Cam Heiliger
Inspired
One of my most common problems in dialing in tones in the FM3 is getting rid of "harshness" in the high end. As I increase the volume dialing in amps it is a natural and expected occurrence. I play bright guitars (teles, strats, etc) and if I were to crank up any tube amp with the dials at noon and point the speakers directly at my face, I would experience the same thing there too. This is something that a lot of folks new Fractal don't always fully grasp because they are used to playing tube amps pointed at their legs rather than at their ears. If this is a problem you are struggling with, here are a few suggestions that I found "soften" harsh frequencies with bright guitars. I like to use these methods before I resort to the amp EQ or a secondary EQ block:
1. Speaker Drive - This parameter can be found both in the amp block under the Speaker section with the impedance curves and in the cab block in the preamp section. I generally dial in about 2 on the amp block and 1 on the cab - adjust to taste.
2. Tube Hardness - This can be found in both the Preamp and Power Amp Tube sections of the Amp block and correspond to those aforementioned sections. Reducing tube hardness smooths out distortion and rounds out your tone a bit. I generally reduce preamp hardness to around 7 depending on the tube type. It will change depending on the type of preamp tube you select, so experiment with that too and note that some are naturally lower or higher in hardness. For power amp tubes I like to reduce to around 3, depending on the amp.
3. Output Compression - This can be found in the Dynamics section of the amp block. This is a trick that Cliff suggested early on for people look for Kemper-esque tones which generally have a more compressed midrange. Set the type to Feedback and dial in around 6db (usually around 2 on the dial) - this adds some distortion and compression in the midrange that can give clean or slightly broken up amps a squishier midrange. I don't like this setting for higher gain amps as it can add congestion, but it does smooth out the top end in cleaner models.
4. Input Boost - For higher gain tones, several of the input boost models roll off high end. The RCB Boost, AC Boost, TS808, and Super OD come to mind. They are great choices to juice the midrange of your amp model while cutting highs (and lows in some instances). These are worth experimenting with for sure. I often set my higher gain amps with lower input gain and add the boosts even for my crunch tones as I like the EQ effect.
Hope this is helpful to anyone struggling to dial in pleasing tones at higher volumes. I struggled with this for a while as I was getting great tones at home, but live my guitar was bright and harsh (see Fletcher Munson effect). Once I started dialing in at higher volumes and learned how to tweak the amp models to compensate for my bright guitars, those issues went away. Good luck!
1. Speaker Drive - This parameter can be found both in the amp block under the Speaker section with the impedance curves and in the cab block in the preamp section. I generally dial in about 2 on the amp block and 1 on the cab - adjust to taste.
2. Tube Hardness - This can be found in both the Preamp and Power Amp Tube sections of the Amp block and correspond to those aforementioned sections. Reducing tube hardness smooths out distortion and rounds out your tone a bit. I generally reduce preamp hardness to around 7 depending on the tube type. It will change depending on the type of preamp tube you select, so experiment with that too and note that some are naturally lower or higher in hardness. For power amp tubes I like to reduce to around 3, depending on the amp.
3. Output Compression - This can be found in the Dynamics section of the amp block. This is a trick that Cliff suggested early on for people look for Kemper-esque tones which generally have a more compressed midrange. Set the type to Feedback and dial in around 6db (usually around 2 on the dial) - this adds some distortion and compression in the midrange that can give clean or slightly broken up amps a squishier midrange. I don't like this setting for higher gain amps as it can add congestion, but it does smooth out the top end in cleaner models.
4. Input Boost - For higher gain tones, several of the input boost models roll off high end. The RCB Boost, AC Boost, TS808, and Super OD come to mind. They are great choices to juice the midrange of your amp model while cutting highs (and lows in some instances). These are worth experimenting with for sure. I often set my higher gain amps with lower input gain and add the boosts even for my crunch tones as I like the EQ effect.
Hope this is helpful to anyone struggling to dial in pleasing tones at higher volumes. I struggled with this for a while as I was getting great tones at home, but live my guitar was bright and harsh (see Fletcher Munson effect). Once I started dialing in at higher volumes and learned how to tweak the amp models to compensate for my bright guitars, those issues went away. Good luck!
