fm9???

[Deadpool_25]

Just got the FM9 Turbo.

HMU with some of the factory patches that work best for high-gain metal.

I was really digging the FAS Recto whatever it was called, precision scene. Looking at the 5150 style patches and definitely feeling a little option paralysis as for where to start - they all sound good, which is the problem because nothing jumped out at me.

I just realized you said factory patches. There are so many in there. What's an example of a band/song that you love the tone of? Maybe we can help you find a factory patch that's in the ballpark.

 

[bostjan]

I just realized you said factory patches. There are so many in there. What's an example of a band/song that you love the tone of? Maybe we can help you find a factory patch that's in the ballpark.

Well, maybe that's the problem. I've been playing Dual Recto - Oversized 412 Recto cab most of my life, and it's a great tone, IMO, but I also typically played in bands where I was the only guitarist. Now that I'm in a two guitar band, and the other guy is rocking a 5150-III, I had been trying to find something that blends well with that. The recto sounds just a little wimpy in comparison. I tried another 5150-III, but modeled, and had a tough time dialing it in so that it sounded tight but still had some impact. Then I realized that having two similar tones didn't add anything. I can think of a few bands off-hand that do the two guitar thing in a similar context that have good tone - for example God Forbid, but the situation is further complicated by the fact that I'm trying to compliment someone else's playing.

The "FAS Modern" patch seems to give me tones that represent my personality better and also it sounds better than my real Recto in that it's more aggressive and blends better in context.

I've got just over a week to decide if I'm going to be ready to gig with it. With the immediate improvement in tone from just one band practice, I kind of feel like I need to, but two weeks with the thing isn't really enough time to rely on it. Oh well, either way, my main goal at the moment is to come up with three scenes to set up for a gig preset. I feel like I'm already almost 50% of the way there. I'm really digging the Matchbox clean with a little subtle compression and the FAS Modern for rhythm, and next I need a lead tone that just works better than my current setup and I think it'll just be tweaking things from there, probably indefinitely.

 

[budda]

412s in the room vs 412 IR’s are a different ballpark imo. Check out a couple 212 IR’s too.

 

[profwoot]

The "djentlemen" preset (around #100) is maybe the only factory preset that I loved out of the box. FAS modern + precision drive. The Recto tight orange (i think?) is also great with some tweaking.

 

[bostjan]

The "djentlemen" preset (around #100) is maybe the only factory preset that I loved out of the box. FAS modern + precision drive. The Recto tight orange (i think?) is also great with some tweaking.

Yeah, that one made my short list too, but I wanted just a little more rump. Easy enough to adjust. In fact, that's what I'm enjoying the most is just how crazy adjustable the FM9 is. I found something where you can assign virtually any modifier imaginable to a knob. I'm sure you veteran Fractal guys already all know this, but it blew my mind that I could have the gain at 6.5 and then have it automated to pitch so that it ramps up to 8.5 by the time I hit the 24th fret. Mind blown. I can do the same with compression so that I'm rocking virtually no compression at all on open chords and then it gradually kicks in up the fretboard. Maybe once I get skilled at this stuff, I won't even really need a separate lead channel - just have things all automated to switch over depending on pitch.

 

[laxu]

Yeah, that one made my short list too, but I wanted just a little more rump. Easy enough to adjust. In fact, that's what I'm enjoying the most is just how crazy adjustable the FM9 is. I found something where you can assign virtually any modifier imaginable to a knob. I'm sure you veteran Fractal guys already all know this, but it blew my mind that I could have the gain at 6.5 and then have it automated to pitch so that it ramps up to 8.5 by the time I hit the 24th fret. Mind blown. I can do the same with compression so that I'm rocking virtually no compression at all on open chords and then it gradually kicks in up the fretboard. Maybe once I get skilled at this stuff, I won't even really need a separate lead channel - just have things all automated to switch over depending on pitch.

Yeah those are the cool things only Fractal can do.

The pitch follower is really cool to apply to 8-string guitars where it tightens the tone on low strings by cutting bass and increasing treble, then sweetens it on higher notes.

 

[Kyle Jordan]

The "FAS Modern" patch seems to give me tones that represent my personality better and also it sounds better than my real Recto in that it's more aggressive and blends better in context.

