Things I love about the FM3 (from an Axe-Fx II user)

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.
 
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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.
Big +1 here! For some time when it got announced I thought that this might be the thing for me, but as long as there are no global blocks I really don't think about the FM3 again. That was also one main reason I never looked at the AX8, which also lacks global blocks.
 
1) Recall blocks from other patches. 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.

We can save blocks as blk files any more to use in other presets like we could on the Axe 2? Really? That's a bit disappointing. Is this just because it's early days for the FM3 or a feature?
 
We can save blocks as blk files any more to use in other presets like we could on the Axe 2? Really? That's a bit disappointing. Is this just because it's early days for the FM3 or a feature?
That's not what he's talking about
 
1) Recall blocks from other patches. 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.
Actually, it is pretty easy to go into the preset with your tweaked block, copy it, and then paste it into the new preset.
 
Actually, it is pretty easy to go into the preset with your tweaked block, copy it, and then paste it into the new preset.

It's easy to do in FM3 Edit, but you can't do it from the interface. Sometimes when I'm on a gig and I don't have my computer with me I want to make some quick changes to a preset and it's a real time saver.
 
I cannot understand why anyone would want to copy and paste blocks at a gig. But hey, you do you.

I've been doing it for 7 years on the AxeFx II and it's been a lifesaver in a few spots. I play a lot of improvised music or reading gigs where I have no idea what the setlist will be until either a few minutes before the set starts or even a few seconds before the song starts! And a lot of the time it's music I've never played before but I'm reading charts to. When the song calls for a phaser for a certain section but my patch doesn't have that, I know I can quickly recall a well-tuned phaser block from another patch, setup the bypass states across the scenes, and bam! Ready to go in about 20 seconds. For someone playing music that's thoroughly rehearsed ahead of time with a predetermined setlist, you've got the luxury of time before the gig to get the patch in order, so for that type of player/gig, the issue probably would never come up. But for reading gigs and for rehearsals of any kind, it's very useful.
 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Im also a II user for 7 years. My 2nd FM3 invite should be coming this week.

I'm just waiting to see the speed at which switching my EVH's amp channels via midi block pans out. Some people say it works good, but no one can be bothered to post a song sample so I gotta wait....

Other than this my main usage is effects and processing, not amp or cab, so hopefully it can do at least what the II did for me.
 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Im also a II user for 7 years. My 2nd FM3 invite should be coming this week.

I'm just waiting to see the speed at which switching my EVH's amp channels via midi block pans out. Some people say it works good, but no one can be bothered to post a song sample so I gotta wait....

Other than this my main usage is effects and processing, not amp or cab, so hopefully it can do at least what the II did for me.

I'm not using an amp, but I do have a drive pedal (J Rockett Allan Holdsworth) in a DMC.micro midi-controlled looper that I'm triggering with scenes and the MIDI block in the FM3. It works really well and there isn't any discernable delay. YMMV with completely different outboard gear, but I'm happy with it.

I have run into some CPU limitations here and there, more often than I did in the II, but what's really saving me is that I have a Specular Tempus reverb pedal in the effects loop. Not needing the CPU-hungry reverb block really opens up the patch possibilities in the FM3. In most cases, I'm able to reproduce completely my kitchen-sink presets from the AxeFx II, just without the reverb in-the-box. Since you're not using either the amp block or the cab block, that'll probably free up even more CPU for you so you should be able to get pretty complex with effects in a single patch and not run into CPU limit problems. One handy feature on the FM3 is that there's an always-on CPU meter across the top of the display so you can keep an eye on it while building patches.
 
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