FM9 Firmware Version 4.01

So I set my input sensitivity for my hottest guitar. Should I leave it there, or adjust per guitar? Something I’ve wondered about for awhile and never asked. Thanks.
 
Spanky437 said:
So I set my input sensitivity for my hottest guitar. Should I leave it there, or adjust per guitar? Something I’ve wondered about for awhile and never asked. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Yeah, this has been an interesting question that I’ve spent a bit of time with. Here’s my (current) approach:
  • On the I/O screen I set the A/D Sensitivity (left-hand side of the screen) so that my loudest guitar does not overload the converter chip.
  • I leave the A/D Sensitivity right there and proceed with the next steps.
  • I set the Input Gain (right-hand side of the screen) to adjust for best edge-of-breakup threshold for picking dynamics.
  • I leave the Input Gain right there and proceed with the next steps.
  • I then fine-tune the individual amp’s trim and gain controls to further refine the edge-of-breakup threshold.
  • I then adjust the amp’s input dynamics control to adjust the edge-of-breakup window.
  • I then do the whole series again and repeat until it’s golden.
  • I do this process for each guitar (not including the A/D Sensitivity and Input Gain), which means I have different presets for different guitars.
If there’s a better way, I’d be very interested in hearing about it. :)
 
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Musiclover said:
Yeah, this has been an interesting question that I’ve spent a bit of time with. Here’s my (current) approach:
  • On the I/O screen I set the A/D Sensitivity (left-hand side of the screen) so that my loudest guitar does not overload the converter chip.
  • I leave the A/D Sensitivity right there and proceed with the next steps.
  • I set the Input Gain (right-hand side of the screen) to adjust for best edge-of-breakup threshold for picking dynamics.
  • I leave the Input Gain right there and proceed with the next steps.
  • I then fine-tune the individual amp’s trim and gain controls to further refine the edge-of-breakup threshold.
  • I then adjust the amp’s input dynamics control to adjust the edge-of-breakup window.
  • I then do the whole series again and repeat until it’s golden.
  • I do this process for each guitar (not including the A/D Sensitivity and Input Gain), which means I have different presets for different guitars.
If there’s a better way, I’d be very interested in hearing about it. :)
Click to expand...
Awesome thanks!
 
Musiclover said:
Yeah, this has been an interesting question that I’ve spent a bit of time with. Here’s my (current) approach:
  • On the I/O screen I set the A/D Sensitivity (left-hand side of the screen) so that my loudest guitar does not overload the converter chip.
  • I leave the A/D Sensitivity right there and proceed with the next steps.
  • I set the Input Gain (right-hand side of the screen) to adjust for best edge-of-breakup threshold for picking dynamics.
  • I leave the Input Gain right there and proceed with the next steps.
  • I then fine-tune the individual amp’s trim and gain controls to further refine the edge-of-breakup threshold.
  • I then adjust the amp’s input dynamics control to adjust the edge-of-breakup window.
  • I then do the whole series again and repeat until it’s golden.
  • I do this process for each guitar (not including the A/D Sensitivity and Input Gain), which means I have different presets for different guitars.
If there’s a better way, I’d be very interested in hearing about it. :)
Click to expand...
The truth is, there’s no point in doing all that work. The A/D Sensitivity control has no effect on your signal level, and no effect on edge-of-breakup or any other kind of breakup.
 
Spanky437 said:
So don’t adjust per guitar or anything? Just run with the one setting?
Click to expand...
Right. Here's the deal:

You want A/D Sensitivity low enough that there's no clipping. You also want it to be as high as practical to get the best signal-to-noise ratio, But here's the deal about that:

Your guitar, all by itself, produces way more noise than your FM9 does. So even if you have A/D Sensitivity set way low, the noise from your guitar is still overpowering any noise from the FM9. So you can afford to set it ridiculously low without affecting the noise level at all.


TLDR: Clipping is a bigger enemy than noise here. Set A/D Sensitivity low enough that your hottest guitar doesn't cause clipping, and you're golden. It's time to play guitar. :)
 
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Rex said:
The truth is, there’s no point in doing all that work. The A/D Sensitivity control has no effect on your signal level, and no effect on edge-of-breakup or any other kind of breakup.
Click to expand...
Well, your truth, perhaps. I meant to add to my post that your mileage may vary. :)

It depends greatly on whether you are a high-gain style of player, or someone who lives right around the edge-of-breakup and uses picking dynamics to move between clean and not-so-clean in a pleasing manner (that would be me). That’s one of the reasons I was happy to see the Input Dynamics for amps added to the latest firmware (4.01). It allows me to fine tune the transition from clean to crunch to grind very much to my liking. I think that capability was added to the amp models for a reason, so I wouldn’t sell it short.

