Recording Bass through FM3

citytoburn

citytoburn

Member
When I first did all my research before buying, I was planning to get the axe III and one of the main motivators was that I could dump my bass amp and use it as an audio interface for bass and guitar. Once FM3 came on my radar I looked at the functions that it didn't have (vocoder, dual amps) and was fine with that. I've been playing with my unit for almost a week now and I absolutely love it. I finally got around to looking at the bass capabilities last night and realized that the bass amps I was planning to use from the Axe III don't appear to be incorporated (Ampeg SVT). Not the end of the world for me, but it leads me to a question if anyone has experimented thoroughly.

Which amps in the FM3 have you been able to get the best bass tones with? Are there any tricks (effects or eq or amp/cab settings) that allow the full bass frequency to come through? Anyone know of FM3 presets for bass? Still hoping to sell my amp but I need to produce a nice recorded bass tone first.
 
citytoburn said:
When I first did all my research before buying, I was planning to get the axe III and one of the main motivators was that I could dump my bass amp and use it as an audio interface for bass and guitar. Once FM3 came on my radar I looked at the functions that it didn't have (vocoder, dual amps) and was fine with that. I've been playing with my unit for almost a week now and I absolutely love it. I finally got around to looking at the bass capabilities last night and realized that the bass amps I was planning to use from the Axe III don't appear to be incorporated (Ampeg SVT). Not the end of the world for me, but it leads me to a question if anyone has experimented thoroughly.

Which amps in the FM3 have you been able to get the best bass tones with? Are there any tricks (effects or eq or amp/cab settings) that allow the full bass frequency to come through? Anyone know of FM3 presets for bass? Still hoping to sell my amp but I need to produce a nice recorded bass tone first.
Click to expand...

Amps 238 and 239, SV Bass1 and SV Bass2 are Ampeg SVT models. I haven't tried them but they are there.
 
One tip I've got or one that I tend to use a lot is blending a parallel chain without the amp in the mix as well (either separate outputs or blended). I normally throw a separate EQ on the "dry" line. I love the Citrus Bass amp inside the FM3. It's not for everyone but its an interesting color to my bass when recording.
 
Here's my bass patch that I dialed in to sound as close to my Aguilar Tonehammer as possible. I'm normally using the Ownhammer "OH 210 AMPG SVT-10 FAT MIX" IR from the Ampeg pack, so I swapped it to a similar factory cab.

When I record, I also record the direct signal and then align the phase of the two so it sounds fatter (and it does sound really nice!). I usually use Sound Radix Auto-Align, but you could do it manually.
 

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blackmoreguitar said:
I think you are looking at presets, I am talking about amps in the amp block.
Click to expand...

My presets have
238: PolyOctaveGen
239: Nasty Pre Slam

The amps on the amp list are the ones I mentioned above. I haven't yet hooked up USB so maybe I need firmware update? On the bright side, the poster above who mentioned Citrus Bass pointed me to at least one other bass model, and now scrolling through I see USA 400 Bass and Porta Bass (which uses the 8x10 SVT cab), so I'll definitely check those out, and maybe hunt a bit more, they may have just renamed the SVT head? I had only checked whether the SVT was there and since it was missing I thought they must have not included bass models, but the plot thickens!

I'll investigate further tonight and check out Poparad's bass preset above once I get the PC interface going (thanks, dude!).
 
citytoburn said:
My presets have
238: PolyOctaveGen
239: Nasty Pre Slam

The amps on the amp list are the ones I mentioned above. I haven't yet hooked up USB so maybe I need firmware update? On the bright side, the poster above who mentioned Citrus Bass pointed me to at least one other bass model, and now scrolling through I see USA 400 Bass and Porta Bass (which uses the 8x10 SVT cab), so I'll definitely check those out, and maybe hunt a bit more, they may have just renamed the SVT head? I had only checked whether the SVT was there and since it was missing I thought they must have not included bass models, but the plot thickens!

I'll investigate further tonight and check out Poparad's bass preset above once I get the PC interface going (thanks, dude!).
Click to expand...

I have firmware 3 loaded. I just checked again and the bass models I mentioned are definitely there!
 
Preset ≠ amp block model.

The factory presets (as far as I remember) don't have any bass specific ones. You'll have to either build your own patch or download user patches (like the one I posted in this thread). The amp block does have several bass models in it.
 
