Easy guitar swapping during a gig

Fotukito said:
As a new AF3 owner, after some overly complicated false starts, below is what I’ve settled on for simplifying guitar swaps during a gig, posted to get critiques from veteran users and in case it is useful for others with similar objectives.

I play in a small cover band using backing tracks with synchronized MIDI for controlling preset/scene/fx selections (so no need for pedals beyond expression and volume), managed by the BandHelper app on iPads. With a wide range of styles to cover, I swap between a Strat and Les Paul depending on the song. In integrating the Axe, some objectives included:
  • One-button push on the iPad to indicate to the Axe via MIDI that I’m now playing the Strat vs Les Paul. Needs to persist across preset/scene changes; i.e. only needs to be pressed once per guitar change.
  • No need to change cabling when swapping guitars (both continuously plugged in).
  • No need to view or access the Axe panel.
  • Though presets/scenes used for a given song are optimized for whichever guitar I usually use for that song, if I need to use the other guitar the same presets still work ‘well enough’ even with the PUP signal strength differences.
  • Direct connection from the guitars to the Axe, eliminating intermediate switches, pedals, etc.
  • Can still use my tuner on the pedal board.
To meet these objectives each of my gigging presets starts with the blocks shown below:
View attachment 70748
  • The Strat stays connected to Input 1; the Les Paul to Input 2.
  • Input 1 Gain (newly added global in FW 12.12) set to +3.5 dB to roughly account for Strat vs Les Paul PUP signal strength.
  • The M-Plex selects (by row) between blocks In 1 and In 2 using a Modifier sourced by an External Controller linked to a MIDI CC. CC value 0 selects the Les Paul; 127 selects the Strat. Critically, instances of this M-Plex will persist the most recent source selection when changing presets. (PC Reset = Off)
  • The VolPan block is only needed for scenes that are built for single-coil / Strat input. It simply reduces gain by -3.5 dB. If the Strat is in use, this nets to 0 gain by counteracting the pre-boost added by Input 1 Gain. If the Les Paul is in use, it reduces the signal by -3.5 dB from the hotter pickups..
  • For scenes built for the Les Paul, VolPan is bypassed or omitted and the Input 1 Gain boost gives the Strat a fighting chance to use the preset.
  • The Output 3 block sends the raw guitar signal to physical Output 3 which is cabled to my tuner on my pedal board.
When I need to change guitars, I press a button labeled Strat or Les Paul on my iPad, and BandHelper sends the corresponding MIDI CC to the Axe which flips the M-Plex source selection. Once a song is playing, BandHelper sends preset/scene/fx bypass-engage messages to the Axe synchronized to the backing tracks.

So far, very happy with this direction, but always open to better ideas!
Click to expand...

Curious on the backing tracks and midi. Is the backing track a midi track or a wav file with a midi track in Logic? Is the sound coming out of the ipad to the FOH?
 
chrisjnyc said:
Curious on the backing tracks and midi. Is the backing track a midi track or a wav file with a midi track in Logic? Is the sound coming out of the ipad to the FOH?
Click to expand...
Maybe more than you wanted to know, but... the backing tracks are wav files (technically a high quality AAC file) that I produce in Logic. These are covers, so often I'll try to find some commercial MIDI version for a jump start, then voice and customize from there, or start from scratch if not available. The BandHelper app (fantastic for this purpose) runs on an iPad and on launching a song it generates the following synchronized output:

1. The backing track audio file
2. An accompanying MIDI file to control lights (which I also create in Logic)
3. What BandHelper calls 'Automation', which is their own facility for managing synchronized MIDI... that's what I use for guitar patches, fx, vox reverb changes, etc... a little easier to tweak there than in Logic.
4. Scrolling lyrics and cheat sheet stuff for my crappy memory ;-) (Its display is also simulcast wirelessly to the other performer's iPad)

The iPad connects via lightning to an iConnectivity Audio2+ which acts as a D/A for the backing track before it gets sent to FOH, as well as a MIDI interface to all the downstream effects, lights, etc.
It's a lot of work preparing each song, but when performing* it all works and we just play! I like having presets magically change while playing without messing with pedals. :)
* which I hope will happen again Some Day!
 
You dont play them both at the same time, just swap the strap over, or use 2 wireless packs on the same frequency.

For combatting sound/tonal differences I just run a graphic eq after the input block and have a different channel for each guitar. 1 button press on the fc to switch it.
 
Feflicker said:
For combatting sound/tonal differences I just run a graphic eq after the input block and have a different channel for each guitar. 1 button press on the fc to switch it.
Click to expand...
Nice approach, I'd forgotten about MIDI channel changes (I presume they persist across preset changes, like MIDI disables?). I just use straight cabling (no wireless; we're 'compact'), so I still prefer the hard switch and no cable changes.
 
