Assign FM3 knobs to amp controls?

[sumitagarwal]

Current Axe-FX II XL owner mulling over a switch to the FM3.

One thing that always has and continues to drive me batty about the Axe-FX is the limited ability to assign the knobs to core go-to amp control knobs and jam out a bit more like a traditional amp with minor adjustments at hand. It really feels like the Fractal MO is much more to fine-tune and save presets/scenes/etc and switch between them as needed, but I'm much more of a single amp player who twiddles guitar and amp knobs while playing.

Anyways, on the FM3 is there any way to assign the 5 knobs to, say, Gain, BMT, Master Vol?

I've looked around on the forum and through the manual, and I'm still not finding it clear.

 

[Jeronimo]

Yes, you can assign parameters in the performance page.

 

[sumitagarwal]

Yes, you can assign parameters in the performance page.

Thanks! Does it allow the 5 main knobs to be assigned? What about the large Value knob?

On the Axe-FX II many of the amp controls (BMT) cannot be assigned to controllers. Is that still the case on the FM3?

 

[PatrickWD]

If you press the “page right” button on the Fm3 the 5 knobs should go to controlling the basic amp parameters.

 

[sumitagarwal]

If you press the “page right” button on the Fm3 the 5 knobs should go to controlling the basic amp parameters.

I think you're referring to jumping to the amp block edit, right? This is similar to the Axe-FX II, and while it helps it's not what I'd ideally want.

For example, on a Fender preset I'd omit assigning the Middle control, and would include reverb or trem.

Overall I'm seeing some promising improvements. The 4 "channel" functionality of the FM3 should be a huge improvement over the X/Y of the Axe-FX II, in particular because I despise having to change the speaker impedance curve settings each time I want to load up different channels of the same amp.

 

[PRSfreak4]

Anyways, on the FM3 is there any way to assign the 5 knobs to, say, Gain, BMT, Master Vol?

FM3 Owners Manual (link)

Page 115:
TUTORIAL: HOW TO SET UP PERFORMANCE PAGES 14 ADDITIONAL TOPICS

Performance Pages must be set up using FM3-Edit, the companion editor/librarian software for the FM3.

In the following tutorial, we will set do two examples.
1. In this tutorial, we’ll edit the Global Performance page. To display it, tap Home, then tap Page Right twice. Notice that the factory default settings place the basic knobs of the AMP block here: Drive, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Depth, Master Volume, Level. There are also two empty spots. We’ll fill one of them here with the Delay Mix control so you can quickly adjust delay levels when you play. 2
. Connect your FM3 over USB to a compatible Mac or Windows computer and Launch FM3-Edit (see p. 13). (Remember, you will need a driver if you are running Windows. See Section 3: USB).
3. In FM3 Edit, load Factory Preset 001 or any preset that contains the Delay 1 block.
4. Once this preset loads, click on the delay block to select it in the grid.
5. Switch to the Performance Page editor in FM3 Edit by clicking the Perform button above the grid.
6. Drag and Drop the Mix parameter of the delay block to the empty slot in the top row of the Global Performance Controls area. IMPORTANT: You must drag controls by their LABEL! If you drag on the knob, you will change its value. Don’t panic if this happens, just UNDO by pressing Command + Z (Mac) / Control + Z (Win) and then try again.
7. That’s it! You can exit the Perform Page editor now by clicking again on the Perform button above the grid NOTE: Since we’ve only changed a Global Performance Control, there is no need to store anything. In comparison, when you edit the Per-Preset Performance page you must save the preset to commit changes.
8. Let’s add Reverb Mix to the remaining empty slot on the Perform-Gbl page. We must first change to the reverb block so we can drag-and-drop from its edit menu. Of course we could momentarily return to the grid, but there’s a way to change the current block without doing this. A dropdown menu in FM3-Edit lists every block in the current preset. Find it left of the large block icon in the lower panel of FM3-Edit (shown at right, highlighted in green). Select the reverb from this list and then drag the Mix parameter to the Performance Page editor as you did with the Delay Mix.
9. You can also use drag-and-drop to rearrange controls on performance pages. Drag one control onto another to swap them. Try this out on the Reverb Mix and Delay controls. Decide how you like this and then move on. TIP: To remove a control, click it and then press Delete/Backspace on your keyboard.
10. You can change the two line label for any control by double-clicking on the existing name. Type your desired text and then press Enter/Return on your keyboard to confirm. Test this by changing the first line of the delay control to “DELAY” instead of “DLY1”. You have reached the end of this tutorial. Test your changes on the FM3.

