Fractal Audio FM3

Fractal FM3.

Was I bought a Fractal Audio FM3 to see what I was missing in the amp modeling world. The number of Marshall models was the main driver to getting the unit. There are flavors like Plexis with large bright caps that the Line 6 do not offer. The early reported bugs with the FM3 appeared to be resolved as the product matured.

Initial Impressions

I checked out the 59 Bassguy and 65 Bassguy presets using my Supro Hampton guitar and like the clean/breakup sounds that I was able to get. I then jumped over to the Plexi 50W preset. The gold foil pickups work well with hitting the front end of these models. The IRs suited the presets well. I played around with the bright cap settings on the Plexi 50W High 1, and enjoyed having the ability to dial in 100pF and 5000pF settings.

The Bassman amps were better than the Helix counterparts with humbuckers for my tastes. With single coils, I like both devices. The Plexi models are much more versatile on the FM3 than the Helix with the ability to dial in the bright cap. The models are better suited for more rocking humbucker sounds, although the Brit Trem Brt is still my favorite Helix model. The Marshall models in the Helix are more mid-60s bass-spec flavored than the Metal Panel ones on the FM3. I am a big fan of bass spec amps, but I do like the gainer 70s sounds from time to time.

I now do understand the gripes about front panel editing on the FM3. It’s much much quicker to edit on the HX Stomp front panel. I was a bit overwhelmed with the menus on the FM3 and felt much more comfortable using FM3 Edit to make changes to presets. It’s going to take some time to figure out how to best utilize the foot switches along with a Mosky Dual Switch.

Portability

I  began to prefer a more compact setup while using the HX Stomp, to be able to play and record in remote locations. The HX Stomp will still be my primary remote setup since I have it running on battery power. I do want to try to use the FM3 to record DIs remotely to reamp later. Input levels on the FM3 were 1.5dB lower at 440Hz and 1kHz, so I can use DIs between units interchangeably. 

I originally envisioned mounting the FM3 on a pedalboard to take advantage of all the routing options when I was first on the waiting list. However, I learned with the HX Stomp that I was much less adventurous than I had thought with routing and interfacing with other equipment. I found that I wasn’t using the loops to interface external pedals or stereo outboard much. I was mostly inserting loaded down tube amps in one loop.

As an Audio Interface

USB recording and reamping was a major consideration when looking into the FM3 again. When I was originally on the FM3 waiting list, there were apparently USB performance that needed to be worked out to minimize pops and clicks at typical ASIO buffer sizes.

Not all is fixed. The Axe-FX III and FM3 don’t properly report latency to the host DAW as an audio interface. With the ASIO buffer size at 128 samples and the FM3’s hardware buffer at the default 1536 samples, I get just under 10ms of reported latency with the FM3 connected to my desktop. There is however an additional 2149 samples of latency not reported to Reaper. The latency seems to depend on the active blocks in a preset. With shunt blocks from input to output, the additional latency becomes 1168 samples. I can enter these offsets into Reaper’s preferences and print sample accurate reamps through the USB connection. 

Short clip of a few FM3 Plexi models in a mix.

To be continued.