Considering FM3 but...

P

phil051167

New Member
I there !
I'm still hesitating for a FM3 purchase.
I'm very interested in tones and global quality
I like the convenience of a all-in-one solution. Even the internal AC adpater is great!
I would like to use it as complete live rig (without using FC6 ),
I think FM9 is too big...
Normally each of our song need about 3 different guitars tones (today I'm using tonex with HXFX), But each tone use a different amp accessed by midi.
Some tones need some variation like vibe on/off boost on/off.
I think I must use presets because I have to change amp model. But by chance we have the seamless preset change!
On FM3 I'm considering to use one bank by song. 1 preset by tone having a different amp and cab.. Use button 1 and 3 for bank up and down. Middle button to temporary access to views layout allowing boost, vibe. Do you think this is a viable solution ?
In my current rig the more complex song is :
1. Fender clean
2. Soldano low gain crunch with or without vibe
3. Soldano high gain for heavy middle song break.
4. Dumble ODS for guitar solo normally needs some volume tweaking.
I'm not really into pedal (real or models) ; I prefer to rely on amps and cab choice has a huge impact.

Anyway, to your experience of the product would you recommend to use the FM3 for a serious live usage without the FC6 ?
I can consider to add external switches and a pedal. I can accept to have tempo in preset (don't need tap tempo).
I still need a tuner...

what is the best usage of external switch I can do ?

Kind regards and by advance thank you for interest in helping me to decide!
 
phil051167 said:
I there !
I'm still hesitating for a FM3 purchase.
I'm very interested in tones and global quality
I like the convenience of a all-in-one solution. Even the internal AC adpater is great!
I would like to use it as complete live rig (without using FC6 ),
I think FM9 is too big...
Normally each of our song need about 3 different guitars tones (today I'm using tonex with HXFX), But each tone use a different amp accessed by midi.
Some tones need some variation like vibe on/off boost on/off.
I think I must use presets because I have to change amp model. But by chance we have the seamless preset change!
On FM3 I'm considering to use one bank by song. 1 preset by tone having a different amp and cab.. Use button 1 and 3 for bank up and down. Middle button to temporary access to views layout allowing boost, vibe. Do you think this is a viable solution ?
In my current rig the more complex song is :
1. Fender clean
2. Soldano low gain crunch with or without vibe
3. Soldano high gain for heavy middle song break.
4. Dumble ODS for guitar solo normally needs some volume tweaking.
I'm not really into pedal (real or models) ; I prefer to rely on amps and cab choice has a huge impact.

Anyway, to your experience of the product would you recommend to use the FM3 for a serious live usage without the FC6 ?
I can consider to add external switches and a pedal. I can accept to have tempo in preset (don't need tap tempo).
I still need a tuner...

what is the best usage of external switch I can do ?

Kind regards and by advance thank you for interest in helping me to decide!
Click to expand...
I really like the Otter switches as they line up perfectly with the FMseries

https://ottercustomdesign.com/products/duo-for-fractal-fm3-fc6-12
 
Hi @phil051167, I have some good news for you:

You seem to be unaware of the "Channels" feature that Fractal uses which the Helix does not. In Fractal (almost) every "block" (amp, effect, etc) has 4 channels. This means that you can save 4 entirely different settings including model and recall them by either pressing buttons to change channels on a specific block, or saving the different channels to "scenes" (like snapshots, but they can change not just bypass state but also which channel is used. They can also change a few settings inside the block, but it's not as many or as simple as in Helix. But since you can have another channel with entirely new settings or even an entirely new model it's actually more flexible) and recalling the entire scene within the preset.

So for your example, you could use the AMP block and set Channel A to a Fender clean, Channel B to a lower gain SLO sound, Channel C to a higher gain SLO sound, and Channel D to a Dumble ODS.

You can then set up up to 8 Scenes:

1: Fender clean dry (AMP A)
2. Fender clean with a chorus(A) and tape delay(A) enabled.
3. Soldano Low Gain (AMP B)
4. Soldano High gain (AMP C), Maybe a TS808 drive (DRIVE A) enabled before it.
5 Soldando High Gain (AMP C) with a RAT instead (DRIVE channel B) and a light delay (DELAY Channel B, digital slapback instead of the tape on the clean sound)
6: Dumble ODS Lead sound (AMP D) with whatever effects (Maybe Delay A again)
7: Dumble ODS (AMP D) with very wet delays and reverb (Maybe DELAY channel C with very different settings)
8: Something else.

