FM3 Firmware Version 9.01

Loud pops are reproducible when setting Cab Pre to High Quality Exciter, Drive to 7, and then double-clicking it to make it 0.
 
unix-guy said:
Probably should roll back to the previous firmware and see if it starts working again.
Click to expand...
Here's the TLDR version: this is isolated to the auto-engage control on Expression Pedal #2, and is something in the FM3 settings or in FW 9.01. It works fine if I roll back to FW 9.0. I'm pretty certain this is a bug.
@FractalAudio can you recommend any further troubleshooting I can perform?

DETAILED TROUBLESHOOTING
I rolled back to FW 9.0
  • Upon reboot, the FM3 shows that several of my presets that I so carefully created are now empty. If I scroll up past my most recent blocks, I can see other blocks are intact. OK. This indicates that something about my most recently created presets isn't compatible with the previous FW. My guess is that it's either my recently created wah block, or it happened when I refreshed all of my presets in FW 9.01
  • Playing a hunch, I opened FM3 Edit. Immediately received this error. Yep, that's likely because the editor isn't compatible with the presets from FW. 9.01.

Screenshot 2024-10-20 at 2.16.39 PM.png

  • Reading the log file, it's clear that the specific problem here is that the FW9.0 cannot recognize the wah block that I created in my library using FW 9.01
  • I loaded many other presets (including those that were refreshed after FW 9.01 update) that don't use my library wah block, and they all operate correctly. 100% of the time, they recognize expression controller #2, and appropriately auto-engage for any block including wah.
  • One of the presets that I selected is the specific one from which I created the library block. It works as expected.
  • I created a new preset, adding a wah block, and assigning auto-engage to expression controller #2. It works perfectly, and engages as expected.
I then went back to FW 9.01, and the auto-engage doesn't work for any block or parameter. I created a new preset, and assigned that same controller to auto-engage. I can see in the editor that the full range of motion is being detected, but auto-engage will not occur.

So, I then used the FM3 function to RESET ALL SYSTEM PARAMETERS.
At that point, had no external controllers assigned at all.
I created an entirely new preset, reassigned my expression controllers, and verified in the editor that they are being recognized. Auto-engage does not work for any block.

In the editor, I looked at the Controllers / Modifiers tab to verify that nothing else is sending control information to the wah block.

Screenshot 2024-10-20 at 2.51.20 PM.png

In the wah block I can see that my External 2 controller is sending information but auto-engage is not functioning.

Screenshot 2024-10-20 at 2.53.05 PM.png

I reassign the wah to External 1, and it works perfectly. That controller is also an EV-2. So maybe the #2 EV-2 is problematic? I happen to have another one, so I swap it for the #2 EV-2. Nope doesn't work. Swap the cables between my #1 and #2 pedals. Nope doesn't work.

I went directly to the FM3, viewed the blocks in the preset, and regardless of expression pedal position, I can't manually un-bypass the wah block. I also tested this by entirely removing the #2 pedal cable and rebooting. Still cannot un-bypass the wah block. Created a new preset with an entirely different new wah block, reassigned it to my #2 pedal, and set auto-engage. Nope. My guess: it's being over-ridden by some other control that I can't identify, and one possible culprit is the FW 9.01 Activity Sensing.

I'll let it sit on the bench for the next hour or so, to see if it "wakes" up like yesterday.

I have attached a preset for reference.

So... bug or user error?
 

Attachments

unix-guy said:
@Sleestak - presets saved under a newer firmware are "empty" under an older version. That's expected...
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Yep. I wasn't surprised to see this.

All of my troubleshooting comes down to auto-engage will simply not work using expression FM3 pedal input #2, regardless of the cable, pedal, parameter settings, or pedal calibration. The simple workaround is swapping the cables between the pedals, and going into the FM3 MIDI / Remote menu to switch the External Controller 1 / 2 assignments. Works perfectly. This points to something in the FM3 settings. I'm eliminating FM3 hardware as the problem, as everything works normally in FW 9.0

The preferred workaround is identifying the root cause, which seems to be something that changed between FW 9.0 and FW 9.01
 
To follow up from my previous post on CPU usage, here's a screenshot of my main preset with Firmware 9.0.1

firmware9.01.jpg

and the same Preset (I decided to downgrade) to Firmware 9.0
firmware9.0.jpg

Didn't change anything in the preset,

preset.jpg

particularity i guess, are two cabs in ULTRA and also cab preamp in High quality mode

just curious why the newer firmware would use 3% more, on a FM3 mark1 unit, maybe due to the pitch block ? (set to dual chromatic) it's taking around 9% CPU shunting it in firmware 9.0 , i didn't do that test in 9.01 however, have a session to prep for

and remember to backup folks, had my presets backed up, but layouts/FM3 setup, all reset 🫣 luckily easy to set again as i didn't have too many layouts

thanks
 
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Sleestak said:
Yep. I wasn't surprised to see this.

