Front panel adjustment on the fly

IMO this is one of the few drawbacks of going full bore with the AXE. Tube amps are easy--if you have a great low volume tone, it ALWAYS sounds 'better' when you turn it up. Not the case with modeling--a great low volume tone can be piercing or boomy when turned up. AXE is no different. And with the Fractal UI being utilitarian at its very best that is an issue. Now to me, the tones in the box make up for this and with time you learn how to compensate for the above...but let's not fool ourselves, editing from the front panel with that green screen is not ideal.
 
Yes, mine does! BTW with the RAC12 you are not limited in any way what you assign to each knob. You can assign parameters of different blocks for every knob, so you can put everything that you need on one page and you don't need to flip pages when gigging.
 
jrgg said:
My only challenge on stage, even with alot of days and pains taken for pre programming ahead, was dealing with the challenges of needing more front panel quick control options for adjusting levels, overdrive gain, reverb,and delay from preset to preset. These were needed from room to room with the various musical settings I perform in.
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Yes I know what you mean. That's the most important thing I miss in the Axe fx and most other 19" and multi effect gear. It is very hard to make quick adjustments on the fly. I play a lot in improvised settings and have to do a lot of adjustments to delays and reverbs, drives and even throwing in effect blocks on the fly etc. I use three expression pedals. I don't want to pre plan all my patches. That's why I always bring my laptop with Axe Edit on it and I make adjustments in Axe Edit live. Also I bring a few pedals that are more convenient for quick adjustments. For on the fly tweaking pedals are more practical than multi effects.

I hope for the next version of the Axe fx there will be more front panel knobs and things will be easier to tweak on the fly.
 
I'm thinking about this now - not for planning to tweak stuff in a gig, but to help me more efficiently dial in my sounds during the limited rehearsal times. I can make loud presets at home, and play along with pre-recorded material, but it is not the same as standing next to an acoustic drumset in a small room, and a cranked amp of the other guitar player 10 feet away from me and bass player 5 feet away. That sound where I think I'm blasting my ears at home thinking I'm playing so loud, when I get in the session with others I end up going louder. And then the relevant levels of reverb and delay that need to be more/less, and gain that seemed to much at home but needs to be more razor-like to cut in the mix... all that stuff I need to be able to tweak on the fly mid-song or in a few seconds between takes. I can't get by with just taking notes of how it sucked and then tweak at home and hope for the best the next week at rehearsal. And I don't want to make my bandmates stare at my butt waiting for me to tweak my sound before we start the next song.

That is what is making me pull the trigger to buy a RAC12.
 
I never tweak at a gig. But I do at practice. I purchased a little Dell latitude 2120 for $50.00, that does the trick. And now that the new AXE Edit software dis-engages itself as soon and you change a preset, you can use it at practice and have the full benefit of tweaking everything. And since I'm now so used to Axe Edit, I can tweak really fast without using up valuable rehearsal time. Just an alternative.
 
I just bought a RAC12 today ready for my XL+ when it arrives mid September. I like making things as easy as possible for myself and the RAC12 looks like it will give me quick access to editing stuff whenever I need it.
 
It would be cool to have an option in the Axe FX that lets the 4 knobs have a "sticky" global function.
Perhaps select the option in the Utility menu or something and your 4 knobs would always be Input gain, Bass, Middle ,Treble. Then perhaps hold X or Y to toggle other global configurations.
To be honest there's a few buttons on the Axe Fx I'd love to be able to remap as I think there's a few I've never even pressed.
 
tallcoolone said:
Tube amps are easy--if you have a great low volume tone, it ALWAYS sounds 'better' when you turn it up. Not the case with modeling--a great low volume tone can be piercing or boomy when turned up.
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Cant agree there. the old FM syndrome..... if a real amp sounds great at low volume, they invariably sound worse when up loud - or rather, they may SOUND better (normally because everything louder sounds better......) but they dont sit in the mix as well. They are more often than not too boomy, and too piercing up loud unless they are dialed in loud.

BUT, as amps have knobs - its easy to push up the mids or dial back the bass. The RAC12 does ad that - and IMO is a must if you want to tweek on the fly easily. Not that it cant be dont one the AFX, and I almost never used the a/b/c/d knobs - just the global levels and EQ. The cost of the RAC12 isnt that high, when you take into account the overall rig cost (that is the % extra over the AFX/Midi board and monitoring you need already), but its optional so those using the AFX exclusively in a studio (so who are not likely to need the functionality) dont HAVE to have it.
 
To the OP's point, the Axe-Fx rack has four perfectly useable knobs on the front panel, but they don't change any block parameters when in recall mode (on a preset, no editing) which is the cause of a solvable problem. *edit* Someone posted there is a mapping function - it requires per-preset mapping, so 80 individual mapping maneuvers if you have 20 presets. That jolted my memory. I tried this, and if I recall correctly, the screen doesn't change to indicate the parameter you're changing or by how much, and you have to go through a save maneuver, which is why I now remember abandoning this approach.

Maybe it's too complicated to implement, but if users could map one parameter from any block to each of the 4 front panel knobs life would be so much easier, and this might be a more user-friendly implementation.
  • Activate/move a front panel knob, the unit goes into edit mode for the amp, cab, drive, etc mapped to the knob, goes to the parameter mapped to the knob, and the display changes to spell the block, the parameter and a big number for the value. This is similar to RAC12 implementation.
  • Move the knob the knob a second time, either way, and it begins changing the value of the assigned parameter accordingly
  • The parameters autosave in 10 seconds unless the user presses "exit"
  • Done, Done and Done
  • In any other mode except preset/recall, knob mapping is superseded by normal functionality
Turning the 4 knobs in this mode wouldn't be global. It wouldn't change those parameters across all blocks, just the block(s) in the preset you're playing.

If you happen to NOT have that block or specific "knob" in your preset, the front panel knob is inactive. This encourages mapping of your most-tweaked, mission-critical parameters.

Having a fast tweak like this available is very desirable for gigging. All you need to do is watch Jeff Beck or Jaco Pastorius or others to see the usefulness of a 2-second, mid-song tweak. Plus it makes the unit much more user-friendly at the gig or in the studio.

Honestly, after seeing the RAC12 implementation, I'm surprised Fractal didn't implement something similar.
 
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solo-act said:
To the OP's point, the Axe-Fx rack has four perfectly useable knobs on the front panel, but they don't change any block parameters when in recall mode (on a preset, no editing) which is the cause of a solvable problem.
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The "A" knob scrolls between scenes at the Recall screen. Does anyone know what they did before scenes were added? I got my XL after that.
 
I use the front panel more than Axe Edit most of the time, so I've gotten pretty comfortable with it. One feature I would LOVE to have more than additional quick controls is a way to enter in exact values instead of having to scroll through a ton of in between values. A numeric keypad overlay for the menu buttons would be awesome. There's 12 buttons so you could have digits 1234567890, period for decimal numbers, and minus for negative values. Dialing in a bunch of specific values can get tedious after a while using the wheel.
 
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solo-act said:
Maybe it's too complicated to implement, but if users could map one parameter from any block to each of the 4 front panel knobs life would be so much easier.
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You can do that now on a per-preset basis, just not globally.
 
AllanH said:
Is that really possible? Would you please talk me through it?
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Assign the parameter of your choice to a modifier. Then edit the modifier. Under Source, choose either MANUAL A, B, C or D.
 
To me the front panel could use an upgrade. Line 6 had a lot better ideas for the Helix front panel and a lot of the same ideas power the RAC12. I've pretty much totally stopped using the front panel in favor of just doing everything from Axe-Edit.
 
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