AX8 + external midi controller

Chiguete

Experienced
Does anyone use their AX8 switches for effects and an external 4-5 botton midi controller to change presets? That will be almost having the same layout as the MFC-101.
 
I'm using a Gordius with my Ax8.
However, the pedals don't play well with the Ax8.
It can't handle the data stream from the Gordius.
And they're not willing to fix it :-(
 
I'm using a Gordius with my Ax8.
However, the pedals don't play well with the Ax8.
It can't handle the data stream from the Gordius.
And they're not willing to fix it :-(

So what do you use it for if it doesn't work well with the AX8?
 
I use one pedal through the Gordius to control volume.
The other pedals I was forced to connect tot the Ax8.
I use the Gordius also to switch amp X/Y; Wah X/Y; Delay X/Y or Delay mix and song presets. Also to set the tempo for a song and specific parameters like Key and Voices for a pitch shifter for instance.
 
I bought an MC6 from Morningstar. I use it for all kind of stuff. Controlling scenes, presets, Effects, H9 effects. I have one bank for my H9 looper I just switch on one preset to pull up the preset and the bottom three to record, play and stop. I have another three footswitches in the aux switch one for bank up, one for bank down and one for the AX8 tuner.


image2.JPG image1.JPG
 
Ax8%20Pedalboard.JPG
 
I am using a Ground Control and GCX. Works flawlessly. :) Was a bit of a learning curve. I am also using a G Major 2 and a bunch of pedals in the mix.
 
Another mc6 user here, i use it for presets and love it.
Works so easy, saves the tap dance
 
Wow Scott, You've been busy since the last time I saw your rig! You've gone all multi-level-custom wood working on that thing! I like it!
Yeah, it's like how much stuff can I get on one board. You know, were all fluid. You find what works and try to get it on the smallest real estate possible. I still have my big trailer trash board. It sits over in the corner of my office. The whole reason why I went smaller in the first place, was that I had hernia surgery back in August, and I wanted less weight. Then I got used to it. Then I just started building up instead of out. I love it.
 
So what do you use the F1, F2 and F3 switches on the AX8 for?

Not much! I wish we had CC's for preset +-.

I did have F1 set to Preset +-. I still do, so I can just use F2 to go up to the next preset. If I hold down F1 I get the List of presets.
 
How does that work? Is that a little Giant Module?
I originally intended to have all pedals going through the Gordius.
But, as I explained before, the Ax8 can't handle the data stream from the Gordius when moving a pedal.
I still feel this is bad MIDI implementation on Fractal's side but there's nothing can do about it.
Too bad.
So the pedal on the far right is used for volume and is connected tot the Gordius. It's no problem when there's a little lag when moving the pedal.
I can set the minimum and maximum volume in the Gordius. So when playing with a trio or with more, I can adjust the minimum and maximum volume.
The pedal next to the volume is connected to the Ax8 and is mainly used for Wah. The switch underneath (9) is can be used to switch the X/Y state of the Wah.
The pedal on the left is also connected to the Ax8. I use this mainly for Whammy(X)/Octaver(Y). The switch underneath is (1st in the row) switches the X/Y state.
With the AxeFx XL, I used to be able to switch the function of this pedal but, because f what I explained before, I had to abandon this.
One of the functions I used was for the Delay Mix.
So now the second button takes care of this. I can switch between minimum delay mix to 50%.
Buttons 3-7 are used for song presets.
Button 8 is for switching between a dirty amp (X) and clean amp (Y)
Button 9 is as explained above for Wah X/Y
Button 10 is for down
Button 11 is for up
Button 12 is for selecting the preset.
With this, I can send for each preset (or song) parameters like tempo, Key, Voice1, Voice2, ....

So this way, I can use scenes and control individual fx on the Axe-fx and use song mode on the Gordius.
 
I originally intended to have all pedals going through the Gordius.
But, as I explained before, the Ax8 can't handle the data stream from the Gordius when moving a pedal.
I still feel this is bad MIDI implementation on Fractal's side but there's nothing can do about it.
Too bad.
So the pedal on the far right is used for volume and is connected tot the Gordius. It's no problem when there's a little lag when moving the pedal.
I can set the minimum and maximum volume in the Gordius. So when playing with a trio or with more, I can adjust the minimum and maximum volume.
The pedal next to the volume is connected to the Ax8 and is mainly used for Wah. The switch underneath (9) is can be used to switch the X/Y state of the Wah.
The pedal on the left is also connected to the Ax8. I use this mainly for Whammy(X)/Octaver(Y). The switch underneath is (1st in the row) switches the X/Y state.
With the AxeFx XL, I used to be able to switch the function of this pedal but, because f what I explained before, I had to abandon this.
One of the functions I used was for the Delay Mix.
So now the second button takes care of this. I can switch between minimum delay mix to 50%.
Buttons 3-7 are used for song presets.
Button 8 is for switching between a dirty amp (X) and clean amp (Y)
Button 9 is as explained above for Wah X/Y
Button 10 is for down
Button 11 is for up
Button 12 is for selecting the preset.
With this, I can send for each preset (or song) parameters like tempo, Key, Voice1, Voice2, ....

So this way, I can use scenes and control individual fx on the Axe-fx and use song mode on the Gordius.
I would like to see a video of this.Is that possible?
 
Many people are using external MIDI controllers with the AX8. @scottburrow and @stonedoubt above talk about their successes with the Morningstar and Groundcontrol MIDI products. I support a number of artists who run the AX8 from a show computer. As Mr. E mentioned, we do NOT recommend the Gordius products for use in some circumstances (even though Xavier there is an old friend of mine) because they implement expression pedal controllers without any sample and hold type "data thinning". This overloads the MIDI Input buffer, not just of the AX8, but of other products as well. This needs to be fixed on the controller side, not the AX8 side. Our valuable processor cycles are explicitly dedicated to making the AX8 sound as good as possible.
 
So Matt, what you're actually saying is that the Gordius doesn't follow the MIDI specifications and the Ax8 does.
 
It follows the MIDI spec, but it doesn't implement sample-and-hold.
The question is if this is something that is specified in the MIDI specs that the controller has to do.
I couldn't find anything about that.
they implement expression pedal controllers without any sample and hold type "data thinning". This overloads the MIDI Input buffer, not just of the AX8, but of other products as well.
Midi specs state that MIDI works at a rate of 31.25 (+/- 1%) Kbaud or 10 bits for a period of 320 microseconds.
I should expect that any device should be able to handle about 70 messages per second.
 
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