538724.png
 
Could be user error but after I updated to this beta FW, it took out a few of my global settings. I had to put my output 1 back to +4dB, it cleared out all my FC-12 layouts, and deleted all my custom scales. My FM3 (non-Turbo) also always starts on Bassguy preset for some reason instead of last used.

I will say that it lowered my overall CPU utilization and I was actually able to use reverbs at Ultra High now. Gapless switching seems to be quicker (could be lower utilization though).
 
electroncr said:
Could be user error but after I updated to this beta FW, it took out a few of my global settings. I had to put my output 1 back to +4dB, it cleared out all my FC-12 layouts, and deleted all my custom scales. My FM3 (non-Turbo) also always starts on Bassguy preset for some reason instead of last used.
Click to expand...
It sounds like you inadvertently reset the system to factory specs, because firmware by itself won’t do those things.

You can restore the system settings and layouts using the system+fc file created when you do a full backup.

You did do a full backup before installing the firmware, right?
 
FYI - I upgraded my non-tubo FM3 to the latest along with all the new presets without issue. I just did a full backup and then emptied out all my factory presets prior to the upgrade. To empty them out from the preset manager I just copied an empty preset, selected all the factory presets, pasted over them and saved. Took a couple minutes tops.

-Aaron
 
Greg Ferguson said:
It sounds like you inadvertently reset the system to factory specs, because firmware by itself won’t do those things.

You can restore the system settings and layouts using the system+fc file created when you do a full backup.

You did do a full backup before installing the firmware, right?
Click to expand...
Good to know. I did do a backup, so I will give it a try this evening when I get back home. I appreciate the help. It sounds fantastic and really liking the spring reverbs as well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom