Critique My Footswitch Layouts

S

Seven2Eleven

Inspired
Hey everyone,

I play in a wedding band where we play lots of songs in medleys where there's no downtime between any song.
I'm coming from a hybrid rig where I had lots of analog pedals working with an HX stomp that provided my DI amp tones. The whole thing was controlled with a Boss ES-8 switcher. I pretty much always stayed on one clean amp preset with the HX stomp and just used real drive pedals for different levels of gain. It was a relatively complicated rig but it worked really well for me. I had seamless transitions between different patches with the ES-8 but the ES-8 also has a "manual mode" where you can turn on and off each loop like a traditional pedal board. That's very important to me as I like to mix things up night to night and I want the freedom to improvise quickly.

So my hope with my new FM9 is to replicate the workflow I had with the ES-8 as much as possible. I've been messing around with the FC editor and I just wanted to get some feedback and maybe learn if there are better ways to do what I want.

So I want to try to stay in one preset on the FM9 and get as much as I can out of it. I made a main preset based around a clean amp and programed 8 scenes that were almost exactly clones of my 8 main patches on the ES-8.

For the foot switches, the first change I made was to the scenes layout. I reprogrammed foot switch 9 to go directly to the effects layout instead of back to the presets. This again mirrors the "memory/manual" switch on the ES-8 where I have instant access to all my loops.

I then reprogrammed the effects layout to have switches 1-7 be instant access switches for my most commonly used effects. Switch 9 goes back to the scenes layout and switch 8 goes to the more FX layout where I just have a second page of effects.

For the effects layouts, I also gave each effect a hold function to scroll through channels. However, holding to change effects can be little cumbersome, especially if I want to go from A to D. So I also programmed the hold function for the "more fx" switch to do the "reveal hold" utility function in "sticky" mode. So I can hold down that switch then all the FX switches become channel toggle switches and then I can scroll though channels just by tapping instead of holding. It's almost like an alternative channels layout.

Let me know what you think and if there's anyway to make these layouts better!
 
It sounds like you've got a good handle on it.

The great thing is that you can totally customize the layouts to suit your workflow and they're pretty flexible, too.
 
I didn't realize that there was a "reveal hold" function, and I forgot that "sticky" mode was a thing. Those two open up a lot of ideas...
 
AlexGuitar said:
I didn't realize that there was a "reveal hold" function, and I forgot that "sticky" mode was a thing. Those two open up a lot of ideas...
Click to expand...
Yeah it’s definitely a useful feature. However, I feel like having it on a hold function kind of defeats the purpose of it. I think a tap would be better but I don’t have the switch real estate atm
 
Seven2Eleven said:
Yeah it’s definitely a useful feature. However, I feel like having it on a hold function kind of defeats the purpose of it. I think a tap would be better but I don’t have the switch real estate atm
Click to expand...
Fwiw, I'm fine with reveal being a hold function. Most of my layouts are quite similar, with a little variation in what effects hold accesses. When I want to know, I use the reveal hold, easy
 
Seven2Eleven said:
So I also programmed the hold function for the "more fx" switch to do the "reveal hold" utility function in "sticky" mode. So I can hold down that switch then all the FX switches become channel toggle switches and then I can scroll though channels just by tapping instead of holding. It's almost like an alternative channels layout.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure I understand about sticky mode of reveal hold, how that makes all the FX switches channel toggles. Sounds potentially useful, so enlighten me please!
 
Dave Merrill said:
I'm not sure I understand about sticky mode of reveal hold, how that makes all the FX switches channel toggles. Sounds potentially useful, so enlighten me please!
Click to expand...
It makes all the Hold functions become Tap functions while it's active (sticky).

That facilitates simpler channel switching and switch label visibility.
 
Dave Merrill said:
I'm not sure I understand about sticky mode of reveal hold, how that makes all the FX switches channel toggles. Sounds potentially useful, so enlighten me please!
Click to expand...
So let’s say I’m in FX layout and tapping switch one bypasses drive 1. Holding it increments channels. Getting from channel A to D can be a little cumbersome having to press and hold the switch 3 times.

So now on switch 7, I have the “reveal hold” function. When that’s engaged, the hold function for the drive block now becomes a tap instead. “Non-sticky” mode means that as soon as I tap the drive block to change channels, it will end the reveal hold mode and go back to the normal fx layout mode. Sticky modes means that once I tap the drive channel, it will go to channel B but still stay in reveal hold mode. I can keep tapping indefinitely to scroll through all the channels. To get out of this mode, I tap the reveal hold button again.
 
unix-guy said:
It makes all the Hold functions become Tap functions while it's active (sticky).

That facilitates simpler channel switching and switch label visibility.
Click to expand...
Didn't know about this.
I'll be right back.

Wait.
So it effectively flips the tap and hold functions, until you press the switch that's configured as reveal hold?
Is that right?
 
Dave Merrill said:
Didn't know about this.
I'll be right back.

