Poparad
Power User
I just got my FM3 on Friday and I've been programming the unit and converting my old AxeFx II patches over. I've been a II (Mark II) user for about 6 or 7 years so here are some things the immediately are awesome improvements (most of which are old news to AxeFx III users):
1) Block meters! Now when I screw up the routing and have no sound I can quickly switch the grid to show meters for each block and clear as day I can see the offending block that's muting my sound.
2) Similarly, showing the channel for each block on the grid is super useful (I wish Axe Edit did this, too). Too many times I'd hear something off in an AxeFx II patch and then I'd realize I had something on X instead of Y.
3) Scene names! No more remembering what each and every scene was programmed for on all of my patches.
4) Constantly on-screen tuner. Sometimes in the middle of playing, I can't stop to actually tune, but I can get a quick idea which is the offending string by watching the meters while playing.
5) MIDI Block. Being able to control MIDI-enabled outboard gear is a game-changer. I've got a Specular Tempus reverb pedal to help lighten the CPU load in my patches by not needing the FM3 reverb. Being able to switch patches on the ST in sync with scene and patch changes on the FM3 is brilliant!
6) Channels on the input gate. It's really nice to be able to dial in a more aggressive gate for high gain scenes and relax it for clean scenes without needing to place a gate block on the grid.
And a couple of things I miss from the AxeFx II:
1) Recall blocks from other patches directly on the interface (without FM3 Edit). This really makes building a new patch faster when I can just quickly load in a few blocks that are already tweaked the way I want them in other patches.
2) Global blocks. Especially since the FM3 has a little less CPU than the AxeFx II, I'm having to rely on duplicating a patch two or three times with slightly different effects in each in order to not max out the CPU in one single patch. The downside is if I make a tweak to an amp or cab block, I have to then duplicate those changes in each of the other patches. Global blocks are a wonderful way to make any amp, cab, etc adjustments once and have them change globally for any other related patches.
1) Block meters! Now when I screw up the routing and have no sound I can quickly switch the grid to show meters for each block and clear as day I can see the offending block that's muting my sound.
2) Similarly, showing the channel for each block on the grid is super useful (I wish Axe Edit did this, too). Too many times I'd hear something off in an AxeFx II patch and then I'd realize I had something on X instead of Y.
3) Scene names! No more remembering what each and every scene was programmed for on all of my patches.
4) Constantly on-screen tuner. Sometimes in the middle of playing, I can't stop to actually tune, but I can get a quick idea which is the offending string by watching the meters while playing.
5) MIDI Block. Being able to control MIDI-enabled outboard gear is a game-changer. I've got a Specular Tempus reverb pedal to help lighten the CPU load in my patches by not needing the FM3 reverb. Being able to switch patches on the ST in sync with scene and patch changes on the FM3 is brilliant!
6) Channels on the input gate. It's really nice to be able to dial in a more aggressive gate for high gain scenes and relax it for clean scenes without needing to place a gate block on the grid.
And a couple of things I miss from the AxeFx II:
1) Recall blocks from other patches directly on the interface (without FM3 Edit). This really makes building a new patch faster when I can just quickly load in a few blocks that are already tweaked the way I want them in other patches.
2) Global blocks. Especially since the FM3 has a little less CPU than the AxeFx II, I'm having to rely on duplicating a patch two or three times with slightly different effects in each in order to not max out the CPU in one single patch. The downside is if I make a tweak to an amp or cab block, I have to then duplicate those changes in each of the other patches. Global blocks are a wonderful way to make any amp, cab, etc adjustments once and have them change globally for any other related patches.
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