Axe Fx III and the MFC101 - easy to program?

Tremonti

Tremonti

Fractal Fanatic
Having issues with the MFC101 editor that I bought and awaiting a new usb to midi interface, that I should get today. Hopefully that works. But how many have done this manually and what have your sticking point been, if any? Anything you could not do or that was a pain? I have 70 patches and utilize 10 presets per bank and 7 IA's and also use 2 exp pedals. I do not use scenes at this point in time, but will when the unicorn known as the FC 6/12, finally releases.
 
New cable did not work. This is the cable Gary the creator of the MFC editor told me works. I have tried using this, another cable, my Axe Fx II with several different midi cables. NADA. Gary won't call and it seems like I'm on my own with software that won't work. This is why I was afraid to buy the Axe Fx III without waiting until the new FC was out. Bad move on my part and major regret.
 
Tremonti said:
New cable did not work. This is the cable Gary the creator of the MFC editor told me works. I have tried using this, another cable, my Axe Fx II with several different midi cables. NADA. Gary won't call and it seems like I'm on my own with software that won't work. This is why I was afraid to buy the Axe Fx III without waiting until the new FC was out. Bad move on my part and major regret.
Click to expand...
Did you get the registration part working? How do you know the cable doesn’t work?
 
chris said:
Did you get the registration part working? How do you know the cable doesn’t work?
Click to expand...
Registration yes. But it doesn't download or upload anything. I've programmed access electronics and Ground Controls before. I'm at a loss. Maybe others are having success with it, but I'm done. Spent hours upon hours trying to get out to work and nothing. What a waste of time and money. Mainly time as it was cheap for editor.
 
Man, I am so sorry to see you going through such frustration with this. I can't say whether my MFC Edit still works as I could not find my midi-usb cable when I got the III in. As a result, I programmed the MFC manually. All in all, it took me a few hours to get it working the way I need it, but I do not have extensive experience with midi controllers, so you may have an easier time. I will look through to find the thread I used as a guide and send it your way. I hope it helps.
 
Tremonti said:
Registration yes. But it doesn't download or upload anything. I've programmed access electronics and Ground Controls before. I'm at a loss. Maybe others are having success with it, but I'm done. Spent hours upon hours trying to get out to work and nothing. What a waste of time and money. Mainly time as it was cheap for editor.
Click to expand...
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work in “real time” like Axe-Edit does. I think you have to press a button to send the file as a whole, more like how Fractal-Bot works. I only used it when it first came out a while ago briefly, but it should work. My guess is that the USB-Midi isn’t working right. Does it show up as an option in the program? (I’m only assuming that’s a requirement from memory.)
 
chris said:
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work in “real time” like Axe-Edit does. I think you have to press a button to send the file as a whole, more like how Fractal-Bot works. I only used it when it first came out a while ago briefly, but it should work. My guess is that the USB-Midi isn’t working right. Does it show up as an option in the program? (I’m only assuming that’s a requirement from memory.)
Click to expand...

You just reminded me of that fact. Now that I remember more, I used to have to use Fractal Bot to upload the current version, open that file in MFC Edit, save it and then use Fractal Bot to push down to the MFC.
 
chris said:
I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work in “real time” like Axe-Edit does. I think you have to press a button to send the file as a whole, more like how Fractal-Bot works. I only used it when it first came out a while ago briefly, but it should work. My guess is that the USB-Midi isn’t working right. Does it show up as an option in the program? (I’m only assuming that’s a requirement from memory.)
Click to expand...
You're correct.

First you send a sysex dump from the MFC to the computer. Either to MFC-EDIT or to FractalBot.

Then you open that dump file with MFC-EDIT and make your updates to the settings. Then you send those via a sysex dump from MFC-EDIT to the MFC.
 
Jeff Greene said:
Man, I am so sorry to see you going through such frustration with this. I can't say whether my MFC Edit still works as I could not find my midi-usb cable when I got the III in. As a result, I programmed the MFC manually. All in all, it took me a few hours to get it working the way I need it, but I do not have extensive experience with midi controllers, so you may have an easier time. I will look through to find the thread I used as a guide and send it your way. I hope it helps.
Click to expand...
Thanks buddy!
 
Midi in's and out's also have to be correct, this is the only part that gave me any trouble sending and receiving files to and from the edit.
 
I have my AXE III and MFC-101 working like a charm so you should be able to get yours running. Fairly certain I will stick with this controller even when FC comes out as Preset/Scene control is easy here- I'm not one to use IA's much at all. Probably because I was raised up on rack gear so one button = one sound makes sense to me, lots of buttons means lots of sounds...
 
Got it all running.

QUESTION: My volume pedal works but initial state is silent when I switch patches. How do I make it to relate to where the physical pedal is on load of patch? To clarify I use the volume block in the chain. Thanks!
 
I’m not sure as there is a way to do that between patches, but it will between scenes. I believe if you want it between patches, you’ll need the volume pedal at the state you want it and then save the patch.
 
It can be done, as that's how my pedals for delay, rotary, etc work.

I believe it's only settings on the Axe Fx. Make sure your modifier that you are controlling has PC Reset set to OFF. If it is set to ON then the preset will use the value of the setting when it was saved.

286E4F91-66F2-4B7D-88EE-CC22FC241BE7.jpeg
 
In the XP setup on the MFC in the MIDI Edit menu, set the “Beg” (begin) value to PDL so it reads the Pedal position on preset load. Details are in the MFC manual, MIDI setup reference.
 
Here's what I did to get the midi right for the IA switches. Go to the midi section of the Axe FX III and go to the IA that you actually want to program to MFC. So if phaser then select and press learn function on Axe FX III. Then press the midi button on the MFC and you're done. Do this for all the ones you want.
 
Tremonti said:
Here's what I did to get the midi right for the IA switches. Go to the midi section of the Axe FX III and go to the IA that you actually want to program to MFC. So if phaser then select and press learn function on Axe FX III. Then press the midi button on the MFC and you're done. Do this for all the ones you want.
Click to expand...

This is how I did it as well and have used it live like this for quite a few times now. Doing it this way, the only thing to watch out for is the MFC doesn't know if something changes on the AxeFX3, so for example if you change to a different scene that has several effect blocks enabled (e.g. drive, delay etc) then the MFC will not light up those effects to show they are enabled.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom