Any FC release time info ?

sirus1987

Inspired
Is there a price point on this? The new Axe FX looks great and all, but that footswitch seems disappointing. I know you can daisy chain them together, but I have no desire to connect multiple footswitches nor do I want 2-3 feet of length on a pedalboard. The nearly square shape didnt need any changing. The MFC 101 was nearly perfect how it was. The only real upgrade from what I can tell is the programmability from the Axe FX and the individual displays, which are great, but they seriously should have left the 21 button layout or something similar. Unless they come out with something closer to the MFC 101 or they drastically reduce the price of the FC units compared to what the MFC 101 was, I dont think Im going to be buying the Axe FX III. That's a BIG deal breaker.
 
I highly doubt they'll be cheaper than the MFC. They have way more features on them than the MFC and those little LCD screens for every switch.

I'm curious about their dimensions. I'm hoping it's similar in width, otherwise I'd have to buy a whole new pedal board case.
 
Yeah, let's bitch about it before we know more.
Well if you take a look again, you can clearly see that the main issue is that it doesnt have a similar layout to the MFC 101 and requires you to daisy chain 2 of them together. What new information do you expect to come out that changes this?
 
The FC series are like 12 foot controllers in one. The FC foot controllers feature 12 "layouts". Each layout has a unique, user-assignable set of switch functions. For example Layout 1 could have five preset switches, five scene switches and two switches assigned to bank up/down. Press and hold the bottom right switch and the then tap the switch above it and you enter Layout Select mode. Then tap a switch to select a new Layout. This new layout could have six channel switches and six bypass switches. Etc.
 
The FC series are like 12 foot controllers in one. The FC foot controllers feature 12 "layouts". Each layout has a unique, user-assignable set of switch functions. For example Layout 1 could have five preset switches, five scene switches and two switches assigned to bank up/down. Press and hold the bottom right switch and the then tap the switch above it and you enter Layout Select mode. Then tap a switch to select a new Layout. This new layout could have six channel switches and six bypass switches. Etc.


Maybe it's intuitive and I just need to play with one for a bit, but the way the MFC is setup is perfect for what I personally need. I have the top 2 switches for tuner/mute and tap tempo, the next 10 for effects on/off, and the bottom 5 for preset selection and the reveal are scenes 1-5 on the preset selection switches. Its the PERFECT footswitch as I setup all my live patches so that Its like amp channels clean, crunch, rhythm, heavy rhythm, and lead and then I still have 10 different effects to switch on and off. I just dont see how the new switching is going to make these needs any easier. It seems like I would have to compromise my setup in some way and would have to do more tap dancing to get the same functionality as well as buying more than 1 footswitch and setting them side by side for like 2 or 3 feet of footswitch.
 
the way the MFC is setup is perfect for what I personally need.

It’s interesting to see someone say the MFC is perfect. It’s based on some hardware that’s as ancient as fossil mammoth crap, way too rigid, slow, updating/editing it is a pain, and some advertised functions barely work (I.e. song mode in some scenarios).

Guess if you need all 17 buttons within the same song you may indeed be disappointed.

Me, I’ll welcome smaller footprint if the buttons can be somehow reassigned between songs and can activate different things in different presets.

But the long press this then press that twice and then select is a workflow that’s a bit overwhelming for me playing live, I’m afraid. :(
 
It’s interesting to see someone say the MFC is perfect. It’s based on some hardware that’s as ancient as fossil mammoth crap, way too rigid, slow, updating/editing it is a pain, and some advertised functions barely work (I.e. song mode in some scenarios).

Guess if you need all 17 buttons within the same song you may indeed be disappointed.

Me, I’ll welcome smaller footprint if the buttons can be somehow reassigned between songs and can activate different things in different presets.

But the long press this then press that twice and then select is a workflow that’s a bit overwhelming for me playing live, I’m afraid. :(


Again, thats why I setup all my live patches similarly. I like to set it up like a traditional amp/pedals set up. I have 5 scenes set up like amp channels and 10 basic effects reverb/delay/drive/phaser... and the for each "channel" or scene I selection an x or y state of each of those effects so I have a reverb or delay that is appropriate for a lead channel vs a clean channel. It works perfectly for me personally. I will say, the functionality seems better in terms of the switches changing based on the patch or being able to switch things around with ease, its more the size and footprint of it more than anything. I greatly prefer the 21 button setup.
 