Wait.
So it effectively flips the tap and hold functions, until you press the switch that's configured as reveal hold?
Is that right?
Click to expand...
It only makes the hold functions become taps. It doesn’t simultaneously make the tap function become a hold. But yes, while that reveal hold function is action, you can tap all your hold functions instead of holding. You get out of that mode by hitting the reveal hold switch again
 
Seven2Eleven said:
It only makes the hold functions become taps. It doesn’t simultaneously make the tap function become a hold. But yes, while that reveal hold function is action, you can tap all your hold functions instead of holding. You get out of that mode by hitting the reveal hold switch again
Click to expand...
Thanks, this actually is news to me.
Kind of too bad it doesn't flip the taps to holds too, but still very cool.
 
Moke said:
Don't for get about 'Stand-in' switches. They are very useful for things that don't need the LED indicator. Like Tuner, Hold sticky, toggling Layouts, toggling 'Views', etc.. It can free up a few switches for other duties.
Click to expand...
New FM9T owner here... I have a Strymon mini switch and started looking into external switches and how to set them up.

Are there somethings you can only set up on the unit and other things you can only do on FM9 Edit?

I couldn't find where to set up the external switch on the editor so had to (painfully ;) ) do the initial assignment on the unit, then was happy to be able to do the rest on FM9 Edit.

Initially thinking of transferring the Tap Tempo/Tuner to free up a switch on the unit.
 
Sergius9 said:
New FM9T owner here... I have a Strymon mini switch and started looking into external switches and how to set them up.

Are there somethings you can only set up on the unit and other things you can only do on FM9 Edit?

I couldn't find where to set up the external switch on the editor so had to (painfully ;) ) do the initial assignment on the unit, then was happy to be able to do the rest on FM9 Edit.

Initially thinking of transferring the Tap Tempo/Tuner to free up a switch on the unit.
Click to expand...
There are some things that you can only access on the unit. A few Global settings, Midi CC assignments and other Midi settings, Pedal calibration, Utilities menu, etc..

The FC 'Stand-in' settings are accessible from the editor.
 
Last edited:
Seven2Eleven said:
Hey everyone,

I play in a wedding band where we play lots of songs in medleys where there's no downtime between any song.
I'm coming from a hybrid rig where I had lots of analog pedals working with an HX stomp that provided my DI amp tones. The whole thing was controlled with a Boss ES-8 switcher. I pretty much always stayed on one clean amp preset with the HX stomp and just used real drive pedals for different levels of gain. It was a relatively complicated rig but it worked really well for me. I had seamless transitions between different patches with the ES-8 but the ES-8 also has a "manual mode" where you can turn on and off each loop like a traditional pedal board. That's very important to me as I like to mix things up night to night and I want the freedom to improvise quickly.

So my hope with my new FM9 is to replicate the workflow I had with the ES-8 as much as possible. I've been messing around with the FC editor and I just wanted to get some feedback and maybe learn if there are better ways to do what I want.

So I want to try to stay in one preset on the FM9 and get as much as I can out of it. I made a main preset based around a clean amp and programed 8 scenes that were almost exactly clones of my 8 main patches on the ES-8.

For the foot switches, the first change I made was to the scenes layout. I reprogrammed foot switch 9 to go directly to the effects layout instead of back to the presets. This again mirrors the "memory/manual" switch on the ES-8 where I have instant access to all my loops.

I then reprogrammed the effects layout to have switches 1-7 be instant access switches for my most commonly used effects. Switch 9 goes back to the scenes layout and switch 8 goes to the more FX layout where I just have a second page of effects.

For the effects layouts, I also gave each effect a hold function to scroll through channels. However, holding to change effects can be little cumbersome, especially if I want to go from A to D. So I also programmed the hold function for the "more fx" switch to do the "reveal hold" utility function in "sticky" mode. So I can hold down that switch then all the FX switches become channel toggle switches and then I can scroll though channels just by tapping instead of holding. It's almost like an alternative channels layout.

Let me know what you think and if there's anyway to make these layouts better!
Click to expand...
This is my recently-simplified set-up:
20230815_210943.jpg


The FC6 allows me to have the FX/CS stuff always available while having the FM9 switch layout switching between Presets and Scenes, and gives me room for MOAR SWITCHEZZZZ! I also have an Expression IO hiding underneath the board for fun MIDI stuff....
 
Joe Bfstplk said:
This is my recently-simplified set-up:
20230815_210943.jpg


The FC6 allows me to have the FX/CS stuff always available while having the FM9 switch layout switching between Presets and Scenes, and gives me room for MOAR SWITCHEZZZZ! I also have an Expression IO hiding underneath the board for fun MIDI stuff....
Click to expand...
This would be my ideal set-up: having the Fm9 always show scenes and then the FC-6 always show the effects layout. Maybe even an FC-12. That'd be like a Bradshaw system where you have foot switches for dedicated presets (scenes in this case) and instant access switches for the individual effects that you can toggle on and off for improvising. However, I'm trying to downsize at the moment so I want to carry as little gear as possible
 
Instead of the effects layout I use per-preset footswitches on my per-preset layouts (2 layouts, one for PP 1-6 and the other for PP 7-12. This way I can customize the footswitches on a per-preset basis i.e. I don't need to dedicate a global layout footswitch to phaser 1 if I only have phaser 1 on one preset.

The top 3 buttons for me are scenes, PP 1-6, and presets. I set those 3 up like that in all of the layouts. When I'm in the PP 1-6 layout that footswitch changes to select the layout that has PP 7-12 and vice versa. Hold function for the presets button in all layouts is tuner.
 
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