Can the FM3 be a one box solution for guitar and monitoring?

[Neilgb]

I would like to use the FM3 as a one box Solution for guitar and band monitoring. I don’t have the FM3 yet (on the wait list and due any day) and I can’t see how to do this in the manual.

I want to route the instrument through effects/amp/cab etc to foh and a personal monitor (eg iems from the HP out).

Also take a band monitor mix from the foh and route it through the FM3 to the personal monitor mix. (ie my iems).

is this feasible?

thanks for looking

neil

 

[Rex]

To monitor yourself, you can set Output 2 to copy Output 1. This gives you separate volume knobs for FOH and your IEMs.

If you want to monitor a band mix, you’ll need to use Input 2 and Output 2 together for that, on a per-preset basis.

 

[Moke]

I would like to use the FM3 as a one box Solution for guitar and band monitoring. I don’t have the FM3 yet (on the wait list and due any day) and I can’t see how to do this in the manual.

I want to route the instrument through effects/amp/cab etc to foh and a personal monitor (eg iems from the HP out).

Also take a band monitor mix from the foh and route it through the FM3 to the personal monitor mix. (ie my iems).

is this feasible?

thanks for looking

neil

Yes. I would make sure that your guitar signal is not also in the monitor mix from FOH. There could be phase issues from to round trip delay of your guitar signal going through the FOH mixer, getting processed, and come back to you, and being out of phase with the Fractal's direct signal....

Example....... (a picture's worth a thousand words)

 

[Chad Beattie]

I can’t confirm as I have the non headphone unit but thought I read where the headphone jack is just a copy of out 1. OP mentioned wanting to monitor via headphone jack. If so, then out 2 would probably need to go FOH and out 1 is the level for iems fed by headphone jack. What Moke posted should work but swap the out blocks depending on head phone jack use vs out 2 feeding iems. If using per song presets you will have an issue if tweaking the GEQ as FM3 doesn’t support global blocks (yet). Each time you change presets it will be reset.

All that being said, this is how I run myAxe Fx III and it works great. But I’m not using the headphone jack for IEMs and I have global blocks to use for per song presets. During sound check I set the GEQ or whatever global block I’m using to shape the sound and mix of my IEMs and then save the preset. Then all of my other presets are good to go as they have the same global block linked.

Cable wise make sure you have 1/4 to xlr converters and visa versa. They may just give you an XLR for band mix. Then you need to get that to 1/4 to run into FM3. And if you have to send them OUT 2, then need to probably go from 1/4 to XLR.

 

[Neilgb]

Thanks for all the great insights. And the tip on not putting guitar in the monitor mix! Very helpful.
It doesn’t matter to me if I use the headphone out or another out to get the iem feed.
This ability to be a single box solution is a great feature for those of us that play in bands without a full PA solution.
Thanks again

 

[BigBabyBurrito]

What you want to do sounds possible, but it also sounds needlessly complicated. You're probably better off buying something like a Behringer P1 ($69) or P2 ($39) and using that to run your IEMs.

If you just want a mono feed of the band mix with your guitar in it, and you don't mind going through AAA batteries, the P2 will clip on your belt and you'll only have a single XLR or TRS cable tethered to you (the P2 can handle stereo, but you'd need a Y cable to do so, and I'm assuming you're in the "simpler is better" camp based on your post).

The P1 is better if you want to be able to control the blend of your guitar signal with the band mix, and if you don't mind a bulkier pack (probably better to mount it to a mic stand anyway, then you can use a power adapter rather than a 9V battery). Before we upgraded to wireless, my whole band used to run P1 units attached to our mic stands, and even factoring in the cost of 9V power adapters, boom arms with clamps, and headphone extension cables, it was less than $100/person for a pretty killer monitoring solution.