FM3 sounds muffled out of the box.

R

Robpags

Member
Hey guys. I sold my AXFX 2 a few months ago when the FM3 was announced. I used my old rig just for live gigs and was getting a great “amp like” tone when doing direct to house. Fast forward to this week. I just got the FM3 and plugged it into my usual PA to start building my live patches again. To my surprise, the factory tones aren’t even close to the old unit. Most of the presets sound muffled. Even if I connect it to my DAW, they sound like a blanket is over a cab. There’s no definition to any of the tones that I used to use. The few presets that have definition, lack an body and depth. The unit sounds too digital. Very unlike the AXFX 2. Is there something I’m missing?.... Is there a parameter that I haven’t found that shapes the tones better? I’ll try to post a video. Hope it comes through over phone video.

I’ve messed with the “ideal “ setting in the amp blocks. I’ve added a parallel block to the end of the chain to bring level up a bit. The old tricks don’t seem to do anything to clear up the muffled tone. There’s no chance this would cut thru the mix in a live situation at this point.
 
Robpags said:
Hey guys. I sold my AXFX 2 a few months ago when the FM3 was announced. I used my old rig just for live gigs and was getting a great “amp like” tone when doing direct to house. Fast forward to this week. I just got the FM3 and plugged it into my usual PA to start building my live patches again. To my surprise, the factory tones aren’t even close to the old unit. Most of the presets sound muffled. Even if I connect it to my DAW, they sound like a blanket is over a cab. There’s no definition to any of the tones that I used to use. The few presets that have definition, lack an body and depth. The unit sounds too digital. Very unlike the AXFX 2. Is there something I’m missing?.... Is there a parameter that I haven’t found that shapes the tones better? I’ll try to post a video. Hope it comes through over phone video.

I’ve messed with the “ideal “ setting in the amp blocks. I’ve added a parallel block to the end of the chain to bring level up a bit. The old tricks don’t seem to do anything to clear up the muffled tone. There’s no chance this would cut thru the mix in a live situation at this point.
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for reference, we made sure factory presets worked well with "most setups," and they don't sound muffled by nature. so it may not be the specific amp settings or presets.

it might be something in the setup, or some global or menu option that was accidentally turned on. i've loaded and reloaded and reset the FM3 many times during testing with the factory presets, and straight into any mixer with all flat settings, it wasn't muffled. not saying you're wrong, just explaining that they should be pretty good to go in most situations.

i would first Reset System Parameters in the Setup>Utilities menu.

also make sure nothing was changed in your speaker/signal path to EQ things to sound more muffled. that sounds silly, but it's happened in many consultations i've done. they've EQ'd for their iTunes to sound good - increasing bass, reducing mids, etc - and didn't realize it also affected the Axe or other gear.

it's hard to say what exactly to do to solve this, but i'd start with those things and let us know more details so that we can help.
 
Robpags said:
I’ve added a parallel block to the end of the chain to bring level up a bit.
Click to expand...
Have you tried setting the global Output 1 setting to +4dB instead of -10dB?

Adding a parallel block adds 6dB to the overall signal level...

You can also just increase the level of the Output block or the Amp block.
 
Robpags said:
I’ve added a parallel block to the end of the chain to bring level up a bit.
Click to expand...
you can simply increase the amp level to bring up the preset level. it needs to not clip "internally" either way, using the VU meters on the Layout Zoom out view.

unix-guy may be on to something - maybe the output just isn't the same loudness as the Axe2 in your setup. the Axe3 and FM3 default to the "consumer friendly" output setting of -10.
 
Update: I found that output 1 had a -10db pad on it. I set it to +6 and that solved most the issues. For any presets that still sounded muddy, I turned the bass down to 1 on those amps.
 
unix-guy said:
Have you tried setting the global Output 1 setting to +4dB instead of -10dB?

Adding a parallel block adds 6dB to the overall signal level...

You can also just increase the level of the Output block or the Amp block.
Click to expand...
Thanks man. I just found this after I posted the thread.
 
cool. the options should be -10 or +4.

i'm still wondering how this setting could affect "muffled" sound or EQ. i'm guessing it's just not at a loudness level compared to other things?

that setting on it's own doesn't change EQ, just for those who may be new to this option.
 
chris said:
for reference, we made sure factory presets worked well with "most setups," and they don't sound muffled by nature. so it may not be the specific amp settings or presets.

it might be something in the setup, or some global or menu option that was accidentally turned on. i've loaded and reloaded and reset the FM3 many times during testing with the factory presets, and straight into any mixer with all flat settings, it wasn't muffled. not saying you're wrong, just explaining that they should be pretty good to go in most situations.

i would first Reset System Parameters in the Setup>Utilities menu.

also make sure nothing was changed in your speaker/signal path to EQ things to sound more muffled. that sounds silly, but it's happened in many consultations i've done. they've EQ'd for their iTunes to sound good - increasing bass, reducing mids, etc - and didn't realize it also affected the Axe or other gear.

it's hard to say what exactly to do to solve this, but i'd start with those things and let us know more details so that we can help.
Click to expand...
The output was set to -10db. That solved most the issue.
 
chris said:
cool. the options should be -10 or +4.

i'm still wondering how this setting could affect "muffled" sound or EQ. i'm guessing it's just not at a loudness level compared to other things?

that setting on it's own doesn't change EQ, just for those who may be new to this option.
Click to expand...
Best way to describe it is it sounded like my tone knob on the guitar was turned all the way down. I tried it with my Telecaster, strat, 335 and PRS. All sounded muffled.
 
@Robpags are you creating your presets from scratch or did you import your presets from your Axe-FX II using Fractool?
 
chris said:
interesting. again not questioning anything you said. just wondering why. FM curve?
Click to expand...
I think that’s exactly it. If you’re used to listening at a certain volume, and that volume gets lowered, you’ll think it sounds “muffled.”
 
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