FM3 Firmware Version 11.0

I don't post much on this forum, but I do follow along and just want to add my 2 cents. I am an fm3 customer since 2023 when they launched the turbo.

I came from a line6 helix floor, and although it was an absolutely great unit - I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially the more advanced features - I found myself trying to replicate my workflow from the helix in the fm3. Once I got over the learning curve and realized that what works on the helix floor is different on the fm3, not only was I able to replicate my workflow, but I greatly improved it.

Then, once I realized that updates were so frequent, I totally flipped. Although the line6 updates were generally decent (I had a helix floor since launch so I saw a great evolution) but nothing topped the updates we were getting for the fm3. When fractal released the no gap preset switching - omg... I didn't even think it would have been possible to be honest - but fractal delivered.

I know it's not easy to deliver so many updates so frequently - and yes, it is something that does have to happen to guarantee consistent sales - but lets be realistic, the line6 helix didn't have anywhere near the amount of updates fractal units have. The support is absolutely awesome.

I am by no means a professional musician - i use the fractal at home just for hobby - but I do love technology, and that is why the fractal units spark my curiosity.

Keep up the good work, fractal. I will definitely purchase the next version of the fm3 variant because I know i will get this amazing support. Anyone complaining really has no foundation to complain in my opinion. (but again, it's my opinion)
 
Anton Karelin said:
Updates have errors. They are released often and poorly tested. Here are my complaints.
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All updates on every platform will always have bugs. Nobody is infallible. Lucky for us we have access to public betas to assist in bug hunting, if you choose to participate. That said, in all my years of owning FAS products, most official firmware releases have been very stable in my experience.
 
ruso said:
All updates on every platform will always have bugs. Nobody is infallible. Lucky for us we have access to public betas to assist in bug hunting, if you choose to participate. That said, in all my years of owning FAS products, most official firmware releases have been very stable in my experience.
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In firmware 10, the sound disappears due to a compressor error. In firmware 11, the tuner doesn't turn on when the heel of the pedal is down.
Several users have complained about these errors.
 
Anton Karelin said:
In firmware 10, the sound disappears due to a compressor error. In firmware 11, the tuner doesn't turn on when the heel of the pedal is down.
Several users have complained about these errors.
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Are you suggesting that bug fixes should be prioritized and released prior and separate from major updates?
 
Anton Karelin said:
Yes!
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Yeah that makes sense if a release has a bug to put the fix out. The heel down tuner probably doesn’t affect a lot of users but if you use it I can see it would be annoying. You using the exclamation point makes it sound like you’re mad. I get it but FAS works hard on improving these units and sometimes bugs will occur. I have issues with having a pedal assigned to a wah. At home I usually don’t plug it in and where it used to be no problem now it is a problem. The wah turns itself on fully cocked. Had it happen to the Plex block too. So I deleted my wah blocks and I’ll reinstall when I play out. Kind of a pain but overall I’m pretty damn happy with the FM3.
 
skolacki said:
You using the exclamation point makes it sound like you’re mad.
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I think we should be a bit more careful with such conclusions. People here come from different cultures, some of them are more direct (I know because I come from one like that). Also, for many users English isn’t their native language and it’s a bit difficult for them to always have the proper tone. And finally, it’s simply difficult to communicate and infer tone in short written messages.

Just saying.

Many (if not most) forums in my native language even have rules that restrict posting comments with “thank you” messages without specific requests or responses as they are considered noise and spam, make it more difficult to find useful information etc. :)
 
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We have like 4-5 major free updates a year here and it's not even a flagship device. If you want bug free performance use older versions and stick to them until people confirm that new versions are perfect. Fractal serves certain philosophy and there are always pros and cons about chosing one - but vast majority of Fractal users love this exact philosophy. So take it or leave it(as always) because 99,9% of the rest users are happy with possibilities the company offers.
Ps: Not mentioning that nowadays we have certain bots who influence the forums for the competitor's sake..
 
Salami85 said:
vast majority of Fractal users love this exact philosophy. So take it or leave it(as always) because 99,9% of the rest users are happy with possibilities the company offers.
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How do you know that? :)

I mean, I personally haven’t seen any data whatsoever that would suggest what “majority of users think”, or whether they think about it at all.

To me, prioritizing bug fixes makes sense, some of them are annoying, while I may want to defer sound changing updates for a number of reasons. The changes to the VC block is one recent example of this - I needed the Mac OS audio fix, while the update that brought it also broke the pitch shifter for me.

Recent updates also brought some breaking bugs like disappearing audio, device freezing, expression pedals not working properly etc.

Now, separating such fixes from audio enhancements may make it more difficult to manage for Fractal, there might be other valid reasons why this isn’t good or efficient or what not, and maybe this isn’t a super critical thing as most of the time there are ways to deal with it, but saying that users should “take it or leave it” is plain weird, to put it mildly. Especially backing this up with made up stats.

And it’s not any kind of attack on Fractal either, not a dismissal of the fact that Fractals support of their devices is awesome etc.
 
After the gapless update i knew that i could buy the fm3 without limiting my use case. I like the under the hood improvements too but some major updates sell units to new customers!
 
vangrieg said:
How do you know that? :)

I mean, I personally haven’t seen any data whatsoever that would suggest what “majority of users think”, or whether they think about it at all.

