All higher gain distortion amps sound flubby/tinny

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Natrone504

New Member
I've had the FM3 Turbo for the last 6 months and the clean tones and every effect block make the device worth getting rid of my lush sounding Fender amp. However, I was really hoping to also have a solution to play high gain distortion amp sounds at respectable levels. All of the Amps and Cab IR's FM3 offers seem like they would be amazing but all I hear is my Crate Amp from 1987 with the gain at 4 and level (master vol) at 3. It all sounds flubby and tinny. Power chords played on strings 5-3 have a decent crunch but any single notes (especially low E) with sufficient picking attack sound weak and pathetic. I've watched and tried tricks from Leon Todd, Rosh Roslin, lots of other folks on You Tube. I've added various drives, EQ pre and post, done high and low cuts, tweaked the amp and the cab variables but it all sounds like shiite.
I play Les Paul Standard with SD Distortion in bridge, then into Fender ToneMaster. Sounds the same into Tone Master as does my studio monitors.
Are the FM3 high gain amps just not going to come close to playing a true amp and I'm just a fooling myself?
Thanks,
Nate
 
Just checking ...

Is Power Amp and Speaker Modelling turned on in the FM3 Global Settings?

Is your Output 1 & 2 Level set at -10db or +4db in the I/O Menu?

Are you summing to Mono when running to the Fender Tonemaster, and changing to stereo when running the studio monitors?

Have you tweaked the global parametric or graphic EQ?

All of these settings (which are separate to however you configure the amps and effects) can have a significant difference on the perception of the sound quality. So too can the volume that you listen at. The Fractal stuff will sound different when cranked vs low volume, and if you mainly play at lower volume, you will need to customise the setup to suit ...
 
2112 said:
Post a preset and some clips.

What's your reference point for an enjoyable guitar tone; an amp through a guitar cab "in the room" or a mic'd up recorded tone?
2112 said:
Post a preset and some clips.

What's your reference point for an enjoyable guitar tone; an amp through a guitar cab "in the room" or a mic'd up recorded tone?
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Thanks so much for responding, I know I'm whining but I've gotten frustrated.
While I do enjoy the cab in the room tone, I'm not expecting to exactly recreate that. I've definitely heard great mic'd recorded tones and I'd love to get those sounds and be able to play that live as well. I just haven't gotten those tones on my own with the FM3 yet, but will take all the advice anyone can give.
I have only run Output one, have tried both the -10db and +4db in I/O menu. Yes, I've gone mono to the Tonemaster and stereo to the studio monitors. I have not gone back to the global parametric or graphic EQ, had just been using EQ blocks in the signal chain.
Any other advice is much appreciated!
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Yes, major user errors here for sure. I just worked on the global graphic EQ which I had not previously touched. It has made a world of improvement. When I get a chance I'll send a clip and a sample preset. I think out of the box, the clean tones are amazing immediately but the higher gain distortion is a much steeper learning curve. Thanks
 
Natrone504 said:
Yes, major user errors here for sure. I just worked on the global graphic EQ which I had not previously touched. It has made a world of improvement. When I get a chance I'll send a clip and a sample preset. I think out of the box, the clean tones are amazing immediately but the higher gain distortion is a much steeper learning curve. Thanks
Click to expand...

A mate of mine wanted to ditch his FM3 after a few weeks because he couldn't get a sound he was happy with. After discovering and playing with a bunch of the settings, he now loves it.

Of course, use whatever tool in whichever way you like to get it to sound good to you! From my perspective, I try to use the Global EQ's sparingly, and to do most of the sound crafting within the Preset. The Global EQ can be the final icing on the cake, especially to "tune" the FM to your listening environment.

Also, check out the Presets posted by others - the Gift of Tone stuff is very good, with Presets created by pros.

https://www.fractalaudio.com/gift-of-tone/

One would assume the starting proposition is that those sound good (subjective, of course, depending on the type of music that you like!), and you could fine tune using the Global tools to suit your rig. Then, you can look into that Preset to see what makes it tick.

The Mark Day Recto and some of the John Petrucci stuff is my go to from this lot.
 
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Natrone504 said:
Yes, major user errors here for sure. I just worked on the global graphic EQ which I had not previously touched. It has made a world of improvement. When I get a chance I'll send a clip and a sample preset. I think out of the box, the clean tones are amazing immediately but the higher gain distortion is a much steeper learning curve. Thanks
Click to expand...
There’s a output eq in the amp block. That would the better place to eq your amp. All of your presets will run through the global eq. I use the global when I play out and need to adjust for the space. Otherwise I keep it flat.
 
Also, on a Master Volume amp adjust the MV to taste while using the leveling tool to normalize output level. What studio monitors are you using some cheap ones with 3” drivers or decent monitors with 7” (my personal minimum acceptable size) or larger drivers? What volume are you pushing the studio monitors to? Conversational levels or 90+ dB? I love the sound of my Fractal devices through a good set of studio headphones too. I use the Beyer Dynamic DT1990 Pro headphones for that.
 
One thing I discovered early on with the fm3 is how easy it is to ruin the tone by making big adjustments. I also realised that I didn't necessarily know how to dial the tone I had in my head, that comes down to a little bit of experience.

So I went back to basics and reset some of my high gain amps to default settings, then made small adjustments rather than bumping the mids up to the the three quarter mark. The tone controls are really sensitive and you can easily lose the tone. The other big one for me in terms of high gain was resisting the urge to turn the gain up a lot, it just compresses the sound too much and you lose all the articulation. What I do now is only increase gain marginally and put a distortion pedal with low drive setting in front. Works wonders.

Like the OP I originally thought the high gain wasn't that pleasing, the Engle savage was a bit lame for me, until I tone matched it to Ritchie faulkners live English tone by doing some of the above, and now it's glorious. I can't believe how I messed that amp tone up the first time around, but its easily done.

The other thing I found is that these tones really come alive a lot more if you can turn the volume up just a little bit. It's all there, it's just a case of knowing how to go about it.
 
millman said:
Also, on a Master Volume amp adjust the MV to taste while using the leveling tool to normalize output level.
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That can change the tonal character (more or less depending on the amp model). To normalize output level without any tonal change, use amp block "level" while observing the levellling tool.
 
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