Footswitch assignment

senjin

Member
Hi,

I perform as a solo guitarist/vocalist and I'm looking for a guitar multieffect that would allow me to change sounds during the songs with minimum "stepdance" on the footswitches. I went through the AX8 manual and viewed several videos, but I still have some questions:

1. Can I turn on/off several blocks with a single footswitch? I would like to easily turn on and off the whole drive+amp+cab section without touching other effects state. To my understanding scenes affect settings of all blocks, not just several chosen by myself? Could it be achieved with some smart routing on the grid?


2. Can I choose an effect to be active only while I'm pressing the footswitch, and turn off as I release the footswitch?


3. It is unclear to me how overdub works in a looper. I would like to record 4 bars, then immediately record another 4 bars over it, and then solo over these two recorder tracks playing together. Like this:

I press [record]
I play 4 bars, let's call it "track A"
I press [overdub]
I play another 4 bars, "track B" while AX8 plays "track A"
I press [play]
I play solo, while AX8 keeps playing track A and B together

Does it work like this?

By the way, is it possible to assign the play, record and overdub looper buttons to the footswitches in a way that I don't need to enter the looper mode to access them? I saw a video showing such setup with an external MIDI controller and Axe FX II. Can it be done with pure AX8?
 
yes, yes, yes( if the 4 bars are not to long), not on the built in foot switches only if you use a midi foot switch.
 
1. Can I turn on/off several blocks with a single footswitch? I would like to easily turn on and off the whole drive+amp+cab section without touching other effects state. To my understanding scenes affect settings of all blocks, not just several chosen by myself? Could it be achieved with some smart routing on the grid?
Scene affect all Blocks, so just set the Blocks to be what you want in each Scene. you can't have blocks "ignore" the Scene selection, so just arrange things accordingly.

2. Can I choose an effect to be active only while I'm pressing the footswitch, and turn off as I release the footswitch?
yes you make the switch Momentary instead of Latching.

3. It is unclear to me how overdub works in a looper. I would like to record 4 bars, then immediately record another 4 bars over it, and then solo over these two recorder tracks playing together. Like this:

I press [record]
I play 4 bars, let's call it "track A"
I press [overdub]
I play another 4 bars, "track B" while AX8 plays "track A"
I press [play]
I play solo, while AX8 keeps playing track A and B together

Does it work like this?
kinda, not exactly. an Overdub is exactly that - an overdub. it's not a 2nd track - i wouldn't think of it that way. it's no running parallel to the original loop, it's "on top" of it. the Undo function sort of lets you make it act like parallel, but the moment you record another overdub, the first overdub becomes part of the main loop.

By the way, is it possible to assign the play, record and overdub looper buttons to the footswitches in a way that I don't need to enter the looper mode to access them?
no. for occasional loops, the AX8 looper works for me. but external loopers are better if you base your performance around looping. dedicated buttons, always available, and features like multiple loops in Series for Verse and Chorus (as opposed to running 2 loops at the same time) make an external looper so much better. i'd run the AX8 output into the looper, then the looper output to a DI box or your mixer, etc.

definitely give the built-in looper a try first. but if looping is a major function of your performance, going to Looper mode is just not feasible, unless you never change any sounds while looping.
 
Thank you for the answers!

yes you make the switch Momentary instead of Latching.
That's cool! I think the momentary switch assignment must have came with the recent firmware upgrade, while the manual is from November 2015, and that's why I couldn't find it.


kinda, not exactly. an Overdub is exactly that - an overdub. it's not a 2nd track - i wouldn't think of it that way. it's no running parallel to the original loop, it's "on top" of it. the Undo function sort of lets you make it act like parallel, but the moment you record another overdub, the first overdub becomes part of the main loop.
This is exactly what I was asking for ;) I don't want to make super complex loops, but I wanted to make sure that I can do this simple thing with just these three footswitch presses I listed.

Concerning the scene "ignore" option, and looper buttons in the main page, do you know if there is a possibility and intention to add this kind of functionality to AX8? I imagine this would greatly increase possibilities to do cool stuff live!
 
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