Making the MFC and Axe-Fx III work together?

[rnjscooter]

For Scenes, you assign the SAME CC number to multiple switches. Each scene switch sends the same CC but a different data value.

So, the switches need to be grouped because only 1 scene is active at a time. Adding them to a group makes sure the LEDs keep proper state.

For example, if you have Scene 1 on, you want the LED on for that button. If you change to scene 2, you want that LED to go on BUT you want the LED for scene 1 to go off. Switch groups do that... But you can only have 5 buttons in a group.

The "none" comment is because most CC buttons have an on and off value. When you press the button, the ON value is sent and when you press it again the OFF value is sent.

Scenes are not an on/off situation. If you press the same Scene button a second time, you want it to do nothing... So use "none" for the value on the MFC.



The Axe Fx III has no support for this as far as I know. You will need a USB to midi adapter to connect your computer to your MFC.

I use the MidiSport UNO.

Thanks unix-guy! Will try tonight when I get home from an all day picnic with the wife

 

[rllw]

http://forum.fractalaudio.com/threa...mfc101-as-midi-controller-for-axe-iii.138241/

 

[rnjscooter]

Midi out from MFC to midi in on Axe Fx III. Easy to remember if you think about it: the MFC controls the Axe Fx by telling it (sending OUT) instructions.

I would do this:

Make a list of what you need to control like Scenes, Drive on/off, etc.

Then go into your Axe Fx II global midi settings and note the CC numbers used there, assuming you still have it. If not, just pick numbers from 1-128 and assign as needed (it doesn't matter as long as they are unique).

Then go into the Axe Fx III in the midi menu and set the same CC for each of those items.

Next you'll want to assign those same CC numbers to the buttons of the MFC - I would highly recommend using MFC-EDIT.

For Scenes, you'll get best results by sticking to 5 or less. Also, you'll want to set the OFF value to "none" for those buttons AND you'll want to add them to a switch group so that they are mutually exclusive.

The last thing on Scenes is to set the data values: 0-7 map to scenes 1-8. That is the value you set for the ON value. So, scene 1 on value is 0, scene 2 value is 1, etc.

ok I just took pics of all my global midi settings on my 2, I will try to replicate on my III. As far as MFC edit is concerned, I havent used it since the first week I bought it, as once I had my songs in it I was done. I will have to relearn how I got my MFC to show up on my computer screen.

Thanks to the others that left more links. I am so stressed out about this, as I have a learning disability, that I am just gonna start with making my III look like my II in global settings.

Thx unix-guy. Sorry I am so stressed out. I literally have no idea what any of this stuff means. Attachment one, should I be worrying about anything on this page? Then attachment 2, these are all the number I have to enter in the 3? attachment 3 and 4, do i need to do anything w pedals and x/y?

thx, man I seriously have to stop for a few minutes, I get so stressed out when I dont understand something. It's why I literally will not touch anything I buy until I read the entire manual, TWICE. Just a part of my learning issues, sorry.

 

[rnjscooter]

To turn an effect on or off with a button press (frequently referred to as IAs, Instant Access buttons) you must send the CC number for the related effect and the data value indicating that it should be off or on.

Not sure what the related data is?

To turn an effect off, you need to send the CC number and a data value equivalent to off, which is anything from 0-63 (typically 0). To turn an effect on, the same process is used but you send the value equivalent to on, which is anything from 64-127 (typically 127).

Still not sure how this works. I guess I am understanding the concept of what you are saying but unsure how it relates to what I do to make it happen.

Then you have Continuous Controller pedals. These send a range of data values for a given CC number. They are commonly used to control a "Volume" pedal or a "Wah" pedal. In this case, the CC number is associated with a "level" or "control" knob on the block as opposed to the Bypass used with off and on. When you move a controller pedal, it will send a data value for that CC number between 0 and 127.

uh, ya. Sorry unix-guy. I need to focus on one thing at a time

For Scenes, you'll get best results by sticking to 5 or less. Also, you'll want to set the OFF value to "none" for those buttons AND you'll want to add them to a switch group so that they are mutually exclusive.

The last thing on Scenes is to set the data values: 0-7 map to scenes 1-8. That is the value you set for the ON value. So, scene 1 on value is 0, scene 2 value is 1, etc.

ya, I have no idea what you are saying, or what I am supposed to do sorry. Dont reply to me on this stuff and frustrate yourself. Let me get thru step one. seeing if I can even figure out how to set the CC's. The value stuff you are talking about will have to be another step when I come up for air. Sorry, this literally makes me wanna cancel my shows.... Its beyond overwhelming.... I unfortunately learn best from watching a video, over and over and over, again........

 

[rnjscooter]

ok, I have no idea if I am supposed to change anything in general. so I am gonna move on to mapping? I just marvel at how you guys understand this stuff......

