FCB1010 UnO - Instructions for Setting up Scenes & Expression Pedals

RossG

RossG

Inspired
First of all, I have to give major thanks to Voes. He deserves most of the credit for this - I could not have done it without his instruction sheets (and a couple references to the UnO manual). The users on this board have provided me so much helpful information, and I hope this can prove useful for some others.

Second, this is a rundown focused on how I decided to set things up. The instructions here can be easily adjusted if you want to use your expression pedals in a different way than I am.

This setup covers the use of a FCB1010 running UnO firmware and one Boss FV500 as an extra expression pedal (connected via the pedal jack).

My goal was to set up the FCB1010 to work exactly the same in each FCB program, and use the Axe-FX patches to determine what happens with each pedal press (via scenes and external controllers), because it is much easier to program than the FCB.

So here is how I decided to set it up - I'm using Stompbox mode on the top row, and I am using the stompboxes to change between scenes 1 through 5. The bottom row changes patches. Expression pedal A (left) is mapped to CC 17 - external controller 2, Expression pedal B (right) is mapped to CC 10 to always control input volume (allowing effects tails to continue), so it's my volume pedal everywhere. I then use the FV500 via the pedal jack, assigning it to be external controller 1 on the I/O menu (usually CC 16), because I find it more useable for fine control. If you are looking for a similar set up, here is how to do it. It's a pain to do this over and over for all 95 FCB patches, but once you get to the end, you don't ever have to touch it again, and can change your Axe-FX patches to suit your needs for that sound.

Note - for program changes, the PC message is the preset number, but CC 1 message sent with the PC is CC 34 #1

I've set up every patch the same way, in order to simplify everything and let the Axe-FX II Patches control what is on and off

How To Program This? Let's run through it: First, use the Voes documents for Global Setup and pedal calibration

**** Set up for Stomp Boxes (which are the same in every preset, meaning it is perfect for Scenes, difficult for other stuff) ****
First, decide which one you want to program (we'll use 6 here, the first stomp box)

1. Press and hold BOTH pedal 6 (or whichever you want to program) and the DOWN pedal for about 2.5 seconds
2. In this first setting page, we want all of the pedal lights to be off - if they are, go forward, if not hold each down until the light turns off
3. Press UP to move to the next screen
4. In the next screen, we want only pedal 8's light to be on - make it so if it isn't and move forward
5. Press UP to move to the final screen
6. Here, we want only pedal 6's light to be on - make it so if it isn't and move forward
7. Quickly tap pedal 6, so its LED starts blinking (meaning we're programing it's MIDI message) - Regardless of which you are programming, in this phase we use pedal 6
8. Press UP to set the CC number - enter the number (here CC 34) using the pedals
9. Press UP to set the value to send when it is pressed (0 through 4 depending on which box you are programming - for pedal 6, we use 0 to select Scene 1)
10. Press UP again to set the value when pressed again - here we want it to match what you set in the previous step
11. Press UP again to save the settings - the LED above pedal 6 stops flashing.
12. Press and hold DOWN to save the settings and leave the mode
13. You can repeat these steps to set each stomp box - all CC 34 and 0 through 4 as values for scene select

**** Programs - Which are different for each one in essence, but we are going to set every one the same here for our use: ****
First, select the patch you want to do your configuration on (here we'll say we're at bank 00, pedal 1)

