First hours with FM3 coming from kemper stage

[Greg Ferguson]

No amps, only in ears. Tue only thing that is making noise is drums. And not always.
Some place also require electronic drums.

I live in France and even on big stages that’s more and more what you have to do to work.

I suspect that @porieux was making a joke.

Electric guitar, especially when playing rock, blues, or metal, needs to have some kind of volume on stage to get the sound we want. The guitar pickups send the vibration of the strings to the amplifier, which reinforces the vibration and sends it to the speaker, which sends the vibrations back through the air to the strings, which then shake harder, are picked up by the pickups again …. That coupling increases gain and mids.

When playing with a loud amp the positive feedback from the speaker into the guitar effectively increases the gain of the amp when the volume control is wide open.

A silent stage breaks the cycle and affects the sound of the guitar and amp. Fractal has some parameters in the tabs of the Amp block that emulate some of what happens but without the actual coupling physics the sound suffers. Electric guitar is the only instrument that I can think of that uses positive feedback from the amp as part of its sound.

Silent stages are the knee-jerk reaction to extreme volume on stage made by people who don’t understand what’s really happening and who don’t care, probably because they want money from their customers. That’s easily understandable but the pendulum needs to shift back to the middle and allow a little bit of volume, strategically placed, to allow that gain increase to happen. It doesn’t take much, a 20 watt Deluxe Reverb is more than capable, as is a small stage monitor next to the guitar. IEMs will never do it alone because physics says so.

See https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/the-modelers-dont-clean-up-with-the-volume-knob-myth.154557/ for more information about the problem.

The best thing we can do is to educate the venue owners and FOH engineers about the problem and work with them to make very strategic use of a wee bit of acoustic feedback to the guitar. If we can get the sound under control we all will be happier.

 

[raccoon]

Agree.... beside the reason I feel like I am not present and feeling trapped with earplugs, the singing of guitar ist missing and the feeling you got with palmmutes in the stomach
So thats why I rejected IE until theese days if suggested from bandmates.

 

[raccoon]

In addition, I think it affects the sound in 2 ways - physically, like you described it, and the way you play the guitar.
If there is no feedback and no moving air, your playing style is changing. May only subtle but it is there.

 

[Jimmykonsta]

Fm3 is much more 3D and feel real. Playing the kemper was like playing a picture of the amp.

This is so true, ex kemper user here. Kemper felt so 2D, like a shell of the real tone. Thin, compressed with cocked wah

 

[Dimi Guitar]

This is so true, ex kemper user here. Kemper felt so 2D, like a shell of the real tone. Thin, compressed with cocked wah

I believe more of a "TS" or even cocked wah feel is, at times, what makes people view Kemper as "more amp-like". (Not that this is more accurate to the amps.)

 

[GuyJames]

Hi !

Long time tube amp user here, Marshall plexi /cornford kind of guy (even owned a rk100 that belonged to Richie « god » Kotzen).

Due to the conditions of nowadays work and the more and more silent stages required to play I had to downsize a few years ago.

Started by amp + torpedo + pedalboard then a H&K GM40 deluxe + torpedo.

Then decided to go the modern way with a Kemper Stage. I first wanted an fm3 but I couldn’t afford the time of the waiting list back then. So bought the kemper.

Even if I knew it wasn’t gonna be like my amp, I spent 1 year and a half spending countless hours trying to get a tone that would not be stellar but just usable and playable for me and my ears.
Never enjoyed playing it but for the Foh it was not that bad, not awesome, but enough for the sound guys.
But I just couldn’t stand to play the kemper anymore, the cocked wha, compression, attack etc was a big NO for me

So I decided to downsize more, sold it and bought a brand new fm3 last week. I Received it and plugged it a few hours today.

And I just want to say it’s amazing, really

As a Marshall guy, I’m in pure amps heaven.
The dynamic, the feel, it reacts so much as real tube amps. It’s so alive and 3D even dry.

I knew it’s gonna be great but I didn’t expected it will be so great.

After having played through a lot of presets I Tried to create a plexi preset.
In - amp - cab -out , few adjustments here and there and boom 3 minutes later a usable tone. Lead tone? Drive and delay and that’s it … like in the real world.
Not perfect but more than usable, and above all enjoyable for hours.

And I barely even scratched the surface of it.
Effects are stellar.

I’m sure I’m gonna have problems understanding some things soon or gonna go in the IR and infinite combination rabbit hole and lose hours of my life but as long as it can keep a smile on my face like playing amps do, that’s ok for me.

And the myth about Fractal units being complicated and made for nerds is so false lol.
Sure you can, but sure you don’t have to

Long post but just to say I’m more than happy and thanxs to the fas team for making such enjoyable piece of gear.


See you soon for all my futures questions.

Josh.

Ps: sorry if the language is not perfect.

I wasted the last 4 years using the kemper… yeah I got some good recordings out of it but fractals gear has taught me so much more in under 6 months… the Kemper community hates when a fractal converted guy says fractal is better so watch out if you still use thru forum…

 

[GuyJames]

Hi !

Long time tube amp user here, Marshall plexi /cornford kind of guy (even owned a rk100 that belonged to Richie « god » Kotzen).

Due to the conditions of nowadays work and the more and more silent stages required to play I had to downsize a few years ago.

Started by amp + torpedo + pedalboard then a H&K GM40 deluxe + torpedo.

Then decided to go the modern way with a Kemper Stage. I first wanted an fm3 but I couldn’t afford the time of the waiting list back then. So bought the kemper.

Even if I knew it wasn’t gonna be like my amp, I spent 1 year and a half spending countless hours trying to get a tone that would not be stellar but just usable and playable for me and my ears.
Never enjoyed playing it but for the Foh it was not that bad, not awesome, but enough for the sound guys.
But I just couldn’t stand to play the kemper anymore, the cocked wha, compression, attack etc was a big NO for me

So I decided to downsize more, sold it and bought a brand new fm3 last week. I Received it and plugged it a few hours today.

And I just want to say it’s amazing, really

As a Marshall guy, I’m in pure amps heaven.
The dynamic, the feel, it reacts so much as real tube amps. It’s so alive and 3D even dry.

I knew it’s gonna be great but I didn’t expected it will be so great.

After having played through a lot of presets I Tried to create a plexi preset.
In - amp - cab -out , few adjustments here and there and boom 3 minutes later a usable tone. Lead tone? Drive and delay and that’s it … like in the real world.
Not perfect but more than usable, and above all enjoyable for hours.

And I barely even scratched the surface of it.
Effects are stellar.

I’m sure I’m gonna have problems understanding some things soon or gonna go in the IR and infinite combination rabbit hole and lose hours of my life but as long as it can keep a smile on my face like playing amps do, that’s ok for me.

And the myth about Fractal units being complicated and made for nerds is so false lol.
Sure you can, but sure you don’t have to

Long post but just to say I’m more than happy and thanxs to the fas team for making such enjoyable piece of gear.


See you soon for all my futures questions.

Josh.

Ps: sorry if the language is not perfect.

Kemper is a game boy color fractal is a Nintendo switch..