Since today I'm happy owner of the FCB 1010 (still with the original software from Behringer), and the possibilites of this cheap device are superb. A few of the postings here brought me on a wrong trail, so I decided to write my own story here.
First of all, I read on a few occasions, that this thing can only have 5 stompboxes buttons. This is a bit misleading. You can program all 10 buttons to send CC messages. It comes with a little price though.
I decided to switch programs only on the AxeFx itself. So I programmed the 10 buttons to send CC 21-30. So the price you have to pay is, you can't change the programs with the FCB - ok for me.
And I made a second decision: I don't want to connect a FCB button to always let's say DRIVE bypass. I set the Axefx, that the first button is connected to EXTERN1, second to EXTERN2, ... 6th to EXTERN6, the left pedal to EXTERN7 and the right to EXTERN8. (You might note, that I can't use button 7-10, because the Axe-Fx has no more EXTERN's. It's ok, it is enough possibilities...)
Now I connect on every Axe-FX patch the EXTERN x with the settings I want to control. My "biggest" control-freak-patch has the following possibilities:
Button 1 - slowly blend-in of the rotary (MIX goes from 0 % to 40%, damping 1s)
Button 2 - rotary speed changes from 4,7% to 33,9%, again with a damping of 1s
Pedal 1 controls the reverb tail in two different ways: It controls the feedback of the delay and the level of the reverb. This has the nice effect to come close to the listener for the more intimate parts of the song, and be "big" for the rest of the song - and you can control the vicinity in 127 steps... ;-)
Pedal 2 controls the gain of a peak filter at 2980 Hz and Q 0,1. This results in more drive, and the tone gets a bit more mean. Since the loudness raises a bit too much, tomorrow I will reduce the level on the amp a bit.
You noticed the good thing? With one pedal or button you can control more than one setting. E.g the pedal 1 controls the feedback of the delay AND the level of the reverb. You could use a pedal to mute DRIVE1 and at the same time switch on DRIVE2. Or blend between two amps. Or cabinets.
And you can blend softly: I'm not a fan of the sudden loudness jumps when you engage a drive. So I never switch the DRIVE on bypass, but I switch the mix from 100% to 0% with a damping of e.g 300ms.
I hope that was understandable. Sorry if it's not...
For me, the key to a good VST synthesizer lies in the way you can modulate the sound in an organic, lively way - no extremes, but gentle variations of tone. Today I applied that principle to the guitar - and it makes playing just so much more expressive. In the end, these are not only dull technical parameters you modify: You can bring your guitar closer to the listener or far away, you can make the tone "mean", you can make the tone somehow wicked with the Rotary (I'm missing the right words here - I mean, you put a kind of estrangement to the listener, a phoniness in the tone), and you can then contrast this with the true, Gilmourish tone if you like. And this all on top of the modulations you do with your fingers and pickup selections... Ah, endless variations...
To boldly go where no man has gone before - I'm going to bed now.