1. Press and hold DOWN for about 2.5 seconds
2. On this first page, make sure only 4 and 5 are lit, if not, light them and turn the others off - move forward
NOTE: If the Switch One (1) or Switch Two (2) lights are on up top, turn them off at the pedals, turn 3 on, and do a quick double tap on it, then long press to turn it off
3. Press UP to move to the next screen
4. Make sure all lights are off here, if not, make it so - move forward
5. Press UP to move to the final screen
6. Here, we want pedals 1, 6, 8, and 9 lit (because we're going to do one PC message, one CC, and both expression pedals) anything else, turn off
7. To program pedal 1, tap it so it starts blinking
8. Press UP to set which program you are choosing (this is the patch # on the Axe-FX you want) here we are doing 1, so type that
9. Press UP to save the changes and the light stops blinking
10. Tap pedal 6 so it starts blinking
11. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 34 for all the patches (Scene changes)
12. Press UP to set the initial value - we want 1
13. Press UP to set the secondary value - we want 1 here too
14. Press UP to save the changes and the light stops blinking
15. Tap pedal 8 so it starts blinking
16. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 17 for all the patches (External 2)
17. Press UP to set the lowest value - we want 00 (use expression pedal A to set it if it isn't already there)
18. Press UP to set the highest value - we want 127 here (use expression pedal A to set it)
19. Press UP to save the changes and the light stops blinking
15. Tap pedal 9 so it starts blinking
16. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 10 for all the patches (Input Volume)
17. Press UP to set the lowest value - we want 00 (use expression pedal A to set it if it isn't already there)
18. Press UP to set the highest value - we want 127 here (use expression pedal A to set it)
19. Press UP to save the changes and the light stops blinking
20. Press DOWN to go back one screen - all lights should be off
21. Press DOWN to go back into the first screen
22. You'll see lights 1, 2, 4, and 5 on
23. Press pedal 2 to turn its light off
24. Press pedal 3 to turn its light on
25. Now double tap pedal 3 so that it turns off the Switch 2 LED on the top
26. Press pedal 3 to turn its light off
27. Press pedal 1 to turn its light off
28. Hold DOWN to save the patch

Please let me know if you have any questions.
 
Hey Ross,

Thank you so much for those step by step instructions. You are a life saver !
I had spent hours after installing the new Uno chip trying to program the FCB1010, tried Ripwerx, nothing worked.
Then I followed your instructions and now can change scenes !
Awesome thanks again
 
So Ross,
The top row is now for scenes, bottom row is for selecting a patch right?
What about a footswitch for the tuner? Can that be done ?
 
Skintone,

I'm so glad you found the instructions helpful. After beating my head against the wall trying to get Ripwerx to work and then having to figure it all out manually, I thought that someone else might be able to benefit from sharing. I'm glad I was right, and that I finally had something to give back to this community that has provided me so much.
 
I setup a separate bank for controlling scenes, tuner, bypass, etc...

I then copy it every fifth bank. 0, 5, 10, 15. This way no matter what bank you're on, you can quickly hit up or down no more than twice to get to your tuner, scene controls, etc...

In regular banks, I set up 1-5 as patches, and 6-10 as stomps. I assign 6,7,9,and 10 to comp, drive, delay, and reverb, as these are the effects I tend to access most. #8 is my wildcard pedal. It's mapped to "mod", but it's assigned as a CONTROLLER, so it's basically an on off switch for any effect or parameter I want to assign it to in a particular preset.

So now say you're in bank 1 and you tap 1 for preset 1. That first tap will select your preset. Second tap assigns tap tempo. You're initially on scene 1. Now if you want to change scenes, hit down to bank 0. Pedal 1 is Tuner/Bypass. Pedals 2-5 are scenes 2-5. On a second press, buttons 3,4, and 5 select scenes 6,7, and 8. Button 2 on second press will bring you back to scene 1. So you can make patch changes, and select your scene bank to control all scene changes 1-8, while STILL having your 5 stomp on/off pedals and access to tuner/bypass. The biggest shortfall is that changing scenes doesn't reflect on the stomp states in that bank. So if your distortion is on, and you change to a bank that is off, the light will remain on and you'll need to tap it twice to turn the distortion on.

You can't access every preset on the Axe FX2 this way, but you can have 15 banks with 5 presets on each, and control 8 scenes and 5 stomps for each of those 75 presets.


