Controlling Axe Fx III tuner downtune by footswitch?

Rick

Axe-Master
Hey guys, I have a question for you about controlling the tuner. I am playing in a band where I keep one guitar in standard tuning and one down a step to Eb. I am aware you can go to the tuner config page and drop (Downtune) the tuner a semitone. Is there a way to do this via an IA switch? I guess I am asking if there is a way to make the tuner behave like a block with channels... Channel A for standard, Channel B for Eb, etc. I know that exact capability isn't there, but wondered if there was a way to mimic that sort of behavior.

Thanks in advance!
 
Hey Rick. One minor nitpick: each fret is a half-step or a semitone. Eb is just down one flat, or one half-step, or one semitone. D would be 2 frets, 2 flats, one step or one tone. I know, the terminology just makes some things more confusing.

Second, I don't think what you're asking for is currently possible to do. And it might be easier to just remember that you Eb guitar is tuned to Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb, which might show up as D#, G#, C#, F#, A#, D#.
 
Interesting question. I'll play with it this morning to see.. but off the top of my head I don't think you can do that. I don't know the answer for sure so guessing a bit here.

FWIW: I also used to have two identical guitars at each gig, one in standard and one in Eb for songs that were either originally recorded a half down, or songs that we needed to drop for vocal reasons. Aside from obvious reasons of not liking that (extra gear and weight, having to take time between songs to switch... blah blah) the thing I disliked the most was how it forced me to arrange our sets to group Eb songs together. This was mostly for the benefit of the bass player, so that he didn't have to keep retuning... but for me as well as I didn't have to change guitars back and forth. I would always put all of the Eb songs together at the beginning of a set. The problem was some of the best songs of the night were tuned down, and I wanted to place them in different spots on the list for crowd energy effect.

Now I use the improved virtual capo to solve this. I program the VC into the preset for the songs that require it, and it's automatic for me now. I have an IA switch on my FC as well, in case I want to defeat it, but overall it's great as it's one less thing to worry about in a show. Our bass player got a digitech drop pedal to solve his issue, and now we can place any song anywhere we want on the list without regard to it's tuning. I could never do this with the XL, and so this all by itself makes me LOVE my AXE FX III.
 
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I don't think there's any way to control that on the fly as is. Might be some kind of way to do it via sysex using something like FracPad. I can't remember if Axe Edit can get to those tuner settings or not. Not at my Axe right now.

I've always used chromatic tuners rather than string based ones in the past, so I'm just used to tuning to the new note names, Eb/D#, etc.
 
Thanks for the input guys! I know there are easier ways, and I will likely just watch for the note itself, but hoped there might be a way to engage that as a function. I didn't see any kind of indicator that you could attach a controller to it, but I'm hopeful someone might have an idea or Cliff might incorporate it in a future tuner.

Hey Rick. One minor nitpick: each fret is a half-step or a semitone. Eb is just down one flat, or one half-step, or one semitone. D would be 2 frets, 2 flats, one step or one tone. I know, the terminology just makes some things more confusing.

Second, I don't think what you're asking for is currently possible to do. And it might be easier to just remember that you Eb guitar is tuned to Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb, which might show up as D#, G#, C#, F#, A#, D#.

I stand corrected. :) That's what I was referring to, though, in looking for a means to downtune the tuner one semitone to Eb. It's really not a world-ender, just something I was used to on my Boss tuner that I thought would be a convenience in performance.

Interesting question. I'll play with it this morning to see.. but off the top of my head I don't think you can do that. I don't know the answer for sure so guessing a bit here.

FWIW: I also used to have two identical guitars at each gig, one in standard and one in Eb for songs that were either originally recorded a half down, or songs that we needed to drop for vocal reasons. Aside from obvious reasons of not liking that (extra gear and weight, having to take time between songs to switch... blah blah) the thing I disliked the most was how it forced me to arrange our sets to group Eb songs together. This was mostly for the benefit of the bass player, so that he didn't have to keep retuning... but for me as well as I didn't have to change guitars back and forth. I would always put all of the Eb songs together at the beginning of a set. The problem was some of the best songs of the night were tuned down, and I wanted to place them in different spots on the list for crowd energy effect.

Now I use the improved virtual capo to solve this. I program the VC into the preset for the songs that require it, and it's automatic for me now. I have an IA switch on my FC as well, in case I want to defeat it, but overall it's great as it's one less thing to worry about in a show. Our bass player got a digitech drop pedal to solve his issue, and now we can place any song anywhere we want on the list without regard to it's tuning. I could never do this with the XL, and so this all by itself makes me LOVE my AXE FX III.

Fortunately, the thing I am doing in these Covidified times is a more laid back trio with two guitarist/vocalists and one vocalist only. I keep both guitars with their own wireless transmitters, so it's just turn one off, put it in the stand, pick one up, turn it on, and we're off. The wireless (a Shure GLXD4) picks up whichever is on. Some songs I just re-learned a half-step higher to keep on the guitar I already have. It's a bit of a balancing act.

I did add a pitch block and tried detuning with the virtual capo. It works, sort of... for clean sounds, the latency is a real feel-killer. It doesn't seem as apparent with heavier distortion, but I am not using a lot of that with this band. If I had to run on one guitar, it could get me through. It's a great function, and a cool accomplishment for the Axe FX, but even though I am not one of those latency freaks it is apparent to me while playing and doesn't feel right.

I don't think there's any way to control that on the fly as is. Might be some kind of way to do it via sysex using something like FracPad. I can't remember if Axe Edit can get to those tuner settings or not. Not at my Axe right now.

I've always used chromatic tuners rather than string based ones in the past, so I'm just used to tuning to the new note names, Eb/D#, etc.
Agreed, that is the best way forward now. It's not something that Cliff is going to hold off on doing another improvement to address, but it would be a cool addition to the best tuner out there.
 
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