FM3 switch programming question(s).

Hi,

I hope you and all your friends and families are safe during these strange times we find ourselves in.

I've been a member of this forum for awhile. I don't post much as I don't have a Fractal unit yet.

Long story short:

1) I went on the waitlist for an AX8 (April 2019)
2) Got an invite sent for a non-headphone jack FM3 a year later (like everybody else here I'm guessing?)
3) I decided to wait for the headphone jack FM3 since I use that quite a bit (apartment dweller)

I have one question regarding the 3 foot switches, please. I don't need many switches but I'm wondering if I can do this:

1) Make the center and right switches bank up
2) Make the centre and left switches bank down
3) Use the three switches individually for scene changes/effects on-off
4) Hold down any one of the switches for a tuner (?)

This is all the functionality I require (I'm using a Boss RV-500 like this). If it can do this then I will accept my spot on the FM3 waitlist when the headphone jack version comes up...

Thanks so much for any help.
 
I have one question regarding the 3 foot switches, please. I don't need many switches but I'm wondering if I can do this:

1) Make the center and right switches bank up
2) Make the centre and left switches bank down
3) Use the three switches individually for scene changes/effects on-off
4) Hold down any one of the switches for a tuner (?)
No, but you don't have to. There are other ways to do what you want to do:

1) Hold the right switch for bank up.
2) Hold the left switch for bank down.
3) Use the three switches individually for scene changes/effects on-off.
4) Hold the switch of your choice for a tuner.


The trick is that, with Layouts and Views, you can change what a switch does. You can set it up so that, after you bank up or down and select a preset, all three switches turn into scene switches — and when you hold one of them, they turn into preset select and bank up/down switches.

And a bunch more stuff. You'll be happy. :)
 
1) Make the center and right switches bank up
2) Make the centre and left switches bank down
you cannot hit 2 switches at once to do a command. however each switch has a Tap and Hold command. so that's 2 functions per switch. Rex's suggestion is a great way to handle the functions you mentioned.

you can also change Layouts or Views to change what the switches do, so you can have them do what you mentioned on one Layout/View, then switch to another Layout or View (various ways) to have the switches do 6 other things. 8 Layouts, 4 Views each, and an additional "Master Layout" to get around. there are many switch possibilities available, and can definitely do what you described and more.
 
1) Make the center and right switches bank up
2) Make the centre and left switches bank down
3) Use the three switches individually for scene changes/effects on-off
4) Hold down any one of the switches for a tuner (?)

There are no options for button combinations (like A+B together to do something. Would be a good suggestion to add, though...). Here's how I'd do it with layouts:

Layout 1 (effects):
View 1:
1) Effect 1 / hold for view +
2) Effect 2 / hold for master layout
3) Effect 3 / hold for tuner

View 2:
4) Effect 4 / hold for view +
5) Effect 5 / hold for view 1
6) Effect 6 / hold for tuner

View 3:
7) Effect 7 / hold for view +
8) Effect 8 / hold for view 1
9) Effect 9/ hold for tuner

Layout 2 (scenes):
View 1:
1) Scene 1 / hold for view +
2) Scene 2 / hold for master layout
3) Scene 3 / hold for tuner

View 2:
4) Scene 4 / hold for view +
5) Scene 5 / hold for view 1
6) Scene 6 / hold for tuner

View 3:
7) Effect 7 / hold for view +
8) Scene 8 / hold for view 1
9) Blank / hold for tuner


Layout 3 (presets):
View 1:
1) Preset -1
2) view + / hold for master layout
3) Preset +1 / hold for tuner

View 2:
4) Bank + / hold for view +
5) view - / hold for master layout
6) Bank - / hold for tuner

Layout 9 (master layout):
View 1:
1) Layout 1 (effects)
2) Layout 2 (scenes)
3) Layout 3 (presets) / hold for tuner
 
@Poparad Thanks for showing me your switch configurations.

I am still confused about all of the references to "master layout", "scenes" and "views", but I get that the switches are layered in some way? I should probably read the manual at some point. There must be a YouTube video giving a tour of the switch functionality by now? I will check for that soon.

All I need to do is: patch up, patch down, reverb decay time (long/short), boost (on/off), delay (on/off) and tuner. Outside of that I don't do much else. When I finally get my FM3 I am going totally ZEN on that thing... pure simplicity. And I would never change patches during a song. I only turn effects on/off.

On my board I switch through modulations, delays and reverb settings per pedal (obviously) but I don't usually switch modulation types during one song.
 
I am still confused about all of the references to..."scenes"...
Imagine you could turn off your compressor, turn on your drive pedal, change channels on your amp, and turn off your reverb — all with one stomp of a switch. That's what scenes do.


I should probably read the manual at some point.
Highly recommended. ;)


All I need to do is:...reverb decay time (long/short), boost (on/off), delay (on/off) and tuner.
Scenes. One stomp.
 
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@Poparad Thanks for showing me your switch configurations.

I am still confused about all of the references to "master layout", "scenes" and "views", but I get that the switches are layered in some way? I should probably read the manual at some point. There must be a YouTube video giving a tour of the switch functionality by now? I will check for that soon.

All I need to do is: patch up, patch down, reverb decay time (long/short), boost (on/off), delay (on/off) and tuner. Outside of that I don't do much else. When I finally get my FM3 I am going totally ZEN on that thing... pure simplicity. And I would never change patches during a song. I only turn effects on/off.

On my board I switch through modulations, delays and reverb settings per pedal (obviously) but I don't usually switch modulation types during one song.

I'd set that up with just one layout and six buttons with something like this:

View 1:
1) Reverb channel toggle A/B
2) Filter bypass / hold for view 2
3) Delay bypass / hold for tuner

View 2:
4) Patch -
5) Tuner / hold for view 1
6) Patch +
 
@Rex Thanks for the heads up on scenes... I get it now: so you can enable / disable multiple blocks / parameters / etc all at once? That is TIGHT.

@Poparad Thanks for the switch setup idea. So you can parent / child the views together? Like a master view / slave view? That's awesome.

I appreciate the responses and ideas. Thanks a lot.
 
Each layout has 9 switches, but you can only see 3 at a time since there are only 3 physical buttons. That's what the views are. It just allows you to scroll through 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9 within one layout.
 
Each layout has 9 switches, but you can only see 3 at a time since there are only 3 physical buttons. That's what the views are. It just allows you to scroll through 1-3, 4-6, and 7-9 within one layout.
Fixed it fer ya... :)

Each layout has 12 switches, but you can only see 3 at a time since there are only 3 physical buttons. That's what the views are. It just allows you to scroll through 1-3, 4-6, 7-9, and 10-12 within one layout.
 
Thank you all for the information above......I was having trouble understanding the Layouts, types, switches & more.....

I played with this for days & just didn’t get it fully. Then a few minutes ago I had a Layout so screwed up from messing around that I did a “Reset” and pretty much erased everything.

I freaked out for a minute, then read this thread & took a breath. Erasing (or resetting it) the layout actually helped me understand all of this in the end.

I set up a custom “4 Scene-Preset Bank” one that uses the 1st 2 views only.

I do Individual song based presets (on my AX8) & put my band set lists in order preset wise. So I just need to step through everything in order.

View-1:
Button 1 = Scene-1 (Hold = Preset -1)
Button 2 = Scene-2 toggle 3 (Hold = View 2)
Button 3 = Scene-4 (Hold = Preset +1)

View-2:
Button 1 (or 4) = Tuner
Button 2 (or 5) = View 1
Button 3 (or 6) = Tap Tempo

I also have a copy of this for only 3 Scenes where I don’t use the toggle 2/3 as well.

All the hard work put into using the AX8 has really paid off on the switching & presets for the FM3.

I’m still experimenting, but shocked at how well only 3-buttons works with my song based presets that never have more than 4-scenes in them anyways.

Great stuff.....& Thanks again! X
 
Thanks again for the help everybody. I think I can finally wrap my head around the layouts, views, etc.

It will be an interesting change from my pedalboard but I'll see where it goes when the time comes.
 
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