FM3 Firmware Version 7.00

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chillybilly said:
They sounded great at room volume in an isolated setting but washed out badly in a full-band mix. Midrange was noticeably lacking and, obviously, guitar is a midrange-y instrument. It may have been my zeal in adjusting mic placement or adding things like airiness and room diffusion but something was off.
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It has nothing to do with the guitar being a midrange instrument. It has everything to do with how our brain evolved and adapts to different loudnesses of various sounds.

The rule is to adjust the EQ of the preset at the volume you will be playing at, and the symptom you describe, of the midrange lacking, is exactly what happens when you adjust the lows, mids and highs to compensate at low volume, then later turn up the volume. Read about the Fletcher-Munson curve and you’ll understand.

As an FYI, the factory presets are all EQ’d at stage volume, ~95 dB, to make them immediately usable. If you use them as examples for the balance of lows, mids and highs, then you’ll be in the ballpark when you turn up the volume later.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
Just reload the v7.0 firmware and Dyna-Cab files. Follow the instructions in the installation README files and you should be fine.

And don't mess with the unit when it's updating, just let it do its thing.

Presets are not affected by firmware updates, but practice safe modeling and ALWAYS backup your presets, especially prior to a firmware upgrade so you have a bookmark to return to if you ever want to revert.
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Yeah been on digital modeling since 2010 This caught me by surprise though been using fractal since 2018 ish ... This is my first issue with Fractal but I think I'll track back to older firmware get it to work and then try again with 7.oo thanks man
 
Greg Ferguson said:
It has nothing to do with the guitar being a midrange instrument. It has everything to do with how our brain evolved and adapts to different loudnesses of various sounds.

The rule is to adjust the EQ of the preset at the volume you will be playing at, and the symptom you describe, of the midrange lacking, is exactly what happens when you adjust the lows, mids and highs to compensate at low volume, then later turn up the volume. Read about the Fletcher-Munson curve and you’ll understand.

As an FYI, the factory presets are all EQ’d at stage volume, ~95 dB, to make them immediately usable. If you use them as examples for the balance of lows, mids and highs, then you’ll be in the ballpark when you turn up the volume later.
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Understood on a theoretical and (mostly) a practical level but the only variable in this case was the changing of the cabinet block. Other elements of the preset were unchanged. My midrange-lacking diagnosis was equal parts speculation and aural impression in the heat of battle but an educated guess nevertheless.

I never have used factory presets...for all I know they aren't even stored on this second hand unit and I wouldn't know the names at any rate.

Tweaking presets/cabs in isolation at stage volume is no guarantor of success since the FM Curve doesn't and can't account for all the tones, overtones and possible clash of frequencies coming out of the mains mix that includes drums, bass, vocals, keys in addition to guitar at any one moment. 'Unwanted mix camouflage' has happened to countless guitarists using tube amps and analog pedals as well as us modeler types. The prescription may have been the same for them ie change EQ but in most instances they couldn't or didn't change speakers, cabs etc.

For this particular gig I used no FRFR so it was mains mix or bust. Reintroducing the FRFR may change the landscape.

To be fair there was plenty of EQ trial and error (and reverb, delay, FX etc) before and after gigs/rehearsals at stage volume and in a full mix in the pre-7/Dynacab era to get presets optimized for those scenarios. I'm able and willing to tweak some more but, as above, at present it was a single change in the recipe that spoiled the soup in the short term.
 
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Sometimes you just can't get a good mix in the room either. I recently ran sound for a wedding band in a room with glass walls and tall ceiling. If you weren't right in front and center, the sound just washed out into mush.
 
Joel.Brown333 said:
Sometimes you just can't get a good mix in the room either. I recently ran sound for a wedding band in a room with glass walls and tall ceiling. If you weren't right in front and center, the sound just washed out into mush.
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Ugh.

Similarly, we have a nearby casino, and when a bigger act comes in and the venue anticipates the audience will be too large to fit into their normal auditorium, they’ll put them in their ballrooms and open all the room dividers, resulting in a really long and narrow room with a two story ceiling. Then, consistently, they stick the stage halfway down the long wall firing toward the opposite wall, and NO act has been able to get decent sound.

Even if you have seats in front of the stage the sound is bouncing around in there so badly nothing is discernible. So they turn it up to try to drive the bad sound into submission, so nobody can hear anything as a result. I quit going there and tell everyone to avoid it.

They need to fix their acoustics first and then they can reduce the volume.
 
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chillybilly said:
Well....the Dynacabs did poorly at the gig. I take full responsibility, as sporting figures often say, in setting my Dynacabs up. They sounded great at room volume in an isolated setting but washed out badly in a full-band mix. Midrange was noticeably lacking and, obviously, guitar is a midrange-y instrument. It may have been my zeal in adjusting mic placement or adding things like airiness and room diffusion but something was off.

I had saved my non-DC presets (with other component blocks unchanged) and had to do a bit of scrambling between numbers to call them up but that was an A/B test in a live firefight and the old ways won out.

I still 'believe' but further tweaking will be required....
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I kept my prior cabs on channel b of the cab block. This way if something wasn't to my liking I just used my prior cab setup. In case of emergency break glass type of deal lol
 
Im kinda late updating to the 7.0, im updating mine from the 3.0 version. When updating to the 7.0 should I also get the new presets mentioned from the 4.0 update (cygnus amp modeling presets). Thanks in advance.
 
I already loved my FM3 but after getting to spend some time with the Dyna Cabs and working them into all my personal presets it's just so much better even, they sound so friggin' good! Thanks Fractal!
 
I've found a bug on this preset when changing scenes or amp channels. I also experience random freezing on different presets. Last time on my main and mostly used preset when changing scenes. All these issues without a connected PC and under 60% CPU usage.
 

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Had also a freeze yesterday - newest firmware, PC with newest FM3 Edit was connected. Used my long time basic preset with about 70% CPU usage. (Not at home so cant post the preset)
FM3 frozes during playing without switching anything on the FM3 - after that only dry Guitar sound come to my ears, no Footswitches and Buttons reacted - had to power cycle! After that i played around 2 Hours without a problem!
 
I'm considering going back to fw 6.02 as I don't use DynaCabs. Unfortunately I have already deleted all previous fw folders. Could you or somebody send me the file please? A gig is coming and I don't wanna risk a freeze on stage.
 
Finally updated yesterday. Everything seems fine.

Only problem is I have to recreate all of my presets because a 1960TV DC with a Ribbon to a 1959 SLP sounds so freakin great that I can finally dump my ultratweaked Friedman preset!

Thanks for all this great work! you rock!
 
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