That makes sense. FAS Modern is Cliff's (Fractal's HMFIC) idealized Recto. Modern I and III are great. II is very good as well, but I slightly prefer the other two.

For your lead on the same patch idea, play around with the modifiers set to control Preamp Bias and Harmonics (under the Cathode Follower section). Those alter the distortion itself, so if you want a smoother distortion for leads or just higher on the neck without altering the EQ, those can help. Plate Freq too.

 

[Deadpool_25]

As you've mentioned you can connect a controller to multiple things. It's super cool
that you can have a single expression pedal increase gain, change EQ (in a variety of ways), blend in or add a drive pedal, add some delay and/or reverb, and about whatever else you want--all at the same time. And it's all in the preset. It could do completely different things (or nothing at all) in another preset.

It's this type of thing and that makes the Fractal gear so powerful (beyond just the super high quality sounds). And this is just one example. Fairly often someone will start a question with, "is it possible to..." Usually the answer will be "yes you can."

 

[bostjan]

Ok, stupid question #1 of one million:

Is there a way to set different global settings to one of two different static points?

For instance, I have a guitar with a fairly high output pickup, and then another guitar with a super mega high output pickup. I'd like to have the input level set for one, and then press a button and switch to the other without having to bend over and fiddle with going into the menu, selecting the input gain, and then fiddling with the knob, and exiting the menu. I know it's only four steps, but I have a frontman who sometimes gets excited and jumps into the next song before I can properly switch guitars.

 

[budda]

Ok, stupid question #1 of one million:

Is there a way to set different global settings to one of two different static points?

For instance, I have a guitar with a fairly high output pickup, and then another guitar with a super mega high output pickup. I'd like to have the input level set for one, and then press a button and switch to the other without having to bend over and fiddle with going into the menu, selecting the input gain, and then fiddling with the knob, and exiting the menu. I know it's only four steps, but I have a frontman who sometimes gets excited and jumps into the next song before I can properly switch guitars.

Iirc input block has 4 channels. Make a preset template that uses ch1 for gtr a and ch2 for gtr b?

I have read threads on globals but dont use them so will refer you to the FAS forum

 

[bostjan]

I just made a patch that maps the pitch shifter to the pitch follower, so that every note up to open high E is shifted to E and every note above that is shifted to F. I guess I've reached my limit.

But I now have a couple of gig patches that I'm really happy with. I'll test them out this weekend. I'll probably leave the novelty E/F patch alone, though.

 

[GreatGreen]

One of the most helpful pieces of advice I can give anybody with an Axe-Fx is to make your own patches. Don't rely on factory patches.

I've never found any factory patches I got along with for more than just messing with to see what the Axe can do. After I went through all the patches to get a feel for how things can be done, I deleted every patch in the Axe-Fx, built a couple of template patches at the end of the patch list with my standard block routing layouts and a few of my standard go-to effects, and I'm good to go.

You'll almost always be better off building your own presets. It will help you better learn how the Axe-Fx works and it's just faster overall than sifting through endless presets made by other people who didn't have you in mind when they made them.

 

[bostjan]

Oh yeah, so I tested it out at practice this last weekend. Tones blend super well in the mix, as I expected. My clean tone is now 100% useable. Major win all-around. The only drawback was that I did accidentally press the wrong footswitch at one point, trying to go from rhythm to lead, and had to tapdance to figure out what went wrong and then undo it. I little more tweaking would make it better, but I think there's no looking back from here.

 

[budda]

One of the most helpful pieces of advice I can give anybody with an Axe-Fx is to make your own patches. Don't rely on factory patches.

I've never found any factory patches I got along with for more than just messing with to see what the Axe can do. After I went through all the patches to get a feel for how things can be done, I deleted every patch in the Axe-Fx, built a couple of template patches at the end of the patch list with my standard block routing layouts and a few of my standard go-to effects, and I'm good to go.

You'll almost always be better off building your own presets. It will help you better learn how the Axe-Fx works and it's just faster overall than sifting through endless presets made by other people who didn't have you in mind when they made them.

Which model do you have?

 

[Deadpool_25]

One of the most helpful pieces of advice I can give anybody with an Axe-Fx is to make your own patches. Don't rely on factory patches.

