Why do you prefer FM3 over FM9?

A

adamsmith0211

Member
Im leaning towards the FM3 for size and cost. Im curious what made others prefer the FM3 over the FM9?

What other pedals, switches, controllers do you use with your FM3? Do you use it as an all-in-one?

I am planning to get the FM3 with a single expression pedal and keep it simple at first.
 
Size, weight and cost mainly. I would expect most people here have bought their FM3 when the FM9 was not available in the first place.

IMO the FM3 does need some extra switching for it. I use mine more as a desktop system where I have a MIDI controller on the floor for footswitching instead. I just use it for switching scenes, tuner and tap tempo so I don't need the more advanced features the FC controllers offer.

For MIDI controllers the Morningstar stuff now has some integration with Fractal devices so those would be my recommendation for less cost (and more universal usability) than the FC controllers.

I would like the higher processing power of the FM9 but am not interested in having one on the floor where its extra footswitching makes sense. Fractal still has not improved the readability of their onboard screen when set up like that and I find the FM3 hard to read on the floor because of its small text. Plus I hate bending down to adjust stuff.
 
the nice thing about the fractal world is you don't have to settle for one layout of switches, the layouts are themselves presets you can swap between. I use a simple three button layout and have the OMG9 for when I bring my FC6 with me.

To me, the value of the FM9 is the horsepower for those who really need it. A lot of people would be 100% fine with the FM3 IMHO but they get dazzled by talented YouTubers building elaborate presets and scared they won't have enough juice, or think highest quality reverb matters at a gig (it doesn't, its for the studio recordings IMHO).
 
ok if you are playing clean jazz solo guitar, the reverb could matter a lot, but the blues, rock and metal most folks do here? after one hard cymbal crash the audience's ears are kinda dead to nuance anyway if we are honest.

People should do what makes them happy of course, but I hate to see people fall into the audiophile trap of spec chasing for people with imaginary dog level hearing is all.
 
Any guides that better explain using the unit with only 3 switches? At the moment I only need metal tones for home practice and jamming with friends so Im not sure that I even need an expression pedal, just a few great tones.
 
You can still program the switches to toggle between scenes…ie. button one toggles scenes 1 & 4, button two for scenes 2 & 5….etc. You essentially have another virtual row of switches using a press function. You can add a 3rd row of switches using a press and hold function. Good for things like accessing the tuner or changing presets on the fly.

My mentality in general is to program a preset for one song and not the whole set. It does make everything more manageable when playing live for me.

Sean Meredith-Jones
 
I can get by with three switches by using the toggle feature. That is so key!
For me playing live there is clean, dirty and lead, and alternate functions for phaser on/off, delay on/off and tuner.
I also use and external CB wah pedal sometimes.

Another popular option is to leverage scenes and use buttons for scene up/down as you can have several scenes in one preset, this is an easy way to have "scene per song".
scenes can turn multiple blocks on and off at once, so you might have delay, reverb and chorus on for one scene and all three off for another with a single tap. You can get really creative with it.

To me, in any layout the tuner should always be easy to get to b/c its the single most important thing! : )
 
I wanted the smaller size and use a cheap midi pedal for switching between presets. I don't even use the buttons on the FM3. I place it on top of my amp. If Fractal had a super small rack mount version for a similar cost, I would have bought that instead.
 
size (another desktop user here) and frankly cost - I wasn't sure I was ready to jump whole-hog in and the fm3 as it was priced (comparable to a mid-level amp like a DRRI or DSL20) was and is such incredible bang for the buck it was relatively easy to commit.

I do sometimes dream of a bit more cpu horsepower (mostly I love the big reverbs on max quality) but for me that's the only major downside.
 
I like the size of the FM3. It does all that I NEED and more, I would like the extra reverb capacity and 2nd Amp block of the FM9 though, but not enough to pay the upcharge and deal with the size increase. I use a Morningstar MC6 for an OMG9 type setup. FM3 sits on my desk, and MC6 and expression pedal by my feet.
 
I do most of my tonal changes using expression pedals (clean to dirty, wet to dry, stagnant to swirly, etc.). So I don't necessary need the extra switches, but the CPU boost is hard to ignore. I think I'd still opt for FM9.
 
After learning about perform pages and the doubletap/hold features Im seeing everything in the FM3 that I need with just the 3 switches and an expression pedal. Maybe a couple expression pedals.

Which do you recommend Ev1 or Ev2?
 
I had the FM3. I wasn't necessarily limited by the switches, but after coming from a Helix Floor - I was very used to that larger form factor. I had a chance to get the FM9 Turbo so I sold the FM3 immediately and got the FM9T. Overall I am much happier with the extra switches are larger DSP.
 
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