FAMC LF+ with Axe-Fx II - Quick Start Guide and Template:

First off, many thanks to AZG for this template. Now that I'm familiar with it I can customize it more to my liking. One thing though that's driving me crazy. My 1st LCD Line will show the current page, but my 2nd LCD Line constantly says "Stop-----------"on all the pages. I know from using the looper page that this correlates to the record play stop etc. functions. But how do I get this to not show on the other pages. It's quite distracting and my old setup would show the last button press in the 2nd line. It may be because I'm using a LF Mini but it's driving me bonkers.

Any ideas? I'm sure it's operator error, as I have only had the mini for about two months but have had limited time to use it because of my schedule. I've tried the menu page on the controller itself and the editor, and I'm still dumbfounded.
 
One thing though that's driving me crazy. My 1st LCD Line will show the current page, but my 2nd LCD Line constantly says "Stop-----------"on all the pages. I know from using the looper page that this correlates to the record play stop etc. functions. But how do I get this to not show on the other pages. It's quite distracting and my old setup would show the last button press in the 2nd line. It may be because I'm using a LF Mini but it's driving me bonkers.

That drove me crazy too. From what I remember, the only way I could get rid of it was to remove any looper IA-Slots alltogether, (at least in FW 3.30) which means no looping unless you can live with that on your screen.

The LF+ FW release notes state that the AxeFx looper mode is in Beta, and they obviously mean it!! :lol
 
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Make Set Lists, and put the pedal into Set-List mode. This is where I live.

I just did Spring Cleaning of my system, but at one time, I had 270 Liquid Foot presets, and 120 songs, and about 10 set lists. Now, I put my Program Change commands into the Song programming lines, and then my presets are for changing Axe FX scenes and turning other gear's effects off and on, which is why I might have up to 8 Liquid Foot presets, in one song (8 Axe FX scenes). Often times, the only difference between some of the presets is a volume boost or cut, via the Axe FX Scene Output volume setting.

But at any rate, tying into what Henry said - YOUR songs, don't literally have to be songs. You can name Song 1, "CONFIG A" and put a bunch of random presets into that song, and have song 2 be "CONFIG B", you can make 254 songs like that. I suggested it before, but you could create songs called ROCK (and group your rock specific presets on that song), COUNTRY, JAZZ, HIPHOP, KATIE PERRY, and then create a setlist, where you designate the order of those "songs" and you can repeat them if you need to. So your setlist could be Rock, Country, Rock, Country, Katie Perry, Rock, Hip Hop. And then you'd just need to song up, through the set. If there are 2 back to back songs using the same song template - you don't song up for those.

Make a page with either a song up/song down button, or better yet, a context up/context down button on it somewhere. Put the pedal into SETLIST mode.

Now you can group any combinations of presets in a song, and you can song up/down to get to more weird combinations, if you want to.

The MAJOR problem with set list and song mode is that you cannot bank groups of presets at once. You have to either put all the presets you want to use individually on page or use the preset up / down and scroll through them ONE BY ONE. What I want to do is put 3 presets on a page then bank to the next three, as in preset mode, only the preset banking would be in the song's preset order.
 
All songs are set to Arm Song Only. The problem is I don't always want preset one, No buttons on pages have process scrolls enabled. Should they?

My songs are set to Arm song only. The preset buttons on my pages have Process Scrolls and I never put a 2nd function on a preset button, because the lf hesitates to determine whether you might be a slow double tapper. I want my presets to trigger immediately. Not that it matters, because I don't have anything programmed for function 2, but my preset buttons are set to "trigger only." My song up/down button is set to Toggle only. You could use context up/down so that you page works in multiple modes of operation.

Honestly, I always program my songs so that preset 1 is the firdt sound I want. My program change commands reside in my song programming. With my songs and buttons set this way, I can create a set list and scroll between songs without anything in my rack changing, until I commit to a song by stepping on preset 1 of that song.
Ive never tried to step on any other preset to make a song trigger.

However, it has happened to me on at least 6 occasions that right after a firmware upgrade, preset button 1 on my pages would lose their PROCESS scrolls setting. Even if I changed it and had it working, the next day it would not be set that way. Tye only way then, for me to make my program commands change, was to step on preset 2, just to load the song, then once I was in there, I could step on preset 1 to begin the tune.

I think that is one of the reasons the process scrolls button is huge and right beside the button's feature on page programming. You can't miss it now.



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What I want to do is put 3 presets on a page then bank to the next three, as in preset mode, only the preset banking would be in the song's preset order.

Ahhhh. I get it. A song can contain 24 preset holders. So, if you create 100 presets, and 1 song, you can group 24 of your presets into that song. But you only have an 8 button device, and because you need song up/down, tuner, possibly tap tempo, you only have a few buttons for presets.

You need a web of pages so you can get to your presets.

You need to hide preset 24 on button 9 of your pages so the Lf understands you are going to fill up songs with 24 presets and it treats that at 1 bank. You are page flipping because you are using an 8 button device to access 24 presets.

You could create 5 pages. The first page has more menu/system buttons like tuner and tap, song up/down and now, a page jump button, or you could enter a page jump command into the last preset on page 1 to make it jump to page two after you step on that preset (but I don't recommend that because if you put 4 presets on the first page and the 4th preset has a jump command in it, while you're jamming out on the patch you created on preset 4, when you look down at your pedal board you won't see preset 4 is selected, because you're not looking at preset 4 anymore.

If you truly want to get to 24 song presets, put presets and page jump commands on the other pages. I recommend a jump to the next/previous on one button, and a jump all the way back to my main page on it's own button, so you can tune or tap tempo, or song up quickly, even if you are on page 9 of a web of 20 pages!

Make sure sure sure you hide the highest preset you'd want access to in a song on any of the page buttons out of your reach with a Jr. (Buttons 9-60) or if you are reading this and own a 12 (buttons 13-60). This establishes bank size.

Now for each page in your web of pages, keep using the next higher B#01, B#02 number so you have a sequential group of pages and access to every preset in your song bank (established by you, to be 24 presets). So page one's preset buttons are B#01 - B#04, page 2 is B#05 - B#08.

Remember you are going to set up a group of pages. Let's pretend you use page 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Page one needs a "jump to page 16" button, page 16 needs a jump back to 15 and jump forward to 17 button. Etc until all pages move through the train of related pages.

Now you have the biggest 8 button device ever....it's got 40 buttons (5 pages of buttons).

I'm here all week. Be sure to tip your waitress.

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There is a new feature that actually allows you to shift to the next set of page buttons. Im at work so I can't offer detailed instructions, but instead of burning through pages and basically only using 8 of the 60 page buttons, you can keep all 24 song preset buttons on the first page, and repeat the page shift button so your pedal board starts out being buttons 1-8 when the song loads, but then you shift it to become buttons 9-16 of that page, then 17-24, in each group of 8, make that 8th button another shift button, so you can shift up or down within that one page.

Read the release notes. It basically keeps you from wasting pages without being able to fully utilize that capacity.

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Did you try a factory reset on the Axe just to verify? From what I understand the LF+ series is supposed to be exactly the same except for number of buttons. So everything should work the same across all of them, but with only 8 buttons in use.

I don't even know how to do a factory reset yet! Lol.
The first 8 buttons are working for the functions from your template, except for the tuner and preset names issue. The last 4 buttons are dark, as I would expect.

I'm getting tired of trying to make this LF+ 12+ work. I've read that some people are saying after over a year they're getting things programmed the way they want it. A YEAR!?! Yikes! I should've just bought the MFC...and screw the displays. Can I return the LF after a week?

It really shouldn't be this difficult, and for a 3rd party device it really should come with better instruction to get it working with the Axe, or the Kemper, without frustrating the shit out of everybody who tries. It's just a bad business practice.

The Wizard they added is useless too. It does nothing...


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I don't even know how to do a factory reset yet! Lol.
The first 8 buttons are working for the functions from your template, except for the tuner and preset names issue. The last 4 buttons are dark, as I would expect.

I'm getting tired of trying to make this LF+ 12+ work. I've read that some people are saying after over a year they're getting things programmed the way they want it. A YEAR!?! Yikes! I should've just bought the MFC...and screw the displays. Can I return the LF after a week?

It really shouldn't be this difficult, and for a 3rd party device it really should come with better instruction to get it working with the Axe, or the Kemper, without frustrating the shit out of everybody who tries. It's just a bad business practice.

The Wizard they added is useless too. It does nothing...


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Resetting the Axe is easy. See this page for details. http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Resetting

I believe if you do this and reload the template to the LF+ everything should work as described. However I have not tested the template with LF+ FW3.30 or the AxeXL which might break something in the template?


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Is sending midi and tuner data still the default setting in Axe FW14?


