Footswitch layout for mostly effects - will this work?

nostatic

nostatic

Member
In watching videos and reading the manual, I think this will work but want to make sure before I jump in with both feet (have my toes back in the water with a VP4).

I'd like to run the FM9 live pretty much impersonating a regular pedal board. I'm too scattered to sort out all the presents/scenes for songs in the set, am thinking I'd do a layout where I have three switches for presents (and hold moves up/down a bank. Then a switch for tap/tuner, then the other switches for effects bypassing. I think this setup will work, but also read about control switches instead (?)

Button 4 - tap for bypass chorus, hold for bypass flanger
Button 5 - tap for bypass drive 1, hold for bypass drive 2 (or maybe swap channels)
Button 6 - tap for bypass trem, hold for bypass phaser
etc...

I'm basically trying to have kitchen-sink presets with the ability to switch things on the fly. Any issues with this (or is there a better way to do it - other than scenes, at this point I'm not leaning that direction).
 
Yes that can work fine. You'll be doing some tap dancing when turning on/off multiple effects, but it can definitely work with some practice. Lots of folks like the kitchen sink approach if they're used to an old school pedal board.

You can always add more than one layout of effects switches and link to them as needed too. The FC layout and switch system is very flexible and customizable. It can take some practice to learn, but it can do a ton.

Scenes are no biggie. They just let you pick which effects and channels are selected when you switch to that scene. They work kind of like a programmable loop switcher on some more modern pedal boards, so you can turn multiple things on and off and switch multiple block channels and such with just one switch press. They can save a lot of tap dancing but can require a bit more planning to set up. You can still turn individual blocks on and off as needed even with scenes. Since gapless switching was added a while back the use cases between presets and scenes has blurred a lot.

Some folks like separate presets for each song, some like presets that leverage scenes, and others like the kitchen sink approach. There's no right or wrong way. Use whatever works for you.
 
Last edited:
Yeah, the whole planning thing is what I'm trying to avoid right now. I figure as I get more used to this I'll migrate to more "native" approaches. I started stomping on pedals back in the 70's so old habits are hard to break.

Watching a video on per-presets. I think that will be the ticket - the more I learn the more I'm amazed at how elegant the plumbing is on the Fractal stuff...

shock-shocked.gif
 
nostatic said:
...

Watching a video on per-presets. I think that will be the ticket - the more I learn the more I'm amazed at how elegant the plumbing is on the Fractal stuff...
Click to expand...

The flexibility is amazing. It is hard to imagine something you can't do when you put all of the following together:
  1. Multiple (9) footswitch layouts that are completely customizable (defaults loaded are merely a good starting point)
  2. Independent assignment of tap and hold functions for every switch (12 switches per layout)
  3. Global switch assignments (common to all Presets)
  4. per-Preset Overrides (to override #3 above for specific Presets)
  5. per-Preset Placeholders (to have switches which are always specific to individual Presets)
  6. Layout links (to optionally automatically load a different layout and view when pressing a switch if so configured)
  7. Stand-in switches (external switches which always have the same function regardless of current layout)
  8. The ability to combine any number of Global, per-Preset Override, or per-Preset Placeholders in any of the 9 layouts
  9. Reveal Hold (to have scribble strips show the hold functions AND optionally temporarily swap tap and hold functions)
 
I have my board set like this but I have long press to wrap around the channels. So for example delay 1 channel is a dotted 8th, 2 is 1/4 note, 3 slap back, 4 some kind of unusual delay. Works well if you want more flexibility.
 
thomasw88 said:
I have my board set like this but I have long press to wrap around the channels. So for example delay 1 channel is a dotted 8th, 2 is 1/4 note, 3 slap back, 4 some kind of unusual delay. Works well if you want more flexibility.
Click to expand...
I do this as well, I have my layout with the blocks I want Amp, Rev, Drive 1, Drive 2 etc with each channel having a different effect model. I have four different fender amp models on the amp block A-D channels, same with the others, this essentially gives me a monster pedal board, although I can use everything at once, I can custom build the chain as I play. With my genre of blues rock - country, this really works out well and simplifies things for me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom