A Crazy Question for the 'power users'...

[iaresee]

Here's the patch and some screen shots with some explanations. I built this patch silently. It was meant to show routing and control, not show off sounds, so don't expect it to sound good. It was built with FW 17.03.

Row 1 is your "acoustic guitar" row. The VOL block in this row mutes in Scene 1 to silence the AG signal. It un-mutes in Scene 2 to enable the AG signal. The VOL block is tied to External Controller 1 for volume control from your expression pedal.

Row 3 is your "electric guitar" row. The VOL block in row is un-muted in Scene 1 to enable the EG signal and it's muted in Scene 2 to stop it from passing.

I have it set up to Scene Controller 1 to control the mixer blocks. The mixer blocks are setup so the signal routes through *only* Row 3 in Scene 1 and *only* Row 1 in Scene 2.

The CAB block switches from X state in Scene 1 to Y state in Scene 2. Both scenes use the CAB block in Stereo Ultra-Res mode.

Both DEL blocks have their bypass assigned to External Controller 12 -- this lets you use one IA switch on the MFC to enable/disable *both* delay blocks so it's the same switch no matter which scene you're on. This setup has the DEL block in series, but you could easily route them in parallel on both the AG and EG signals using Row 2 and 4 respectively. Also, if the AG and EG share a common delay setup you could route the signals through

The MIX blocks, post-CAB, are technically unnecessary -- I wanted to conserve some CPU so I share a CAB block between the AG and EG setups and flip it's X/Y state depending on which signal I'm routing through it. You've got enough headroom on this patch to use two separate CAB blocks, one for AG one for EG, if you wanted to go that route instead. I threw a bunch of extra blocks in there just to see how CPU went up. I think you could safely pack a bunch more in to this patch, don't you?

The really beautiful thing about Scenes is you have eight of them! You could use this single patch for 8 different EG and AG setups if you exploit more blocks and X/Y states on blocks. This really just shows you the tip of the iceberg (so many metaphors today, sorry!).

Here's a screen shot showing the Scene Controller 1 setup:

Here's a screen shot of the MIX block on Row 1 (the AG row). As you can see, in Scene 1 it has all the inputs to the block muted:

And then on Scene 2 it has the second row input at 100%. The MIX block on Row 3 works in a similar, but inverse, fashion to this one:

 

[Radley]

Most excellent Ian ~ Since I have never explored using scenes, there is some learning to do. I loaded your example preset late last night & had a bit of trouble figuring out how to use it, but 'the truth will come forth' & the light bulb will come on... (Since I am putting together all new presets for the upcoming rehearsals/tours, I only have so much time I can devote to learning new stuff)

 

[Radley]

Yek ~ I tried using the alternate preset feature last night. It is very cool, but it must be switched slowly, or it doesn't always work. The worst situation is when I'm switching from one AG preset to another AG preset (both alternates), because the AFX has to make two patch changes instead of one. (first, it defaults to the EG preset and I must wait about a second before pressing the switch again to select the AG sound - if I don't wait long enough, it stays on the EG patch). I really like the fact that the light turns red to indicate the alternate preset

 

[iaresee]

Most excellent Ian ~ Since I have never explored using scenes, there is some learning to do. I loaded your example preset late last night & had a bit of trouble figuring out how to use it, but 'the truth will come forth' & the light bulb will come on... (Since I am putting together all new presets for the upcoming rehearsals/tours, I only have so much time I can devote to learning new stuff)

Are you using Axe-Edit? You can change scenes with the little, numbered buttons just to the right of the patch name there. When Scene 1 is selected in this patch the audio routes from the front input through the blocks that are on Row 3 of the patch. When Scene 2 is selected audio routes from the rear input (FXL block) through the blocks on Row 1 of the patch. In both scenes the audio routes through the common CAB block on Row 2, that block switches X/Y state depending on the scene -- X state in Scene 1, Y state in Scene 2.

Start on Scene 1, use the Row 3 blocks, and get your electric sounds set up. The move to Scene 2 and do your acoustic sounds.

