New to FX8

Niels Beier

Niels Beier

Member
Hi guys,

I just got a second hand FX8 Mk I, and I'm really stoked on integrating this in my setup - however, I'm an analog caveman - your digital and midi-controlled effects confuses me!

Currently I'm running a Marshall JVM410hJS, which I controll all the switching on via MIDI, while running my various effects pedals through a G-Lab looper, which has everything set up for me in presets.

I'm looking to move this format to my FX8.

I've sorta managed to go through the manual, and understand the different aspects of presets, scenes, setting up the preset for post/pre effects, and how to setup the individual effects.
However, there are a lot of things that I didn't understand throughout the manual.

Now, I was hoping you guys could help me out, or redirect me to a thread, in which I can read up on these things.

There are a few specific things I'm looking to get out of my FX8:

1: Whenever I engage Drive 1 in a preset, it automatically engages Drive 2 as well - why's this happening? Can't I run the two drives separately?

2: I can't quite figure out how to make MIDI CC changes in my individual scenes. I'd like to set my FX8 up to the point, where the presets are song-based, say Preset A1 is Song 1 in our setlist, and then set the individual scenes for song parts: Riff, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Lead, etc.
Can I do that, or do I have to set up MIDI CC's for each preset only?

3: I'm not sure how to do this. I've been running a Strymon Mobius for all my modulation, and I really love the Rotary unit in this. What's cool about the Mobius, is I can tap the speed/tap tempo button once, in order to make the rotary ramp up to a high-speed, with natural acceleration or deceleration, going from fast to slow.
Is there a way to do the same thing with the Rotary block of the FX8?

4: As far as I know, my unit is running the latest firmware, however, it appears that sometimes the effects shown on the FS page doesn't add up with the effects present at the CGF page. Is this a common bug, or do I need to do something with my unit?
I have some presets where I set everything to NONE on the FS page, but then when I skip to the CGF page, the blocks are still present in the routing config. Huh?

Anyway, I'm a total noob, and I'd just love to get into this asap, to get the greatest tones of out my amp!

Thanks guys!

Kind regards,
Niels Beier, frontman,
Black Oak County,
Denmark
 
Question 1) Can you post a preset in which this happens?

Question 2) From the Manual:

TO SET THE MIDI MESSAGES FOR A SCENE...

The FX8 can send one MIDI Program Change (“PC”) and one Control Change (“CC”) message per scene. You can send different messages on different channels for each scene. Use this feature to change the channel of a MIDI-controlled amp, select presets on a connected Axe-FX, or control any other MIDI device.
  1. Load the desired preset and select the desired scene.

  2. Press PAGE from the Footswitch page to turn to the Configuration-screen (“CFG” tab).

  3. Use NAV and VALUE to select and edit the desired parameters: MIDI PC and MIDI CH for a MIDI Program Change message, and CC NUM, CC VAL, and CC CH for a CC message.
 
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Question 3) No idea, haven't tried this yet. Anyone else?

Question 4) The Footswitch page only shows what you are able to switch via the 8 Footswitches (go figure...), so it hasn't got anything to do with the effect configuration (except of course that you can only bypass effects that are actually contained in the configuration). You may e.g. want to assign only the 8 Scenes to individual footswitches - in that case none of your effect blocks will show up in the footswitches page...

From the Manual:

PROGRAMMING A FOOTSWITCH...

Remember, footswitch assignments do not change which blocks are in the preset. If you think of the FX8 like a separate processor and controller, these assignments would represent only the controller portion, while the processor itself would be the Config page (p. 28).

  • From the main Footswitch Page, turn NAV to select the desired footswitch (or just press the switch!)

  • Turn the VALUE knob to scroll through the list of available things to control. If the footswitch is set (as it is by default) to "PER-PRESET" only those effects actually placed on the current grid are available. If the footswitch is set to "GLOBAL" (see below) then ALL effects will be available—but the switch will be disabled unless the block it is assigned to control is present in the current preset.

  • Press ENTER to assign the effect or press EXIT to cancel.
 
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1: Whenever I engage Drive 1 in a preset, it automatically engages Drive 2 as well - why's this happening? Can't I run the two drives separately?
Click to expand...

Looks like both Drives are set to the same MIDI CC.
Best to reset the FX8 to factory specs. Go to Setup > Utility > Reset System Params.
 
2: I can't quite figure out how to make MIDI CC changes in my individual scenes. I'd like to set my FX8 up to the point, where the presets are song-based, say Preset A1 is Song 1 in our setlist, and then set the individual scenes for song parts: Riff, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Lead, etc. Can I do that, or do I have to set up MIDI CC's for each preset only?
Click to expand...

Will the FX8 be used as master (sending MIDI) or slave (receiving MIDI)?
 
3: I'm not sure how to do this. I've been running a Strymon Mobius for all my modulation, and I really love the Rotary unit in this. What's cool about the Mobius, is I can tap the speed/tap tempo button once, in order to make the rotary ramp up to a high-speed, with natural acceleration or deceleration, going from fast to slow.
Is there a way to do the same thing with the Rotary block of the FX8?
Click to expand...

Several ways, but the easiest is to use X/Y. Set up the Rotary in X, copy the settings to Y and adjust only the Rate.
Now, when you switch between X and Y, the speed will autom. ramp up/down.
You can switch between X/Y by assigning a switch to Rotary. Pressign-and-holding the switch will switch the Rotary between X and Y.
 
I discovered the error to 1: even though I had Drive 1 and Drive 2, they were set for the same type. That's why it auto-engaged!
Changing one of the drives to a different type fixed it!

Thanks for much for the MIDI help! I'll get right on it!
 
Thanks Yek, I'll try that with the X/Y setting - I figured it'd be something like that, but I feared that doing so would result in an immediate speed-change, and that it would exclude the ramping.

Thanks!
 
Niels Beier said:
I discovered the error to 1: even though I had Drive 1 and Drive 2, they were set for the same type. That's why it auto-engaged!
Changing one of the drives to a different type fixed it!
Click to expand...

Is this really true? I.e., if I have Drive 1 and Drive 2 set to the same type, they can only be (un-)bypassed together?
 
polanoid said:
Is this really true? I.e., if I have Drive 1 and Drive 2 set to the same type, they can only be (un-)bypassed together?
Click to expand...
No. The two have nothing to do with each other. The user is doing something else to cause this interaction.
 
It fixed all my Drive 1/2 issues, simply by changing them to two different pedal models.
Speaking of:

I've used a bit-crusher in my old setup, but I can't seem to set it up in the Drive section, without getting a 50/50 signal, with my dry and my effected signal? This ONLY happens with the Bit-Crusher effect.
 
Niels Beier said:
It fixed all my Drive 1/2 issues, simply by changing them to two different pedal models.
Click to expand...

I want to remove all confusion here. Setting Drive 1 and Drive 2 to the same type WILL NOT link the bypasses. Something else is going on. If you would upload the preset, I'm sure we can determine what is causing your issue.
 
joe rogers (can't quote you for some reason), it was running on the factory preset A1. I changed nothing in the preset, other than added Drive 2, and didn't think about changing the model till I was going to use it.
 
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