 

[rnjscooter]

I read thru this https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...controller-with-axe-fxii-or-axe-fxiii.135017/

and this https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...mfc101-as-midi-controller-for-axe-iii.138241/

and all of unix-guys posts to me. I am so down on myself, wish I could understand this stuff..........

Thanks everyone for your time. I gotta shut it down or I will throw myself into a deep depression, something that easily happens when my learning disability keeps me from understanding things......

thanks everyone for all your time......

 

[rnjscooter]

Yep - will work for you as it is working or me. MFC midi out to FX III midi in, 2 expression pedals plugged to MFC. Can do bank up/down, select presets, IA's turn blocks on and off, and I use Reveal to get to IA1-5 for my Scene 1-5. Works fine - but no tuner, or tap tempo.

If you don't want to run sep. power on stage to MFC, could get this cable and keep the wall wart at the rack unit. https://btpa.com/FAS03-XX.html

Man I wish I were as smart as you. I got as far as copying the control tab of the O/O menu of my II. And I am not even sure if I even needed to do that............

 

[rnjscooter]

maybe by morning someone can help me understand the difference between attachment one and attachment 2-4?

thanks everyone.........

 

[Rex]

maybe by morning someone can help me understand the difference between attachment one and attachment 2-4?

thanks everyone.........

The green picture shows the Axe-Fx II where you different block bypasses are assigned to MIDI CC numbers. The third picture shows the Bypass page on the Axe-Fx III. It also allows you to assign block bypasses to MIDI CC numbers. It's just that there is nothing assigned there yet. That's why the all say "None."

The other two pictures aren't related to the first picture at all.

 

[trancegodz]

I added some more info to post #9 of this thread that might be helpful.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...controller-with-axe-fxii-or-axe-fxiii.135017/

 

[rnjscooter]

The green picture shows the Axe-Fx II where you different block bypasses are assigned to MIDI CC numbers. The third picture shows the Bypass page on the Axe-Fx III. It also allows you to assign block bypasses to MIDI CC numbers. It's just that there is nothing assigned there yet. That's why the all say "None."

The other two pictures aren't related to the first picture at all.

Thx Rex. so ya I will change all the channels back to none then, and do all the bypass numbers. I appreciate it. I still dont know if I am supposed to do anything with the general, mapping or channels tab, but I haven't completed even the first step unix-guy wrote, so I know I am no where near close. thx again Rex

 

[rnjscooter]

I added some more info to post #9 of this thread that might be helpful.

https://forum.fractalaudio.com/thre...controller-with-axe-fxii-or-axe-fxiii.135017/

wow, yes I can tell. thx for that, I will get on it tomorrow. I still feel like I am supposed to do a bunch of stuff to the III as unix-guy said these things have to be done.........

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CCs consist of two parts: the CC number (0-127) and an associated data value (also 0-127).

To turn an effect on or off with a button press (frequently referred to as IAs, Instant Access buttons) you must send the CC number for the related effect and the data value indicating that it should be off or on.

What CC number you use is dependant on the device being controlled. Most devices have specific numbers associated to specific effects.

In the Axe Fx III the CC values are not set by default - you need to assign a CC number to the effect you want to control, and the set the MFC to use the same CC number.

To turn an effect off, you need to send the CC number and a data value equivalent to off, which is anything from 0-63 (typically 0). To turn an effect on, the same process is used but you send the value equivalent to on, which is anything from 64-127 (typically 127).

Then you have Continuous Controller pedals. These send a range of data values for a given CC number. They are commonly used to control a "Volume" pedal or a "Wah" pedal. In this case, the CC number is associated with a "level" or "control" knob on the block as opposed to the Bypass used with off and on. When you move a controller pedal, it will send a data value for that CC number between 0 and 127.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In your post #9 you said..... First you have to set up all of the user cc numbers in the Axe FXIII as described at the bottom of this post. This takes a while, but it's global so you only have to do it once.............. I wish I understood the terminology better. I am not sure why only the bypass states are getting cc numbers. But I will do only that, then go to the MFC.... I hope...........

I guess I will ask those questions tomorrow. I honestly don't know how you guys know this stuff. Discouraging that I am unable to hang in there understand ........ It honestly has me to the point of tears. I read and read and stare and stare and 4 hours later I haven't figured out anything other than what I had done so far was completely wrong

 

[Rex]

Spoiler alert:

You've placed a wall of posts in this thread, containing a wall of questions. To be honest, I don't have time to devote to all of them. So instead, I'll just address what you said in your original post:

I would settle for 5 scenes and be done with it.

So here's how to get scenes working with your MFC-101 and Axe-FX III.

