Lohengrin
Inspired
I have received my new FM3 yesterday. I have a quite specific use case: I want a processor to be racked in my band’s rack for live use, so it should replace an AF2 XL. I understand the FM3 was not initially designed for this, but was attracted towards the FM3 because of the added portability, given that I can take advantage of the unit in additional scenarios beyond band gigs. I was curious to see if the unit could stand up a head-to-head comparison against the previous-gen flagship under these highly specific conditions. Preset and scene switching is done automatically, so I do not really care a lot about the switching part of the device.
Even if it is not the same specific context, I've seen a couple of topics in the past dealing with the transition from Axe Fx II towards FM3, so I thought I could share my first impressions.
DISCLAIMER: the following analysis is only valid for the very specific use case of the FM3 as a racked device!!! The unit was not designed for this, and as such it is not a "fair fight". For most other uses the “pro” list will be much much longer.
First thing I noticed is the FM3 is bigger than I thought… It will need a 3U space in the rack. And then…
Pros:
Even if it is not the same specific context, I've seen a couple of topics in the past dealing with the transition from Axe Fx II towards FM3, so I thought I could share my first impressions.
DISCLAIMER: the following analysis is only valid for the very specific use case of the FM3 as a racked device!!! The unit was not designed for this, and as such it is not a "fair fight". For most other uses the “pro” list will be much much longer.
First thing I noticed is the FM3 is bigger than I thought… It will need a 3U space in the rack. And then…
Pros:
- Portability / additional uses: I can easily unrack the FM3 for an all-in-one solution for rehearsals, smaller gigs, jams, etc. This was what attracted me in the first place.
- AF3 integration: It should sound “exactly” like the AF3, so in a scenario with an AF3 based studio, presets can easily be shared among both platforms.
- FM3-Edit control of global parameters. In the AF2 it is not possible to control global parameters (e.g.: global EQ) via USB (on stage I use a laptop since the band’s rack is not always reachable).
- AF3 modelling and UI: all the advantages of the new generation of fractals.
- 3U vs. 2U
- Instability: in my first couple of hours I had to reset the unit maybe 10-12 times. It’s true I was porting big presets from an AF3 and there is a specific disclaimer saying that the unit can get instable and erratic behaviour when hitting high CPU values… yet I wish it would fail more gracefully when problems happen instead of lag/crash. In some occasions I could just navigate out of the preset if I give the unit enough time, but in others I couldn’t find a way out.
- USB audio routing: I was using output 2 into a mixer for headphone monitoring… and I couldn’t find a way to hear both the processed signal AND the USB audio from the computer in that output. (Copying output 1 does not copy USB audio, routing USB audio to output2 seems not compatible to routing processed signal). I’m aware this is a non-HP exclusive con.
- Lack of MIDI over USB: I need a separate MIDI interface to send MIDI commands from my DAW.
- CPU limit: I found I need to take reverb out of some of my presets. They are not overly complex presets, nor kitchen sink presets, although it is true they have a fair share of processing and I was actually expecting this. I’m sure I can find a workaround, at least for some presets, but this kind of defeats Pro#2, even if partially.
- Switching gap: I still need to test this. In the AF2 I’m using multiple instances of blocks (amps, delays) for seamless switching. In the FM3 I’ll have to use channels. I guess switching is fast enough but I need to test this in a full band environment.
- I/O: In the AF2 I’m using both balanced and unbalanced connections of output1 together with output2 for multiple uses. With the FM3, I’ll need an splitter to duplicate output1.
