Is the FM9 hard to use?

Doktor1962 said:
Hi, does the Master Class include videos with subtitles that can be translated into Czech? On the YouTube channel, CC subtitles can be turned on and with a Czech translation. Unfortunately, I'm an older person and I don't know English
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The entire course is video-based, but I'm not sure about the translation functionality. Can you answer this @Cooper Carter ?
 
The more flexible and powerful a device is, the harder it is to create an interface that hides the complexity while keeping the flexibility and power within easy reach, and the learning curve to master it will become steeper once the bare essentials have been learned. I bounced off a bunch of different multi-effect units and modelers before switching to Fractal, and none of those units had anything in common with another unit from a competitor so each time I had to relearn how to do everything, but that's just the way it is. On some of them the interface had been dumbed down so much that there was no ability to fine tune leaving me stuck with terrible sound.

Fractal's interface has the main, most important, controls first in the various model's controls. The finer details are in the lower tabs or secondary windows and 99% of the time we don't have to dive below the first section to get a good sound. The manuals are very readable and can be easily searched using various PDF viewers and Admin M@ does a good job writing them but people need to put in the time to read them before declaring the unit is "hard". The information is available at their fingertips if they try.

The manuals have a little blurb in the FAQ section that I think is really important:
Q: Why all the technical terminology?
A: The language of the Axe-Fx III is for the most part the universal language of professional audio.
This allows the Axe-Fx III to serve very diverse communities from casual to pro players, to
producers, engineers, and beyond. The terminology and concepts you will use and learn are not
unique to the Axe-Fx III either. Understanding them will help you to master the craft of sound
and to communicate with other pros. At the same time, the Axe-Fx III is easier than ever, with
dedicated controls and a clear interface that doesn’t distract or disrupt the creative flow.
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Perhaps those who say it's hard are not as adept with all the related technologies and are confusing them with Fractal's technology, so they're having to come up to speed on a number of different fields and it blows their minds. Whatever the reason, those "influencers" who say Fractals are hard are revealing to me that they're not worth listening to because they didn't take the time to read, learn, and/or teach themselves and I think they should stay off my lawn.
 
Greg Ferguson said:
The more flexible and powerful a device is, the harder it is to create an interface that hides the complexity while keeping the flexibility and power within easy reach, and the learning curve to master it will become steeper once the bare essentials have been learned. I bounced off a bunch of different multi-effect units and modelers before switching to Fractal, and none of those units had anything in common with another unit from a competitor so each time I had to relearn how to do everything, but that's just the way it is. On some of them the interface had been dumbed down so much that there was no ability to fine tune leaving me stuck with terrible sound.

Fractal's interface has the main, most important, controls first in the various model's controls. The finer details are in the lower tabs or secondary windows and 99% of the time we don't have to dive below the first section to get a good sound. The manuals are very readable and can be easily searched using various PDF viewers and Admin M@ does a good job writing them but people need to put in the time to read them before declaring the unit is "hard". The information is available at their fingertips if they try.

The manuals have a little blurb in the FAQ section that I think is really important:


Perhaps those who say it's hard are not as adept with all the related technologies and are confusing them with Fractal's technology, so they're having to come up to speed on a number of different fields and it blows their minds. Whatever the reason, those "influencers" who say Fractals are hard are revealing to me that they're not worth listening to because they didn't take the time to read, learn, and/or teach themselves and I think they should stay off my lawn.
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Harrumph!
 
TheMadFretter said:
Finally, some reason.

Funny he was one of the folks that rated the Helix over the FM9.

Better value? Sure.
Good enough most? Absolutely.
Ahead of the FM9? Uhm, no. Not even close.

He shows how ridiculously easy it is to quickly dial up a great tone on the FM9. Nope you don’t need scores of effects and tweaks to get a good tone, just an amp and a cab. So, simple.

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Completely! I have never had another unit whatever, only tube amps and couple of SS hybrids. Just going through presets left me with perfectly useable amps and cabs. I have the axe fx3mk2turbo and I have done everything for the first couple of months from the front display. I won’t apologize for what I’m about to say but if someone can’t find something to start and tweak it then they have to be mostly illiterate. A bit of reading in the display and some deductive reasoning can get you anything you want . Now that said diving deeper is a steeper learning curve. Most people have no clue about bias tube swaps tone stacks etc. that takes more learning. A good index printed of the presets would help some new people a lot!
 
Greg Ferguson said:
The more flexible and powerful a device is, the harder it is to create an interface that hides the complexity while keeping the flexibility and power within easy reach, and the learning curve to master it will become steeper once the bare essentials have been learned. I bounced off a bunch of different multi-effect units and modelers before switching to Fractal, and none of those units had anything in common with another unit from a competitor so each time I had to relearn how to do everything, but that's just the way it is. On some of them the interface had been dumbed down so much that there was no ability to fine tune leaving me stuck with terrible sound.

Fractal's interface has the main, most important, controls first in the various model's controls. The finer details are in the lower tabs or secondary windows and 99% of the time we don't have to dive below the first section to get a good sound. The manuals are very readable and can be easily searched using various PDF viewers and Admin M@ does a good job writing them but people need to put in the time to read them before declaring the unit is "hard". The information is available at their fingertips if they try.
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I come from the BOSS world (2 x GT-PRO rack) and a year ago I switched to the FAS world (AXE FXIII T + FM9 T) with the difficulties caused by the need to understand the FAS philosophy & architecture and the fact that I am particularly demanding.

I soon realised that many ‘simple’ things could not be done (AF3 MIDI merge, FM9 multiple controllers on the same parameter, very big preset numbers on display and others) and had to invent continuous workarounds or give up.

Now, however, the opposite thing happened...

I'm designing a very compact rig compatible with aeroplane hand luggage, and I was forced to purchase a BOSS GT-1000 CORE (the flagship BOSS guitar multi-effect)...
well, now I realised how many dozens and dozens of things BOSS has less than FAS !
A world certainly much more intuitive but also too simplified now for my taste...

It reminds me of the transition from VHS to DVD... and 4K recently.
OK, with DVD you can see video better, good.
But after a few years I picked up a VHS again - well knowing about the lower quality - but the vision was so horrible that I thought there was a problem with the player or the TV... :)

When you get better you don't fully realise the improvements.
But when you go back you see entirely the advantages of the previous system.

FAS 🖤
 
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TheMadFretter said:
People are interesting and Youtube takes it to a new level. I keep scratching my head. Especially when I see these recent Helix vs Fractal reviews ... it's ridiculous. In any review of the Fractal, they faithfully repeat the standing narrative of the Fractal gear is "really hard to use", "has a steep learning curve", trying to create or dial a tone on the unit itself is near impossible.

I have spent six months with the FM9, Helix, Amplitude 5 and ToneX products and I have to disagree. If fact, it's really very simple with the FM9. I can quickly create a sound that I cannot believe is coming out of my monitors.

WIth the FM9, I can simply drop in an AMP+CAB+Reverb and even at that point it's immediately satisfying, usable. Better stated, it's like walking up to an amp an plugging in ... you feel it ... you tweak it ... you smile. It's that starting point that makes the FM9 so much EASIER to use than the others. You can immediately get a good tone and then build it to a great tone, to your liking.

Seriously, drop an AMP+CAB+REVERB into your Helix. Yikes, it will sound awfull. Then either download some else's preset or spend hours watching videos and adding all kinds of tricks (watch Jason Sadie's videos to get a clue on the extreme complexity of getting a tone in Helix) to try to emulate the sound you're looking for. HOW IS THIS EASY? It's a nightmare. You quickly understand the videos comparing the Helix to the Fractal. Steering folks to the Helix means you are going to need to purchase IRS and Patches - it's just good business.

Do I watch Fractal videos? You bet I do (Leon's taught me much). Not to get a good tone but to learn how to exploit the incredible depth of features and capabilities that extends my FM9 far beyond anything that can be accomplished with the others.

Also, there's something about the FEEL of the FM9. I am not sure how Fractal does this, even with headphones, there's feel, punch and other subtle qualities that I associate with playing a tube amp. None of the others have this. It makes a difference when you are playing, it pulls you in, blocks the world out and makes you one with your guitar.

I have tried to use my other products, but the presets just sound flat/dead or ridiculously over effected to cover the poor tone. I don't have the time to tackle the complexity of trying to get a sound that pleases me out of them. Over the six months, I questioned myself ... am I just biased over my new toy? Nope, the others have lost their shine as they have been surpassed. It's that simple.

Note: I use FM9-EDIT as I use the GUI editor for all of these products. Programming on any hardware sucks period and I avoid it. It is never as nice as the editors. Programming any hardware unit is going to send you to the manual, there's no avoiding that.
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Ton your last point, programming on the fractal hardware is the worst of the bunch. Editing modifiers or trouble shooting why an effect channel is not switching properly without the editor is really hard.
 
Fas is easy to grasp for people used to node based software, synth or any sound engineer geeky kind of stuff. The level of abstraction is quite dense for newcomers.
But at the end of the day, ease of learning < ease of use.
 
I have always told people looking at it it can be as easy or as hard as you want! It just depends on how deep you want to go and I think thats a fair statement.
 
Cooper Carter said:
Unfortunately, my hosting provider's subtitle/translation capabilities are not in the same league as YouTube's. The Master Class is in English only.
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If you're on Windows 11 (for translation you need to be on revision 24H2 latest), you can use CoPilot's auto captioning and translation:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/use-live-captions-to-better-understand-audio-b52da59c-14b8-4031-aeeb-f6a47e6055df#:~:text=use other languages:-,Select the Settings button in the live captions window.,language you want to use.
 
I used the Kemper and Helix family (LT and then Stomp) before entering the Fractal world with the Fm3.

Sure I had experience along the years with other digital units and plugins, but one of the most surprising things about the Fractal world to me when I bought the unit was how easy was to get a good sound.

I just treated as real amp, just like I treat my amps. Sure you can menu dive, and when it comes to effects that's were I think you will spend more time getting the "right" sound. But for a simple path ike amp+ cab + reverb ( I got have my reverb!), it's a unit that delivers really instant satisfaction. Just think about the amp and cab blocks like it was a real amp, don't overthink it.

Now, editing sounds on the Pc/Mac wonderful Fm edit is super easy. On the unit itself...not so much. Granted If I would spend more time dialing sounds on the unit itself and not relaying on the computer app I would probably be more proficient than I am at present time.
 
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