ASSUMING you have footswitches set up on your MFC that successfully changed scenes on your Axe II (sorry, I don't have an MFC so I'm not the best guy to tell you how to set up the MFC); and

ASSUMING you didn't change anything MIDI-wise on your Axe II; and

ASSUMING your MFC was working successfully with an Axe II...


1) On the Axe-Fx III, go to Setup > MIDI/Remote > General and set MIDI Channel to 1.

2) Go to Setup > MIDI/Remote / Other and set Scene Select to 34.


If my above assumptions listed above were correct, you should now have scenes working on your Axe III via your MFC.


Finally — Don't give up! You will have a couple of Aha! MIDI moments, and you'll understand what seems weird to you now.

Knock 'em dead!

 

[unix-guy]

Spoiler alert:

You've placed a wall of posts in this thread, containing a wall of questions. To be honest, I don't have time to devote to all of them. So instead, I'll just address what you said in your original post:



So here's how to get scenes working with your MFC-101 and Axe-FX III.

ASSUMING you have footswitches set up on your MFC that successfully changed scenes on your Axe II (sorry, I don't have an MFC so I'm not the best guy to tell you how to set up the MFC); and

ASSUMING you didn't change anything MIDI-wise on your Axe II; and

ASSUMING your MFC was working successfully with an Axe II...


1) On the Axe-Fx III, go to Setup > MIDI/Remote > General and set MIDI Channel to 1.

2) Go to Setup > MIDI/Remote / Other and set Scene Select to 34.


If my above assumptions listed above were correct, you should now have scenes working on your Axe III via your MFC.


Finally — Don't give up! You will have a couple of Aha! MIDI moments, and you'll understand what seems weird to you now.

Knock 'em dead!

Great suggestion @Rex!

But I think he will at least need to set to MFC to use Axe Fx Mode of "none" otherwise it will likely have problems communicating, and also if the FASLink or EtherCon were previous connection methods the port will need it's setting changed to midi.

 

[unix-guy]

@rnjscooter - stick with it!

There are a lot of helpful people here. Somebody will help!

If you can live with just 5 scenes for now, let's use that as a target goal.

The two steps Rex outlined above will prepare the Axe Fx III to use CC #34 for scenes using the default value.

I'm going to use MFC-EDIT to create a file you can simply upload to your MFC.

I will set it to use buttons 1-5 for scenes 1-5.

However, it assumes you have a mkIII MFC. Do you?

I'll post the file on this thread in a few minutes.

How many expression pedals do you use? I can try to include those, too.

 

[unix-guy]

Ok - attached is an MFC config sysex file that has buttons 1-5 set to control scenes 1-5. It also has the 4 expression pedal ports setup to use the CC values for the 1st 4 external controller pedals as used on the Axe Fx II (16, 17, 18, 19 - which you showed your Axe Fx II is using in a prior screenshot). The other 12 buttons should all operate as preset buttons.

First thing to do: make a dump from your MFC so that you have a backup in the worst case scenario.

If you can't make a backup, you may not have a way to get back to a known starting point.

AFTER you make a backup, then proceed with downloading the attached file and sending that to your MFC with MFC-Edit or Fractal Bot.

Assuming you did the two steps that Rex outlined, then you should now have scene control.

IF that works, move on to the expression pedal setup.

On the Axe Fx III, go to the Midi/Remote setup and go to the External page. Make sure External Pedals 1-4 are set to use values CC numbers 16-19. At this point, your expression pedals should work.

Report back... also, post your backup file here and we can see the specific things you have it set to control. Then we can walk through maybe getting some other things under control.... but baby steps first

Edit: this file will address the Axe Fx mode and port settings I mentioned in the reply to Rex, too.

 

[rnjscooter]

so I have written and deleted 10 posts this morning so I don't get spoiler alerted again lol. Ok so here is my current image of MFC edit. it has a red exclamation mark on it, dont know why. Also image 2, I dont think I can use this, should I just close it out?

so, I wanted to try on my own to add IA#6 to be Drive 1. I kinda got stuck......

Type toggle? Send/prst? GBL? I havent a clue what those 3 things mean....

c1 CC# to 47. I think this is correct as thats what I set it to in my III copied form my II

c1 ch. dont know what this means

c1 off, i think unix-guy said set to 0?

c1 on, i think unix-guy said set to 127?

and then everything across the row from there I haven't a clue.

If I am doing good let me know and I wanna on my own try to add a few more IA's. Then after that I won't know what to do anymore so many Q's. sorry again for my learning disability. I think If I ever get thru this I wouldn't even remember how to make a video for people like me........

I'm going to spend the day w my mom who has cancer. Will check back in later today. thanks guys!

