Wish Internal FX Loop

Whynot Jansveld

Whynot Jansveld

Member
First off, bassist here with a couple of weeks under my belt with the AX8. Very impressed so far. It really satisfies my tweaker needs -- I had a few relatively unusual effects configurations beforehand that I've quite successfully been able to recreate on the AX8, and of course the sky's the limit from here.

Apologies if this has been discussed before, but I've been wishing for an internal FX loop block (this is unrelated to the current FX loop block, which connects to the physical auxiliary inputs and outputs.) The idea is to 'group' a number of blocks together, and to be able to turn them on or off together as a group, complete with mix (dry/wet) and level controls.

Here's an example: as a bass player, I love blending an amped signal with my clean signal. The above scenario would allow me to put an amp and cab block inside the FX loop -- when off, I would just get my clean tone, and when on, I could set my perfect blend of clean and dirty. Or let's say I have a synth sound comprised of a compressor, a filter, the synth block and an EQ. If I could turn all of those on or off with one footswitch, I could go between off (clean) and on (blend of clean and synth). Many more possibilities of course.

I realize that, technically, this can all be done with Scenes. The only problem there is that a Scene determines states for ALL blocks, and sometimes that's just not what you want. If I already have an octaver going, and I want to kick in my amp/clean blend, changing scenes would likely also change the on-off states for my octaver and other blocks, and I may want those to stay exactly how I had them.

I also realize this would present a challenge in how this would be represented graphically on the grid. Love to hear your thoughts.
 
Set up a sidechain on a separate grid row. Put the effects you want in the sidechain. Mute one of those blocks to turn off the sidechain.
 
Parallel chain and a mixer block will accomplish this. You can also use a controller to blend the chains in real time.
 
Rex said:
Set up a sidechain on a separate grid row. Put the effects you want in the sidechain. Mute one of those blocks to turn off the sidechain.
Click to expand...

That's how I currently have it. So as per my example, my main signal path is clean, amp plus cab are in a parallel chain, and I can turn those on or off by muting or unmuting the amp block. The only problem there is that I can't blend the mix -- the amped signal gets stacked upon the clean signal and my total output will be much higher with the amped signal on than off. I may want 60% dirty and 40% clean when I stomp on that switch, and I haven't figure out a way to do that other than using scenes, which has its own drawbacks.
 
Oh noes! Hmm. How about some creative use of two volume blocks, one on both branches of the split signal?
 
aziz said:
Oh noes! Hmm. How about some creative use of two volume blocks, one on both branches of the split signal?
Click to expand...

Yeah, thought about that too. Still, no way to use a footswitch to go from a clean tone to a blend of clean and assorted effects without having to use scenes I guess...
 
Tie a modifier to the output level,of the last block in the sidechain. Then tie the same modifier to the output level of the last block in your main chain. Tweak the modifier values in both places to get exactly the mix you want.
 
Rex said:
Tie a modifier to the output level,of the last block in the sidechain. Then tie the same modifier to the output level of the last block in your main chain. Tweak the modifier values in both places to get exactly the mix you want.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Still, no way to do this so that I can step on a footswitch to go from clean to clean/dirty blend, correct? I'll have to resort to using external switches or expression pedals, or scenes.
 
Whynot Jansveld said:
Fair enough. Still, no way to do this so that I can step on a footswitch to go from clean to clean/dirty blend, correct? I'll have to resort to using external switches or expression pedals, or scenes.
Click to expand...
The next firmware release, currently in beta testing, will allow you to do this with the onboard footswitches. No externals needed.
 
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