When in doubt, check dat manual

 

[sumitagarwal]

FM3 Owners Manual (link)

Page 115:
TUTORIAL: HOW TO SET UP PERFORMANCE PAGES 14 ADDITIONAL TOPICS

Performance Pages must be set up using FM3-Edit, the companion editor/librarian software for the FM3.

In the following tutorial, we will set do two examples.
1. In this tutorial, we’ll edit the Global Performance page. To display it, tap Home, then tap Page Right twice. Notice that the factory default settings place the basic knobs of the AMP block here: Drive, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence, Depth, Master Volume, Level. There are also two empty spots. We’ll fill one of them here with the Delay Mix control so you can quickly adjust delay levels when you play. 2
. Connect your FM3 over USB to a compatible Mac or Windows computer and Launch FM3-Edit (see p. 13). (Remember, you will need a driver if you are running Windows. See Section 3: USB).
3. In FM3 Edit, load Factory Preset 001 or any preset that contains the Delay 1 block.
4. Once this preset loads, click on the delay block to select it in the grid.
5. Switch to the Performance Page editor in FM3 Edit by clicking the Perform button above the grid.
6. Drag and Drop the Mix parameter of the delay block to the empty slot in the top row of the Global Performance Controls area. IMPORTANT: You must drag controls by their LABEL! If you drag on the knob, you will change its value. Don’t panic if this happens, just UNDO by pressing Command + Z (Mac) / Control + Z (Win) and then try again.
7. That’s it! You can exit the Perform Page editor now by clicking again on the Perform button above the grid NOTE: Since we’ve only changed a Global Performance Control, there is no need to store anything. In comparison, when you edit the Per-Preset Performance page you must save the preset to commit changes.
8. Let’s add Reverb Mix to the remaining empty slot on the Perform-Gbl page. We must first change to the reverb block so we can drag-and-drop from its edit menu. Of course we could momentarily return to the grid, but there’s a way to change the current block without doing this. A dropdown menu in FM3-Edit lists every block in the current preset. Find it left of the large block icon in the lower panel of FM3-Edit (shown at right, highlighted in green). Select the reverb from this list and then drag the Mix parameter to the Performance Page editor as you did with the Delay Mix.
9. You can also use drag-and-drop to rearrange controls on performance pages. Drag one control onto another to swap them. Try this out on the Reverb Mix and Delay controls. Decide how you like this and then move on. TIP: To remove a control, click it and then press Delete/Backspace on your keyboard.
10. You can change the two line label for any control by double-clicking on the existing name. Type your desired text and then press Enter/Return on your keyboard to confirm. Test this by changing the first line of the delay control to “DELAY” instead of “DLY1”. You have reached the end of this tutorial. Test your changes on the FM3.

When in doubt, check dat manual

Well hey, this sounds pretty great, and thanks since I had trouble finding this in the manual.

I'd say I'm pretty sold on the FM3, especially since I can sell my II XL for about the same amount, possibly more.

The way I play I would prefer to just have one preset per amp, and with the 4 channels I can load all channels of the real amp into the preset, and each preset can have Performance set up to reflect the given amp.

I think this will address most of my complains about the Axe-FX II workflow, plus better tone and portability. The other big complaint I've always had about the Axe-FX II is having to manually dial in the speaker impedance settings for the different cabs, but as I understand it the Axe-FX III and FM series have proper impedance presets for that, which helps. Not quite as good as somehow linking the amp block with the factory cab blocks to automatically set the impedance, but a big improvement.

I think the only things I'll be losing that I might miss are variable input impedance (key for fuzz, nice for nailing low input on Fender amps), and amp bias tremolo.

 

[Randalljax]

Current Axe-FX II XL owner mulling over a switch to the FM3.

One thing that always has and continues to drive me batty about the Axe-FX is the limited ability to assign the knobs to core go-to amp control knobs and jam out a bit more like a traditional amp with minor adjustments at hand. It really feels like the Fractal MO is much more to fine-tune and save presets/scenes/etc and switch between them as needed, but I'm much more of a single amp player who twiddles guitar and amp knobs while playing.

Anyways, on the FM3 is there any way to assign the 5 knobs to, say, Gain, BMT, Master Vol?

I've looked around on the forum and through the manual, and I'm still not finding it clear.

This explains and shows it pretty well starts at 5:07

 

[sumitagarwal]

This explains and shows it pretty well starts at 5:07

This is fantastic.

Fractal should be making this content =P

 

[Randalljax]

This is fantastic.

