dupere11497
Experienced
I've been a long time Fractal user, from the Axe Fx Ultra, II, AX8, Axe Fx III and FM3. For the last few years, I've been going on and off between the Kemper and FM3. I'm not playing live anymore, I'm only playing in my home studio through headphones or studio monitors. The Kemper is a great unit but it has it's limitations. Even with the new liquid profile, tone shaping is still miles away from the FM3. There is this weird compression in the low mids present in every profiles, you can ear it and you can feel it when you play. Every profiles has a kind of signature character if you will. A mesa profile will sound similar to a Marshall profile which is not the case with the FM3.
Now, every once in a while, I would try a FM3 again to compare with the Kemper. I would not try to tweak the sound as I was hoping to get my tone right away. This was my first mistake. FM3 is not a plug and play unit, you have to know what you are doing and there are some lessons to learn and some basic tone shaping knowledge I thought I had. Wrong!!! The truth is my tone sucked for many years, whatever gear I was using. I've been playing guitar for more than 35 years. I consider myself a good player, I'm still doing sessions for some clients, I have some chops, but my tone was horrible. I realize this when I began to learn how to mix a song. Once you understand how to properly use EQ to create space for every instrument in a mix, your tone will shine. With the FM3, I'd say there's 2 major factors to consider when creating a good tone: Impulse response (IR), and master value settings. I know these have been well documented in this forum, but I can't over emphasis how important and crucial they are in order to create a good tone.
I'm mostly a metal player. Not the chuga chuga kind of player, more the 80's metal and modern prog kind of guy. I usually use more preamp distortion than power amp distortion. Therefore, I don't need high master volume on non master volume models. Most amp models in the FM3 have a default master volume on 4 or 5, which can be too high sometimes depending on the model. So I began to lower the master volume on most of my go to amp models, between 2-3 and compensate for the volume drop by raising up the level parameter. This was the first OMG moment I had, this move helped me get rid of excessive bass and flubiness and sits way better in any mix.
The other thing I did is search for the ultimate IR. Fact is you don't need more than one, especially if you're playing live. Using different IR's for clean, crunch and lead tone will only piss off the sound guy. I bought the Friedman IR-X preamp at the same time I bought the FM3 Turbo. I had sell the Kemper and was going to keep the best of both options after some A-B testing. I really enjoyed the IR-X, it sounds and feel great, but I was able to nail it with a Friedman BE model. The thing I liked the most about the IR-X was one of the included IR which was captured by Dave on his iconic no name cab with old 25 watts Celestion speakers, with a SM57 and a R121 mics. This IR is for me the holy grail of all IR's. It's great for 80's metal, modern metal, blues, everything! So I exported this IR and it was converted to be imported in the FM3 and it's now the only IR I use, for all my patches. The IR-X is long gone!
Funny story, I did some guitar solos for an album project for a friend. The first solo was done with my Kemper before I sold it. The producer, who is well known in Europe for producing albums for respected bands, liked the solo but hated my tone. He had to do crazy post production editing to make it sounds ok in the mix. Second solo was done with the FM3. Well the producer was overwhelmed with my tone, he asked my friend what amp I was using this time, it was one one the best tone he had ever heard, and like I said, he's an experience and respected producer so he has good ear for tone.
Sorry for the long post, but I had to share my tone story with the FM3 to help others who like me might struggle to make it sound the way they want. The tone you have in your head is in there, no doubt about it, but it can be a long journey to get there. But it'a fun journey and I'm still exploring different amps and advance parameter because tone chasing is an endless quest, but from now on, for me, this quest will continue within the Fractal Audio technology. Thanks and rock on!
Now, every once in a while, I would try a FM3 again to compare with the Kemper. I would not try to tweak the sound as I was hoping to get my tone right away. This was my first mistake. FM3 is not a plug and play unit, you have to know what you are doing and there are some lessons to learn and some basic tone shaping knowledge I thought I had. Wrong!!! The truth is my tone sucked for many years, whatever gear I was using. I've been playing guitar for more than 35 years. I consider myself a good player, I'm still doing sessions for some clients, I have some chops, but my tone was horrible. I realize this when I began to learn how to mix a song. Once you understand how to properly use EQ to create space for every instrument in a mix, your tone will shine. With the FM3, I'd say there's 2 major factors to consider when creating a good tone: Impulse response (IR), and master value settings. I know these have been well documented in this forum, but I can't over emphasis how important and crucial they are in order to create a good tone.
I'm mostly a metal player. Not the chuga chuga kind of player, more the 80's metal and modern prog kind of guy. I usually use more preamp distortion than power amp distortion. Therefore, I don't need high master volume on non master volume models. Most amp models in the FM3 have a default master volume on 4 or 5, which can be too high sometimes depending on the model. So I began to lower the master volume on most of my go to amp models, between 2-3 and compensate for the volume drop by raising up the level parameter. This was the first OMG moment I had, this move helped me get rid of excessive bass and flubiness and sits way better in any mix.
The other thing I did is search for the ultimate IR. Fact is you don't need more than one, especially if you're playing live. Using different IR's for clean, crunch and lead tone will only piss off the sound guy. I bought the Friedman IR-X preamp at the same time I bought the FM3 Turbo. I had sell the Kemper and was going to keep the best of both options after some A-B testing. I really enjoyed the IR-X, it sounds and feel great, but I was able to nail it with a Friedman BE model. The thing I liked the most about the IR-X was one of the included IR which was captured by Dave on his iconic no name cab with old 25 watts Celestion speakers, with a SM57 and a R121 mics. This IR is for me the holy grail of all IR's. It's great for 80's metal, modern metal, blues, everything! So I exported this IR and it was converted to be imported in the FM3 and it's now the only IR I use, for all my patches. The IR-X is long gone!
Funny story, I did some guitar solos for an album project for a friend. The first solo was done with my Kemper before I sold it. The producer, who is well known in Europe for producing albums for respected bands, liked the solo but hated my tone. He had to do crazy post production editing to make it sounds ok in the mix. Second solo was done with the FM3. Well the producer was overwhelmed with my tone, he asked my friend what amp I was using this time, it was one one the best tone he had ever heard, and like I said, he's an experience and respected producer so he has good ear for tone.
Sorry for the long post, but I had to share my tone story with the FM3 to help others who like me might struggle to make it sound the way they want. The tone you have in your head is in there, no doubt about it, but it can be a long journey to get there. But it'a fun journey and I'm still exploring different amps and advance parameter because tone chasing is an endless quest, but from now on, for me, this quest will continue within the Fractal Audio technology. Thanks and rock on!
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