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.