2-layer switches?

F

Fretts

Member
I'm drowning in information!
The Fractal Universe is an alien environment for this newcomer and I am looking for a feature...
There is so much information and so many manuals, guides, books, videos , etc etc, I can't tell where to begin to research this one feature I am looking for!

So... I want to start my journey by simply duplicating and replacing my existing pedalboard and continue using my familiar combo amp. I'm used to that and it will put the FM9 to use right away in rehearsals. I can get deeper into the capabilities once I have taken this baby step.
I know just enough to see that Channels could replace some pedals like boosts but I have yet to see how to engage different channels on the fly.

So the question is this: in a scenario where I have switches assigned to individual effects, is there such a thing as a Long Press that will engage a second setting?
I'm picturing for example, a Drive that can be "boosted" via a longer press on the switch, or a delay with more or fewer repeats, or any other variation that is native to that effect. The reason I am looking for it is - I use eleven pedals in addition to tuner and hard bypass while the FM9 has 9 switches. I'm thinking that 2-level switching would completely take care of that.
Does that capability exist?
Thank you!
 
Onboard switches can toggle AND do a hold function..... three level switching!

You can easily set up a switch to toggle two channels and hold for a third if you wanted.....
I swap channels using delays quite a bit but usually during a scene change.
 
If you are drowning in information, then I would suggest Cooper Carter's FM9 masterclass. Go at your own pace and learn just about everything this awesome piece of equipment can do. It's broken down into easy to digest sections with over 12 hours of professional instruction.
 
flcmcya said:
Onboard switches can toggle AND do a hold function..... three level switching!

You can easily set up a switch to toggle two channels and hold for a third if you wanted.....
I swap channels using delays quite a bit but usually during a scene change.
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Ah, that's great to know, thank you! Now my next challenge is to find "How" to do it, can you point me in the right direction to read about it or see somebody do it in video? Since you are already doing this, could you tell what the key to setting it up is?
I feel like I'm in the library but the books are all over the place - no catalog!
Thank you!
 
Saja said:
If you are drowning in information, then I would suggest Cooper Carter's FM9 masterclass. Go at your own pace and learn just about everything this awesome piece of equipment can do. It's broken down into easy to digest sections with over 12 hours of professional instruction.
Click to expand...
I probably will end up there before long, thank you for the recommendation, Saja.
First, I need to get up and running with just the one change of equipment.
 
The terms you want for switches are "Tap" and "Hold".

Tap is a short press, Hold is a long press.

There are Global settings that affect the Hold: how long is "long", and whether to trigger the Hold function at the "timeout" or when you release the switch (I prefer the latter).

How you enable those functions is by using FC Edit in the editor, then going to the layout and switch you want to change.

Assign the function you want to the Hold section of the switch settings.

You might want to use Channel Toggle to alternate between two channels of your Drive block...

But we can't provide too much detail without knowing exactly what you're wanting to do.

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What I might suggest is sitting down at your computer with FM9-Edit open and spend some time looking at switches within layouts as unix-guy said. If you first backup all layouts (on the left within the layouts view) then you can mess with switches all you want and revert the changes anytime. The first thing I did was change the defaults to the "OFM9G" on the unit and changed things from there

Based on your usage as a pedalboard, maybe start at layout 4 (I believe that's the Effects layout), and reorder the "pedals" so your most commonly used effects are handy - you can drag and drop a switch into the 3 greyed out slots in the layout (since those top leftmost switches are not used in the FM9) and use that to swap the order of switches to your liking.

Once you have your drive, delay, etc where you want them on the "pedalboard", click the drive switch and explore the different options there - maybe the TAP function is bypass, and HOLD toggles between channels A and B?

Playing with these functions is fun, and ultimately I found myself reading the manual several times (including the more in-depth Footswitch Functions Guide) really helped to cement my understanding and make it easier to get where I wanted to go. Lots to learn but have fun doing it!
 
To get started fast use scenes. Set your effects and amp channels and cabs to your liking and save. Then another combo and save that on another scene. 8 available so there’s your pedalboard. You can go deeper of course and FAS made this very customizable. You can do quite a lot with it. Watch the videos, and dig through the forum. Most of my learning has been right here.
 
