How are you using Volume pedal?

Kelleys Heroes

Kelleys Heroes

Experienced
I just purchased one of the Fractal pedals to use with my FC-6. Originally I thought I would use it primarily as a volume pedal and occasional wah for some presets. Looks like that isn't really the way most use them- so I have since set this globally ( is that right?) for input volume.

Does that mean it is not available for individual blocks? Is there a suggested way of doing this that makes the most sense for the axe 3 unit? Having a second pedal isn't out of the question, but not my preference as I want to go as minimal as possible.
 
JRkelley said:
so I have since set this globally ( is that right?) for input volume.

Does that mean it is not available for individual blocks?
Click to expand...
Correct.

You'd want to assign it to a VOL block or the OUT block in each preset where you wanted to use it as a volume pedal if you also wanted to use it for things other than volume control in some presets.

I use my expression pedals for all kinds of things: wah control, volume control, whammy pitch control, rotary and phaser speed, delay feedback level, delay tempo, tremolo tempo, chorus depth...that's just off the top of my head.
 
I use a Volume block on every preset, generally placed immediately before any Reverb or Delay blocks (so the trails continue after I drop the volume). I also currently have another expression pedal assigned to the level on a null filter block, with a range of 0 to 4 dB. I use this as a variable volume boost for those times when the rest of the band is running a little louder than usual and I need to squeeze a bit more volume out of my signal.

Like Ian, I also use an expression pedal (I have 3 on my pedal board) for all sorts of other things...delay or reverb mix, rotary speed, delay feedback, chorus depth, etc.
 
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TG3K said:
I use a Volume block on every preset, generally placed immediately before any Reverb or Delay blocks (so the trails continue after I drop the volume). I also currently have another expression pedal assigned to the level on a null filter block, with a range of 0 to 4 dB. I use this as a variable volume boost for those times when the rest of the band is running a little louder than usual and I need to squeeze a bit more volume out of my signal.

Like Ian, I also use an expression pedal (I have 3 on my pedal board) for all sorts of other things...delay or reverb mix, rotary speed, delay feedback, chorus depth, etc.
Click to expand...

May I have a preset?
What can I learn from?
I am very interested in the solution.
Thanks.
I use a Behringer FCB1010 pedal.
 
JRkelley said:
I just purchased one of the Fractal pedals to use with my FC-6. Originally I thought I would use it primarily as a volume pedal and occasional wah for some presets. Looks like that isn't really the way most use them- so I have since set this globally ( is that right?) for input volume.

Does that mean it is not available for individual blocks? Is there a suggested way of doing this that makes the most sense for the axe 3 unit? Having a second pedal isn't out of the question, but not my preference as I want to go as minimal as possible.
Click to expand...
Global means “always.” If it’s always, it can’t sometimes be something else.

Set the “sometimes” and “most times” uses per preset and the single pedal can do various things.
 
I use 4 Exp pedals for either the FC-6 or FC-12. Depending on the
preset/scene, I have them set to control various functions. Lately,
I've condensed several presets into one, and split them out into scenes.
This frees me up from jumping around between presets.
Pedal one is always assigned to Volume on any preset or scene. I have this
right after my Amp block to preserve Delay tails.

Right now I'm using 2 EV1's, 1 EV2, 1 Dunlop VolumeX

For clean scenes:
Pedal 2 = Delay Mix
Pedal 3 = Chorus mix
Pedal 4 = spacious Reverb or specialty effect mix

For heavy scenes:
Pedal 2 = Delay Mix
Pedal 3 = Flanger mix
Pedal 4 = Wah (auto on/off depending on pedal position).
(No on/off toe switch needed for Wah, just position of pedal. This is very handy).

The pedals are all set to auto position and blend in whatever Effect is assigned.
I find that some effects are very strong when blending in (Delay in particular), so I'll
adjust the min/max % so it max's out at 50% instead of 100%

As stated above, I guess you'll have to move away from Global to change the function
of a single pedal based on preset or scene. I don't use Globals so I'm not sure.

But you can control the function of the pedal by assigning it to a particular Channel
in any Effect block. By turning Channels on/off, it can control lots of parameters
between Scenes or Presets
 
@Jozsef Kiss, here is a quick preset that does several expression pedal tricks. I also used two Multiplex blocks just to make things more interesting. There are five scenes. On all of the scenes, Expression Pedal (EP) 1 is linked to a Volume block right after the Cab block.

There are two different Filter blocks. Filter block 1 is a null filter that gives 4 dB of boost. It is normally off, but can be turned on for any scene with a switch on the FC-6 or FC-12. It is basically a per-scene boost switch. If you turn it on in one scene, it will still be turned off in all the other scenes (until you turn it on in each other scene.) Filter block 2 is a null filter that can vary from 0 to 5 dB of boost, controlled by EP 3. It is turned on in all of the scenes, so if you raise the volume in Scene 1, the volume will already be raised in any other scene you select. This is useful when performing live if you want to increase the volume on all of your scenes at once. And since it's linked to an expression pedal, you can vary the boost anywhere between 0 and 5 dB.

I'm using EP 2 to control several other things, depending on the scene you select.

Scene 1 - Analog Mono Delay with Feedback controlled by EP 2
Scene 2 - Digital Stereo Delay with Mix controlled by EP 2
Scene 3 - Wah, which turns on automatically when you move EP 2...move to heel down position to turn it off
Scene 4 - Rotary with Speed controlled by EP 2
Scene 5 - Chorus with Rate and Depth both controlled at the same time by EP 2

These are just a few quick examples. Hopefully this preset will give you some ideas to use on your own presets.
 

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  • Expression Pedal Examples.syx
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If you choose an expression pedal with a toe switch (e.g Mission Engineering SP-1) you can use the pedal to control two blocks as well as turn alternate between them.

In other words, use it for volume normally, hit the toe switch, turn off the volume block - turn on the wah block, now use the pedal for wah.
 
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