Just got a shipping notification for my new RAC12!

Just got it today. Absolute no-brainer to get working, at least for the default front panel amp setting. Which is basically my main use case. About the only improvement that jumps out so far would be a dedicated on/off switch on the front. I can rig a switch to the adapter, so it's not a major thing.

I was a little hesitant to take my setup out to a jam or an audition before because I was afraid of having to dive through the menus. No hesitation now.

As Suzy Creamcheese would have said, "Wowie Zowie!"
 
Got mine today too. Very impressed with the build quality, and yeah, simple and straight forward to get it hooked up and working. Now I gotta spend some time obsessing over my ideal page layouts ;)
 
Finally got round to putting mine in the rack yesterday. Like everyone else, really quick and easy to get set up. Have to run the editor as admin for now, but will figure out if I did something weird with the driver installation.

Seems really easy to use, makes the Axe-FX truly accessible for me even with default page setup. 30 minutes tweaking and I'll have every menu I ever regularly dive through in Axe Edit or from the front panel within 2 or 3 button presses. Great bit of equipment and a very useful addition. And to think I was considering going wireless to fill the spare rack space...

Liam
 
The placement was driven by the rear space more than anything else. Moving from the RAC12 (shallowest) on top to the AXE FX (deepest) at the bottom.



This order provides the easiest access from back, where if you are going to move things around you need to be able to easily get to the power cables and audio outputs.



Because the RAC12 is so far in the back and doesn't have an on/off switch I made one out of an enclosure that used to contain the buffer for my old pedalboard. It's also got the advantage in that I can now just plug in the wall wart for the RAC12 the same way I do the Carvin power amp and AXE FX. It's on there with Dual Lock, which is way stronger than velcro. It's not going to move anywhere.

 
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I only have a 3 space rack for the Axe & the RAC12 & I can't even come close to being able to plug in the USB cable while it is racked. I had to un-rack it, plug it in & leave it including when it's not connected to a computer. Hopefully that is not causing any issues. I have had a couple of weird audio drop outs & sound changes when I hadn't changed anything which did cause the edit light to come on the Axe. Im not sure it they are related.
 
notalemming said:
I only have a 3 space rack for the Axe & the RAC12 & I can't even come close to being able to plug in the USB cable while it is racked. I had to un-rack it, plug it in & leave it including when it's not connected to a computer. Hopefully that is not causing any issues. I have had a couple of weird audio drop outs & sound changes when I hadn't changed anything which did cause the edit light to come on the Axe. Im not sure it they are related.
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Was thinking of getting something like this. Just an extender so I can run a short cable to the connector and they have something that lines up closer to the back so I don't have to go reaching back there. Same principle as my power run to above sans the on/off switch.

https://www.firefold.com/usb-type-a...male-adapter?gclid=CKWZ6dHK98wCFVE0aQodsCIOcA
 
A question for any RAC12 and MFC-101 users (and maybe even Al...:)). I've got my RAC12 connected via bi-directional MIDI, and my MFC-101 Mk III connected via FAS link. Everything appears to work exactly as it should, except that when I make an X/Y switch from the MFC-101, the RAC12 does not update to the new X or Y instance. It does it fine when I switch X/Y from the front panel, or from the RAC12, but not from the MFC-101. If I flick between pages on the RAC12 it updates to the correct X or Y, and weirdly if I switch between scenes with the MFC-101 it also updates to the correct X or Y. Do I have something wrong in my setup? Anyone else noticed this?

I have only tried this with Drives 1 and 2 so far, as they are the Blocks I most often want to flick between X and Y on.

Fabulous piece of kit, absolutely love it, just wondering if there's anything I can do to correct this.

Liam

(Axe FX 2 MkII XL, Q2.04 actually, might have lied, could be Q3.02 by now, I'll check)
 
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LiamH said:
A question for any RAC12 and MFC-101 users (and maybe even Al...:)). I've got my RAC12 connected via bi-directional MIDI, and my MFC-101 Mk III connected via FAS link. Everything appears to work exactly as it should, except that when I make an X/Y switch from the MFC-101, the RAC12 does not update to the new X or Y instance. It does it fine when I switch X/Y from the front panel, or from the RAC12, but not from the MFC-101. If I flick between pages on the RAC12 it updates to the correct X or Y, and weirdly if I switch between scenes with the MFC-101 it also updates to the correct X or Y. Do I have something wrong in my setup? Anyone else noticed this?

I have only tried this with Drives 1 and 2 so far, as they are the Blocks I most often want to flick between X and Y on.

Fabulous piece of kit, absolutely love it, just wondering if there's anything I can do to correct this.

Liam

(Axe FX 2 MkII XL, Q2.04 actually, might have lied, could be Q3.02 by now, I'll check)
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That's the same problem with AxeEdit i guess, if you have AxeEdit running and change X/Y from the MFC i guess AxeEdit doesnt reflect the change ?
Because the AxeFx doesnt send a resync message...
 
I brought the same issue up when I got my RAC12, as I use the amps X/Y all the time, and normally from the MFC. Its something that cant be made to work. apparently (after testing), the MFC doesnt send a MIDI Change message when switching X/Y states (or something along that line) so the RAC12 which monitors the signals cant react to it.

You will find that when you use the front panel knobs - the correct X/Y state (ie the one selected on the MFC) is controlled - its just the initial states shown on the RAC 12 are those of the other state. Its not ideal - rather annoying at times - but I've learned to live with it.
 
I just received mine today. Yay! I skimmed through the manual for a minute, just enough to figure out how to connect the MIDI cable. Didn't try to program it yet, just plugged it in.

BAM! Instant awesomeness (it probably also helps that last night I bought a new Fender American Elite Strat, major upgrade from my old mediocre guitar that I've had for 20 yrs).

The thing I did not really appreciate before getting this, was how much I was "in my head" when it came to programming patches, and how the RAC-12 frees me to listen with my ears and feel with my heart and body, just turning knobs with freedom from the OCD of seeing the numbers. I tended to dial the knobs via AxeEdit or front panel until there were integer (or simple fractional value) settings just to make the display look nicer and easier to remember. And the slight delay of typing in the number or using a mouse or navigating to the front panel is very small, but if you multiply it by 1000 tweak attempts, it would take forever. The speed-up of using physical easy knobs means you use up less patience making tweaks, and can quickly cycle through changes to get dialed in fast. I never touched Depth, thinking it would make me too boomy in the mix with the band. Now I'm all over that stuff, and experimenting with increasing the low-cut value in cabs while also increasing Depth to keep the rich tone but not step on the bass player. This RAC-12 is really exceptional for helping to dial in an amp sound from scratch. So worth it!

I haven't taken a few minutes to figure out the pages stuff yet, program it to control other parameters, but I can already see how I'll want to set up a few things with it. But going from zero to awesome/fun was great for me.
 
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