The FM3 or FM9 for my needs?

[Sixstring]

That is a fair point, I was hoping to put it off a short while and have the choice in the new year of an FM9 but if the waiting is going to drag on, then it has to be an FM3. Sooner or later I have to make the leap from Helix to Fractal. I may just get the FM3 and run it alongside my Helix, to really test how inferior the Fractal is

I ran an H9 Dark outboard because I was worried about the verbs not sounding good enough. Fact is after I had that unit for about a month I realized that it didn't make that much difference. I sold the H9 and started organizing my preset layouts in a manner that works with the given CPU of the FM3.

The fact that both FM3 and FM9 sound identical should tell you that when you run it next your Helix you will hear and feel the difference. Maybe not so evident in the context of a mix but on their own definitely.