For an example of how I intend to use this:

Scenes are laid our 2/1 3/6 4/7 5/8

2/1 = Main rhythm tones 1 and 2
3/6 = Clean tone, semi dirty tone
4/7 = Lead tone 1 and 2
5/8 = Effect or alternate tones 1 and 2



I haven't finished really building all my patches yet, so I'm sure there's bumps I'll encounter along the way, but for now this setup seems to work pretty well for scenes, with access to ALL 8, not just a few.
 
skintone1 said:
So Ross,
The top row is now for scenes, bottom row is for selecting a patch right?
What about a footswitch for the tuner? Can that be done ?
Click to expand...

Hmmmm, I'm going to have to think on that one and perhaps do a bit of testing. I imagine that it is possible to do it. I'm sure you can do it by sacrificing one of the scene buttons (let's say button 10) to be a dedicated tuner on/off switch, but it appears that it can be hidden behind a second press of the same patch selection button (as long as ignore repeated PC messages is turned on). I know I won't have the time to look at it tomorrow, but I'll try to see if I can make it work on Monday and let you know.
 
RossG said:
Hmmmm, I'm going to have to think on that one and perhaps do a bit of testing. I imagine that it is possible to do it. I'm sure you can do it by sacrificing one of the scene buttons (let's say button 10) to be a dedicated tuner on/off switch, but it appears that it can be hidden behind a second press of the same patch selection button (as long as ignore repeated PC messages is turned on). I know I won't have the time to look at it tomorrow, but I'll try to see if I can make it work on Monday and let you know.
Click to expand...

OK, so I was wrong - I had a couple minutes. And, if you are OK with having to hold down the Program change button while you want to tune, you can have it all. Here's how it would have to work - when you get to steps 11, 12, and 13 in my instructions on setting up programs, do the following instead:

11. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 15 for all the patches (Tuner)
12. Press UP to set the initial value - we want 127
13. Press UP to set the secondary value - we want 01 here

If you do this, then as long as you hold down the program selection button for the patch you are already in (so if you are already in patch one, hold down button one), the tuner will be turned on, and as soon as you let it go, it will turn off. Actually, this is kind of cool in my mind, and is probably what I'm going to do moving forward.

Thanks for asking, you've improved my knowledge of the product and given me even more flexibility so that I can use the tuner myself. Now all I have to do is change all of my programs (ugh). But I may wait a while for running through all that pain.
 
ArrowHead said:
I setup a separate bank for controlling scenes, tuner, bypass, etc...

I then copy it every fifth bank. 0, 5, 10, 15. This way no matter what bank you're on, you can quickly hit up or down no more than twice to get to your tuner, scene controls, etc...

In regular banks, I set up 1-5 as patches, and 6-10 as stomps. I assign 6,7,9,and 10 to comp, drive, delay, and reverb, as these are the effects I tend to access most. #8 is my wildcard pedal. It's mapped to "mod", but it's assigned as a CONTROLLER, so it's basically an on off switch for any effect or parameter I want to assign it to in a particular preset.

So now say you're in bank 1 and you tap 1 for preset 1. That first tap will select your preset. Second tap assigns tap tempo. You're initially on scene 1. Now if you want to change scenes, hit down to bank 0. Pedal 1 is Tuner/Bypass. Pedals 2-5 are scenes 2-5. On a second press, buttons 3,4, and 5 select scenes 6,7, and 8. Button 2 on second press will bring you back to scene 1. So you can make patch changes, and select your scene bank to control all scene changes 1-8, while STILL having your 5 stomp on/off pedals and access to tuner/bypass. The biggest shortfall is that changing scenes doesn't reflect on the stomp states in that bank. So if your distortion is on, and you change to a bank that is off, the light will remain on and you'll need to tap it twice to turn the distortion on.

You can't access every preset on the Axe FX2 this way, but you can have 15 banks with 5 presets on each, and control 8 scenes and 5 stomps for each of those 75 presets.


