I keep seeing the concern about the FC-6 and FC-12 controllers being insufficient.
I could understand this more easily if it was prompted by comparing their 4-part color-rings with those on the Line 6 gear (which are solid, I believe), or if it was prompted by comparing the scribble strips on RJM Mastermind controllers (which can light up in various colors, which I believe Fractal's FC series cannot), or if it was prompted by the FC-series' main screen being, it seems, smaller than those on the Masterminds. Those are real differences.
I'm puzzled by the concern about the lack of foot-switches, though. Here's why:
For a given market of players, some will want 6 buttons. Some 8. Some 10. Some 12, still others 14, still others 16, et cetera, all the way to 28+ switches.
But by making 2 sizes of small daisy-chainable controllers, Fractal will make all those numbers possible, while reducing the costs of each unit.
Want only 6 switches? Use an FC-6. Want 8? Use the FC-6 and add a 2-button outboard switch. 10? Add two of the 2-button outboard switches.
Want 12? Use an FC-12. Want 14? Use the FC-12 and add a 2-button outboard switch. 16? Add two of the 2-button outboard switches.
Want 18? Use an FC-12 linked to an FC-6. Want 20? Use the FC-12/FC-6 combo and add a 2-button outboard switch. 22? Add two of the 2-button outboard switches.
Want 24? Use two FC-12s linked. Want 26? Use the double-FC-12 combo and add a 2-button outboard switch. 28? Add two of the 2-button outboard switches.
Seriously. Unless you're congenitally hostile to even numbers and really want an odd number of switches, you can get any number of switches your heart desires. Everybody gets exactly what they want.
Moreover (and this is what I think some folks are missing) they get it more cheaply than they otherwise might.
Typically, when setting up a production run of identical footcontroller units, you have to pay a certain fixed cost. This cost needs to be covered by the sales price of however many units you sell from that production run (hopefully all of them). The more units sold, the more your fixed cost is divided up across more units.
By making FC-6s and FC-12s, Fractal can reduce the cost-per-groups-of-6-footswitches quite a lot because a lot of people are going to be buying FC-6s and/or FC12s.
But if you add an FC-24 into the mix, now you have not 2 production runs for any given stretch of time, but 3. That's half-again the fixed costs. But each production run will be producing fewer units, because those who would have bought two units and linked them will instead buy the one larger unit. For each FC-24 sold, two FC-12s are not sold. The number of FC-12s produced will need to drop by double the number of FC-24s produced. Correspondingly, the fixed cost of the production runs is divided among significantly fewer units, and the per-unit price of each FC-12 goes up. Meanwhile, you also don't sell as many FC-24s as you would have sold of FC-12s. So, the fixed cost of those production runs is divided among a small number of units, making each unit more expensive (measured on a per-button basis).
As a result, the cost of a single FC-24 might end up being greater than buying two FC-12s and daisy-chaining them (purely because of the reduced Economies of Scale). And if the FC-24 is still more costly than two FC-12s, it will be a closer price than many suppose.
Meanwhile, if Fractal decides to offer the FC-24 (instead of those customers "creating" an FC-24 by combining two 12's), then obviously for every FC-24 sold, the number of FC-12s sold is reduced by two. That takes a big chunk out of the number of FC-12s sold, reducing the Economies of Scale for people who only want 12/14/16 switches: Those folks now pay a fair bit more.
Do I know that, given the likely numbers of FC-24 and FC-12 buyers, the introduction of an FC-24 would result in FC-12s costing more? Pretty much, because it's hard to see how that could be economically avoidable.
And do I know that the introduction of an FC-24 would also yield an FC-24 sales price higher than the combined costs of two FC-12s (if no FC-24 were offered)?
No, I don't know that. Fractal doesn't tell me sales-projections, market studies results, or their manufacturing costs.
All I'm saying is that it is possible. And that may very well lie behind Fractal's decision to sell FC-6s and FC-12s, and allow us to combine them to get whatever we want.
Even if the FC-24 price was still lower than the combined double-12 cost would have been (absent the introduction of an FC-24 option), it likely wouldn't be much lower.
Anyway, the ability to combine exactly the units we want to get exactly the footswitches we want...surely that's not a BAD thing?
The square form-factor of the MFC-101 is okay for some. For others, it doesn't fit inconveniently on their pedalboard. Some folks would rather have six buttons on the right-hand side, and twelve buttons on the left.
Well, now they can.
So I think the FC-6, FC-12 lineup is a good idea. If I need 24 switches I can easily, and pretty economically, have them. Works for me.