@Fretts Reading your threads remind me of when I got my first piece of Fractal gear back when the FX8 came out. The learning curve can be steep, but it's most definitely worth it and there are many resources and lots of helpful people on here to guide you along the way. To echo what others have said Cooper's Masterclass is brilliantly put together and will take you from powering up the unit to complex functions in easy to understand chunks. I invested in it when I got my AxeFx3 and still refer to it occasionally even though I'm now using an FM9. Leon Todd's YouTube videos are also a goldmine of tips, as are Cooper's G66 videos which are also on YouTube.

Persevere with the unit and you'll be rewarded, but my advice would be to take advantage of the many tutorials that the experts have put together for us as they'll get you to where you want to be far quicker leaving you more time to play your guitar and enjoy the incredible sounds that you now have access to
 
Thank you for the encouragement. I'm in almost the same position with the tutorials and guides - again drowning in information.
I did buy into Cooper's video tutorial. It will take several re-viewings. He's deeply embedded in Fractal World and as such, can't see which parts go by too fast since it's all as familiar as his back yard to him.
I'm reminded of when I decided to learn Unix a long time ago - talk about being lost at sea... alien vocabulary, alien concepts, alien culture. But I got enough of a handle on it after awhile to navigate my way around. This can't be any worse.
And I thought I would just plug and play after about an hour. My initial goal was and still is to replace my existing pedalboard with minimal disruption. Then learn and incorporate some of the more sophisticated features later on. Three days in and I have managed to replicate my JHS Superbolt pedal. Ten to go, I sure hope the pace picks up or this could be a month before I have in the FM9 what I already have in pedals.
I do appreciate all the positive comments and help here!
 
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Fretts said:
Thank you for the encouragement. I'm in almost the same position with the tutorials and guides - again drowning in information.
I did buy into Cooper's video tutorial. It will take several re-viewings. He's deeply embedded in Fractal World and as such, can't see which parts go by too fast since it's all as familiar as his back yard to him.
I'm reminded of when I decided to learn Unix a long time ago - talk about being lost at sea... alien vocabulary, alien concepts, alien culture. But I got enough of a handle on it after awhile to navigate my way around. This can't be any worse.
And I thought I would just plug and play after about an hour. My initial goal was and still is to replace my existing pedalboard with minimal disruption. Then learn and incorporate some of the more sophisticated features later on. Three days in and I have managed to replicate my JHS Superbolt pedal. Ten to go, I sure hope the pace picks up or this could be a month before I have in the FM9 what I already have in pedals.
I do appreciate all the positive comments and help here!
Click to expand...
Definitely easier than Unix! :)
 
I think I'm getting near my goal of going to rehearsal next Monday with the FM9 instead of my traditional stompbox pedalboard.
I just don't want anything to sound much different than it was before the holiday break!

I have done a fairly decent job now of cloning my existing 9 pedals as tweaked Fractal blocks. What do you reckon is the best way to access the 15 or so combinations and settings I need for the live set? I could make every single combination a scene and page up & down to get to 15 scenes, but wouldn't it be better to just modify one drive scene for the 4 drive settings I use? (and use the remaining 8 scenes for the sounds of the other pedals that don't use additional channels?) That way everything I need is visible at once - no tapping for "More--->"

I'm just not really clear on how to access the different channels using my feet. It's easy using my hands on the buttons and knobs, but I can't gig like that; I need to do it all with my feet while my hands are busy. Can one of you just map out one good way of how that gets done?
I really appreciate all the help, guys!
 
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Every preset has 8 scenes, no more, no less. You don't have to use them all, or make them all available on switches, but that's the underlying reality. There aren't 15 scenes.

Beyond scenes, you can have a footswitch toggle a block on and off, or change its channel. One common setup is to have normal press turn a block on and off, and long press cycle through its channels, or toggle between two channels.

Beyond that are control switches.

The manuals and Cooper's course are good resources for all this.