To me, prioritizing bug fixes makes sense, some of them are annoying, while I may want to defer sound changing updates for a number of reasons. The changes to the VC block is one recent example of this - I needed the Mac OS audio fix, while the update that brought it also broke the pitch shifter for me.

Recent updates also brought some breaking bugs like disappearing audio, device freezing, expression pedals not working properly etc.

Now, separating such fixes from audio enhancements may make it more difficult to manage for Fractal, there might be other valid reasons why this isn’t good or efficient or what not, and maybe this isn’t a super critical thing as most of the time there are ways to deal with it, but saying that users should “take it or leave it” is plain weird, to put it mildly. Especially backing this up with made up stats.

And it’s not any kind of attack on Fractal either, not a dismissal of the fact that Fractals support of their devices is awesome etc.
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I have the same opinion
 
vangrieg said:
How do you know that? :)

I mean, I personally haven’t seen any data whatsoever that would suggest what “majority of users think”, or whether they think about it at all.

To me, prioritizing bug fixes makes sense, some of them are annoying, while I may want to defer sound changing updates for a number of reasons. The changes to the VC block is one recent example of this - I needed the Mac OS audio fix, while the update that brought it also broke the pitch shifter for me.

Recent updates also brought some breaking bugs like disappearing audio, device freezing, expression pedals not working properly etc.

Now, separating such fixes from audio enhancements may make it more difficult to manage for Fractal, there might be other valid reasons why this isn’t good or efficient or what not, and maybe this isn’t a super critical thing as most of the time there are ways to deal with it, but saying that users should “take it or leave it” is plain weird, to put it mildly. Especially backing this up with made up stats.

And it’s not any kind of attack on Fractal either, not a dismissal of the fact that Fractals support of their devices is awesome etc.
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1. Its not like you can't roll back to previous firmwares of you have some issues
2. As for my data - its the technical discussion place and even here the few people are always complaining - and it's not like pointing the issues(which is the goal of the forum) but much more like a continuous public demonstration of how 'unpleasant' they are. While the rest exact 'vast majority' here shows some gratitude while still providing the constructive feedback when it's relevant
 
Salami85 said:
As for my data - its the technical discussion place and even here the few people are always complaining - and it's not like pointing the issues(which is the goal of the forum) but much more like a continuous public demonstration of how 'unpleasant' they are. While the rest exact 'vast majority' here shows some gratitude while still providing the constructive feedback when it's relevant
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So you have no evidence for that claim, obviously.
 
Salami85 said:
1. Its not like you can't roll back to previous firmwares of you have some issues
2. As for my data - its the technical discussion place and even here the few people are always complaining - and it's not like pointing the issues(which is the goal of the forum) but much more like a continuous public demonstration of how 'unpleasant' they are. While the rest exact 'vast majority' here shows some gratitude while still providing the constructive feedback when it's relevant
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Personally, I'm curious why Fractal can't release a patch to fix the expression pedal bug in this firmware. If that patch isn't ready yet, Fractal could have posted a warning on the front page of this thread about the bug.
 
ruso said:
Are you suggesting that bug fixes should be prioritized and released prior and separate from major updates?
Click to expand...
I agree with this. If a bug is found in an official release a minor update to take care of the issue as soon as possible would be preferred rather than waiting a month or more for the next major release, or feature filled minor release. Of course, we have no idea how Fractal’s development occurs and what it takes to issue updates so this is just wishful thinking.

An 11.1 update that fixes the tuner on heel down and any other confirmed bugs sooner rather than later would be a good business practice. Major updates with new features are always exciting, but a minor update to address issues that may prevent users from installing a release just make sense.

Having said that, I love what Fractal is doing and am appreciative of the continuous support. 11.0 has been fantastic for me without any issues (I’m not using tuner on heel down because I wish the software had a delay parameter so that going to tuner mode is not immediate accessed on heel down).
 
ethomas1013 said:
I agree with this. If a bug is found in an official release a minor update to take care of the issue as soon as possible would be preferred rather than waiting a month or more for the next major release, or feature filled minor release. Of course, we have no idea how Fractal’s development occurs and what it takes to issue updates so this is just wishful thinking.

An 11.1 update that fixes the tuner on heel down and any other confirmed bugs sooner rather than later would be a good business practice. Major updates with new features are always exciting, but a minor update to address issues that may prevent users from installing a release just make sense.

Having said that, I love what Fractal is doing and am appreciative of the continuous support. 11.0 has been fantastic for me without any issues (I’m not using tuner on heel down because I wish the software had a delay parameter so that going to tuner mode is not immediate accessed on heel down).
Click to expand...
+++
 
Salami85 said:
1. Its not like you can't roll back to previous firmwares of you have some issues
...
Click to expand...
By the way, which of the previous firmware versions do you consider stable?

1) FW 7, FW 8, FW 9 - the factory reset function doesn't work. Users are often advised to perform a factory reset. However, this function didn't work.
2) FW 9.02 beta 3 - problems with sound loss.
3) FW 10 - the problem with sound loss is still present.
4) FW 11 - The tuner does not turn on when the heel of the expression pedal is pressed down.

5) It seems we all forgot that FM3 still has a track latency after recording via USB.

6) I'll add this. Fractal left no comment.
https://forum.fractalaudio.com/threads/gaps-in-drive-block.216132/
 
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