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FM3 MK II Turbo

The new advanced and compact floor unit FM3 Mark II Turbo builds on the success of the original FM3, now boasting over 10% more DSP power and larger, easier-to-read footswitch displays. The Turbo DSP allows the creation of more complex presets, going beyond the limits of the standard FM3. The footswitch display size upgrade is significant, with the height of individual characters of text doubling, as well as being presented in a bolder and more readable font. Overall product dimensions and weight remain the same as the original version.


Factory Presets



Cygnus X2 Amp Modeling, UltraRes™ & DynaCab™ Speaker Sims, and an incredible collection of Stompbox and Studio Effects

The FM3 is a compact all-in-one processor for guitar, bass, and other instruments. It features Fractal Audio’s industry-leading Cygnus amp modeling, UltraRes™ and DynaCab™ speaker cab simulation, plus an incredible collection of legendary stompbox and studio effects, all based on Fractal Audio's award-winning flagship the Axe-Fx III. The unit is also a powerful foot controller with all of the programmable features of our larger FC controllers, plus a 4×4 USB audio interface — and more — all in a compact, rugged, floor unit designed for the studio or stage.

DIMENSIONS: Width: 281mm Height: 103mm Depth: 236mm Weight: 3.22 kg


FM3 Videos


The Sound of Fractal Audio

The FM3 features Fractal Audio's latest CYGNUS X2 Amp Modeling—a technology developed by Fractal Audio for the award-winning Axe-Fx III. It captures the sound — and the equally important feel — of real tube amps, with 300+ models offering an impressive range of clean tones, elusive “edge of breakup”, and everything from warm, touch-sensitive overdrive to face-melting modern distortion.

The FM3 also includes the entire speaker cab impulse response (“IR”) collection from the Axe-Fx III, with 2,200+ “Factory” choices and 1,024 “User” locations to store custom cabs, widely available for free and from commercial producers. Firmware 7 adds new DynaCab™ technology, giving you a visual mic-on-cab tone shaping experience that’s easier than ever before.

As a multi-effects unit, the FM3 truly excels. It includes a superb selection of Fractal Audio’s state-of-the-art effect algorithms. All of the essentials and many exciting innovations are on board: dazzling drive pedals, dozens of delays, reverbs, compressors, EQs, phasers, flangers and other modulation effects, a looper, and much more.

The Block Inventory of the FM3 is based on that of the award-winning Axe-Fx III.

FM3 Preset Examples (Screen Captures of Actual Factory Presets)


FM3 Tutorials


Impres­sive USB Audio Capabi­lities

Playback, Record, Re-Amp, and More

With a USB con­nec­tion to a Mac or PC, the FM3 works as an extre­mely high qua­lity 4×4 audio inter­face for play­back, recor­ding, and re-amping. This lets the FM3 doub­le as the hub of a por­table recor­ding studio.

USB chan­nels are mapped for maxi­mum ease of use. For examp­le, to record the pro­ces­sed stereo out­put of the FM3, just record in­puts 1 and 2 in the com­puter. Compu­ter in­puts 3 and 4 can be used to cap­ture a DI, or to re­cord input 2 L+R in ste­reo.

Compu­ter play­back is also easy and fle­xible. For stu­dio work, you can mix a pro­ject and the FM3 to a sin­gle pair of con­nected moni­tors and tran­smit a sepa­rate DI to the FM3 for re-amping. For live per­forman­ces, you can route the ste­reo FM3 and ste­reo backing tracks to different stereo outputs.

USB also al­lows 2-way com­muni­cation bet­ween the FM3 and its com­panion soft­ware appli­cations, FM3-Edit and Fra­ctal-Bot.


A Rugged Floor Unit

The FM3 is housed in a du­rab­le steel chassis with pro­tecti­ve endcaps desig­ned to with­stand the ri­gors of tou­ring.

Three on­board foot­switches – each with va­riab­le-color LED ring and mini LCD dis­play — pro­vide both tap and hold func­tions, which can be custo­mized to do dif­ferent things on eight dif­ferent switch “layouts.” The new “Views” fea­ture multi­plies the po­wer of layouts, in ef­fect crea­ting a virtual 12-button cont­rol­ler with a 3-but­ton foot­print.

In ad­dition, a FASL­INK II port al­lows the FM3 to be con­nec­ted with up to two Frac­tal Audio FC-12 or FC-6 foot cont­rollers, pro­viding an exci­ting array of exten­ded cont­rol op­tions.

While desig­ned as a floor unit, the FM3 fea­tures an intui­tive hands-on inter­face with the same full-color dis­play and fami­liar, easy-to-use front pa­nel cont­rols found on the Axe-Fx III.

The unit is po­wered by a 3-Core “Grif­fin” DSP with one ARM and two SHARC+ cores pro­viding supe­rior power in a com­pact format. A de­dicated graphics pro­ces­sor allows the main DSPs to be fo­cused on cri­tical audio tasks.


Summary of Features

  • FM3 MK II Turbo is a com­pact floor unit with three on­board swit­ches.
  • 3-Core “Griffin” Pro­ces­sor plus dedi­ca­ted GPU.
  • Hundreds of ac­cura­te mo­dels with real tu­be amp sound and feel.
  • Rug­ged steel chas­sis with pro­tec­tive end­caps and hand­les.
  • Fea­tures CYGNUS X2 Amp Mo­del­ing develo­ped for the Axe-Fx III.
  • Easy-to-use front pa­nel inter­face, plus free FM3 Edit soft­ware.
  • Inc­ludes all fac­­tory cabs from Axe-Fx III, plus 1,024 user cab slots.
  • Ultra-low noise in­stru­ment in­put plus XLR ste­reo main out­puts.
  • Impres­sive multi-ef­fects capa­bi­lity ba­sed on Axe-Fx III.
  • Addi­tional Ste­reo I/O Pair, plus head­phone & SPDIF outputs.
  • Uncom­promi­sing sound qua­lity and road-wor­thy relia­bi­lity.
  • 4×4 USB Audio, 2 on­board switch/pe­dal jacks, MIDI In & Out/Thru.
  • Fan­tasti­cally fle­xib­le 3-button inte­gra­ted foot con­trol­ler.
  • Easy-to-Read pre­ci­sion Tu­ner with graph and vir­tual strobe dis­plays.
  • FAS­LINK II al­lows ad­ding up to two FC-12/FC-6 cont­rol­lers.
  • Upgra­deab­le firm­ware al­lows cons­tant impro­vement and in­nova­tion.

Foot Controller Extension for the FM3

The FM3 is shown here with an FC-6 controller and one EV-2 Expression Pedal, a configuration sometimes known as “OMG9”.

*This image shows an FM3 Mark I and an FC-6 Mark I - The Mark II for both units has easier-to-read footswitch displays. 


FM3 MK II Turbo

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