Think of X/Y states on blocks as completely different block setups. It lets you put one block in the grid and completely change what that block does by flipping it from the X to the Y state. I could have the CAB block in the X state be running in mono, low-res IR and then in the Y state change it to be running in stereo, ultra-res mode.

Pretty cool, right?

It can definitely hurt your head a bit when you start to trying to wrap you mind around it. There's a lot of flexibility (and a few limitations) with X/Y states and scenes. Just let me know if you run in to any hurdles.

On your MFC, when you're using Scenes, you have a choice: you can either dedicate two IAs, one to each scene selection. Or you can dedicate one IA that switches between the 1st and 2nd scene. Option 1 is a little easier because the MFC has built-in "Scene 1", "Scene 2", etc. IA states for switches you can assign. Option 2 isn't too bad. You just make a custom IA and set it to CC#34 and then send on and off values according to the two scenes you want to select. The values for direct scene selection are:

• Value 0 -> Scene 1
• Value 1 -> Scene 2
• Value 2 -> Scene 3
• Value 3 -> Scene 4
• Value 4 -> Scene 5
• Value 5 -> Scene 6
• Value 6 -> Scene 7
• Value 7 -> Scene 8

 

[yek]

Yek ~ I tried using the alternate preset feature last night. It is very cool, but it must be switched slowly, or it doesn't always work. The worst situation is when I'm switching from one AG preset to another AG preset (both alternates), because the AFX has to make two patch changes instead of one. (first, it defaults to the EG preset and I must wait about a second before pressing the switch again to select the AG sound - if I don't wait long enough, it stays on the EG patch). I really like the fact that the light turns red to indicate the alternate preset

Ah, that's a pity.

 

[Radley]

Ah, that's a pity.

Yek ~ How do I limit the number of scenes selectable... say if I want one button to cycle up thru scenes 1 thru 3 and then wrap around to 1 again?

 

[iaresee]

To step to the next scene you use CC#123. Values from 64-127 trigger the action while values from 0-63 are ignored. So set it to be a momentary switch that sends 0 on off and 127 on on and every time you step on it it'll step to the next scene.

Unfortunately you cannot limit the scenes you step through right now. Great idea though. The Axe-Fx will wrap back to Scene 1 if you're on Scene 8 and you send it a >63 value on CC#123 to go up to the next scene.

Worth posting a wish list section request for a scene limit for the increment/decrement scene functions IMO.

You could set IA 1-3 to be direct scene selection switches -- so IA 1 -> Scene 2, IA 2 -> Scene 2, etc. And then use the REVEAL switch on the MFC to drop you out of Bank 15 mode to IA mode and select scenes within a patch that way.

With the advent of scenes I set my live patches up so I don't have to move patches in a song. I stay on one patch. That makes it easier to have scene selection switches on the bottom row of the MFC and no preset switches. I just drop in and out of REVEAL mode to move between patches and scenes/effect selection within a patch.

 

[Rex]

To step to the next scene you use CC#123.

There are actually two controls: SCENE INCREMENT (CC#123) and SCENE DECREMENT (CC#124), so you can go up and down through your scenes.

It's a good idea to set any unused scenes to something that won't be totally rude and nasty if you get to them by accident.

 

[iaresee]

There are actually two controls: SCENE INCREMENT (CC#123) and SCENE DECREMENT (CC#124), so you can go up and down through your scenes.

It's a good idea to set any unused scenes to something that won't be totally rude and nasty if you get to them by accident.

True, but you can't set the wrap point for either of them. It's all 8. You could duplicate your scenes. That's getting in to patch management nightmares IMO though.

 

[Rex]

True, you can't set the wrap point. But using both INCR and DECR, that's less of a problem.

 

[barhrecords]

Yek ~ How do I limit the number of scenes selectable... say if I want one button to cycle up thru scenes 1 thru 3 and then wrap around to 1 again?

If you had 4 scenes instead of 3, you could duplicate them so that you would get the wrap around effect.

Copy scenes 1 - 4 to 5 - 8.

 

[bobmichigan]

Sounds like you need a midi processor, check out Midi Solutions, this is one company that offers a "midi swiss army knife" .