Better Acoustic Tone on the Axe-Fx III, FM9, FM3 -- Fractal Fridays with Cooper Carter #3

[@TocoaPuffs]

I've spent a lot of hours trying to figure out how to get my acoustic sounding good for gigs with my FM3. I've gotten away with "good enough" but this is making me excited to plug in. I love that tiny bit of chorus trick.

[@justinTime077]

What are you do during those hours? Sounds like you’re sitting back noodling on your skin flute rather than trying things in fm-edit!

[@bobmarton9913]

First thing I noticed is you add mids in the Tube amp then remove it from the EQ then add it back in the compressor That sounds a lot of extremely confusing mid settings. Maybe leave it all as flat until and forget the eq set the amp flat then bring to taste with the comptressor

[@ryanadams1483]

I use my FM3 for my live acoustic gigs. I use IR’s but never thought to use a pre amp set up. Thanks for the help.

[@FastRedPonyCar]

I also use an FM3 with my acoustic live and even though you can get it sounding pretty good with what the FM3 comes with, a proper acoustic IR block really makes a huge difference.

[@josephrogero7988]

Good tips, I have an FM3 and use a cab block to load an Acoustic guitar IR. I also put GEQ block in parallel. Then I blend some dry signal back in. Works pretty well.

[@lawrencekovalcik8848]

Thx for this!!!..👍

[@curlzwalk]

Excellent video!! Thanks CC!

[@Lexxo777]

The Tube pre does indeed work great for live acoustic gigs, adds body, mojo and a hint of drive, it does a great job.

[@edrosenquist6541]

Thanks! I'll try this out this Sunday, since my Fishman Loudbox fizzled out... Sounds great! Why didn't I think of using my FM9 for acoustic?!!!

[@bradfoisy7034]

thank you so much for this, absolute game changer for my live acoustic sound.

[@justinTime077]

Sick ass vidjya my friend, thanks. You showed me a lot more that I needed than just how someone might set up their acoustic with fractal

[@jnparesa]

Great video

[@josevillarreal4897]

That sounds great man. Thanks so much 🙏🏻

[@yeahwhatevermike]

You should share the preset on axe exchange forum

[@rustywilmot]

I second this!

[@harleyosterlund5796]

Is there a polyphonic octave option on the unit like the boss octave pedal

[@sboy1955]

Sounds pretty great, have you tried building a preset with acoustic IRs?

[@harleyosterlund5796]

Is there a polyphonic octave option on the fm3?

[@GaryMcNeill]

Wow.... this is ana absolutely amazing difference in sound!

[@JANDRE08]

Awesome! Thanks dude

[@marcelosilveira.guitar]

Very nice, sir!!

[@bryanfarless9579]

Thank you, really appreciate the tutorial, well done.

[@jorgea3507]

So if I understand this, I can use FM9 DI to FOH with electric and Acoustic for live applications using inputs and both xlr outputs 4 total. (stereo)

[@VeryStrangeweather]

What are those rack units? I really like your setup. Very clean.

[@AudioAtmos]

Great tips. Sounds great. Thanks!

[@fredmillard5018]

Cooper, as usual thanks. I’ve now got an amazingly great sounding acoustic sound. May add a pitch block for 12 string sim.

[@stratkimstratkim4686]

Where do I download presets?

[@michaelgregory2231]

Great info here, thanks!

[@Teleman01]

I actually borrowed this idea you have here to use in a professional environment. It sounds great. And so far is the best preset design I have seen for acoustic guitar. The guy I take care of plays a lot of bluegrass style lead. What I am finding is, when he plays lead on the high notes, they can be a bit thin. I'm going to try to use a pitch follower on the high frequencies only. Maybe that will take care of some of that. I'll let you know how it goes!

[@AndreVieiraguitarist]

Sweet! This works for a JP piezo system as well correct?

[@Taustavoima]

Nice video. I use acoustic IR and compressed and EQed DI signal in parallel with my AX8

[@jimmynorris]

I have been using the boss AC-3 on my electric to cop acoustic tones. It has been fair, but not good. Using these techniques, I have a pretty good sound. It is not a real acoustic, of course, but does a the job. Thanks!

[@chrischriston4897]

Very nice video, very helpful! Thank you Cooper👌 In a live situation, I would of course like to have my electric guitar and my acoustic wired in parallel, without having to unplug the electric guitar and plug in the acoustic every time, or vice versa. Is there an “official” way to achieve this?

[@pclindholm]

Love that m comp

[@curlzwalk]

Observation, when the MBC is turned on CC says "A lot more body, right off the bat" well looking at the 3 Output Levels, Each one is boosting by 6db. Shouldn't we expect it to sound louder and fuller when boosting? Yes. I set all 3 bands to 0db, then normalize the MBC block level bypass/active so Block Output is +3db. The when turning on the MBC it has only a very slight affect on the tone, at otherwise stock settings.

[@vindellsmith]

great vid

[@chiefpotpipe]

Be fun to try my new Yamaha A3R with the SRT mic emulation!