Note also that you can redefine the label and the push and hold actions for each switch individually per preset if you want. Personally I'm happier using a mostly consistent layout, with a few ad hoc tweaks sometimes, rather than full-on "anything-goes everything is different for every preset". It's technically possible to make all your switches completely different for every preset, it's just hard to use IMO, and you'd have to think about that all the time instead of the music.
 
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Fretts said:
Thanks for the advice... I may have to rethink my approach to avoid making things unnecessarily complicated down the road.
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Describe how you use your current board to do it...

What are the effects, and the combinations?

Which changes need to happen "on the fly" vs say setting them before starting a song?

If you're not using something like a loop switcher in your analog rig, then I imagine you are used to turning effects on/off individually.

In that case, 9 pedals and 9 switches in a layout - sounds like a perfect fit ;)
 
Sure... and thank you very much for taking this time!

Guitar -->loop switcher (bypasses the entire board, straight to amp)---> Tuner ---> Clean boost --->JHS Superbolt ---> Mosaic 12-string effect ---> FuzzRite fuzz ---> Big Muff ---> Klone klone ---> Pitch Vibrato --->reverb ---> Trem ---> Flanger. I don't have room for a delay pedal but want one. That makes 11.
I presume I can consolidate the Boost and the Superbolt into one thing with 2 channels, and do the same for the two fuzzes. Now we are 9.

The way I use it is: for most songs, I just stomp the one pedal I need on the fly, maybe adding a second. For a few songs, I stage all the pedals necessary - for example, JHS, 12-string, trem and reverb, and have them ready to go when I hit the loop button which grabs them all with one stomp. And of course off.

Is there a setup where all 9 switches are dedicated to effect on/off/+channel, but I can escape it by using the heel-toe action on the two end switches? One switch could still invoke a tuner under a long press as per the example of the stock tempo switch.
This arrangement would get me and the FM9 into the rehearsal room next Monday with no one the wiser... other than the novelty of the pretty lights!

What might you suggest?
 
Fretts said:
Sure... and thank you very much for taking this time!

Guitar -->loop switcher (bypasses the entire board, straight to amp)---> Tuner ---> Clean boost --->JHS Superbolt ---> Mosaic 12-string effect ---> FuzzRite fuzz ---> Big Muff ---> Klone klone ---> Pitch Vibrato --->reverb ---> Trem ---> Flanger. I don't have room for a delay pedal but want one. That makes 11.
I presume I can consolidate the Boost and the Superbolt into one thing with 2 channels, and do the same for the two fuzzes. Now we are 9.

The way I use it is: for most songs, I just stomp the one pedal I need on the fly, maybe adding a second. For a few songs, I stage all the pedals necessary - for example, JHS, 12-string, trem and reverb, and have them ready to go when I hit the loop button which grabs them all with one stomp. And of course off.

Is there a setup where all 9 switches are dedicated to effect on/off/+channel, but I can escape it by using the heel-toe action on the two end switches? One switch could still invoke a tuner under a long press as per the example of the stock tempo switch.
This arrangement would get me and the FM9 into the rehearsal room next Monday with no one the wiser... other than the novelty of the pretty lights!

What might you suggest?
Click to expand...
In the OFM9G factory configuration, there are 2 layouts dedicated to scenes, and 2 layouts dedicated to effects. Within effects you have the option as tap to toggle effects on/off, or toggle them A/B, or scroll through 4 channels of them.

With the HOLD feature (on the same switch) you can do the same, though it may prove difficult recalling how you've got things configured for HOLD.

To help with that, there is a Utility that is called 'HOLD Reveal', which displays what switches do what when as HOLD switches. That, IIRC, can be set as a momentary switch that displays HOLD features when pressed.

The best possible way of configuring your effect is to have them designed as tap and hold switches, with one effect on tap, and a 2nd on hold. With 2 layouts of effects in OFM9G, that's about 20 possible effects, if you're only utilizing 5 switches.

My feeling is that you could experiment with either the factory standard layout configuration, or try the OFM9G config. Of course before you do any of this, be sure to back up your current layouts to your computer via FM9-Edit under FC Edit > Layouts > Edit (scroll menu to export layouts one at a time).

See below:

GFiqkDU.png
 
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