FC-12 First Impressions

Genghis

Power User
I know most of you are chomping at the bit and there are several threads with the "When did you get your confirmation", "When did you get your invite", type of questions, so I'll post my first thoughts after playing with the FC-12 on the first day here instead of burying my thoughts in those threads. I'll try to be brief, as I wanna go play some more.

First, the FC-12 looks remarkable in person. I told my cousin about it, and as usual she rolled her eyes like "Oh, another new musical toy". When she saw it she was very impressed at the way it looked first off. The design is great, the lights are impressive, and the scribble strips look plenty big enough to show a great indication of what each button is for.

I fired it up and calibrated my two expression pedals. Next step after testing was the ceremonial peeling of the protective plastic. Main display has one, and each of the scribble strips was covered with it's own individual plastic. They did it in such a way that you could easily get under it and peel it off too. I've had other devices where it covers just the screen and you have to work it to get an edge up, but these all overlap comfortably. (Minor point, but still nice.)

I fired it up and started exploring the default layouts. Most anybody could get through a gig after just learning the basic default layouts. It was very well thought out, and the performance layouts give you the basics, and work great for a starting point. I use scenes more than anything, so I modified my Layout 7 a bit, and when I finish this post I'm going to make a couple of more minor tweaks that I thought of while I was away from the unit.

First, I usually call up a single preset for a song. Some of my presets will probably work for more than one song, but I never hit another preset in the middle of a song. Not yet anyway. So gave me a few more buttons on Layout 7 that I could use for other things.

Second, I use the scene MIDI blocks to change patches on my Roland Integra 7 synth module that I trigger sounds from my GR55 with. I route the sounds from the Integra 7 into the Axe-FX and have what is usually a simple chain of additional effects and a volume block that I can control the synth levels with. I will most likely hook up a MIDI cable to my Voicelive vocal effect box and change individual effects using CCs using the FC-12 via that MIDI block as well. So essentially, the MIDI block has enough to do most of what I wanted to do, and I found the micro manager control of the synth that I thought I would need is not at all necessary. Creative routing and Studio Sets provide the capability to do anything I think I would need for the guitar synth side of things.

Third, I got used to toggling Scene 1 and 2, so I can combine my scene buttons. I won't bore you with the details, but in a nutshell my layout 7 now allows for tap tempo/tuner like the default, but now Scenes 1-6 can be accessed on the bottom row, and a few of my most commonly used stomp boxes are on I/As on the top row. I have barely scratched the surface of what you can do if you add in the hold function on the buttons. (Which now that I think about it my mind just exploded.)

To summarize:
  • modern, sleek appearance - check
  • ease of use - check
  • flexibility for controlling what I need to control in my Axe-FX III - check
  • flexibility for controlling other things in my rig - check (better than expected here)
  • keeping me up late tonight playing with this and feeling groggy at work tomorrow... it's a given, but I'll just deal with that when it happens
 
Great, it would be really cool to have a little video of the beast more specifically on the operation of the layouts.
I would if I had time. I figured out a few more cool things that fit into my workflow last night, and would love to share them, but I am super busy and barely have time to do a few more minor tweaks before rehearsal tonight.

Work today, rehearsal tonight, and unfortunately I have to take off for a week and a half for a work/vacation trip. Trip will have its fun times, but I'll be in programming mad scientist mode and have to wait until I get back. Oh well, grateful for the good things in life and besides work I get to visit old friends and bandmates on my off days.
 
Cool. Mine comes Friday and your set up looks remarkably similar (I think that's even a Brian Moore in the avatar). Interested in the vocal triggering from FC as today I use an external switch with an MFC that's set to a different MIDI channel. Also intrigued by the Integra and GR55. I use GR55 but have never used it to trigger other sounds as I didn't think it would work that well.

Best

MM
 
Cool. Mine comes Friday and your set up looks remarkably similar (I think that's even a Brian Moore in the avatar). Interested in the vocal triggering from FC as today I use an external switch with an MFC that's set to a different MIDI channel. Also intrigued by the Integra and GR55. I use GR55 but have never used it to trigger other sounds as I didn't think it would work that well.

Best

MM
The Integra takes things to a whole new level. For now I only use the GR55 set to mono mode and I call up the approriate Studio Set for each scene. I don't even use the sounds in the GR55 because the Integra is so much better all around.

One thing I did find is that you really seem to need a proper MIDI Merge device so that your PCs from the Axe FX are merged with the note data from the GR55. I was having issues trying to use the MIDI out port from one device to go into the Integra. I kind of got it to work with the GR55 into my AX8 and then into Integra, but I would get hung notes fairly often. Add in the merge box and I haven't had any issues, even when i load a different Studio Set to do a lead.
 
Does the hold function work on the GR55 with the Integra? Tracking is good?

Interesting.

MM
I haven't tried the hold, but I've found tracking to be good as long as you play with clean technique. I often mix the real guitar tone in with some type of pad or lead sound, and for that it works very well. It can be decent on standalone keyboard type sounds, but you kind of need to adjust technique a bit. Piano and organ sounds are good if you play with a decent clean touch.

Integra seems to track as well as the builtin sounds, but I prefer the sounds of the integra, and havent had time to experiment with layering in something with GR55 sounds. Haven't really felt the need to.
 
I haven't tried the hold, but I've found tracking to be good as long as you play with clean technique. I often mix the real guitar tone in with some type of pad or lead sound, and for that it works very well. It can be decent on standalone keyboard type sounds, but you kind of need to adjust technique a bit. Piano and organ sounds are good if you play with a decent clean touch.

Integra seems to track as well as the builtin sounds, but I prefer the sounds of the integra, and havent had time to experiment with layering in something with GR55 sounds. Haven't really felt the need to.

If you're not using the GR-55 for sounds, you might consider picking up a Roland GI-20 for cheap or perhaps a Fishman Triple Play.
 
If you're not using the GR-55 for sounds, you might consider picking up a Roland GI-20 for cheap or perhaps a Fishman Triple Play.
Still hoping Roland will update GR55, It's been 8 years and while wishful thinking I'm sure, every year at NAMM I ask them and they say they are committed to it. Doubtful but we will see. All my Brian Moore guitars have built in 13 pin so I will stay with that (and the GR55 sounds) and the hold function provides some interesting capabilities that are tough to replicate with external synths.

Thanks

MM
 
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