Question for people who have both FM9 and FM3

guitarjim

guitarjim

Experienced
I see in the discussions that there are a number of folks who own both, but I didn't find a post describing what life is like with an FM9 and an FM3. I have an FM9 and am considering getting an FM3 to leave at the rehearsal studio and to have as a backup should the FM9 fail. I'm not a pro, so it doesn't make sense for me to buy another FM9.

Question for those who do have both is how do you keep the two units synced? Do the presets generally copy from one to another without issue? I doubt I will run into CPU issues because I have very few crazy presets. If I do all of my preset building on the FM9, do I export them and then import them into FM3 Edit and then download, or is there a more streamlined process?

Any advice you can give me on whether or not this is a good idea and how to make things as easy as possible would be appreciated.
 
Depends on your presets really. If you can get by with an fm3, just construct all your sounds on that one and copy over to the fm9. Anything the 3 runs the 9 will do, not vice-versa.
 
I only have one preset that I had to modify from my FM9 to work properly (CPU) on my FM3 Turbo. But I am a pretty straight forward guitar player, basic FX and essentials, not the kitchen sink.
 
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I use both as well. For all live shows and some rehearsals I bring my 9Tv2. For my work, I use the FM3T on my bench and I bring it to many rehearsals and sometimes when we have a really small stage footprint. I also bring it as my backup.

Love using both units!
 
I use both also. My biggest drawback is I make a presets on the FM9, which I use for gigs, that have two amp blocks……and can’t be used on the FM3. That is my only issue.
 
guitarjim said:
Question for those who do have both is how do you keep the two units synced?
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For me, the answer is that I don't. The FM3 generally gets used for acoustic instruments, lap steel, or as a simple grab and go solution, and the FM9 for primarily electric stuff where I need dual amps and more effects. The FM3 also serves as a backup to the FM9. I can throw my Strymon Iridium in the loop and get dual amps in stereo if needed.

If your presets on the FM9 comply with the FM3's layout and effects count, you can usually just load the presets into the FM3 via Edit without making any changes.
 
I have all three units.

Initially, when building presets, I read through the manuals to learn the differences in the grid sizes and block compliments, but then decided it made more sense to build the presets on the FM3. The presets are guaranteed to work correctly on the larger units because they have more capability than the FM3. Trying to build on a bigger unit and then push the preset downwards is more error-prone; the difference in the grid size, some block counts or types don't exist and some parameters don't exist on the FM3 that are on the bigger units.

I think the easy way to sync them is to do a backup of the preset banks containing the presets you want to sync, but you can also do it using preset exports, either directly from Edit's Preset menu, or from the Preset Manager. I recommend using a backup because it takes less fiddling but YMMV. Once you have the bank(s) backed up open the Preset Manager in Edit for the other unit, drag the file into the Browser pane on the left side and let Edit scan the file for the presets. Select the ones you want and drag them to the right side's slots, then save them. Edit will send them to the modeler, overwriting the old presets.

Sometimes, when I'm making minor adjustments to a preset I'll simply export that one and then import it into the other unit(s). Or, if it's a very simple change, and because the units are already synchronized, I'll switch to the other unit's Edit and make the change directly and save.

After a while you'll be comfortable with the things you can do on the FM3, and then it's easy to make presets on any of the machines. Knowing their differences is the trick.


PS - Be sure to manually sync the various global settings too, especially EQ and output levels. I don't think it's possible to use a system+gb+fc.syx file between the units but maybe they're compatible, I didn't want to find out the hard way.
 
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Import or export presets but sometimes will open both editors side-by-side to construct the preset block by block. Gives me the opportunity to review and learn from each block.

But alas might be selling the FM9. The FM3 is really all I need.
 
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