Help please, Levels haven’t been right since yesterday

[bdoza27]

So I’ve had no problems with my fm3 till now. Last night I did a small gig in which I used a combo amp as a speaker and just used my fm3 as “pre-processing” for the amp and effects. I’ve done it before and have had no problems, usually I just have to adjust amp block level settings to compensate for levels between the amp and fm3 which I do on my computer. Last night I made a new preset so I could set the levels and not have to mess up my old ones for my studio settings. I mention the fm3 has a metronome I can turn up and we can follow that, when I went to do it somehow switched my volume output, it was going through the levels 2 knob now, so I turned up the metronome on the input 2 on the fm3 and turned up the levels 2 knob because my guitar volume had gone down a bit for some reason. I figured I’d just turn it up and worry about it later. Now that I’m back at my studio I go to que up something I was working on but I’m having the same levels problem on my old presets and all of them. It’s back on input 1 but even if I turn the amp block all the way up and levels knob all the way you can barely hear it and it just starts to clip. I’ve reset the parameters, updated the firmware, checked the connections and I still can’t find the problem and it makes me worried it’s a hardware issue. If anyone could help ASAP I’d really appreciate it thank you!

 

[Ugly Bunny]

Hmm. This is very confusing. I don't know what you mean by "metronome on the input 2," "Switched my volume output," and there are a few other items I'm not sure you're using the correct terminology for (or at least not distinguishing what you're doing inside the FM3's firmware UI versus twisting physical knobs).

You just have to start at the top.

• Make sure everything it powered and plugged in and that all your cables are good. Make sure your guitar has a fresh batter, if applicable.
• Make sure all your physical connections are correct.
• Make sure your I/O and global settings are all correct in the Setup menu.
• Start with a blank preset and make an Input block linked to an Output block.
• If you're on a computer, also open the Preset Leveling Tool.
• Go from there; build a preset, etc. You may notice what's different about your new preset (if it works) and carry that change over to the old presets, if it's just something simple.

In any case, it's really hard to diagnose something like this without more details or actually sitting in front of it with a guitar in our hands, but I'm sure you'll figure it out

 

[bdoza27]

Thank you for the reply! So I’ve reset the parameters already, I’ve checked every physical connections. I’ve checked factory presets, my presets and tried new started ones. I’ve fixed the output level to +4dbu, I’ve tried more than one guitar and it still doesn’t get the overall level up. If I use headphones into my fm3 everything sounds full and fine but if I plug it into monitors or a speaker/amp you can’t hear it even fully cranked up. I’ve have pictures on what I mean for the input 2 for the metronome. Usually it only makes me use the first dial to adjust the volume of the metronome and in the pic you can see there’s 2 and for some reason the other day it made my output switch somehow to the second. Also if you see there’s 2 physical Level knobs and I usually only need level 1 because I’m going through 1 output but it switched me to use the Levels 2 knob and I don’t know why

 

[Ugly Bunny]

Your levels are VERY low. Your amp 1 output level is -4db, your Output 1 is -12db, your physical volume knob 1 is very low, 2 is off - what am I missing? This would be very quiet no matter what you're plugging into. What are your scene levels in the output block? I'd say you have TONS of room to turn up and I'm not the least bit surprised you're barely getting any volume. Crank it up, man!

 

[Greg Ferguson]

Export an example preset, backup the System+Global Blocks+FC information, and attach those to the first post and we can recreate your system on ours and look at its settings.