Fractal FM3 - Reviews, Tones, Questions

[Filippo Valguarnera]

In the Fm3 manual , they are mostly the same except for recent few , but the way the coding is different ones missing at present
Horizon Drive, OCD, Crunch Box, TS9Xhot, Boss DS1, DS1mod. KOT the higher gain channel ,
those are the main ones in the last 3 or 4 months I think

Thanks! I just found out that there is a "block guide". Very useful.

 

[Gasp100]

The switching on the FM3 is really amazing, and quite a few guys are surprised to see how much can be done with those three. If you haven't seen this, check out the OMG3 layout that is a brilliant use of the three onboard switches. Here's a link to a thread covering this: OMG3 Switch Layout to Control Everything

If you're interested in what you can do with just two additional stand-in switches, here's a video that shows how that's done: Excerpts from FM3 -Adding Switches - 5-8-2020 - YouTube

Highly recommended reviewing!

 

[JCW308]

Guys if I need the following things during a gig, can you tell me if the FM3 will be adequate with no extra add-on pedals?

Clean (sometimes add tremolo)
Clean with delay and chorus
Clean boost

Crunch
Crunch with Dotted 8th delay
Crunch with delay and 1/4 tempo with boost (solo)

Ambient swells - clean
Ambient swells - overdrive

Tuner

Tap Tempo

I will be using an add-on passive volume pedal

Thanks!

 

[rublalup]

Guys if I need the following things during a gig, can you tell me if the FM3 will be adequate with no extra add-on pedals?

Clean (sometimes add tremolo)
Clean with delay and chorus
Clean boost

Crunch
Crunch with Dotted 8th delay
Crunch with delay and 1/4 tempo with boost (solo)

Ambient swells - clean
Ambient swells - overdrive

Tuner

Tap Tempo

I will be using an add-on passive volume pedal

Thanks!

You can do that in a very large number of ways... scenes, fx layout...

 

[Watt McCo]

Guys if I need the following things during a gig, can you tell me if the FM3 will be adequate with no extra add-on pedals?

Clean (sometimes add tremolo)
Clean with delay and chorus
Clean boost

Crunch
Crunch with Dotted 8th delay
Crunch with delay and 1/4 tempo with boost (solo)

Ambient swells - clean
Ambient swells - overdrive

Tuner

Tap Tempo

I will be using an add-on passive volume pedal

Thanks!

You gotta give more context - I mean, of course it can make all those sounds. And technically you could just make two switches preset up/down, make a preset for each one and get to each one without any extra pedals...but I doubt that would be useful for many folks.

 

[gtr37]

Guys if I need the following things during a gig, can you tell me if the FM3 will be adequate with no extra add-on pedals?

Clean (sometimes add tremolo)
Clean with delay and chorus
Clean boost

Crunch
Crunch with Dotted 8th delay
Crunch with delay and 1/4 tempo with boost (solo)

Ambient swells - clean
Ambient swells - overdrive

Tuner

Tap Tempo

I will be using an add-on passive volume pedal

Thanks!

you could but when do you need access to all these things , is it in the same song?
that would make a difference

presets will have a drop out where as scenes would not

 

[JiveTurkey]

No dual reverb either

 

[68Injunhed]

No dual reverb either

Technically correct, but the Plex Delay can do some cool reverb-ish stuff.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Technically correct, but the Plex Delay can do some cool reverb-ish stuff.

I know. JCW has always had that requirement.

 

[JCW308]

I know. JCW has always had that requirement.

Thanks - this is a good point. I need to be able to change from spring to cave to shimmer in one patch like on the Helix.

 

[Yek]

Thanks - this is a good point. I need to be able to change from spring to cave to shimmer in one patch like on the Helix.

The FM3 lets you do that, because each block (including reverb) has 4 channels. Each channel can be set to a reverb type of choice, and you can switch between the channels within the same preset, through scenes or by just changing the channel.

 

[rublalup]

Thanks - this is a good point. I need to be able to change from spring to cave to shimmer in one patch like on the Helix.

You can have 4 different reverbs on one block and select then for each scene via channels.

But there’s only one reverb block... and if you add a plex delay (specially the shimmer) the cpu is gone be a problem if you need more fx.

 

[JCW308]

Thanks for all the info - greatly appreciated.

