Capillatus
New Member
Hi all,
Long time HX Stomp user here, just got my FM3 2 weeks ago. So, I just wanted to quickly jot down my thoughts about what I think sets it apart from all the other modeler solutions.
- Tone
I think at this point, you can get a good enough live tone from any modeler, even the cheap Chinese ones. I’m not sure what I expected coming to Fractal, but wow. There is a definite difference here, in that you really don’t need to do anything but pull up an amp you know (or think) you like, choose a cab and set up the mic(s), maybe add some reverb and boom - a sound that’s immediately inspiring to play and feels great without any tweaking beforehand. Of course then, you can start tweaking as much as you like. One of my favorite things is the input boost built into the amp block. Like so many things here, it just seems perfectly set up to easily do everything that you would want to do live.
-UI
I used to be very skeptical about the Fractal onboard UI, but I have to say it’s only really overwhelming for the first half hour or so, then you get used to it. And honestly, with so many parameters, I don’t know how else you should solve that. And of course the editor is great and includes so many small things to make your life easier, like copying and pasting just one channel instead of the entire block. It’s things like that that show me how much Fractal thinks about how their units are actually going to be used.
-Switching
Oh man, don’t get me started on the switching. I took about an hour to plan and program a set list/song/song section layout and now I don’t think I ever want to use any other device anymore. The flexibility is insane. Between layout links and tap/toggle/hold functionality, it is truly mind blowing what you can get out of three switches. Especially the layout links are amazing, another thing that’s just telling about how much thought goes into stuff like this. Of course you could manually change views after you select a song, but logically the next thing you select after you select a song would be a song section, so I set it up to switch views automatically. Then I have another view setup for CS1 as momentary and CS2 as latching (+Tap Tempo/Tuner) so anything I need to toggle or hold manually I can do. And as if that isn’t enough, then I can setup a per preset override to give me other options if I don’t want that momentary switch, for example.
So here’s to hopefully many years playing fractal audio stuff! I couldn’t be happier.
Long time HX Stomp user here, just got my FM3 2 weeks ago. So, I just wanted to quickly jot down my thoughts about what I think sets it apart from all the other modeler solutions.
- Tone
I think at this point, you can get a good enough live tone from any modeler, even the cheap Chinese ones. I’m not sure what I expected coming to Fractal, but wow. There is a definite difference here, in that you really don’t need to do anything but pull up an amp you know (or think) you like, choose a cab and set up the mic(s), maybe add some reverb and boom - a sound that’s immediately inspiring to play and feels great without any tweaking beforehand. Of course then, you can start tweaking as much as you like. One of my favorite things is the input boost built into the amp block. Like so many things here, it just seems perfectly set up to easily do everything that you would want to do live.
-UI
I used to be very skeptical about the Fractal onboard UI, but I have to say it’s only really overwhelming for the first half hour or so, then you get used to it. And honestly, with so many parameters, I don’t know how else you should solve that. And of course the editor is great and includes so many small things to make your life easier, like copying and pasting just one channel instead of the entire block. It’s things like that that show me how much Fractal thinks about how their units are actually going to be used.
-Switching
Oh man, don’t get me started on the switching. I took about an hour to plan and program a set list/song/song section layout and now I don’t think I ever want to use any other device anymore. The flexibility is insane. Between layout links and tap/toggle/hold functionality, it is truly mind blowing what you can get out of three switches. Especially the layout links are amazing, another thing that’s just telling about how much thought goes into stuff like this. Of course you could manually change views after you select a song, but logically the next thing you select after you select a song would be a song section, so I set it up to switch views automatically. Then I have another view setup for CS1 as momentary and CS2 as latching (+Tap Tempo/Tuner) so anything I need to toggle or hold manually I can do. And as if that isn’t enough, then I can setup a per preset override to give me other options if I don’t want that momentary switch, for example.
So here’s to hopefully many years playing fractal audio stuff! I couldn’t be happier.