For an example of how I intend to use this:

Scenes are laid our 2/1 3/6 4/7 5/8

2/1 = Main rhythm tones 1 and 2
3/6 = Clean tone, semi dirty tone
4/7 = Lead tone 1 and 2
5/8 = Effect or alternate tones 1 and 2



I haven't finished really building all my patches yet, so I'm sure there's bumps I'll encounter along the way, but for now this setup seems to work pretty well for scenes, with access to ALL 8, not just a few.
Click to expand...
Arrowhead,
that sounds like a good approach too.
Can you give some step by step details like RossG has done to show midi morons like me how to do that from the start?

thanks
 
RossG said:
OK, so I was wrong - I had a couple minutes. And, if you are OK with having to hold down the Program change button while you want to tune, you can have it all. Here's how it would have to work - when you get to steps 11, 12, and 13 in my instructions on setting up programs, do the following instead:

11. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 15 for all the patches (Tuner)
12. Press UP to set the initial value - we want 127
13. Press UP to set the secondary value - we want 01 here

If you do this, then as long as you hold down the program selection button for the patch you are already in (so if you are already in patch one, hold down button one), the tuner will be turned on, and as soon as you let it go, it will turn off. Actually, this is kind of cool in my mind, and is probably what I'm going to do moving forward.

Thanks for asking, you've improved my knowledge of the product and given me even more flexibility so that I can use the tuner myself. Now all I have to do is change all of my programs (ugh). But I may wait a while for running through all that pain.
Click to expand...

Ross,
that sounds like a good solution .
Before I try it however, I hope you don't mind if I ask for some help setting up the PC changes.
So now I have the top row in Stompbox mode, and changing scenes is great.
But when I followed the 2nd half of your instructions, and say set Pedal 1 to bring up Axe Fx patch #55 say, what happens is , when I press Pedal 1, the number 55 appears momentarily on the screen then the patch immediately changes to patch 9 and stays there.
WTF ?:?
Any clues?
thanks
 
skintone1 said:
Arrowhead,
that sounds like a good approach too.
Can you give some step by step details like RossG has done to show midi morons like me how to do that from the start?

thanks
Click to expand...

I set everything up in ripwerx. If that didn't work I'd try Ifcb or LG-FCB. Manually programming 19 banks with multiple functions per switch is crazy, when you can just copy and paste banks and change one or two settings per patch.
 
Skintone,

Do you have MIDI cables running in both directions, or just one? The reason I ask is that if you have a cable connecting the OUT of the Axe FX to the IN on the FCB1010, the commands loop. I had the same problem my self a while back, and as soon as I removed that cable, the switching worked as expected.
 
RossG said:
Skintone,

Do you have MIDI cables running in both directions, or just one? The reason I ask is that if you have a cable connecting the OUT of the Axe FX to the IN on the FCB1010, the commands loop. I had the same problem my self a while back, and as soon as I removed that cable, the switching worked as expected.
Click to expand...
No just one cable from the out of FCB1010 to the in of AXE.
Having gone through the process several times, I now have pedal 1 working correctly , but pedals 2 and 3 give me weird results.
How do I use your process to program pedals 2,3,4, and 5 to changes patches?
thanks
 
ArrowHead said:
I set everything up in ripwerx. If that didn't work I'd try Ifcb or LG-FCB. Manually programming 19 banks with multiple functions per switch is crazy, when you can just copy and paste banks and change one or two settings per patch.
Click to expand...

OK thanks . Ripwerx didn't work for me, I might look at the others if I can't get Ross's idea going.
 
skintone1 said:
No just one cable from the out of FCB1010 to the in of AXE.
Having gone through the process several times, I now have pedal 1 working correctly , but pedals 2 and 3 give me weird results.
How do I use your process to program pedals 2,3,4, and 5 to changes patches?
thanks
Click to expand...