Fractal should be making this content =P

It’s honestly much more powerful than the AX8
The AX8 had fixed controls for you bass mids treble but you still have that plus another 10 options per preset so imagine
You can access your noise gate threshold , delay mix , rev mix
Negative feedback, your bright , tight and Fat switch all instant access , it’s pretty cool and easy to set up

 

[sumitagarwal]

Trigger pulled.

 

[sumitagarwal]

It's not clear to me poking around online, but are the Authentic Controls available on the built in FM3 screen or only via FM3-Edit?

 

[ectoplasm88]

Trigger pulled.

Don't forget fractal does have a 15 day money back guarantee too. Keep all the tags on it and screen protectors etc if you think you might want to return it. Definitely update the firmware first thing and make sure you have the most recent factory presets uploaded. Not sure what it will be shipping out with. Also... check out the gifts of tone there are some really great presets, blocks, IR's etc there. I know the manual looks daunting but it's actually a pretty fun read and the time spent is really worth it.

Not sure if you caught it but there are "Global" assignments you can set on the knobs and also "Per Preset" so that is quite a bit of control you can have for performance right at your fingertips.

 

[Moke]

Thanks! Does it allow the 5 main knobs to be assigned? What about the large Value knob?

On the Axe-FX II many of the amp controls (BMT) cannot be assigned to controllers. Is that still the case on the FM3?

Actually the Performance pages (one Global and one Per-preset) have 10 possible parameters, two rows of 5 knobs. Just about an parameter from any block can be dragged and dropped into these pages.

Example...

'Global' Performance page..

1. Top row.. Drive, Bass, Mid, Treble, Presence.
2. Bottom row.. Amp Level, Input Boost, Bass Cut, Fat switch, Bright switch

'Per-Preset' Performance Page.. For preset specific parameters as needed.

But, the Amp block tone controls are also assignable to modifiers if needed.

 

[alex1fly]

If you press the “page right” button on the Fm3 the 5 knobs should go to controlling the basic amp parameters.

I basically live on this page. Turn the unit on and one click of the page right button to the amp parameter page. One more click and I’m in the performance page i set up with wet/dry controls for my main effects. These two pages give me the most “amp and pedalboard” like setup.

 

[sumitagarwal]

I basically live on this page. Turn the unit on and one click of the page right button to the amp parameter page. One more click and I’m in the performance page i set up with wet/dry controls for my main effects. These two pages give me the most “amp and pedalboard” like setup.

This is sounding pretty great. I suspect what I'll do is keep one Preset for each amp with a fixed set of effects across Presets, using Channels to switch between the different channels/inputs of the amp, use the Global Performance Page for pedalboard controls, and use the Preset Performance Page for amp-specific controls.

This is going to be so much neater and cleaner than Axe-FX II!

 

[Chromatizm]

Please don't use the Performance pages for tuning amp or drive settings. There are much better options to control main blocks.

Double press on A knob takes you to FULL Amp block management on the device, same as Editors have. Double press on B takes you to the "Boost" aka Drive block. Etc. - C for Cab, D for Delay, E for rEverb.

Save Performance pages for fine tuning options hidden in hard to reach pages, like Output compression type and value, changing Speaker driver/compression/thump/curve values, or maybe values for in-amp boost and saturation. Increases flexibility and control immensely. Performance pages for changing amp gain and EQ are no more!!

 

[PatrickWD]

Please don't use the Performance pages for tuning amp or drive settings. There are much better options to control main blocks.

Double press on A knob takes you to FULL Amp block management on the device, same as Editors have. Double press on B takes you to the "Boost" aka Drive block. Etc. - C for Cab, D for Delay, E for rEverb.

Save Performance pages for fine tuning options hidden in hard to reach pages, like Output compression type and value, changing Speaker driver/compression/thump/curve values, or maybe values for in-amp boost and saturation. Increases flexibility and control immensely. Performance pages for changing amp gain and EQ are no more!!

Thanks for this! Had no idea this was an option. Makes editing presets on the fly much easier!

 

[unix-guy]

Please don't use the Performance pages for tuning amp or drive settings. There are much better options to control main blocks.

The Performance Pages should be used for whatever makes sense to the user.

It's nice that those other ways to access them exist, but perhaps the user wants to see both Amp Input Gain and Drive block Level on the same screen?

 

[Chromatizm]

It's nice that those other ways to access them exist, but perhaps the user wants to see both Amp Input Gain and Drive block Level on the same screen?

But of course. I understand different use cases And basically the OP wanted exactly this, with Reverb on the same page as amp gain. So performance pages it is.
If he uses only a few presets, and wants to quickly change things like wet/dry mix for Reverb, setting Global for this plus amp gain is the best. But! This is also quite limiting if he won't explore other options.