Do you prefer stomb box or patch switching approach live?

Per Boysen

Inspired
When you play live with the AxeFx, do you prefer the stomp box approach (staying within one, or a few, preset while using pedals to bypass block) or do you prefer to use the pedals to rather switch between your presets? Or maybe you have a reason for combining both methods in a certain way?

Over here I use a Gordius Little Giant MIDI pedalboard to control my AxeFx. This has banks of ten step-on switches and jacks for four analog expression pedals that gets converted to MIDI that is sent into the AxeFx (and other gear). I like to use the Axe's own analog pedal input for an expression pedal handling delicate functions like "volume pedal" or "freeze reverb" and I want that as a "stomp box" feature to have that pedal instantly playable.

BTW. This analog pedal input control feels more accurate than going over MIDI, but theres only one pedal jack on the Axe box. I guess it must be that the effect processing resolution inside the Axe is higher than MIDI's 128 steps? :)
 
I do most gigs with a single preset and switch a few effects on and off, I have a delay which is controlled by an expression pedal.
If there are special sounds or called for more radical changes in sound I just use more presets so I'm covered if it's all fender sounds, but
one or two songs has a loud marshall riff that just works better with another amp and not just an overdrive, but I am not in situations like
that very often.

The gordius is a great controller you can probably do everything you need with it.

Jens
 
Both.
I switch presets on my foot controller for sections of the song, but they usually only point to one preset on the Axe-fx (kind of like scenes do now). I still have all my pedals ready at the go if I want to turn them off/on.
 
As a member of several 100% improvised bands, I like to have all my effects at my feet - which is why I'm waiting on an LF+ Pro+. But even with that, I feared I wouldn't hav enough ultimate diversity. Then X/Y came along with the II, then Scenes. I must admit, I am waiting to put together my 'ultimate patch' using those features - I want to do it in Axe-Edit, not on the front panel. Even then, I may still combine the two approaches - have maybe 2-3 comprehensive patches to deal with special situations. (for example, where delay types are different, spillover may prove to still be a 'problem' in scenes).
 
Both. I'm currently using four basic patches, and another half dozen which are song-specific. Within each patch I use switches to modify the sound. I try not to change patch mid song because of the changeover time, short though it is.
 
Between songs I'll change presets plenty, when I need to of course. But I also have presets that are set up with the main block types available to modify the sound and make the preset more versatile. Within a song, it just depends what's needed. If it's just turning on/off one box at a time in different sections, I'll do that with IAs. If I have a lot of different changes to make at once (or want totally different blocks for different sections of the song), I'll do presets. I haven't had time to play with v9 or scenes yet, but I imagine that will find a nice spot in between the two scenarios.

While the Axe is far, far better at switching presets fast and smoothly than anything I've used before, I still think it's smoother to stay within a preset for a song if that meets the needs of the song. Of course, some of that's also about designing your presets to blend together well so the transition isn't jarring (and setting them up to do reverb and delay spillover well).
 
when laying with my covers band, i use about 12 basic patches and then use ia switches to turn fx on and off within them. i usually have it set up like this -

pedal 1 = volume
pedal 2 = wah / rotary rate
switch 1 = extra delay
switch 2 = chorus
switch 3 = more gain
switch 4 = lead
switch 5 = phaser

the switch for lead will adjust gain, level, delay level and reverb level
the switch for more gain may turn on a filter before the amp and adjust input trim or turn on a drive block. depends on the amp

so with these few patches, i can cover a huge amount of territory...everything from acoustic, rock, funk, metal and everything in between

when i'm doing my own ambient stuff, it's one patch per sound, with maybe one or two switches to add variation

because i've always used this "stompbox" approach, i've stuck with it. i find it quite flexible and it means any switch can be assigned to anything. i'm not tied down to having one function (like a specific block's X/Y state) tied to one switch and any switch can also be assigned to multiple parameters. i haven't got into scenes either. i imagine they would be very useful if you used one patch per song and you wanted to step through several sounds for the verse, bridge, chorus etc. but again, that's a bit too limiting for me, as i use the same patch for many songs.
 
Back when I owned the (terrific) Gordius, I used to create patches/presets for everything.
Great for gigging but a lot of work preparing them and organizing them for songs.