OK, so when you go into edit mode for the program (by holding DOWN for 2.5 seconds while the program is active but do not hold that pedal down - let's say pedal 2 here, so select pedal 2, let go of it and start holding DOWN)
1. Make sure the first screen (as I call it, for lack of a better term) has ONLY pedals 4 and 5 lit - if the top are lit it will send the values for the stomp boxes in order when you hit the pedal (leaving you on scene 5 instead of 1)
2. Press UP to go to then next screen
3. This "screen" should have none of the pedals lit
4. Press UP to go to the final screen
5. This third and final screen should have the following lights lit - pedals 1, 6, 8, and 9 - nothing else - pedal 1 represents the PC message, 6 represents the CC message, 8 represents expression pedal A and 9 represents expression pedal B.
6. To determine what patch number the program calls, tap pedal 1 so it blinks - pedal one is the first Program Change (PC) message for that program
7. Press UP
8. Type in the number of the patch you want this program button to call (as we are using pedal 2 here, type in 2, for 3 use 3, 6 if you are on pedal 1 in bank 1 as opposed to 0 and so on)
9. Press UP
10. Hold the DOWN button to save the program and exit the edit mode

Note, each program is independent, so they don't necessarily have to go in order, although it makes the most sense to in my mind.

Please let me know if that gets things straight for you.
 
skintone1 said:
OK thanks . Ripwerx didn't work for me, I might look at the others if I can't get Ross's idea going.
Click to expand...

Mac or PC? Mac I think you're out of luck (for Ripwerx). PC, I'm pretty sure I ended up needing to install an old version of Java to get it running. I already had it because I use another similar program to edit my BCR2000s.

If you can get anything working to dump a sysex file I could always map mine out to basic controllers and send you the file. Then you just have to, at most, change patch #s on each bank manually.
 
RossG - crazy respect that you have the ability and patience to set these things up manually, let alone to post instructions for the rest of us.
 
ArrowHead said:
RossG - crazy respect that you have the ability and patience to set these things up manually, let alone to post instructions for the rest of us.
Click to expand...

Thanks man, I wish I didn't have to do it the hard way, but at least my effort has served to make things easier for others. Plus I really understand how it is working now, so if I needed to get creative with it, I am confident that I could.
 
RossG said:
OK, so I was wrong - I had a couple minutes. And, if you are OK with having to hold down the Program change button while you want to tune, you can have it all. Here's how it would have to work - when you get to steps 11, 12, and 13 in my instructions on setting up programs, do the following instead:

11. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 15 for all the patches (Tuner)
12. Press UP to set the initial value - we want 127
13. Press UP to set the secondary value - we want 01 here

If you do this, then as long as you hold down the program selection button for the patch you are already in (so if you are already in patch one, hold down button one), the tuner will be turned on, and as soon as you let it go, it will turn off. Actually, this is kind of cool in my mind, and is probably what I'm going to do moving forward.

Thanks for asking, you've improved my knowledge of the product and given me even more flexibility so that I can use the tuner myself. Now all I have to do is change all of my programs (ugh). But I may wait a while for running through all that pain.
Click to expand...

OK, so I've been able to refine this more if you would rather be able to switch the tuner on and off instead of having to hold the button down. If you would rather do it that way, and the program is already working like I had it set up before, here is how to modify it - after this, I'll paste an updated step by step to do it this way for a blank patch:

To modify a patch already allowing use of holding down the program button to show the tuner to allow it to be turned on and off:

1. Select the patch in question.
2. Hold the DOWN button to enter edit mode.
3. On the first "screen" only buttons 4 and 5 should be lit (meaning you are activating the expression pedals, but leaving the other stomp boxes unchanged - if you had them lit, you would end up at scene 5 because it would send the CC values for each of those in order)
4. Press UP to move to screen 2
5. On this screen, where we before had it set to have no lights lit, press pedal 8 to make the light above pedal 8 light up (this switches the CC1 message from momentary to toggle, this is a key element of making it switchable) - so only pedal 8 should be turned on
6. Press UP to move to the final screen
7. On this screen, tap pedal 6 so it blinks
8. Press UP
9. If it isn't already showing 15 (tuner), then use the buttons so the display shows 15
10. Press UP
11. For the first value set 0 (this means the tuner is off when you switch into the patch, if you did 127 here, it would turn the tuner on immediately when you switch into the patch)
12. Press UP
13. For the second value set 127 (this means the second time you press the button, it turns on the tuner - one more and it sends the initial value, turning it back off)
14. Press UP
15. Hold DOWN to save your changes and exit edit mode

That should be it if you prefer it that way.

And now, to consolidate what we've learned in order to not confuse anyone joining in later, I'll give an updated consolidated set of instructions for setting the Programs which adds in the ability to turn on and off the tuner by pressing the same program button that was used to select the patch. There is no need to rehash the stompbox setup, because that is the same. So here we go:

**** Programs - Which are different for each one in essence, but we are going to set every one the same here for our use: ****
First, select the patch you want to do your configuration on (here we'll say we're at bank 00, pedal 1)

1. Press and hold DOWN for about 2.5 seconds
2. On this first page, make sure only 4 and 5 are lit, if not, light them and turn the others off - move forward (the stompboxes definitely need to be off to avoid starting on a scene other than scene 1)
NOTE: If the Switch One (1) or Switch Two (2) lights are on up top, turn them off at the pedals, turn 3 on, and do a quick double tap on it, then long press to turn it off
3. Press UP to move to the next screen
4. Make sure only light 8 is on here (to make the CC1 a toggle instead of momentary switch) if not, make it so - move forward
5. Press UP to move to the final screen
6. Here, we want pedals 1, 6, 8, and 9 lit (because we're going to do one PC message, one CC, and both expression pedals) anything else, turn off
7. To program pedal 1, tap it so it starts blinking
8. Press UP to set which program you are choosing (this is the patch # on the Axe-FX you want) here we are doing patch 1, so type that
9. Press UP to save the changes and the light stops blinking
10. Tap pedal 6 so it starts blinking
11. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 15 for all the patches (Tuner)
12. Press UP to set the initial value - we want 0 (so the tuner doesn't turn on when you switch in, it does so only when you want it)
13. Press UP to set the secondary value - we want 127 here (so that the tuner turns on when you press the button the second time)
14. Press UP to save the changes and the light stops blinking
15. Tap pedal 8 so it starts blinking
16. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 17 for all the patches (External 2)
17. Press UP to set the lowest value - we want 00 (use expression pedal A to set it if it isn't already there)
18. Press UP to set the highest value - we want 127 here (use expression pedal A to set it)
19. Press UP to save the changes and the light stops blinking
15. Tap pedal 9 so it starts blinking
16. Press UP to set the CC it is sending - we want 10 for all the patches (Input Volume)
17. Press UP to set the lowest value - we want 00 (use expression pedal A to set it if it isn't already there)
18. Press UP to set the highest value - we want 127 here (use expression pedal A to set it)
19. Press UP to save the changes and the light stops blinking
20. Press DOWN to go back one screen - only light 8 should be on
21. Press DOWN to go back into the first screen
22. You'll see lights 1, 2, 4, and 5 on
23. Press pedal 2 to turn its light off
24. Press pedal 3 to turn its light on
25. Now double tap pedal 3 so that it turns off the Switch 2 LED on the top
26. Press pedal 3 to turn its light off
27. Press pedal 1 to turn its light off
28. Hold DOWN to save the patch

OK, that should get you to a place where the FCB program switches to the patch you want, sets expression A (left) to external 2, sets expression B (right) to control input volume, and sets the program select button turn on the tuner when you press it a second time.

Hopefully that clarifies it. If not, let me know and I'll see if I can provide a better explanation.
 
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