If you don’t care about that sort of thing then you are probably just fine making sure that you don’t clip the A/D converters and call it a day. You didn’t mention your playing style, so I just shared what I‘ve done to suit my playing style.

That is, unless you like the sound of clipping the converters, which some people apparently do. There are no rules, just suggestions. Careful gain staging along the entire signal path is what modern guitar amplifiers are all about.
 
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Rex said:
Right. Here's the deal:

You want A/D Sensitivity low enough that there's no clipping. You also want it to be as high as practical to get the best signal-to-noise ratio, But here's the deal about that:

Your guitar, all by itself, produces way more noise than your FM9 does. So even if you have A/D Sensitivity set way low, the noise from your guitar is still overpowering any noise from the FM9. So you can afford to set it ridiculously low without affecting the noise level at all.


TLDR: Clipping is a bigger enemy than noise here. Set A/D Sensitivity low enough that your hottest guitar doesn't cause clipping, and your golden. It's time to play guitar. :)
Click to expand...
Awesome man, Thanks!
 
Musiclover said:
Well, your truth, perhaps. I meant to add to my post that your mileage may vary. :)

It depends greatly on whether you are a high-gain style of player, or someone who lives right around the edge-of-breakup and uses picking dynamics to move between clean and not-so-clean in a pleasing manner (that would be me). That’s one of the reasons I was happy to see the Input Dynamics for amps added to the latest firmware (4.01). It allows me to fine tune the transition from clean to crunch to grind very much to my liking. I think that capability was added to the amp models for a reason, so I wouldn’t sell it short.

If you don’t care about that sort of thing then you are probably just fine making sure that you don’t clip the A/D converters and call it a day. You didn’t mention your playing style, so I just shared what I‘ve done to suit my playing style.

That is, unless you like the sound of clipping the converters, which some people apparently do. There are no rules, just suggestions. Careful gain staging along the entire signal path is what modern guitar amplifiers are all about.
Click to expand...
Everybody's truth. Yours, too.

The A/D Sensitivity control has no effect on signal level or gain. Any adjustment you make to this control is compensated by an equal but opposite adjustment at the output of the A/D converter, so there is no change in how hard you're hitting the Amp block or anything else. If you're trying to adjust gain, any time you spend with A/D Sensitivity is wasted effort. That's true whether you play with high gain, edge-of-breakup or squeaky clean.
 
Rex said:
Everybody's truth. Yours, too.

The A/D Sensitivity control has no effect on signal level or gain. Any adjustment you make to this control is compensated by an equal but opposite adjustment at the output of the A/D converter, so there is no change in how hard you're hitting the Amp block or anything else. If you're trying to adjust gain, any time you spend with A/D Sensitivity is wasted effort. That's true whether you play with high gain, edge-of-breakup or squeaky clean.
Click to expand...
Verdad.

P. 94 in the manual:
Screenshot 2023-04-27 at 1.01.50 PM.png
 
Rex said:
Everybody's truth. Yours, too.
Click to expand...
The more complete version of your post was, “The truth is, there’s no point in doing all that work.”

If you look at my post, you will see that I was discussing far more than the Input Sensitivity, although I will grant you that was the original question. “…all that work” is my truth of which the Input Sensitivity is the smallest part.

We all agree that the Input Sensitivity does not affect gain. That is well known. It’s in the friggin‘ manual!

The quote from Greg is a section that I’m quite familiar with. The paragraph below the one he highlighted is more relevant to the points I was making of what does influence level (or gain), and why I adjusted those parameters. I thought sharing my observations might be of some use to the interested reader.

The fun part came when I plugged in my G&L bass. That blew past any of the Input Sensitivity settings that I tried with my different guitars when searching for the highest output one. And that was before I engaged its preamp.

The new input overload indicator with the tuner made that much easier to be aware of. So, my hat’s off to the new firmware. And that is what this thread is talking about, right?
 
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