The mystery is solved, they are not alphabetized the way I expected. They come after Ruby Rocket Bright and before Shiver Clean, at #212 and #213. Back in business, baby.
 
Preset 11 'Hipower' is an excellent platform for bass. A little tweaking and it's right on the money IMHO.

Just remove all the blocks you don't require, which is everything but the IN/OUT/AMP/CAB and REVERB to be honest.
 
A quick one.
Was told to go here.. so...
Beside the SVT and HIWATT amps, are there more bass amps and cabs after software upgrades? Doing research before bying.
IMHO it is a shame if there's not any updates on bass amps and cabs. It looks more to cater to the guitar player, or am I way of the reservation here?
 
EinarAa said:
A quick one.
Was told to go here.. so...
Beside the SVT and HIWATT amps, are there more bass amps and cabs after software upgrades? Doing research before bying.
IMHO it is a shame if there's not any updates on bass amps and cabs. It looks more to cater to the guitar player, or am I way of the reservation here?
Click to expand...
FAS Bass model, Portaflex, Mesa Bass 400, Orange AD200B, Bassman, Concert, Tube Pre, Drive pedals, there’s a lot to work with.
 
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I mainly use my FM3 for bass and I'm very happy with it. Being able to split the signal to FOH and an amp in one device is great. Recording is a breeze. Playing with backing tracks at home is easy. While the bass amp/cab models are pretty limited, you'd be surprised what tones you can still get. The compressors, drives and other effects are super high quality and definitely worth the money too. Depends on how you use it and if it's worth the cost.
 
@austinbuddy Bass presets.
Buy them, thanks me later!
Thanks
Pauly

citytoburn said:
When I first did all my research before buying, I was planning to get the axe III and one of the main motivators was that I could dump my bass amp and use it as an audio interface for bass and guitar. Once FM3 came on my radar I looked at the functions that it didn't have (vocoder, dual amps) and was fine with that. I've been playing with my unit for almost a week now and I absolutely love it. I finally got around to looking at the bass capabilities last night and realized that the bass amps I was planning to use from the Axe III don't appear to be incorporated (Ampeg SVT). Not the end of the world for me, but it leads me to a question if anyone has experimented thoroughly.

Which amps in the FM3 have you been able to get the best bass tones with? Are there any tricks (effects or eq or amp/cab settings) that allow the full bass frequency to come through? Anyone know of FM3 presets for bass? Still hoping to sell my amp but I need to produce a nice recorded bass tone first.
Click to expand...
 
Got an other one...
I got the CPU/DSP angst when it comes to the FM-3, can anyone help me wrap my head around the CPU usage?
And how do you fine people use input 1 and 2.
I would like three outputs, that would be sweet.
1.direct
2. DI
3. to use with the fx loop on a amp
That's why I lean towards the axe fx III, but I would like the throw and go formfactor of the FM-3.. 🤦‍♂️
 
EinarAa said:
Got an other one...
I got the CPU/DSP angst when it comes to the FM-3, can anyone help me wrap my head around the CPU usage?
Click to expand...
You're not likely to hit CPU issues creating a bass preset. IMO the only reason to be concerned about CPU on the FM3 is if you're into reverb, which I've never found to be a useful part of a bass tone, at least not in a live setting.
 
EinarAa said:
Got an other one...
I got the CPU/DSP angst when it comes to the FM-3, can anyone help me wrap my head around the CPU usage?
Click to expand...
Blocks and some settings within blocks (Hi-Res IRs, High quality reverbs, etc) increase the CPU percentage. You want to keep the CPU percentage below 80%. After 80%, the FM3 will give a "Warning". If it greatly exceeds 80%, the audio from the FM3 shuts off.
EinarAa said:
And how do you fine people use input 1 and 2.
Click to expand...
Many applications. Check out page 27 of the FM3 manual.
EinarAa said:
I would like three outputs, that would be sweet.
1.direct
2. DI
3. to use with the fx loop on a amp
That's why I lean towards the axe fx III, but I would like the throw and go formfactor of the FM-3.. 🤦‍♂️
Click to expand...
What are you trying to do exactly? Record and play through an amp at the same time? I think reading through Section 4/page 27 of the manual will help you out.
 
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