 

[rnjscooter]

Ok - attached is an MFC config sysex file that has buttons 1-5 set to control scenes 1-5. It also has the 4 expression pedal ports setup to use the CC values for the 1st 4 external controller pedals as used on the Axe Fx II (16, 17, 18, 19 - which you showed your Axe Fx II is using in a prior screenshot). The other 12 buttons should all operate as preset buttons.

First thing to do: make a dump from your MFC so that you have a backup in the worst case scenario.

If you can't make a backup, you may not have a way to get back to a known starting point.

AFTER you make a backup, then proceed with downloading the attached file and sending that to your MFC with MFC-Edit or Fractal Bot.

Assuming you did the two steps that Rex outlined, then you should now have scene control.

IF that works, move on to the expression pedal setup.

On the Axe Fx III, go to the Midi/Remote setup and go to the External page. Make sure External Pedals 1-4 are set to use values CC numbers 16-19. At this point, your expression pedals should work.

Report back... also, post your backup file here and we can see the specific things you have it set to control. Then we can walk through maybe getting some other things under control.... but baby steps first

Edit: this file will address the Axe Fx mode and port settings I mentioned in the reply to Rex, too.

Just so you know I didn't make a back up sorry. I dont know how to do that. I rust realized I better save this file before I turn everything off, so here we go. hopefully you can see it and tell me how I am doing.

Last question, how do I send it to the MFC if my midi cable is MFC out to Axe in? shouldn't be the other way around?

I will check in tonight when I am back from my moms.....

thx unix-guy!

 

[unix-guy]

so I have written and deleted 10 posts this morning so I don't get spoiler alerted again lol. Ok so here is my current image of MFC edit. it has a red exclamation mark on it, dont know why. Also image 2, I dont think I can use this, should I just close it out?

You might be able to use the visual MFC mode (your 2nd pic) to add the IAs.

Add a couple and then come back to the page on your 1st pic and see if it added the right stuff.

The "Name" column is just a name, doesn't affect anything. The "Axe Fx Function" column is what would be sent in Axe Fx mode, which we are not using.

If you never modified the CC number assignments in the Axe Fx, then you will probably get the other stuff correctly populated.

so, I wanted to try on my own to add IA#6 to be Drive 1. I kinda got stuck......

Type toggle? Send/prst? GBL? I havent a clue what those 3 things mean....

Type should be toggle. That means your are toggling on and off.

Send with preset means to send the state of this button on preset change. You want Yes.

GBL means Global - this switch is persistent. You want Yes.

c1 CC# to 47. I think this is correct as thats what I set it to in my III copied form my II

The MFC can send up to 2 control messages per button press. The "c1" and "c2" related columns are for control message 1 (c1) and message 2 (c2).

All of the "c2 CC#" values should be "off". You then don't care about the other c2 columns.

So, yes, c1 CC number 47 (assuming that is Drive 1 Bypass CC) is what you want.

c1 ch. dont know what this means

Control message 1 midi channel. It should be 1, since you are using midi channel 1. You would want the same value in every row.

c1 off, i think unix-guy said set to 0?

Correct

c1 on, i think unix-guy said set to 127?

Correct

and then everything across the row from there I haven't a clue.

Leave those as they are.

If I am doing good let me know and I wanna on my own try to add a few more IA's. Then after that I won't know what to do anymore so many Q's. sorry again for my learning disability. I think If I ever get thru this I wouldn't even remember how to make a video for people like me........

I'm going to spend the day w my mom who has cancer. Will check back in later today. thanks guys!

I hope you enjoy your time with your mom.

You are making great progress!

One thing I forgot to mention: if you don't have a USB to midi adapter, you can use the Axe Fx II as the interface to send and receive dumps on the MFC (as you previously mentioned) but I can't help on that since I've never used that method.

What I would suggest after you add the Drive IA:

Save the file in MFC-edit.

Follow my previous steps of taking a backup and then load the file.

This way, you can get validation that it is working. After that, you can make more changes, but let us get confirmation of basic functions first.

 

[unix-guy]

Just so you know I didn't make a back up sorry. I dont know how to do that. I rust realized I better save this file before I turn everything off, so here we go. hopefully you can see it and tell me how I am doing.

Last question, how do I send it to the MFC if my midi cable is MFC out to Axe in? shouldn't be the other way around?

I will check in tonight when I am back from my moms.....

thx unix-guy!

I think you posted this while I was typing my reply

As I mentioned at the end of that reply, I don't have experience using the Axe Fx II as the midi interface to the MFC. I have only ever used a USB to midi adapter connected to my computer. I highly recommend it.

I would bet there a video of how to send and receive dumps on the MFC via Axe Fx II (you can NOT use the Axe Fx III for this part). A backup is just receiving a dump - the opposite of sending the file.

Let me see if I can find a video and I'll load up your file and look at it, too.