NMD: FM3 MKI

[la szum]

Bob's been gigging in Area 51, so there's that.

 

[TubeStack]

Who the hell starts an NMD thread about their new FM3 and then starts going on about a goddamn Headrush MX-whatever?

 

[JiveTurkey]

Who the hell starts an NMD thread about their new FM3 and then starts going on about a goddamn Headrush MX-whatever?

sounds like something I would do

 

[fretworn]

Bob's been gigging in Area 51, so there's that.

The VLA ain’t far … 60 miles south to sirocco iirc? Turn right/west and drive; look left

 

[Stone]

 

[Lysander]

 

[Bob Zaod]

Sooo..., would that be anything like a guitar whose neck was so sensitive that it goes out of whack if played outdoors in high humidity?

Iow, gear needs to have less-than-perfect (power) situations taken into account in its design, if the intent is to gig it. Imo

Did any other gear that night suffer from this bad power?

Not that night but I have had my Helix LT and my mixer whack out on me with bad/dirty power.

 

[Bob Zaod]

I dont want the thread to get too far off track. My main point about the Headrush MX5 is that it's a good unit. Not a gamechanger or top o the heap but better than the rep it has around here. At this point I have either owned or used extensively all the major modeling products and a bunch of the minor ones. It certainly has it's shortcomings but I've had some great gigs with it.

 

[Bob Zaod]

I finally went through setting up 6 scenes and attaching them to the 3 built in switches. So far my favorite dirt amp is the Splawn Quickrod OD-1 for dirt and the Shiver for cleans but so much more experimenting to do. One criticism I do have so far and I remember feeling the same with the FM9 is the default modes for everything that "can be" stereo ARE stereo in presets. It's irritating having to change every delay,reverb, chorus etc etc to mono mode. Sometimes I forget and I'll be playing and be like eh that delay sounds bad then I'll check and it's set to stereo. Set it to mono and ahh that's better. Also the input is super sensitive. My SD Invaders were clipping the input and took me 10 minutes to find where to set that.

 

[Bob Zaod]

One fantastic discovery is that using the amps pre-amps only (shutting off power amp sim) in the Fractal stuff, the sound/feel is leagues better than Helix. I mean in HX I am perfectly happy using the whole amp into the return but I have never liked using the pre into the return with HX. Fractal just knocks it out of the park. Saves some DSP too.

Speaking of DSP, like with the FM9 I haven't even hit 80% yet with any kitchen sink presets even with poly pitch in the chain. Can't understand the folks who say the DSP limit is too small. My main preset has poly pitch>chorus>flanger>tremolo>drive>delay>reverb and multiple amps in the channels.

 

[Lysander]

Speaking of DSP, like with the FM9 I haven't even hit 80% yet with any kitchen sink presets even with poly pitch in the chain. Can't understand the folks who say the DSP limit is too small.

Yeah, that was my experience with the FM3 as well. The only thing i missed from time to time was having dual amps, but i never felt DSP-constrained when building patches.

Then again, i rarely run out of DSP on my Stomp XL either...

 

[Bob Zaod]

The VLA ain’t far … 60 miles south to sirocco iirc? Turn right/west and drive; look left

Yeah about a 2.5 hr ride for me if I were to go. I wasn't too far away from it a couple weeks ago. Did a gig in Socorro.

 

[fretworn]

Yeah about a 2.5 hr ride for me if I were to go. I wasn't too far away from it a couple weeks ago. Did a gig in Socorro.

Socorro … that’s it!

Right turn!

Did it Christmas 30 yrs ago. CO to Az via NM

 

[laxu]

One criticism I do have so far and I remember feeling the same with the FM9 is the default modes for everything that "can be" stereo ARE stereo in presets. It's irritating having to change every delay,reverb, chorus etc etc to mono mode. Sometimes I forget and I'll be playing and be like eh that delay sounds bad then I'll check and it's set to stereo. Set it to mono and ahh that's better.

I've pretty much never bothered changing any block from stereo to mono on Fractal. The output modes in Setup menu work fine for that at least for me.

 

[Elric]

It's a legit unit. It's not gonna force anyone away from a Fractal but it's a pretty powerful rig for such a small size. Way better than a NuX MG30 or any of the MOOER offerings I have had like 250 and 300.

Only issue I had with it was that the tones suck ass. Otherwise it is pretty stellar. Folks that are used to stuff like Mooers and Hotones probably vibe with it hard, though. It’s like a POD XT from the future if it were 2003.

 

[Bob Zaod]

Only issue I had with it was that the tones suck ass. Otherwise it is pretty stellar. Folks that are used to stuff like Mooers and Hotones probably vibe with it hard, though. It’s like a POD XT from the future if it were 2003.

Oooh bad roll. My +5 GFY shield resisted your blade of weakness and you fell into the pit of woe.

 

[Elric]

Oooh bad roll. My +5 GFY shield resisted your blade of weakness and you fell into the pit of woe.

Nonsensical D&D come back speaks for itself. LOL.

 

[jellodog]

Nonsensical D&D come back speaks for itself. LOL.

Whaaat?

You're the one holding Stormbringer, the demon sword that drinks souls.

 

[Bob Zaod]

So this is what I ended up with. For now it'll do but I want to find a right angle MIDI cable that is right angle only on one end and also I confused my FV-50 with an EV-50 and the taper is wrong for expression so all I had kicking around was the Nektar. I will replace that with something better but for now I'm good.

Just gotta program it all now.

 

[laxu]

I want to find a right angle MIDI cable that is right angle only on one end

You could try these Rockboard Flax MIDI cables.

They can be bent to be right angle or anything in between.