And with the footswitches, you have a lot of control how you set them up. Unlike Helix where you have a few different modes (scenes, presets, stomp, etc) in Fractal you can totally customize your footswitch layouts. You can mix and match Tap and Hold operations (so tapping quickly does one thing, holding the switch does another), and many switch operations can be set to toggle between two things.

Some of the things you can do with switches are:
  • Toggle between two channels (A and B, etc)
  • Increment Channels (A>B>C>D>A)
  • Increment or toggle scenes
  • Bypass blocks (like stompbox mode)
  • Move to another footswitch layout or page of the layout
  • Move to another footswitch layout that has footswitches linking to all your other layouts
  • And a whole lot more.
But this means you could do all sorts of things. I personally like using scenes, so I have it set up this way:
FS1: Toggle between Scene 1 (Clean) and Scene 2 (clean with effects), Hold to go to specific effect (scene 3)
FS2: Toggle between Main rhythm sound (Scene 4) and effects rhythm sound (Scene 5), Hold to go to the Master layout where I can navigate to other layouts
FS3: Toggle between Scene 6 (Lead light delay) and Scene 7 (Lead heavy delay), and hold to get to Scene 8 (Lead with harmony)

This way if I need clean I just tap switch 1, if I need my effecs clean I tap switch 1 twice (once to get off my rhythm sound to Clean scene 1, then again to toggle it to scene 2 effects clean). Then for a solo I tap switch 3. Then to get my solo harmony I hold switch 3. etc.

But you could also do something like this:
Page 1:
FS 1: toggle DRIVE block, hold to go to clean (Scene 1)
FS 2: Toggle between Low gain and High dain SLO scenes, hold to go to master layout
FS 3: tap to go to lead Scene with ODS, hold to move to Page 2
Page 2:
FS 1: Toggle between two delay channels, hold to go back to page 1
FS 2: tap to enable or disable reverb, hold to engage the hold effect of delay
FS 3: tap to enable other effect, hold to enable a different effect

etc.

So you can do quite a lot with just the three switches, or as others have mentioned you can add a two button switch to one of your external pedal jacks, and use an expression pedal on the other.

You can also have the expression pedal auto-engage your wah when it's moved, and auto-disable it when you move it back to a position of your choosing.
 
I use one preset for everything...from jazzy cleans to 3 gain stages of crush.
Dedicated wah and volume pedals. All switches on lower row turn fx on/off plus tap tempo.
Switches on FM3 can also be used for whatever...that's 10 switches.
Tuner engages on volume pedal heel down with mute.
Been using for live shows every week for years with zero problems.
Set up and tear down in 5 minutes. Stereo FRFR sound glorious and the same every time.
20230729_080057.jpg
 
If 10 switches are needed with 2 external
RLD said:
I use one preset for everything...from jazzy cleans to 3 gain stages of crush.
Dedicated wah and volume pedals. All switches on lower row turn fx on/off plus tap tempo.
Switches on FM3 can also be used for whatever...that's 10 switches.
Tuner engages on volume pedal heel down with mute.
Been using for live shows every week for years with zero problems.
Set up and tear down in 5 minutes. Stereo FRFR sound glorious and the same every time.
View attachment 143037
Click to expand...

If two external dual switches and a three button midi baby is needed, then why not go with FM9? This pedalboard size appears to be larger than FM9.
 
I use mine without external switches. I have it setup like this:

Switch 1: Press=OD On/Off, Hold=Solo Boost On/Off
Switch 2: Press=Delay On/Off, Hold-Modulation On/Off
Switch 3: Press=Delay time BPM, Hold=Tuner On/Off

I have a Boss EV-30 expression controlling Wah, engages when fully depressed.

This setup has worked for me very well. It does require some configuration but it's not too bad. The FM3 is the best piece of guitar gear I have ever used in 40+ years of playing both professionally and semi-pro.
 
mustafai said:
If 10 switches are needed with 2 external


If two external dual switches and a three button midi baby is needed, then why not go with FM9? This pedalboard size appears to be larger than FM9.
Click to expand...

It's only larger than the FM9 without an external expression pedals. Add those and it gets even bigger.
 
IronSean said:
It's only larger than the FM9 without an external expression pedals. Add those and it gets even bigger.
Click to expand...
That's right, but with the extra switches and their capabilities of FM9, one mini expression pedal in the side pocket might be enough. Anyway, just wanted to check if there was another reason. I just ordered an FM9 after going back and forth between FM3 and FM9, that is why I was curious.
 
That's easily doable on an fm3 with only four scenes. You could put those on the first two foot switches alone. The only thing I would say is make sure you can see the scribble strip windows from your playing position because they're small. Unless you're switching scenes another way of course
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom