New FM3 - where to start?

T

tonycass99

Member
Hi Everyone - I am the proud owner of a new FM3. This is my first Fractal product so I will need to wrap my head around how to navigate the device. Any tips on where to start? I’ve been watching the Cooper Carter masterclass videos which are EXCELLENT! My concern is that he focuses only on creating and editing with FM3 edit. While I can see myself working from my computer at times I would rather not have to. I have purchased Fracpad and the Yamaha Bluetooth midi adapter but it seems to lag a bit. Am I doing something wrong? I only have about 45 minutes on the device so far and I am BLOWN AWAY by just the presets. I’m eager to start building some of my own and am not sure if I should learn how to create on the device, using Fracpad, or if I should just suck it up and use a computer.

For you super users … what do you wish you knew in your first few weeks of owning Fractal gear? Are their any video series that focus on just the on device user interface. I’m reading the manual but a good video certainly speeds up the learning curve.

Thanks in advance for any tips, tricks, advice, or anything else that you feel I might find useful.
 
tonycass99 said:
Hi Everyone - I am the proud owner of a new FM3. This is my first Fractal product so I will need to wrap my head around how to navigate the device. Any tips on where to start? I’ve been watching the Cooper Carter masterclass videos which are EXCELLENT! My concern is that he focuses only on creating and editing with FM3 edit. While I can see myself working from my computer at times I would rather not have to. I have purchased Fracpad and the Yamaha Bluetooth midi adapter but it seems to lag a bit. Am I doing something wrong? I only have about 45 minutes on the device so far and I am BLOWN AWAY by just the presets. I’m eager to start building some of my own and am not sure if I should learn how to create on the device, using Fracpad, or if I should just suck it up and use a computer.

For you super users … what do you wish you knew in your first few weeks of owning Fractal gear? Are their any video series that focus on just the on device user interface. I’m reading the manual but a good video certainly speeds up the learning curve.

Thanks in advance for any tips, tricks, advice, or anything else that you feel I might find useful.
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Leon Todd (username is 2112) is your friend. Look him up on Youtube. He has a LOT of great video and give a lot on insight into both the AXE3 and FM3.
 
Learn to use the front panel. That way you don't need any other gear to do what you need to do.

But FM3-Edit is still easier when you have a computer available.
 
Thanks for the input guys, very helpful. I'm now 24 hours in and totally blown away by this device. Still have lots to learn. I also need to decide if I should load in all of my York Audio IR's or if the factory cabs are good enough. I have already found the cab and mic combinations I like so I'm sure sure if having EVEN more choices will be worth it.

I know there is already a thread about it but I'm also considering the Austin Buddy preset pack. The idea of having a ton of pre leveled presets that have scenes set up for both HB and SC guitars seems like it would be worth the investment.
 
why wasting so many bucks on preset pack, masterclass? You have time? well, try and catch on device, studio monitor, loudspeaker, headphones.
I 've tried different factory cab (there are so many, with so much good quality). It's a profesional machine, not a toy, you dont' need nothing else
Leon Todd is (Y)our friend
 
franceschettimarc said:
why wasting so many bucks on preset pack, masterclass? You have time? well, try and catch on device, studio monitor, loudspeaker, headphones.
I 've tried different factory cab (there are so many, with so much good quality). It's a profesional machine, not a toy, you dont' need nothing else
Leon Todd is (Y)our friend
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I picked up the FM3 from Reverb and the seller actually assigned his Masterclass license to me at no cost. It would take me hours and hours to setup a batch of presets in the way that Austin Buddy has set them up. I'd view the purchase as a learning experience and not the end game.

I know that there is some debate on the act of buying presets ... not interested in opening that up.
 
The factory presets were updated when the latest firmware was released and sound extremely good. A good way to learn the system is to start at the first, and step through them, scene by scene, copying the presets you like to a much higher range for later.

The manuals are good, and there is a lot to learn, so download them and when you run into something you don’t understand do a search through the FM3 manual first, search the forums, search YouTube, then if you can’t figure it out, export the preset and create a new thread and attach it to your question. We try to help but it can take days to get enough information to find a solution so having the preset gives us a common starting place to help you, time that you might have not needed to spend answering questions to clarify things we couldn’t tell without it.

It’s a really good idea to read the manuals several times to get an idea what’s covered and where; I still open one and read sections about things I haven’t had reason to fiddle with previously.