[@fishmank27]

This is awesome. The enhancer was something else! Thanks! Oh and no IR! I have a few IRs that are based off some captures of certain guitars and I noticed the “proximity” dial seems to add bass. Maybe a good thing if there’s less of a band?

[@googleprofile9893]

Why FM9 has not acoustic simulation?

[@Spielkind45]

Great. Thanx man!

[@mrmoon5001]

I was looking into the Fractal FM3 for acoustic guitar. This was interesting but my Gurian JR with a Sunrise pickup, BBE Acoustamax preamp, to an Eventide H9 sounds far better than what you're getting. I see the problems as you're using a Taylor dreadnought, a Taylor pickup, killing the mids (bad idea), and accentuating the plastic sound of the pick. Your initial sound has a plastic sound which with all the effects you're adding doesn't make it very pleasant sounding.

[@justinTime077]

Fractal for everything guitar, brother man.

[@Smittefar1]

I love using my acoustic with the AxeIII - I do use IRs, and it definitely helps, but Cooper got really far. I really like the Warm Stereo Chorus for acoustic, it just lifts it up - I would also always add a standard compressor block (most likely optocomp or tube comp) with my acoustic guitar. This is also mostly standard in all studio recordings of acoustic guitars.

[@coopercarter]

Depending on the pickup, I like a standard comp block for acoustic, too. Not always necessary though I've found.

[@r.llynch4124]

How about using this with a piezo bridge on an electric?

[@nuntiantisnuntiantisvicem6468]

Does it matter which input you enter the acoustic guitar in Ax Fx III. Thank you for your response

[@johnfrancis8586]

Great stuff as always Carter. How about a piezo pickup in a solid body guitar? Same approach?

[@Smittefar1]

In that case, I would try to record an IR to 'translate' the tone. I would also use the multi-band-compressor to simulate a bit of body resonance; have a band around from 200 to 500 Hz, with a healthy (7-10 dB) gain reduction (and equal make-up gain). This will make the body sound come in with all sustained notes. The attack and release will sort of control the character of the modelled acoustic. Release should be pretty slow (500 ms or similar)

[@starbadger2016]

Hi could you please share where you got that desk from :)

[@coopercarter]

I designed and built it myself!

[@Harrysound]

I’ll stick to the mic setup, it’s a right pain but can’t beat the sound.

[@MPacman79]

Great video! Do you know if a mic can be connected to the FM3, so that it is possible to use the interface of the FM3 to record acoustic guitar without pickup-system?

[@robertw1871]

Exactly, you might as well pick up an electric and EQ it to sound acoustic if you’re going to use a pizo pickup, no feedback and much easier… mic is definitely best if your looking for decent tone…

[@798125]

I use a DTAR mama bear acoustic preamp to make my acoustics with piezoelectric pick ups sound exactly like a miked up acoustic guitar and if I could make a tone match of that preamp that would be the ultimate way to use the axe effects for making an acoustic with a piezoelectric pickup sound like a miked up acoustic. Has anyone tried this already? If not I will give it a go and share the IR.

[@larslars8379]

Another very nice effect I think is, pan the short delay (about 30 to 60 ms) to the left or right, this gives a nice stereo spread :-)

[@coopercarter]

Yep, I like this, too. The enhancer is the same this as this method, more or less, especially when set to "Classic"

[@heut4384]

Hi, I'm trying to find out if AXE-Fx III if the acoustic-simulator tone is decent for, both, 6 strings and 12 strings. There's only ONE or TWO people in KZbin (or demoing) using electric guitars, but these guys play really awful and their sound system is bad so I can't even hear if Axe-Fx 3's acoustic sound is good enough for me to buy a $2.5k modeler. Lol. I've been listening your demo using your real acoustic (and a few others), but I just wanna know if your regular electric guitar can actually use your patch as well? Or are we limited to use the regular acoustic-simulator tone if we want to use our electric gtr? I do have a Roland GR-55 (if you haven't used one) and I do know that the 6 and 12 string acoustic tones are great. so I'm just tyring to use my GR-55 has a bench. Thx.

[@samuelholder]

This is so great! Do you ever use the IR player? If so where would you put it in the chain?

[@G66eu]

You can use the IR player wherever you would use a cab block. It is a simplified version of the cabinet block.

[@samuelholder]

@@G66eu I had the IR player in front of the AMP after the comp. You'd recommend after the AMP?

[@clintverville784]

ok so the next question i have is can you do this with dual acoustic guitars in 1 unit?

[@JeffrStarkey]

Yep, there are 3 different input blocks and output blocks

[@clintverville784]

@@JeffrStarkey tanks mang

[@michalwalas9960]

What model of Taylor is it ??

[@im58woody]

710ce

[@redcomn]

Hey i even plug old ass roland rompler synth into it.

[@n0nyabznss]

Nothing will beat a properly mic'ed acoustic guitar. Pair that with the output from the pickup and then blend it. Shame you have a decent acoustic and you're killing its tone by simply putting it through the fractal box.

[@JeffrStarkey]

Having a mic'ed up acoustic guitar is not practical for many live situations. If that's not a concern for you then don't use it.

[@francescodefelice6650]

Thanks a lot.❤