That didnt really fix my statement, which has been echoed by many different people on this forum, facebook forums, and by friends. Some people are happy with the fact that they are smaller, many with myself included are not. Fractal knows this, which is why they addressed it on the FC page by saying that the FC's are perfect like 4 times including the very first word of the description and the very first phrase in the specs. "
- Two perfectly sized versions: FC-12 with 12 switches and FC-6 with 6.
"
I'm inclined to disagree. It doesnt make a lot of sense for a new flagship model to get a controller that requires more work to do all the things the old one did. There were certainly some big progressions since the MFC, but there are also some regressions.
Im fully aware that there are different layouts, in fact I wrote this post seconds after watching your video about the FC-12 to it's end. I saw how you change the layouts with the one button that cycles through them all, but I am personally not a fan because you can only move in one direction and if you accidentally click the button again, you have to cycle through all the layouts again to get to the one you want. The changes that I am describing are functionally a bit better than what you described as they give the user a bit more control and room for error by being able to move incrementally by individual lines of button functions, and also having hard edges where one you hit the bottom or top line, an accidental, additional press of the button wont move the layout when you dont want it to. You did mention tap and hold functions which I think are good and effective in many situation, but also, many people like for a single button to do a single thing for the sake of simplicity.
This is all a programming change that I'm sure wouldnt be very difficult to make, which would effectively double your layouts. For instance, with the looper, you set the 2 extra buttons for a clean sound and lead sound, you had no room to click on or off additional effects which is pretty important to advanced looper users to be able to do. Fast changes on the fly are incredibly important, especially in a live setting.
Really, this is the core of my gripe with the FC. There are A LOT of people out there that like to have all their pedals and channel switching options right there in front of them, which is also ESSENTIAL with people that like to experiment a lot, and the FC just isnt as conducive to that as it could be.
There is the idea of chaining multiple units together, which I DO like if money was no object, but for most it is. I also dont want to have to deal with a power supply for each additional controller. I will say though, it would be optimal to have an FC-6 strictly for channel/scene switching and an FC-12 for everything else, for me personally.
I also dont understand the mentality of everyone here trying to immediately refute the idea whether than asking the question "could this improve the FC or not?" I did ask for feedback and opinions, but no one here considered how it would be different from current functionality.
Make no mistake, I DO want to buy an FC-12, but I cant bring myself to do it given limitations of a single layout which is strictly due to the number of individual switches. I will flat out admit that the the Axe FX line of processors is the single greatest innovation to the electric guitar since the electric guitar itself as it is a culmination of EVERY part of the signal chain proceeding the guitar. I dont know the scope of Fractal's vision, but it is on the path and should be it's goal to be the Wikipedia of guitar sound. PERIOD. The ultimate Axe FX would have EVERY amp and EVERY cabinet and EVERY effects pedal, although I will also admit that it can currently do most of that now.