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I'm getting tired of trying to make this LF+ 12+ work. I've read that some people are saying after over a year they're getting things programmed the way they want it. A YEAR!?! Yikes! I should've just bought the MFC...and screw the displays. Can I return the LF after a week?

It really shouldn't be this difficult, and for a 3rd party device it really should come with better instruction to get it working with the Axe, or the Kemper, without frustrating the shit out of everybody who tries. It's just a bad business practice.

The Wizard they added is useless too. It does nothing...

It's really not that difficult. I've had mine for only a week and I've already done some advanced programming once I got the initial concepts down, and pretty much have it the way I want it set up with given the limitations of the JR+ as well as the Axe FX (i.e. vs how I would IDEALLY set-up).

People in THIS forum are pretty helpful. In fact, scroll back a couple of pages and look at the concept discussion and watch the videos that exist if you haven't already.
 
I am still having some issues with the auto-load of the presets from Axe-FX. I set up the automatic sync with the Axe FX on Global page #2 and had it save the preset names ad IA states, so as I banked through the presets one by one everything WAS successfully copied over perfectly to the LF JR+ from the Axe FX. That is until I got to preset #130 and then it stopped working for some reason. I looked in the presets beyond 130 and there is no program change command embedded in the preset command section even after I call up the preset on the LF - i.e. the presets below 130 were auto-programmed as I sequenced through them but not after that. I don't know why the above is happening - maybe a firmware bug. I'm on a Mac and using firmware and editor 3.0.

That said, I next tried to update via the "Auto Program Wizard" and turned off all IA and global updated to see if I could get the LF to stick in the program change command into all the presets above 130. However, every time I tried the software would crash. I'm not sure if this i a bug or if I can;t do this if I also am auto-syncing with the Axe FX. Probably a editor bug I would think.

So what I am now doing is going to every preset and manually entering the Program Change command. After I do that, the presets actually will sync up to the Axe FX peffectly, including reading all the IA states. It's a BIG hassle, but I only have to do it once.

Is anyone else having similar problems with the auto-Axe FX sync with presets passed 130 and / or getting crashes on the "Auto-Program Wizard" when the Axe FX auto sync is on?
 
BTW - Just got the Mission Engineering SP1-LF (which is WAY BIGGER and HEAVIER than it should be). So tonights project is trying to set it up to have the switch on SP1 toggle between controlling volume and wah as the 1st function, and do a volume boost with the second function long press. All with one pedal!! I already got it mapped out on paper so we'll see if it actually works on the device. :) That would also free up two functions of the 16 available on my JR+ (i.e. 8 buttons with two functions apiece).
 
And as a FINAL thought on my excessive obsessive posting on this thread :), here is what my final LF JR+ (8 buttons) page looks like. I am trying to control everything I want from ONE single page and the mission pedal (with another switch).

Note that I use scenes sparingly only when I need to turn on / off MULTIPLE effects at the same time but use the same blocks set-up. I use the LF to turn on individual effects if I need a one-off. Otherwise I just make it another preset. I don't have any presets with more than two scenes. Furthermore, I can care less about tap tempo, or the looper - I'm in BAND with another guitarist. :)


BUTTON 1:
- Function 1: Bank Down
- Function 2: Tuner (Trigger Only)

BUTTON 5:
- Function 1: Bank Up
- Function 2: Set-List Page (Trigger only - the ONLY other page I have set up just in CASE I want to go to a song order of the presets)

BUTTON 2:
- Function 1: Preset B#01; STEPS though Scene 1, 2 & 3 (Process Scroll Events ON)
- Function 2: Preset B#04: STEPS though Scene 1, 2 & 3 (Process Scroll Events ON) (Toggle & Trigger)

BUTTON 3:
- Function 1: Preset B#02; STEPS though Scene 1, 2 & 3 (Process Scroll Events ON)
- Function 2: Preset B#05: STEPS though Scene 1, 2 & 3 (Process Scroll Events ON) (Toggle & Trigger)

BUTTON 4:
- Function 1: Preset B#03; STEPS though Scene 1, 2 & 3 (Process Scroll Events ON)
- Function 2: Preset B#06: STEPS though Scene 1, 2 & 3 (Process Scroll Events ON) (Toggle & Trigger)

BUTTON 6:
- Function 1: IA Slot for DRIVE 1
- Function 2: IA Slot for CHORUS 1 (Toggle Only - although debated whether to make this Trigger only or Toggle & Trigger)

BUTTON 7:
- Function 1: IA Slot for FLANGER 1
- Function 2: IA Slot for PHASER 1 (Toggle Only)

