First show with the FM3

RayO

RayO

Member
First show this afternoon with the FM3 at a festival with a back line in place. The positives ~ It was a 2 block walk so easy pack in with a back pack and guitar. Awesome! Went to the sound man and told him I was using a amp modeler. He said you have a Fractal? Ah yes! He said awesome you just made my day. By the time I sat it down and started to connect the power to my FM3 he pushed in two XLR.s before I could connect the FC6, sound checked with the band and in 5 min we were rocking. He gave me a great feed in the monitor and sounded great! Probably better than my amp on stage. I still need to lower my clean channels more. The negative is the switching delay! I have tried a few suggestions and advice from here. I use the same amp that’s better but not good enough. If anybody has any suggestions or YouTube link with a different way to setup I would appreciate it. The delay is not horrible when my other guitar playe is playing rhythm but when he is on keys and I switch it stands out. Those that have the FM9 does it change much quicker? It’s stated when comparison it said it does but would like to here first hand. I may end up with the FM3 for recording in the studio or get the 9.
 
Glad it went well. Sound guys are finally starting to wake up to how easy their day is going to go with a Fractal unit, as opposed to chasing a good sound without bleed from a mic. Looks like you had one of the more experienced guys!
 
RayO said:
The negative is the switching delay! I have tried a few suggestions and advice from here. I use the same amp that’s better but not good enough. If anybody has any suggestions or YouTube link with a different way to setup I would appreciate it.
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Tell us what you’re doing to switch things and we can help better.
 
I believe if you have a lot of blocks changing channel at the same time when switching scenes this will add to the delay. You should be able to reduce it with some experimentation.
 
RayO said:
Basically one scene Solo 100 + Cab + Reverb economy+ delay switch switch to the next scene just to add a drive for a lead tone.
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when the amp block changes channels, there is a short audio gap to prevent noise.

when you say "add drive" do you mean a different channel in the amp block? this could be a good situation for a Scene Controller, for no gap and instant changes.
 
RayO said:
I use the same amp that’s better but not good enough. If anybody has any suggestions or YouTube link with a different way to setup I would appreciate it. The delay is not horrible when my other guitar playe is playing rhythm but when he is on keys and I switch it stands out.
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RayO said:
Basically one scene Solo 100 + Cab + Reverb economy+ delay switch switch to the next scene just to add a drive for a lead tone.
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Somethings odd here. Record a clip of you switching between scenes so you can judge it outside of the experience.

1. As mentioned many times, the Fractal model switches on release vs press so a quick tap is required for the fastest switch.
2. If using different setting of the same amp model, the gap when switching amp channels should be very, very minimal. Scene controllers rather than changing channels should eliminate any switching gap entirely.
 
RayO said:
First show this afternoon with the FM3 at a festival with a back line in place. The positives ~ It was a 2 block walk so easy pack in with a back pack and guitar. Awesome! Went to the sound man and told him I was using a amp modeler. He said you have a Fractal? Ah yes! He said awesome you just made my day. By the time I sat it down and started to connect the power to my FM3 he pushed in two XLR.s before I could connect the FC6, sound checked with the band and in 5 min we were rocking. He gave me a great feed in the monitor and sounded great! Probably better than my amp on stage. I still need to lower my clean channels more. The negative is the switching delay! I have tried a few suggestions and advice from here. I use the same amp that’s better but not good enough. If anybody has any suggestions or YouTube link with a different way to setup I would appreciate it. The delay is not horrible when my other guitar playe is playing rhythm but when he is on keys and I switch it stands out. Those that have the FM9 does it change much quicker? It’s stated when comparison it said it does but would like to here first hand. I may end up with the FM3 for recording in the studio or get the 9.
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Check to see how much DSP your presets are using. That can impact the switching time. But also, if you are switching presets and not scenes, it will lag more than if you’re staying within the same preset and just switching between the scenes in that preset.
 
chris said:
when the amp block changes channels, there is a short audio gap to prevent noise.

when you say "add drive" do you mean a different channel in the amp block? this could be a good situation for a Scene Controller, for no gap and instant changes.
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Basically the same scene I listed above, I then copied that scene to another and add drive for my lead. So I switch between the two. Is there a better way? I am so use to my Boss ES5 changing my pedals.
 
scott.frank.b said:
Check to see how much DSP your presets are using. That can impact the switching time. But also, if you are switching presets and not scenes, it will lag more than if you’re staying within the same preset and just switching between the scenes in that preset.
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Thanks for the reply yes changing scenes cpu at about 75%
 
RayO said:
Basically the same scene I listed above, I then copied that scene to another and add drive for my lead. So I switch between the two. Is there a better way? I am so use to my Boss ES5 changing my pedals.
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Interesting. I basically do the same thing and get no delay. It is totally seamless. Are you sure you aren't changing channels on any blocks (e.g. delay or reverb)? I had an issue for a while with trying to use different channels in the delay block and got a gap almost identical to changing amp channels.
 
TheloniusJ said:
Interesting. I basically do the same thing and get no delay. It is totally seamless. Are you sure you aren't changing channels on any blocks (e.g. delay or reverb)? I had an issue for a while with trying to use different channels in the delay block and got a gap almost identical to changing amp channels.
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^^^^ Check your reverb block also. If you went from a dry tone to one with reverb, there’s usually no lag, but changing the channel or reverb types that can cause a lag.
 
Sauro_on_guitar said:
since I started going fully digital I ALWAYS had a great response from sound men... My sound checks consist in a 30 second line check, the only tweaks I have to do is the output level.
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So I did my first paid gig using the FM3 on Saturday night also. It was a small club and we do our own sound (our drummer nerds out on this and actually runs a DAW capture during all rehearsals and live shows), so I didn't get to experience the relieved sound guy thing, but my part of the set up is almost non-existents since we use the same set up for rehearsals. Everything is pretty much ready once the PA is up.

The experience I did have was that a guitarist from another band came up and was asking me questions about my set-up which he seemed fascinated by. He uses a big Mesa amp and full pedal board. During the break he came up and was like, that's it, I'm looking into switching to something like this. Props to Fractal for sure.
 
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Has to be how the switch is set up.
I engage just an eq block for my solo boost (using scenes) and it's seamless.
 
TheloniusJ said:
The experience I did have was that a guitarist from another band came up and was asking me questions about my set-up which he seemed fascinated by. He uses a big Mesa amp and full pedal board. During the break he came up and was like, that's it, I'm looking into switching to something like this. Props to Fractal for sure.
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That's the best advertising ever for Fractal.

"How can I help?" is a good read.
 
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