Personally I really like the idea of the new foot controller. A layout for FX, for scenes, for amp channels, for the looper... Very exciting!

And if you still love your MFC then it looks like you can still control the Axe-FX III with it via MIDI. FAS Link seems to be out though.
 
And if you still love your MFC then it looks like you can still control the Axe-FX III with it via MIDI. FAS Link seems to be out though.

No, not really. Or not very well rather. Especially if you use it to turn individual effects on and off. You won’t see effect block states in generic MIDI mode.
 
The FC series are like 12 foot controllers in one. The FC foot controllers feature 12 "layouts". Each layout has a unique, user-assignable set of switch functions. For example Layout 1 could have five preset switches, five scene switches and two switches assigned to bank up/down. Press and hold the bottom right switch and the then tap the switch above it and you enter Layout Select mode. Then tap a switch to select a new Layout. This new layout could have six channel switches and six bypass switches. Etc.
@FractalAudio - Cliff, does this mean that we can't have a custom layout per preset, like the AX8 does? I really love being able to just set up whatever works for that preset/song and I'm sure a lot of us would want to have more than 12 pretty quickly - especially the people who do one preset per song for their whole gig. (I have about 5-6 general ones, and another 10 or so that are song-specific).

Are the layouts able to be linked with individual presets or would we have to first change the preset and then change the layout? That would just become more steps and we'd also have to remember which layout went with which preset.
 
The FC series are like 12 foot controllers in one. The FC foot controllers feature 12 "layouts". Each layout has a unique, user-assignable set of switch functions. For example Layout 1 could have five preset switches, five scene switches and two switches assigned to bank up/down. Press and hold the bottom right switch and the then tap the switch above it and you enter Layout Select mode. Then tap a switch to select a new Layout. This new layout could have six channel switches and six bypass switches. Etc.

Thanks for the info...If I set one layout to, say turn off/on 5 effects and 5 scenes and a bank up/down are those 5 effects going to be the same for every preset or can they toggle a different 5 effects per preset? If they have to be the same 5 effects can I select any of the 12 layouts for each preset?
 
@FractalAudio Are the layouts able to be linked with individual presets or would we have to first change the preset and then change the layout?.

What he said. :D

Here is my question from another thread...


So...basically for my setup I like to be able to have access to 10 on/off effects switches, 5 scene switches, a bank up, a bank down and a tap tempo...if the new tuner is capable of polyphonic tuning I'm going to want to have a tuner switch programmed on one of the switches too (otherwise I'll just keep my Polytune Mini on my board). That's 19 switches. That's more switches than the big one and the little one linked together (hopefully these will be cheaper than the MFC-101)...so then I'd have to buy two big switches and end up with way more switches than I need and way more room on the floor than I'm currently taking up...unless I can, say, program per preset program it to have different on/off effects instead of the same ones for every preset...

For example say I end up dedicating 5 switches for Pre Boost, Drive 1, Drive 2, Post Boost, Delay on the new footswitch...with my MFC-101 those are going to be the same for every preset and if I want to turn my chorus off or on I have to figure out another solution like changing scenes or assigning it to an external controller...but if this new controller will allow me to change up which effects get turned on and off per preset I can have the 5 switches I have allocated for on/off pedal functions on Preset 1 be Pre Boost, Drive 1, Drive 2, Post Boost, Delay and then Preset 2 could be, for example, Pre Boost, Chorus, Drive 2, Delay, Reverb. If the new controllers can do that they will work for me.

Anyone at Fractal know if this is how the new switches can be set up to work?
 
I also love how the MFC is laid out, however, I think the madness behind the FC controllers is cool, especially since you can daisy chain them!

My thought process is to get a FC6 and a FC12.. then I would use the 6 for patches/channels and the 12 for separate effects(chorus, drive, delay, etc.), bank up/down, and whatever else tickles me the right way...

In my current Axe Fx rig, I have a midi volume boost set up to where when the button is off, the output is at 114 (I think the max is 126, I could be far off but you get the point) and then of course when you hit the switch it maximizes the output to the full 126.. and that will work for every patch, which is probably one of the most useful things for me at gigs. I’m curious if I will be able to do that with the Axe Fx III and FC controllers...
 
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