Buffer Before FM3

R

renka

New Member
Until today, I plugged my guitar into my pedalboard and then plugged the last pedal of my board into the FM3.
The pedalboard has a Polytune 3, which has a high quality buffer.
Today, I tried plugging in straight into the FM3 and my guitar sounds very different.
There is considerably more low end and slightly less high and super high end.

I read up on both the FM3 and the Polytune and they both have a 1MΩ input impedance, so why does the frequency response change so much?
Is putting a buffer before the FM3 a good idea?
 
You may need to adjust your presets to compensate for the sound you're used to and/or fond of; but no, you don't need a buffer before the FM3 unless you like the way it sounds.
 
Your pedalboard sounds different because something on that board is changing your sound. You can find out which pedal or cable is doing that by taking one pedal at. Time out of your signal chain and listening to the result.

There is no benefit to putting a buffer in front of your FM3, unless you have long or low-impedance cables in between. There may or may not be an advantage to having a buffer in front of your pedalboard.
 
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Rather than starting a new thread, I figured I'd piggyback off this one.

I'm looking to build a board similar to the OP's setup. I'd want to use a Sennheiser XSW-D wireless tuner into a Nano Pog and then a Cali 76 Compressor. I'd potentially add an audition box into this chain as well. All of this to primarily to save on CPU. Would a buffer be necessary for this setup or not?
 
NARPLDR said:
Rather than starting a new thread, I figured I'd piggyback off this one.

I'm looking to build a board similar to the OP's setup. I'd want to use a Sennheiser XSW-D wireless tuner into a Nano Pog and then a Cali 76 Compressor. I'd potentially add an audition box into this chain as well. All of this to primarily to save on CPU. Would a buffer be necessary for this setup or not?
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The FM3‘s ”physical” input is buffered. In fact Fractal considers it more than that and have named it “Secret Sause IV”. Personally, the less stuff before the FM3 the better. I would utilize the loop for outbound effects. I realize that isn’t what many would want to do or work the best for certain effects, but I believe having the straight guitar going to the FM3 is how to achieve the best and most consistent sound and playability. To answer your main question, No you don’t need a buffer unless as someone else said your signal coming from your board is so degraded that it’s necessary. Hopefully, that’s not the case.
 
If you like the tone of a buffered pedal before it, then it’s the correct thing to do. Doesn’t need it, but buffers can sound subjectively good, or at least different.

with my Centura KLone, I found even with the pedal disengaged it’s always on buffer sweetened the tone, and I actually liked the buffet aspect more than the od/boost aspect of the pedal.

true bypass seemed to be all the rage and buffer was a dirty word, but they can sound good
 
If you only have 2-3 pedals, a buffer probably won't make any difference. If you have a wireless at the beginning, that's already changing things since there's no physical connection between your guitar and the pedals after that.

If you have a lot of pedals, both a buffer at the front and at the end will help keep the signal strong. Many delay and reverb pedals that have trails when bypassed are buffered. All Boss pedals are buffered.
 
In a conventional setup (guitar>analog effects>guitar amp) A properly designed high quality buffer is a good thing. In fact that was what Pete Cornish did with David Gilmour‘s monster custom built effect rigs and why he sounded so great live all the way back in the later 70’s and 80’s. He would go as far and tear out the crappy buffers (if there were any) in the effects and build purpose built buffers before and after each effect all through the chain. The reason True Bypass became popular was because of some of the less stellar designs of mass produced pedals. Low quality buffer components or where the guitar signal was still going through much of the circuit with just the parts manipulating the signal turned off.

I do think it’s important to distinguish that mixing conventional effects, etc. and highly designed modeling gear like the Fractal stuff should be approached with thought and the understanding your dealing with two very different technologies and consider the last thing you would want to do is mess in a negative way the quality sound that can be achieved with the expensive piece of modeling gear you purchased.

Edit:
Having said all that, whatever makes you happy is all that matters. I use (and still do, but semi retired) to get paid to advise people what‘s best (all things considered) and have a hard time not being that person.
 
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