Hmmm...do we start a new thread if we're a new user? There do seem to be many of them.
But I will 'conserve CPU power'
and post a short addition to this thread, reserving the privilege of posting a longer one later. Most of this is familiar, unoriginal stuff but I just spent 3 solid hours on this new-to-me FM3 so some thoughts are fresh in my mind:
The sound is what we're concerned with first and foremost, no? I will save the Tube Amp Odyssey for the other posting but suffice it to say I have been using Orange, Fender, Vox, Bad Cat, 65Amps, Allen. No slouches in the lot, really. Nothing I regret using or buying. But the cumulative expenditure probably could have paid for some or all of a nice vehicle. I don't claim to have 'golden ears' but I certainly have refined them via various brands and models.
My 'experimentation session' was run through Yamaha studio monitors including a sub. The ultimate FRFR you might say. For comparison/contrast I also hooked up a Mackie mini-wedge that I use for monitoring at acoustic gigs and occasionally at electric ones.
The FM3 sounded fantastic, convincing, lifelike, through both.
Burnt-fingers experience with modelers #1: one of my fears was that the FM3 (or a preset) that sounds good, musical, etc. at guitar volume and tone at 10 would tend to thin out, disappear, weaken with either control rolled off. Conversely, a preset that sounds good at 5 on each would simply get louder at 10 ie it would not respond the way an actual amp would. This has been my experience with numerous other modelers, plugins etc.
I'm happy to report that the problem did not arise. In fact, the FM3 responded to guitar volume/tone the way an amp would. I won't drown you in adjectives about dynamics, touch response etc. but you probably get the idea.
Burnt-fingers experience with modelers #2: an amp model MIGHT sound just-OK - the tendency is/was immediately to start piling effects on it. Comp, boost, EQ etc. Think of a cheap sandwich with toppings and condiments added to make it seem more palatable. But the base tone quickly disappears under that mess.
(In candor, I must say that (too) many of the YouTube demos, instructionals etc. involve high-gain presets larded up with effects. Many of us roots-oriented players are interested in Fractal but struggle to find demos that feature some unadorned amp tones so those videos aren't always helpful. In addition, YouTube has been infamous for reducing audio quality to conserve bandwidth so 'good demo' or 'bad demo' is a relative term if the sound isn't up to par.)
You get the oooh-aaah layman's reaction of hearing delays, reverbs, distortion or whatever but it doesn't really hold up when actually playing a full song with or without a band.
Burnt-fingers experience with modelers #3: I was there at the start. Or close to it. In 1998 I was choosing between a Fender Prosonic and a...Johnson Millennium 150. The salesman was the usual unethical type. He wanted to unload the digital stuff and promised me it would make my bed and cook my breakfast. I even bought the bloody J12 foot controller the size of a diving board with that damned proprietary cable.
J-Edit (application) was rudimentary stuff and a lottery to connect due to the unreliable interfaces of the time. The front panel wasn't too bad with soft buttons and intuitive routing. And yes, it was loud. And heavy with that transformer.
The Johnson sounded like...a digital amp with digital effects piled on top. You could almost hear the gaps between the 1s and 0s.
I failed to learn from that experience and even had a dalliance with a Johnson J-Station. When you consider that the J-Station and the FM3 have similar footprints and both have sloping fronts, you may understand my flashbacks to a more unmusical, technically frustrating time.
Burnt-fingers experience with modelers #4: Pod X3 Live. Believe it or not, there used to be a tribal hostility between Johnson owners and Line6 owners. Us Johnson muso types viewed the 'Line Sux' people as geeks, hobbyists, Saturday morning shredders. But when the Pod X3 Live came out I thought 'Well, it's all contained in pedal form and the third generation technology MUST be improved by now, right? Maybe this is my key to easy gigging.
So I put some decent patches together (I thought) and kept the effects to a minimum. Took it to a rehearsal with the full band - drums, bass, second guitar, vocals etc. And it...vanished. Not the X3 Live. It was still there physically. But the sound vanished no matter how high its level in the PA. Phase/frequency cancellation? Other issue? Whatever it was, after 2 songs the band rebelled angrily and said get the tube amp back out. So I did.
That was at least 8 years ago and I've been 'tubing' ever since, to say nothing of buying a parade of boutique pedals that would make your eyes water.
Which brings us, finally, to the FM3. If you read all the above then you can understand my hesitation, skepticism, even fear. I was prepared to dislike it, to doubt it, to imagine I heard scads of digital artifacts, lack of dynamics, lack of punch etc.
Fortunately, that did not happen. I was gratified to hear the hype at long last match the output, the functionality, the engineering, the flexibility.
It was kid in a candy store time as I cooked up about half a dozen presets. I would leave them and return to them expecting to be disappointed after the new-toy feeling wore off but I was not.
As I write this I am awaiting shipment of a powered cabinet but with a rehearsal coming up Tuesday it may be time for The Great Unveiling, to say nothing of The Great Gig Test beyond that.
Edit: each time I sit down with the FM3 now I keep expecting it to sound fake and lifeless. Fortunately not the case but that's PTSD for you....