The MFC also allows for MFC-specific presets, but that means giving up on Axe-Fx Mode.

I'm mainly using 5 presets in Bank 0 now, in Axe-Fx Mode, pushing IAs when needed. With multiple amp tpnes per preset.
Other banks contain various presets for specific purposes.
Where possible I've integrated multiple 'similar' presets into a single preset, using scenes to obtain the desired functionality.

Currently for me this is the best of both worlds: ease of the availability of preprogrammed presets/scenes, plus the flexibility of IAs.

But I'd kill for a MFC Expander.
 
I have the MCF setup with 4 PC change switches, all the other IA's are set to control effects. When I play in a cover band, I use one preset per song, then use increment scene to switch effects (MFC switch 5). Using the MFC I put all the songs into the set list in reverse order. So when playing I only have to hit the two bottom right switches, one to change to the next scene the other to change to the next song. I guess I'm lazy and hate doing the pedal dance.... I do use a GR-55 synth as well thru the axe and the scene swithing works well for that as too as long I don't need to change the synth preset since stepping thru the scenes doesn't output program change code. In that case I hit one of the 4 PC change swithes.
 
10 Patch Mode for me.
I use a Behringer FCB1010 and use it in 10 Patch Mode.
The FCB1010 allows sending a Toggle if you turn Ignore Redundant PC On.
So I can hit the Button a Second time on each patch to Stomp Box 1 thing.
I usually use this for a Drive Toggle, Amp X/Y Toggle, or Engaging a Tremolo etc.
 
As I only play in covers bands I create presets for individual songs. This way I can create banks of a single preset and run through my set by simply banking up/down (instead of using Song Mode). All other switches are set to IAs and used to switch particular FX on/off. I also have to date found no use for Scenes. I use X/Y modes simply to double the number of available global amps.
 
i've experienced no difference in feel using the Axe Pedal jack or using a MIDI foot controller.

check the Damping parameter on the Modifier page to tweak the pedal response.
 
You can accomplish this with IAs or scenes too. ;)

I am still on 5.07. Actually tried the new 9.02 firmware just because of the scenes feature, but since I am using 3 amps and only two amps per scene is available (excluding the x y feature that has a gap in switching), it did not make sence for me to redo all the sounds and try to make the 9th firmware sound like my old presets. Presets do offer a small gap but it was actually smaller in 5.07 then the gap between x and y in Fw9. Probably because the latest firmware uses the potential of the processor more. I am using a liquid foot jr and the trick is to set the response on the midi controller to 1 (default setting is 90), that significantly reduced the gap between presets, its almost non existent now.

On top of that I like splitting my signal out 1 to foh out 2 to backline for stage monitoring. Scenes dont leave room for that. However scenes is a really great feature and I can see lots of guys using it to their advantage it just wasn't for me.

Oh ye and I defiantly use cc for delay, autowah, boost, and tap tempo. Actually on the clean Vox patches the same cc turns on the chorus and on the Plexi presets its a tube screamer.
 
when laying with my covers band, i use about 12 basic patches and then use ia switches to turn fx on and off within them. i usually have it set up like this -

pedal 1 = volume
pedal 2 = wah / rotary rate
switch 1 = extra delay
switch 2 = chorus
switch 3 = more gain
switch 4 = lead
switch 5 = phaser

the switch for lead will adjust gain, level, delay level and reverb level
the switch for more gain may turn on a filter before the amp and adjust input trim or turn on a drive block. depends on the amp

so with these few patches, i can cover a huge amount of territory...everything from acoustic, rock, funk, metal and everything in between

when i'm doing my own ambient stuff, it's one patch per sound, with maybe one or two switches to add variation

because i've always used this "stompbox" approach, i've stuck with it. i find it quite flexible and it means any switch can be assigned to anything. i'm not tied down to having one function (like a specific block's X/Y state) tied to one switch and any switch can also be assigned to multiple parameters.

Do you have the MCF-101? And are you using Axe fx Mode?
So your IA function change from one patch to the other?
I think this is not possible in Axe Fx Mode? I also think it is not possible to have multiple functions/changes under one IA switch in Axe fx Mode?
So far I have used only Axe fx mode on the MCF for convenience but maybe it is limiting too or maybe I am not ware of all the possibilities of it (?).
(I am not using Scenes either)
 
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