That sounds like solid advice, but your comment about gaps when switching between them really concerns me! Damn it! Worst case scenario I could still lug a head around along with the axe fx, but that would sort of defeat the purpose. I truly don't feel like spending $750 or whatever for an MFC just for AB/Y switching. My top of the line tonebone selector was only $280
Keep cool, you don't need an MFC.
Any MIDI board that is able to send CC# with CC values can switch scenes. The Behringer FCB1010 is one of the few exceptions as it does not provide a way to send a CC value other than 0 (off) and 127 (on). It can not send, f.ex. a value of 126. The problem is that scenes are coded into specific CC values, so your Midi device must be able to send any values between 0 and 127 in order to switch scenes.
However, there's multiple solutions for this:
1) get a different Midi board that can send a CC value in addition to a CC#. Almost any board can do this. The FCB1010 can't by default, but...
2) you can get a chip (UNO) for the FCB that enables this functionality. Costs only a couple of extra dollars. If you look on ebay, chances are you will find a used FCB1010 with an UNO chip equipped already ... you can also check out the sales section on these forums. There's almost always an UNO equipped FCB to be found there
3) you can use the "Map to preset" and "Map to scene" feature of the Axe to "redirect" any Program-change commands from any midi device to also switch scenes.
4) you can simply not use the scenes feature and instead use the Amp X/Y functions. For what you are trying to do, this is perfectly enough.
5) you can also map the bypass state of your amp sims to an external modifier and then simply assign your pedalboard switch to this modifier.
As you can see, there are
plenty of solutions and workarounds. Don't worry, you don't need an MFC. Especially not if you only want basic amp switching. All this can be done with any basic Midi board. You can always ask the community if you don't know how to solve a problem later.
EDIT: Checked out the Randall RX8 and it's very rigid in it's programming (it has 4 binary switches on it's backside that you can use to set it up).
Here's what you can do with it when combined with the Axe:
- You can assign all buttons to the first 8 presets of the Axe
- You can assign all buttons to any of the Axe block states (you need to map them to the correct CC numbers on the Axe though), including block on/off and block X/Y
- You can assign f.ex. the bottom row to change presets and the top row to change block states
- You can freely assign the buttons to trigger external control modifiers ... that you can basicly map to any block bypass state in a preset to "emulate" scenes
So yes, it has all the basic functions you need. It doesn't directly support scenes, though, but as I said, you can apply numerous workarounds for this. The easiest would be the "Map to scene" feature of the Axe II and XL. If you want an explanation how this works, just ask and I can give you some instructions.
Here's a possible way to use the Randall with the Axe:
- In default setting (all backside switches to ON), the Randall will Send PC# 0-7 with it's buttons.
- the Axe will by default interpret these commands as preset 0-7
- If you want, f.ex. to change the Axe to interpret these commands in a fashion that the upper row of buttons are scene 1-4 of preset 1 and the lower row of buttons are scene 1-4 of preset 0, then just do the following:
--> go to I/O menu, then go to MIDI
--> scroll down until "Map from preset"
--> set it to the button on Randall you want to use (the first button on the board is "0", the last is "7")
--> scroll down to "Map to preset" and set it to the preset in the Axe you want to map to the button (so, in our example, preset 0 for the lower row and preset 1 for the upper row)
--> scroll to "Map to scene" and set it to the scene you want to use for this button (so 1 for the first button of the lower row, 4 for the last button of the lower row)
--> If you're done setting up, set "Ignore redundant PC" option to "ON". This will make sure the Axe will not try to change presets if you hit two buttons that are mapped to the same preset (to prevent the Axe from "reloading" the preset, which results in an audio gap)