All of my troubleshooting comes down to auto-engage will simply not work using expression FM3 pedal input #2, regardless of the cable, pedal, parameter settings, or pedal calibration. The simple workaround is swapping the cables between the pedals, and going into the FM3 MIDI / Remote menu to switch the External Controller 1 / 2 assignments. Works perfectly. This points to something in the FM3 settings. I'm eliminating FM3 hardware as the problem, as everything works normally in FW 9.0

The preferred workaround is identifying the root cause, which seems to be something that changed between FW 9.0 and FW 9.01
Click to expand...
I have a similar problem after updating to firmware 9.01, cannot get switch 2 ring/tip to work anything. Swap cables, switches, rebooted with leads in and out….been a few days of trying everything but no luck. Thanks for your post I’m hoping someone can figure it out.
 
Chromatizm said:
Interesting. I was able to make the Mosky Dual Switch to work as Stand-In switches SC2 and SC5, but only if TIP is Latching and Ring is Momentary :) Than the pedal operates as expected. If both as set to Momentary or Latching, it doesn't work. Maybe there is some other setting which I've missed.
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I had that happen as well setting them separately… worked for a bit but a few hour later stopped working. I did not change anything, it’s like something is disabled it internally?
 
Les Tanzer said:
I have a similar problem after updating to firmware 9.01, cannot get switch 2 ring/tip to work anything. Swap cables, switches, rebooted with leads in and out….been a few days of trying everything but no luck. Thanks for your post I’m hoping someone can figure it out.
Click to expand...
I have a similar issue since I upgraded to FW 9.01. I have an external switch (Hotone FS-1) connected via TRS to Switch 2 on my FM3. In my case it's only the RING which is not working, the TIP is working just fine. The setup settings are exactly the same.

The signal is detected (visible via calibrate pedal) but it's not working when it's used in a preset.

My workaround is similar to @Sleestak using the MIDI menu.
 
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Les Tanzer said:
I have a similar problem after updating to firmware 9.01, cannot get switch 2 ring/tip to work anything. Swap cables, switches, rebooted with leads in and out….been a few days of trying everything but no luck. Thanks for your post I’m hoping someone can figure it out.
Click to expand...
I reported this as a potential bug yesterday and received response that Fractal will have their engineers look at it. They're very responsive, and I'm sure we'll see a fix in the near future. The good news is that it seems to be just a minor problem in FW 9.01. In the decade+ that I've been a Fractal user (AxeFX II XL, MFC 101, AxeFX III, FC12, FM3), with my devices receiving innumerable major and minor FW updates, this is the first time I've ever encountered and reported a bug.
 
Yeah. My main Leslie preset was up to around 82% after updating to 9.0.1. Shunting the Looper block brought it back down to the 70s. In all fairness, the last few previous firmware versions had brought CPU usage way down compared to a year or two ago. I'm using high quality reverbs and preamps now where I wasn't able to get away with that back then.

-Aaron
 
aflynt said:
Yeah. My main Leslie preset was up to around 82% after updating to 9.0.1. Shunting the Looper block brought it back down to the 70s. In all fairness, the last few previous firmware versions had brought CPU usage way down compared to a year or two ago. I'm using high quality reverbs and preamps now where I wasn't able to get away with that back then.

-Aaron
Click to expand...
I agree. Past firmware updates (not forgetting gapless switching) and all the other goodies has transformed the FM3. We're being spoilt so the slight increase in CPU use is probably to be expected.
 
What does it indicate when a preset number is highlighted inside a box?

Upgraded from 8. Sounds amazing. Thanks FAS!
 
I can confirm that cpu usage is up quite a bit. My main preset jumped more than 5%.

More problematic is that, as a result i had an few unpredictable situations. When the cpu limit was reached during quick sound changes the unit (FM3 NON Turbo) crashed and let only the unprocessed audio pass.

For me this unfortunately means ill stick with 9.0 for now hoping that CPU usage wil drop again in later releases.

The micro pitch to me sounds significantly better after the updated even tho i understand that it has not been changed??

Anyhow. I am very Glad for Fractals continuing support!
 
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