Well, I'm all in with FM3!

TenorKeith

TenorKeith

Inspired
I finally did it. I finally sold my Helix. It's been sitting on the floor, right behind the FM3 for a couple of months now gathering dust.

Honestly, I still really like the Helix. It's a great piece of gear, capable of some awesome tones. Add in the great GUI and physical design and it's a real winner.

The one problem I always had with the Helix is that the good sounds were just too hidden. The factory patches are awful, and even the third party ones needed serious tweaking. They were either too bright, too dark or hampered by the lousy cabs.

With the FM3, on the other hand, it's almost too easy to get a great sound. It really is worlds better in terms of sound and feel. The user interface gets easier by the day, and with the FC6 I have no trouble accessing anything I need.

So bottom line: I'm all in, Fractal. So please keep the goodness coming!
 
Since getting the fm3, my katana 50w and axe fx2 are just serving as decorative items in my studio.

I might get crap for this but there's time I prefer the tone of axe fx2 more than the fm3. Probably because I spent 7 years with it lol
 
TenorKeith said:
I finally did it. I finally sold my Helix. It's been sitting on the floor, right behind the FM3 for a couple of months now gathering dust.

Honestly, I still really like the Helix. It's a great piece of gear, capable of some awesome tones. Add in the great GUI and physical design and it's a real winner.

The one problem I always had with the Helix is that the good sounds were just too hidden. The factory patches are awful, and even the third party ones needed serious tweaking. They were either too bright, too dark or hampered by the lousy cabs.

With the FM3, on the other hand, it's almost too easy to get a great sound. It really is worlds better in terms of sound and feel. The user interface gets easier by the day, and with the FC6 I have no trouble accessing anything I need.

So bottom line: I'm all in, Fractal. So please keep the goodness coming!
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bradlake said:
Yoinks. My Helix sits on the floor collecting dust and is giving me recriminating looks, better upgrade it. Everyone and their coding cousins are releasing updates lately, hard to keep up ...(and just upgraded to III mk2 just now.............)
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Wrote this seconds before I saw this post ...weird......lotsa dust out there.....image.jpg
 
I just received my FM3 today. I haven't even had time to create my own patch yet, and I have to say, I'm blown away even with just the factory presets.

I'm coming from Helix as well, and have been using the LT and then stomp for the last 3 years. I kept hearing about how much better Fractal was and just dismissed it. I figured, sure it's probably better, but Helix is pretty damn good. How much better can it really be? Marginally, maybe. It's hard to distinguish when listening to clips. Well, I get it now. It really is something you have to play for yourself to see. I'm not sure how to explain it, Fractal just seems more "substantial" if you will.
 
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I couldn't imagine using something from Line 6 where there's Fractal Audio gear available at your disposal. All of Line 6 product's are garbage. Always have been and always will be.
 
It is true. Line 6 products sound like garbage. You're just being biased. If they sounded good "big" acts would be using them.
 
My take after spending a little more time with the FM3. All the amp models are good, whether they are your taste or not. I think that may be part of the problem with some people's opinion of other modelers. With the Helix, some models are not very good, while others are very good. One of the biggest reasons I decided to get an FM3 is because I love recto tones. The recto in the Helix isn't very good. If someone pulled up that amp, couldn't get it to sound right, they may give up and declare it a sub-par modeler. Their Revv, Archon and Badonk are awesome for high gain, but don't sound like a recto. Maybe some people never make it to the better models and decide it's all crap based on one or a couple amps they try?
 
When I got the waitlist email earlier this week, I thought, well I'm happy with the Axe II I have; why spend $1,000 on some new thing?

So I looked up sold FM3s on the bay and realized, why not pull the trigger...it's practically arbitrage.

Well the FM3 came in the mail today. Right off the rack, the thing sounds incredible. Add the footswitch capability and looper (but I still need to learn how to assign footswitches etc) and it's a no brainer.

I think I'll be selling the Axe II instead. Might pick up an Axe IV down the road, lol, for when I absolutely need to run four different amp models simultaneously (narrator: nobody NEEDS to do that)
 
I have had FM3 for several weeks now and am very impressed with the simulation quality and response to dynamics. Adjusting the preset to your preferences is just a few clicks away, so you can focus on playing the guitar.
I've had other multi-effects, and they always ended up selling and wasting money too. Fractal is actually a different league. I also don't need to look for external IRs. It is a finished product that gives satifaction.
Additionally, it no longer needs interface audio. Cubase on Windows10, it works fine. I have Audient ID14 And I don't need to connect it
Thanks Fractal!
This is what I was looking for.
 
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I don't regret selling my III at all. The FM3 is all that I need. I'll be glad if they can sort out the few remaining stability issues, but I'm confident that will happen, and I've gigged it a few times with no problems at all and only ever suffered one crash.

In terms of amp sim quality, and the arsenal of effects, I have more than I will ever need. It's just stunning.
 
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