FX8 Midi Switching - More Midi Blocks Needed?

F

Frankie FX

Member
Hi there,

I'm new to the Fractal world having been a longtime Line 6 user - just making the transition from a Helix that I have been using live for the last few years as an FX processor without using any of the amp modelling.
I'm completely convinced by the quality of FX in the FX8 but am having a bit of a problem when it comes to using the FX8 to switch my amp channels via MIDI.
I'm using a Bluguitar Amp1 which has 4 channels. What I've always done with the Line 6 stuff over the years is set up a preset and use the bottom row of switches to change the 4 channels of my amp and the top row to use as stomp on / offs for the individual FX with the occasional scene change.

From my initial exploration with the FX8, this seems impossible as there is only 2 MIDI blocks available to assign to switches per preset? I've managed to set these up and they work fine. While I realise they can send separate Program Change messages for the on/off state of the pedal, this still doesn't allow smooth switching of a four channel amp if you need instant access to each channel.

This seems very strange considering a MIDI block takes no processor power and so many amps / preamps are controllable by MIDI and have more than two channels. I understand that I'd be able to switch my amp's channels by putting program change messages within a Scene, but then I would also be storing the on/off states of FX within the preset so that would defeat what I'm trying to do. I may be missing something here?

Can anyone help with this as I'd hate to have to run a separate MIDI foot controller just to switch my amp. I see there has been a feature request a long while ago for more MIDI blocks on the FX8 but I very much doubt Fractal are going to be updating anything on this discontinued product.

Thanks,

Frank
 
The way to do channel switching by MIDI when you have as many options as you have is to use the scenes function. You can assign a MIDI command to trigger with every scene change. You don't have to use any MIDI blocks to accomplish this either. Check page 43 in the user manual for instructions on how to do this.

Once you have your scenes MIDI commands set up you will be able to change to any channel of your amp by switching scenes. I also use scenes to turn on or off effects. For example, I have a preset that looks like this:

Scene 1 = clean channel of the amp, no effects
Scene 2 = clean channel of the amp, reverb
Scene 3 = crunch channel of the amp with the amp's boost engaged, no effects
Scene 4 = crunch channel of the amp with amp's boost engaged, drive and delay engaged
Scene 5 = lead channel of the amp, no effects
Scene 6 = lead channel of the amp, reverb and delay
Scene 7 = lead channel of the amp with boost engaged, no effects
Scene 8 = lead channel of the amp with boost engaged, reverb and delay

I have scenes set to sticky mode and this allows me to access any of those eight scenes with the press of one button. I can go from the boosted lead channel with delay and reverb to the clean channel with no effects on one stomp. This one preset covers 90% of what I play.

Okay, so what if I want other options? I just make a new preset with different combinations of effects and amp channels per scene.

I hope this helps.
 
Thanks very much for getting back to me Organic and apologies for getting back to you so slow.
I did really want to keep scenes for changing to specific sounds as you mention in your post but also have the option to switch only my amp's 4 channels with dedicated footswitches. This allows for maximum flexibility. This would be possible if there was only 2 more Midi Blocks available per preset. The Helix has this capability, as do the older HD500's so I'm very surprised this is not an option on the FX8, after all, there is 4 relay switches available for amps that work with a regular footswitch - although again only 2 relay blocks per preset? The scenes are all well and good if you want to save on/off and parameter states for everything within the preset but not so good if you want to operate the FX8 in a more conventional stomp way.
There isn't enough scenes to offer every permeation of amp channel and effect combination so sometimes a bit of tap-dancing is necessary but opens up the scope of what is possible within a single preset. I often just want to operate everything on-the-fly depending on how I'm feeling on a gig rather than being locked into the programmed scenes.
Hope this makes sense. I'm sure I can get away with using a combination of the 2 midi blocks and a couple of scenes to change things in a not so smooth way but for full flexibility it looks like I need a separate MIDI foot controller to change my amp channels which is a shame and means one more thing to cart around to gigs.

Still, incredible sounding unit.

Cheers, all the best
 
I neglected to mention that there you can set some of the foot switches in a preset to control scene switching and leave the rest to do direct access to effects. For example, you could have the top row of foot switches setup for scenes 1-4 and (one scene per amp channel) and then leave four additional foot switches for whichever effects you want to have immediate stomp access to.
 
Thanks again for your thoughts mate.
I did work that out but wouldn’t I also be storing the FX blocks parameter and on off states within those scenes too? I assumed so which would mean that I wouldn’t just be switching amp channels. So for example if I was using a mod effect and say delay and I just wanted to switch amp channels and carry the FX blocks over when switching, if I used a scene to switch amp channels I would have to also have those effects enabled to make the switch seamless. This just wouldn’t be possiblefor every permutation. I might be wrong.
Cheers
 
Ah, good point about the scene switching turning off / on all of your effects. I don’t think there’s a way to avoid that. It sounds like the MIDI blocks will be your best bet to accomplish your switching goals.
 
Yeah, I’ve got the 2 MIDI blocks assigned to change
2 channels of my amp and one scene change dedicated to another amp channel. Just means changing channels won’t be seamless on the scene change if I’m using effects that I want to carry over. I use an expression pedal to control the level of my delay which means where ever this is set will be wiped when hitting the scene. Real shame you can’t have more MIDI blocks per preset as this would sort everything out and wouldn’t take up any CPU. Otherwise it’s a separate MIDI foot controller for amp channel changing
 
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