Advice needed on MFC setup

guitarjim

guitarjim

Experienced
Quick question for the experts... I play in a cover band (wedding/dance) and try to get as close as possible to the original sound of the artist. We have a catalog of more than 200 songs, so I currently have nearly 60 presets. I have been using an external switch to change to lead mode for each preset, when needed. Because of the number of presets I have, I have the MFC set to a bank size of 10.

Now, I am changing many of my presets to use scenes, in order to consolidate presets that use the same amps and to allow more sophisticated scenarios, like using 3 or 4 different scenes on a single song.

What I'm struggling with is how to set up the MFC to minimize the tap dancing. At the moment, I'm selecting a preset, then pressing Reveal to expose the scenes. Then, to switch for the next song, I'm disabling Reveal, banking to the right bank, selecting the preset, and then re-engaging Reveal. I've read the manual and the Wiki a bunch of times and must be missing something because there must be a simpler way to do this.

Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Setup 4 external switches for scenes so you don't have to reveal... That's your 10 presets per page, all the IAs as is on 11-17 and provides you 4 scenes per preset ( one scene would be your lead setting which you already have external )

Cheers
 
jjozwia said:
Setup 4 external switches for scenes so you don't have to reveal... That's your 10 presets per page, all the IAs as is on 11-17 and provides you 4 scenes per preset ( one scene would be your lead setting which you already have external )

Cheers
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Thanks. I can make that work.

Does anyone know of an external bank of 4 buttons that would sit in front of the MFC? I know that someone on this forum makes one that sits to the left, but for scene selection, I need it to be at the bottom row so that I can access it quickly while moving.
 
Why not just set up the MFC in song mode and pick the presets used on the song ? Avoids the tap dancing and the need for scenes...
 
s0c9 said:
Why not just set up the MFC in song mode and pick the presets used on the song ? Avoids the tap dancing and the need for scenes...
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll look into it some more, but the main reason I didn't consider that is that switching presets in the middle of a song has more of a gap than scenes. Also, it appeared that Song Mode was meant for people who have a set order for their songs. We get tons of a requests. It appeared to me from the manual that if someone requests a song that is 80 songs away from the current song, I'd have to step through those 80 songs to get where I want to be.
 
guitarjim said:
Thanks. I'll look into it some more, but the main reason I didn't consider that is that switching presets in the middle of a song has more of a gap than scenes. Also, it appeared that Song Mode was meant for people who have a set order for their songs. We get tons of a requests. It appeared to me from the manual that if someone requests a song that is 80 songs away from the current song, I'd have to step through those 80 songs to get where I want to be.
Click to expand...
it may NOT work for your specific setup.. but it's worth exploring.. and to be honest, I KNOW folks have brought up the preset switching/delay issue many times and Cliff has addressed it with scenes.. but there have been very few situations in my guitar playing where instant switching between presets - for live use - has been an issue. Sure, I have presets with 4-5 scenes (use the same process you do right now with REVEAL), but not all and I don't try to cram everything into one preset like some. Switching time is based on preset complexity.. so I follow the KISS principle.

And.. preset management is a challenge for 60+ presets and 200+ songs.
I have (in the past) organized them in one of 2 ways:
1. banks of 5 or 10, with clean on the lower numbers, getting dirtier as the preset numbers increase within the bank. This covers a TON of songs in one bank.
2. Ordered by song (song mode) where one can have x presets per song.
I don't believe there's a perfect solution to your challenge, so compromise may be your only choice.
 
guitarjim said:
Thanks. I can make that work.

Does anyone know of an external bank of 4 buttons that would sit in front of the MFC? I know that someone on this forum makes one that sits to the left, but for scene selection, I need it to be at the bottom row so that I can access it quickly while moving.
Click to expand...

I bought Roadrunner's - that's the one that sits to the left - and after reading this thread I may just use it for 4 scenes.

I can hit a column of switches as quick as a row I think. ;)
 
smcrosby said:
I bought Roadrunner's - that's the one that sits to the left - and after reading this thread I may just use it for 4 scenes.

I can hit a column of switches as quick as a row I think. ;)
Click to expand...

One of the other reasons I switched to scenes is that I move a lot on stage and have always had issues reaching the IAs in the back row without accidentally pressing the wrong one sometimes. That's also why I went to an external for the lead switch. I guess I'm just an old clumsy oaf, but I have to deal with the skills I've been given. :) I'm seriously considering manually swapping the front and back rows of switches so that I can have the preset selection in back and use the front row for scenes. Having the lights on the switches is an added bonus.
 
guitarjim said:
One of the other reasons I switched to scenes is that I move a lot on stage and have always had issues reaching the IAs in the back row without accidentally pressing the wrong one sometimes. That's also why I went to an external for the lead switch. I guess I'm just an old clumsy oaf, but I have to deal with the skills I've been given. :) I'm seriously considering manually swapping the front and back rows of switches so that I can have the preset selection in back and use the front row for scenes. Having the lights on the switches is an added bonus.
Click to expand...

I like that idea (swapping)! :lol and I'm old too and mostly play sitting down so maybe I'm not as fast as I think. ;)
 
I rewired a Vox VFS5 to sit in front of my MFC101. Works great.

vfs5_zps1272909e.jpg
 
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