Fotukito said:
I'd forgotten about MIDI channel changes (I presume they persist across preset changes, like MIDI disables?).
Click to expand...
Channel switching only affects the current scene, so that won't work if you use more than one scene or preset. Modifiers are the only way to make changes remotely and maintain state through scene/preset changes.
 
Fotukito said:
Maybe more than you wanted to know, but... the backing tracks are wav files (technically a high quality AAC file) that I produce in Logic. These are covers, so often I'll try to find some commercial MIDI version for a jump start, then voice and customize from there, or start from scratch if not available. The BandHelper app (fantastic for this purpose) runs on an iPad and on launching a song it generates the following synchronized output:

1. The backing track audio file
2. An accompanying MIDI file to control lights (which I also create in Logic)
3. What BandHelper calls 'Automation', which is their own facility for managing synchronized MIDI... that's what I use for guitar patches, fx, vox reverb changes, etc... a little easier to tweak there than in Logic.
4. Scrolling lyrics and cheat sheet stuff for my crappy memory ;-) (Its display is also simulcast wirelessly to the other performer's iPad)

The iPad connects via lightning to an iConnectivity Audio2+ which acts as a D/A for the backing track before it gets sent to FOH, as well as a MIDI interface to all the downstream effects, lights, etc.
It's a lot of work preparing each song, but when performing* it all works and we just play! I like having presets magically change while playing without messing with pedals. :)
* which I hope will happen again Some Day!
Click to expand...

Thanks! Going to check out the iConnectivity Audio2+... now you got me curious on the lights. What does Bandhelper do for the lights?
 
Bakerman said:
Channel switching only affects the current scene, so that won't work if you use more than one scene or preset. Modifiers are the only way to make changes remotely and maintain state through scene/preset changes.
Click to expand...
Ah, thanks, got it... I see both MIDI Channel Selection and MIDI Bypass/Engage work this way. So these don't work for my particular use case, though great for creating lots of variations for some kitchen sink scenes.

Moreover, I suppose with Modifiers it's technically the state of the controller that's persisting across presets, so it's just a happy fact that immediately after loading a preset the impacted parameters snap to whatever the controller last provided.
 
chrisjnyc said:
Thanks! Going to check out the iConnectivity Audio2+... now you got me curious on the lights. What does Bandhelper do for the lights?
Click to expand...
BandHelper actually does nothing in particular with lights other than diligently playing a MIDI file along side the audio backing track. In my system that MIDI file gets passed to another iPad (also connected by another Audio2+) where I have the app Luminair running. This app takes the MIDI (which I've mapped from PCs to a bunch of standard lighting scenes), converts it to lighting DBX messages that are sent on to lights. (Luminair hasn't failed me since initially set up a few years ago, though I don't think it's the same quality as BandHelper; kind of 'fiddly' as we say in polite company. But I had an objective of all iPads, no traditional computers for our automation.)
 
Following up as the OP, in case useful to others using BandHelper and heavy automation...

Context: my band (which is a duo) is somewhat unusual in that it uses backing tracks for every song, so all Axe functions are managed by pre-programmed MIDI, transmitted during play along with the backing track audio from the BandHelper ('BH') app running on an iPad. My pedal board only has two controllers: overall Axe volume (reusing a Boss FV-500L) and a Fractal EV-2 for wah, whammy, etc. Also, we are small-time... no FOH engineer when live, all DIY!

We had our first gig with the Axe FX III last week, and all went well using the scheme described in the OP of this thread. Some more comments:

The scheme in the OP for swapping guitars worked well. I also created 'songs' in BH that did nothing but (a) swap the guitar source and (b) change to a neutral clean preset to avoid noisy open string sounds when swapping guitars. I inserted these 'guitar change' songs within the setlist in BH, so swaps were really fast and smooth (and not forgotten!).

For all presets I added a PEQ at the end with -12dB @ 110Hz roll-off that really helped it fit in the live mix. (This is controlled by MIDI, so easy to turn off if preferred for non-live recording, etc.)

I attached a MIDI controller to the Level in the same PEQ blocks which I could use to change between -6dB to +6dB in 2dB steps. I used this to pre-program songs with relative volume changes where needed (in situations where preset/scene balancing wasn't enough), to minimize the need to use the volume pedal during a given song.

I also created dozens of other MIDI events in BandHelper corresponding to controller-associated changes to effects, all also pre-programmed within songs as needed.

One 'tuning' preset sends output to Out 3 (to the pedal board tuner) and not to FOH. It is always accessible by a button on the BH iPad screen, for silent tuning.

It all worked flawlessly... the only issues I had were as usual in my fingers. :p
 
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