 

[JiveTurkey]

Channels? Yes. Ambient in one signal chain location with spring in another? Nope.

 

[Watt McCo]

Thanks - this is a good point. I need to be able to change from spring to cave to shimmer in one patch like on the Helix.

That can be done witch channels - you get four per block. But you do only have one block per preset.

 

[Brandon7s]

So I just re-bought a Source Audio Ventris and I gotta say.. this thing is the perfect companion to the FM3.

I bought it mostly because I missed the Plate reverb algorithm - the Fractal plate reverb is good but not quite as good, nor as transparent. My always-on setting for the Ventris' plate is with the mix at between 80 and 90% wet, pre-delay 0, medium size, time at around .7 seconds (have to guestimate that), and with a very slow modulation at around 45%. The results make playing guitar through headphones exponentially better for me. It's wide, smooth as silk, and with the time set so low the reverb tails are very subtle so the entire effect is something that's transparent but adds a whole 'nother dimension to it while not actually sounding like a reverb. It's one of those things that you completely forget about while playing but as soon as you turn it off it's like going from a color photo to black and white or from stereo to mono.

I've tried getting the Fractal reverb block to do the same thing and it just can't get quite there - not even when using the cab block's Room feature in conjunction with an enhancer block to further widen the stereo field. The Ventris algorithm is just straight up magic for me, so it's staying. This also offloads a LOT of DSP from the FM3 so I can basically add as many effects as I'd ever want to my presets now and not have to worry about fitting everything within the CPU limits. I have a little pedaltrain metro that I'm using and I've got room for one more pedal on it, so I'll probably through an always-on tuner on the board along with the Ventris and call it a day, though if I had a half-decent Klone I'd probably put that on there instead since there's no Klon-type drive in the FM3.

 

[dotlikeimpact]

Got an FM3 over the holidays (long time Helix user and was pretty curious about it). Thoughts:

Damn it, the FM3 does sound better to my ears. I can dial the FM3 and Helix pretty close, but the FM3 does have the little "extra" in there, soundwise (on the amp tones, at least).

The FM3 has class-worst usability. Honestly, it's like a worst-case scenario from a human factors textbook come to life. Cryptic variable names, very poor feedback of state, modes within modes within modes, a huge odyssey just to get a footswitch connected to an effect, parameter range inconsistency, and huge working memory load (for the human operator) to deal with footswitch layouts. When you have to use scene controllers to deal with shortcomings with channels in your scenes, you should perhaps get a clue that there's a major usability issue. Frankly, having to learn Fractal's complex data model with all of its exceptions in order to set up a guitar rig is pretty bad. I mean, there's a separate manual just to explain how the footswitches work, filled with stuff like,

Why not just use the "Master Layout Switch Combo"?FC Controllers offer a special footswitch combination to show the Master Layout Menu.(See the FC Owner’s Manual) . Why, then, would you ever want a single footswitch to perform this same function? The answer lies in an advanced option which allows you to DISABLE the “MLM Switch Combination”

Even something as simple as accessing the tap tempo requires footwork choreography. I don't know about you, but doing that while playing music is a chore and likely to cause mistakes. I'm strongly considering returning it for this reason.

 

[Davman]

Does anyone know if UK buyers will have to pay 20% vat on the fm3 g66 price? I ask this as I have noticed certain EU music shops have reduced their prices for UK buyers after we left the EU. This is because a 20% vat charge will be applied by HM customs when an item is imported into the UK from the EU.

I have looked on the g66 website and the fm3 price is the same price it was when the UK was still in the EU. It would be rather nasty for UK buyers to be charged an extra 20% on top of the fm3's current EU price.

 

[Phil_Mayger]

Does anyone know if UK buyers will have to pay 20% vat on the fm3 g66 price? I ask this as I have noticed certain EU music shops have reduced their prices for UK buyers after we left the EU. This is because a 20% vat charge will be applied by HM customs when an item is imported into the UK from the EU.

I have looked on the g66 website and the fm3 price is the same price it was when the UK was still in the EU. It would be rather nasty for UK buyers to be charged an extra 20% on top of the fm3's current EU price.

We will be charged the ex-vat price and will have to pay VAT to whichever courier delivers it. G66 have been very helpful in all of this

 

[Davman]

Thanks for the info. I was wondering how the 20% vat was going to be collected.