BUTTON 8:
- Function 1: IA Slot for DELAY 1
- Function 2: IA Slot for REVERB 1 (Toggle Only)

BUTTON 9 - Mission Eng Expression Pedal:
- Function 1: IA Slot - ON Turns on WAH and turns off volume control; OFF turns on Volume and off the WAH
- Function 2: IA Slot for VOLUME BOOST on / off (Trigger Only) *Haven't tested this yet to see if Switch can do long press*


That's IT. That gives me acces to 6 presets at one time, banking to other presets in groups of 6, and 6 of my most important effects bypass states on the LF, with the pedal controlling 2 additional IA states with the switch (WAH and volume BOOST) as well as controlling the WAH frequency and VOLUME with the pedal. AND I have left room to switch to another page if I want to set up for song mode. I also set the preference where I can see BOTH function names on the buttons, which makes it easier in chooing presets and IA slot bypasses.

The only thing I lose here is on the bank up / down buttons, because I assigned a Function 2 to each I can't fast scroll the bank (I need one click per bank page) and because I list both functions on the LCD over the button I lose thenumber of the NEXT and PREVIOUS banks (which are overriden on the second line). I wish the latter function could be a per button option rather than Global. I also wish that you could changed an up / down button where double click gets you Function #2 and long press STILL would fast scroll. In fact, it would be great to have THREE functions per button - Single click, double click and long press.

BRILIANT!! He he...:lol
 
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BTW - Just got the Mission Engineering SP1-LF (which is WAY BIGGER and HEAVIER than it should be). So tonights project is trying to set it up to have the switch on SP1 toggle between controlling volume and wah as the 1st function.

I have the CC for input volume for the Axe FX CC10 mapped on my Global page for Expression 1. Then I have an IA slot called "WAH" that has the command to change the EXP1 cc number to the modifier I have tied to the Wah sweep programmed on the ON side of that IA slot, and I have the Expression 1 change back to CC10 in the OFF side of the Wah IA slot.

So when I program a Liquid Foot preset, my preset template already has that Wah IA set to Bypass. If there is a song I need the Wah, I can create a preset that has that set to ON, and another preset where it is set to OFF, to return it to the volume function.

You can also simply enter the EXP1 CC change command into one of the programming command lines in a LF preset, and accomplish the same thing. When you change out of that preset, the pedal will revert back to it's primary function (volume).

Something to keep in mind when you have an expression pedal used primarily as volume, and you want to reassign it for other functions - wah, delay repeats, whammy pitch, is that within a Liquid Foot preset, you can check the box to read the expression pedal's position, or ignore the pedal's position when the preset loads. You want to ignore. The reason being, if you use a wah, and end your musical phrase by closing the wah heel down, and you step on another preset which causes the pedal to revert back to volume, and it reads the current position of your pedal, you will be turning off your guitar signal.

If you want to avoid that, you can do it the old fashioned way and assign a button to the IA slot you've programmed to change the expression pedal midi channel/cc #. On a pedal with a clickable button under the expression, you can program that switch to change your CC to something other than volume.

I don't need instant access when I play - because I plan every change and make a new LF preset for that change, and assign an AXE scene change to correspond to the effect/amp/cab change I'm making. So, in my case, I program the wah ia slot for on or bypass, and therefore, I have to uncheck the "read expression pedal position" box in those presets that jump back and forth from volume to wah in that song.
 
I have the CC for input volume for the Axe FX CC10 mapped on my Global page for Expression 1. Then I have an IA slot called "WAH" that has the command to change the EXP1 cc number to the modifier I have tied to the Wah sweep programmed on the ON side of that IA slot, and I have the Expression 1 change back to CC10 in the OFF side of the Wah IA slot.

You can also simply enter the EXP1 CC change command into one of the programming command lines in a LF preset, and accomplish the same thing. When you change out of that preset, the pedal will revert back to it's primary function (volume).

I have done similar. I set up an IA Slot and called it "Exp Switch" and assigned it to an LF button (eventually the Mission Engineering button) - ON state turns on the WAH block and changes the CC# to control the WAH (I forget the CC# - maybe 35?). The OFF state turns off the WAH block, and changes the CC# to control the Output Volume 1 on the Axe FX (CC# 11). Long press turns on the Volume block in the preset that I have set to increase volume by 5 db. I set this as a global block to insert in all olf my presets so I can adjust this amount of boost globally, although I really wish the AXE FX itself have a global output volume boost.

This all works 100% when I assign it to a button on the LF unit itself and used an expression pedal without a button. Now I need to try it on the Mission Eng pedal with the onboard switch - I'm just not sure if that switch does a long press for function 2 but we'll see.
 
Well for the most part I've finally got it! Until last night I didn't have the time to break from the template and just experiment. So with the exception of a couple of quirks with page jumping I need to iron out I'm finally understanding the concepts of the programming for this thing. So I'm sticking with one page for presets with the top four button serving double duty for Drive1/2, Tremolo1/2, Delay1/2, Wah & Tuner. I'm so glad it took a week and not a year...LOL!

Thanks for all the suggestions and patience with newbies that you guys have it's really appreciated :encouragement:
 
Resetting the Axe is easy. See this page for details. http://wiki.fractalaudio.com/axefx2/index.php?title=Resetting

I believe if you do this and reload the template to the LF+ everything should work as described. However I have not tested the template with LF+ FW3.30 or the AxeXL which might break something in the template?


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As It turns out I didn't have to reset anything. I had to use the edit software to get the LF to recognize that I have an "XL". That was the issue! Now the page jumping is not working reliably so that is my next stumbling block so far so good on the presets page!

Thanks again for that template it got me started which was huge!


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Well for the most part I've finally got it! Until last night I didn't have the time to break from the template and just experiment. So with the exception of a couple of quirks with page jumping I need to iron out I'm finally understanding the concepts of the programming for this thing. So I'm sticking with one page for presets with the top four button serving double duty for Drive1/2, Tremolo1/2, Delay1/2, Wah & Tuner. I'm so glad it took a week and not a year...LOL!

Thanks for all the suggestions and patience with newbies that you guys have it's really appreciated :encouragement:

Once you get your head around the programming, it does become easier obviously. I believe the programming has become a lot more stable lately, due to the "beta testing" of long term users. I can recall struggling with a particular issue only to find it was a bug and not due to my lack of understanding. Now thats a major PITA! That coupled with a faulty controller and lack of learning resources was the main reason I took so long to get it to a stage where I'm comfortable with it.

In saying all that, it is one great controller both aesthetically and in functionality. For me, LCD screens/labels are an absolute must and I wouldn't even consider a controller without them, especially with the ability to assign any function to any button. With my setup (LF JR+), I've gone a step further and utilized the 4 expression ports by making a 4 button switch, which also houses the LF JR and have assigned them to the common functions like Context Up/Down, Tuner & Looper, thus freeing up the 8 LCD buttons. So I essentially have a 12 button controller now, only 4 don't have LCD screens. Very handy!!

Reading this post has me now exploring the Song/Setlist mode and whether it can make my life easier when performing live, so hats off to all the noobs and experienced users for generating discussion.

We never stop learning.
 
npx said:
All songs are set to Arm Song Only. The problem is I don't always want preset one, No buttons on pages have process scrolls enabled. Should they?
My songs are set to Arm song only. The preset buttons on my pages have Process Scrolls and I never put a 2nd function on a preset button, because the lf hesitates to determine whether you might be a slow double tapper. I want my presets to trigger immediately. Not that it matters, because I don't have anything programmed for function 2, but my preset buttons are set to "trigger only." My song up/down button is set to Toggle only. You could use context up/down so that you page works in multiple modes of operation.

Honestly, I always program my songs so that preset 1 is the firdt sound I want. My program change commands reside in my song programming. With my songs and buttons set this way, I can create a set list and scroll between songs without anything in my rack changing, until I commit to a song by stepping on preset 1 of that song.
Ive never tried to step on any other preset to make a song trigger.

Does it work on your setup though? Can you step on preset 2 of an armed song and have it go directly to that preset, or will it always trigger the first preset in your songs too?

I tried enabling process scrolls on the preset buttons, but it makes no difference to that problem in my config. When process scrolls in ON for a song up/down switch it will obviously override the the "Arm song only" command and automatically trigger the first preset in the next song.

It is vital to my workflow to have immediate access to sounds other than the first one in any given LF song, so I had to rearrange my Axe Fx + LF presets to group my live stuff together and run in preset mode to get through the few gigs I had this week.

LF songs are just collections of LF presets, so I don't understand why they would need to default to the first preset no matter what button you hit when they first load. Does anyone have this working differently? I really want to figure it out.


*****UPDATE*****

I just heard back from LF support and what I have been trying to do is not possible with current LF+ Firmware v3.30. The good news however, is that Jeff has enabled this functionality for the next firmware release. :encouragement:
 
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