Buying presets are fine; some people want instant gratification and others want to do it themselves. It’s neither good or bad, it’s just a means to an end. I wanted to know how to make my own and early on, on another platform, bought many and never found any I liked. That wisdom was expensive to gain, it’s been an experience many others have had, which is why you will hear them express their opinions to not go down that path. That said, I bought one of Austin Buddy’s packs because I wanted to learn more about the deep parameters and pick things apart to learn, because he’s creating very good sounding presets, but I don’t use them per se. I enjoy the journey to the destination and my destination is different because I want a different view, YMMV.

Learn how to edit using the interface on the unit, and the edit application. When you know both you can use the editor’s features to build presets, and then to tweak them when you are standing directly over the unit when playing. And learn about the Performance Control pages because they’re the fast path to tweaking a preset in the middle of a song.

About IRs: The overriding rule is use your ears, not your eyes. If you like the sound of something, that is a good enough reason to use it. The factory cabs are excellent but might not meet your taste. They are a common ground though and you can’t delete them so you might as well be familiar with them and slowly add others to fill in gaps when you can’t find the sound you need. Adding more IRs will only make the search to find some specific sound take longer. I installed Leon Todd’s IRs because his presets default to them, and some specific ones from York Audio because there wasn’t a close-enough match to a particular amp sound I wanted to model. Because I used to be on another platform I have thousands of IRs, but seldom feel the need to wander through them after switching to Fractal.

Regarding FM3-Edit: it’s the primary way to edit, and the lingua franca when asking for help on the forum. It’s also the most convenient way to access Fractal-Bot and do backups and restores, audition presets and IRs, create/edit/manage the blocks library, and use the Snapshot tool, so I’d recommend using it. FracPad is the solution when you don’t have your computer and want to make a change without using the front panel and twiddling knobs, say maybe at rehearsal or sound check.
 
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Personally, use the edit software first. For me it made using the unit without a computer way more easier because I could see the whole layout, menus, and understand how the device worked conceptually so that when I was scrolling through endless menus I could still visualize what it looked like on the computer screen. Lots of great suggestions but I just got mine a month ago and here is what I wished I knew up front as someone who has used a ton of plugins, a helix, a Neural DSP, and Kemper to name a few and still always went back to tube amps.
1) If you use an FRFR the global setup output eq is your friend to help shape your specific sound to the particular FRFR. My FRFR went from sound like hot garbage to amazing. Borrowing from Leon, I did a 12db cut at 80 and a high cut at around 9800 plus a small notch at around 250-300 to get rid of that boxy sound.
2) OMG 9 is your friend if you bought the FM3 with the FC-6. Download it and install it now
3) If you are running the unit into a tube amp and cab of course don't use the virtual cab but also toy around with the amp unit under the speaker menu and adjust the cab resonance according to taste. Depending on my cab I have it off (4x12) but on a 1x12 I might have it on to give the 1x12 a little mid low beef.
4) PlexDly is your friend. It is both a reverb, shimmer verb, and delay.
5) Create and save amp presets yourself in the library tab. That way if you have a favorite amp setting you can load it straight into the new preset instead of trying to recreate it tweaking 20 different parameters.
6) IRs can make or break a sound when using an FRFR or recording direct. While one IR may sound magical for one amp, it might sound terrible for another!
7) Volume matching before practice or live shows will be your friend. Get a DB meter plugin for your phone and match your presets
8) Watch the forums...there is always a useful post almost every day for new users.
9) The wish list is your friend. Post if there is an amp, or pedal you are looking for. Even the designers will respond when you ask for the oddball shimmer pedal and others will help to try to come as close to the sound with what exists as you can. While nothing in the FM3 can quite replace my Flux effects Liquid Ambience pedal, with the help of the users and some of the designers I was able to come close enough live. Will still use the flux when recording, but I actually believe if I sent the flux into fractal they would figure out a way to put it into the next update.
10) Scene controllers are your friends. They are a little awkward but it makes sense if you change the delay time in one scene you change it in all because it is similar to a analog pedal board. So you can also change delay time per scene per preset by using the controllers/scene controllers so that the thing you want to change per scene (say delay mix and volume) can be done using scene controllers instead of channel variations although channel variations is another way to do it. However, you get more seamless changes with scene controllers.

I could go on but I will stop there. I have had a blast with the FM3 and I really shock people with how amp like it sounds. I liked the Helix, but this thing can do so much more. Maybe that is my last bit of advice. Don't stay up to 5am tweaking the amps sounds for three days in a row. At some point just play guitar and have fun. :)
 
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