Wish A bass player and studio guy’s wishes ...

Hi!

I posted a small (very positive!) review, and was helpfully advised to put my wishes/ suggestions here. :)

My suggestions would be these: (If some of these are available already, please enlighten me!)

1.) The obvious one. Please consider adding more specific bass models. The SVT, Portaflex and the HiWatt et al. are great, but we bass players really love our solid state or hybrid heads. I’d suggest the GK 800RB, Some sort of A.M.P. lineage amp. Probably the Eden WT800. (I own a Thunderfunk 750 which is the perfect iteration of that type of amplifier, but it’s a bit rare.) Also an Aguilar DB750. Wonderful amp.

2.) A slower, more studio-like meter on the compressor gain reduction. The current one is hard to read with it’s fast ballistics.

3.) An alternate type of parametric EQ in the PEQ block. I’d love for all the bands to go from 20-20k. A fifth band would be great too.

4.) The ability to have the comp GR meter show in the global performance page. Along the bottom, perhaps.

5.) The ability to exit the tuner by pressing the scene or FX footswithces in the OMG9 layout. It slows me down having to press the preset button first, then the scene.

Other than this, I’m a happy camper. The unit sounds great and I even record through it sometimes even though I have great preamps and compressors available too. Wonderful piece of kit!

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

GK
 
The 800 RB is a wonderful amp. I think I’ve seen a few companies modeling that one and the Eden WT-800 lately in VST/AU plugs. Between the SVT, B15, Hiwatt and those two, I honestly can’t think of any situation where I’d feel lost for options. :)
 
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I do understand that bass guitar is not the primary market for Fractal, but the FM3 is almost perfectly suited to bass. Fractal stands to gain many new FM3 users with a few bass specific additions like the ones mentioned above. There really are no standout units for bass right now. Darkglass is pretty genre specific and while Zoom has a dedicated bass unit, I think most professionals scoff at the brand even if they are producing quality gear.

Line 6, Neural DSP, and Kemper all have feature set drawbacks for the average bass player, in my opinion. The FM3 has a great compact format, IEC power cord, XLR outputs, and while many guitarist turn their noses up at just three buttons, it's perfect for bass.

I don't think it would take much to appease us bass players and send a message to the bass community that Fractal is a format for bassist to invest in.
  • Add one or two new amps per update. The suggestions at the top are a good place to start.
  • Add a model of the Nobel preamp. This is one of the most coveted bass products on the market.
  • Extend the capabilities of the synth and pitch blocks to track down at least to a low E on the bass (Low B would be even better) This could even be a switchable option within the block to be best optimized for guitar or bass.
  • The EQ suggestions at the top are spot on. Removing the frequency limitations would vastly improve the usefulness to bassists.
  • Adding a few higher quality bass cabinet IRs would also be a big help. The existing cabinets do fall short for most users.
 
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