I've never found any factory patches I got along with for more than just messing with to see what the Axe can do. After I went through all the patches to get a feel for how things can be done, I deleted every patch in the Axe-Fx, built a couple of template patches at the end of the patch list with my standard block routing layouts and a few of my standard go-to effects, and I'm good to go.

You'll almost always be better off building your own presets. It will help you better learn how the Axe-Fx works and it's just faster overall than sifting through endless presets made by other people who didn't have you in mind when they made them.

I halfway agree.

I think it's exceptionally useful to go through the factory presets for a few reasons.

One: it gives you a feel for some of the amps. You might stumble on an amp you really like that you'd never have chosen based on it having an unfamiliar name.

Two: it gives you an opportunity to find some amps and effects you love and save them to your Blocks Library--an incredibly useful tool.

Three: it can give you ideas for routing you might not have otherwise figured out on your own (multiple parallel effects, etc.).

But with all that, it's still important to understand that the factory presets, or any third party presets, were dialed in with someone else's equipment and for their ear. That may not translate into the best tone for you so you may be able to suit your own tastes better by dialing in your own tones.

However, you might actually enjoy the factory or third party presets well enough and be able to more quickly get to playing and enjoying instead of spending time tweaking.

It's all just personal preference and what works best for each person.

 

[bostjan]

Playing around with reamping with Studio One 5, I was having a blast, but there seems to be a problem between the DAW and the FM9.

So, a lot of my songs have tempo changes. I like to try to map the tempo changes out and use the click track. For some reason, the last tempo change in each song seems to somehow fuck everything up. It'll be reamping and everything sounds great in real time, then, when the song ends, S1, like, goes back to the last tempo change and then either compresses or stretches the audio, so that nothing lines up properly.

Any one else have this happen? Anyone found a fix?

 

[GreatGreen]

Which model do you have?

I have an Axe-Fx III. However all the Fractal stuff is similar enough from a features and workflow standpoint that I think the advice applies to everything they've made.

Actually now that I think about it, the general advice of "see what the thing can do, then delete all presets and make your own" applies to pretty much any audio product you can buy that uses patches.

I halfway agree.

I think it's exceptionally useful to go through the factory presets for a few reasons.

One: it gives you a feel for some of the amps. You might stumble on an amp you really like that you'd never have chosen based on it having an unfamiliar name.

Two: it gives you an opportunity to find some amps and effects you love and save them to your Blocks Library--an incredibly useful tool.

Three: it can give you ideas for routing you might not have otherwise figured out on your own (multiple parallel effects, etc.).

But with all that, it's still important to understand that the factory presets, or any third party presets, were dialed in with someone else's equipment and for their ear. That may not translate into the best tone for you so you may be able to suit your own tastes better by dialing in your own tones.

However, you might actually enjoy the factory or third party presets well enough and be able to more quickly get to playing and enjoying instead of spending time tweaking.

It's all just personal preference and what works best for each person.

I mentioned that I went through all the presets first before I deleted them.

I agree with you that it's useful and entertaining to go through the factory presets just to get some insight about what the thing can do and to give you ideas about how to make your own. But after you explore those factory presets, I found it's best to delete them and start from scratch.

 

[budda]

My iii has enough room for my presets and the factory ones

 

[Deadpool_25]

I mentioned that I went through all the presets first before I deleted them.

I agree with you that it's useful and entertaining to go through the factory presets just to get some insight about what the thing can do and to give you ideas about how to make your own. But after you explore those factory presets, I found it's best to delete them and start from scratch.

Yeah man, I agree that that's one good way to do it. However I just wanted to make the point that that won't necessarily be the case for everyone. 👍

 

[bostjan]

Going to take the FM9 to a show tomorrow. This will be the shortest amount of time I've ever had between acquiring a major piece of gear and using it at a show (<2 weeks). I guess we'll see how it goes.

I'm still totally clueless as to what is going on between the FM9 and Studio One, but there is definitely some weird stuff going on when I try to reamp. I have yet to have it work perfectly. I thought maybe it's a problem with Studio One, but I did a web search and lot of other people with other DAWs are having problems with the reamping, and it doesn't look like any of them are getting their questions answered, either.