(real) Precision Drive into FM3

A

axelat

Member
Is it possible to put an overdrive like the Horizon Devices Precision Drive in front of an FM3 - wouldn't that just digitally distort the AD inputs, would it be better in the FX loop just before the amp block? Anyone tried this? How does it sound?
 
axelat said:
Is it possible to put an overdrive like the Horizon Devices Precision Drive in front of an FM3 - wouldn't that just digitally distort the AD inputs, would it be better in the FX loop just before the amp block? Anyone tried this? How does it sound?
Click to expand...
You can absolutely run an overdrive in front of an FM3—I run fuzz pedals and my klone into my FM3 and love the results. The key is remembering that you're running the pedal into a digital converter, not a tube preamp, and set the pedal volume accordingly. When I use drive pedals with my amps, I generally have the output level set at well over unity gain. In the analog world this can be great—hitting the preamp with a hotter signal helps it produce more distortion, and is part of what we think of as the sound of an overdrive pedal. But if I used the same settings with the FM3, it would overdrive the converters and I would end up with nasty digital clipping. So when I use my drive pedals with the FM3 I set the pedal's volume knob to unity gain to avoid digital clipping, and compensate for the lower volume level by boosting the input trim control in the amp block.
 
Last edited:
Good advice, pedalbuilder! Although, I'd also suggest turning the FM3 input down most or all the way, and cranking the OD pedal as much as possible without clipping. I don't know about the Precision Drive, but many OD pedals sound better with the volume opened up and are a little anemic at unity gain. Worth experimenting!
 
pedalbuilder said:
You can absolutely run an overdrive in front of an FM3—I run fuzz pedals and my klone into my FM3 and love the results. The key is remembering that you're running the pedal into a digital converter, not a tube preamp, and set the pedal volume accordingly. When I use drive pedals with my amps, I generally have the output level set at well over unity gain. In the analog world this can be great—hitting the preamp with a hotter signal helps it produce more distortion, and is part of what we think of as the sound of an overdrive pedal. But if I used the same settings with the FM3, it would overdrive the converters and I would end up with nasty digital clipping. So when I use my drive pedals with the FM3 I set the pedal's volume knob to unity gain to avoid digital clipping, and compensate for the lower volume level by boosting the input trim control in the amp block.
Click to expand...
Thx a lot, that's exactly what I thought, so I will give it a try, I just wasn't sure if it is possible to compensate the missing input level on the input tubes with the simulated boost and get the same results as in real world. The Precision Drive Block in the Axe FX III was built with the new drive algorithms after firmware 13 and Cliff wrote that at this point it is not possible to transfer the new algos to the FM3 as they would need to much CPU. It will be interesting if this will be a more and more general problem for us FM3 guys. New Algos with better sound quality developed for the III that cannot be ported to the FM3. At the moment for me personally the main difference it's just the Precission Drive, so I can spend 220 Euros for a new pedal or 2500 Euros for an Axe FX III. I think in the long term it would be smarter to invest now in an Axe FX III... but it's a lot of money for a hobbyist living room player...
 
Just out of curiosity, is the Attack knob on the Precision Drive just a low cut filter, so it could be simulated with the low cut filter in the input EQ section of the amp block?
 
You can use the PD Drive with VOL and BRIGHT at maximum without clipping the FM3's input, when setting the input pad to 18 dB (I just tried that).
 
James Nash said:
Good advice, pedalbuilder! Although, I'd also suggest turning the FM3 input down most or all the way, and cranking the OD pedal as much as possible without clipping. I don't know about the Precision Drive, but many OD pedals sound better with the volume opened up and are a little anemic at unity gain. Worth experimenting!
Click to expand...
I think that whether you get an anemic sound definitely depends on the particular pedal. Some overdrive/distortion pedals, like the Rangemaster, have an output volume that is really the gain control for a transistor that distorts at higher settings. Other pedals, like the Boss BD-2, have a volume control that adjusts the input level for a second or third opamp/diode clipping stage, so less volume means less distortion. So keeping the volume low on those pedals has a noticeable, usually detrimental effect on the tone.

By contrast, many other pedals, like the Tonebender, Tubescreamer, Distortion+, Centaur, etc. use a passive volume control that simply dumps some of the signal to ground at the end of the circuit. Those kinds of controls do not substantially affect the dynamic/frequency response of the pedal. If you're using one of those pedal with a real tube amp, then you may perceive the pedal to sound anemic when the volume knob is set low, but that's really the result of not hitting the preamp with a hotter signal/Fletcher-Munson stuff (depending on the volume of the amp, etc.), rather than the tone of the pedal. I personally prefer to run overdrive pedals with the volume low and make up for it by cranking the input trim, because padding the input raises the noise floor and the overdrive pedals that I use fall into the second category, so there's not much of a benefit to cranking the volume level. Others might find differently, depending on their pedals, guitar, etc.
 
I just got my FM3 and was curious about this particular topic. I love my Tumnus and would like to use it with my FM3. I'm using the FM3 strictly as an effects processor and as a way to control midi on my tube amp. Should I set it up differently from what was described above or just got right into input 1 and tweak away? Sorry for the newb question, but who would give a better answer than the good people in this forum
 
Jorge.Estremera said:
I just got my FM3 and was curious about this particular topic. I love my Tumnus and would like to use it with my FM3. I'm using the FM3 strictly as an effects processor and as a way to control midi on my tube amp. Should I set it up differently from what was described above or just got right into input 1 and tweak away? Sorry for the newb question, but who would give a better answer than the good people in this forum
Click to expand...

I have a Tumnus Deluxe. Love it. Great pedal. But it’s noisy. Do any of you guys run drives in the external loop inserted prior to amp or other drives? I’m assuming bypassed would take out the noise. I have been meaning to try it but haven’t done it yet.

Klon pedals.....wish the FM3 had one lol. Doesn’t seem like that will ever happen. I tried a suggested Klon sim I found on the forum but it didn’t seem very Klonish to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom