Wish Option to link AMP and CAB channels

yek

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I'm reposting an old wish of mine.

I'd like to be able to link Amp and Cab channels in a preset.

This would allow me to switch from (e.g.) a Fender amp model (channel A) to a Marshall model (channel B), and have the Cab block automatically switch along, from a Fender cab (channel A) to a Marshall cab (channel B).

To keep things simple, this would be limited to this:
AMP Channel A = CAB Channel A
AMP Channel B = CAB Channel B
AMP Channel C = CAB Channel C
AMP Channel D = CAB Channel D

It would require just one action instead of multiple.
 
I'm reposting an old wish of mine.

I'd like to be able to link Amp and Cab channels in a preset.

This would allow me to switch from (e.g.) a Fender amp model (channel A) to a Marshall model (channel B), and have the Cab block automatically switch along, from a Fender cab (channel A) to a Marshall cab (channel B).

To keep things simple, this would be limited to this:
AMP Channel A = CAB Channel A
AMP Channel B = CAB Channel B
AMP Channel C = CAB Channel C
AMP Channel D = CAB Channel D

It would require just one action instead of multiple.

Curious could you not do this in scenes or am I misunderstanding the wish
 
What I'd love to see is a pervasive expression linking syntax for all (or even some, channel and bypass would be a good start) knobs, where the value of any block's knob could be referenced on any other knob by giving it a "BlockName.KnobName" style expression syntax, i.e. if you want Cab1's channel knob to change with Amp1's knob, you could add an expression onto Cab1's channel knob (similar to adding a modifier maybe), that was simply "Amp1.Channel", and that would let the system know that I want this block's knob to get it's value from that of the other block. This way the user could arbitrarily gang together channel changes for any blocks they so chose.

If every knob could be linked by expressions It could go a lot deeper than linking Channel changes together... Say I want a drive block to always turn on with a phaser block, well on the drive block's Bypass knob I could add an expression to "Phaser1.Bypass" and when Phaser1.Bypass goes off, and the Phaser comes on, so does Drive1. Also if the expression syntax supported mathematical and logical operators you could do things like, setting Block1.Bypass to be "!Block2.Bypass", and that way when the value of Bypass on Block2 evaluates False the "!" logical inverse would evaluate True and the Block1.Bypass would be true and it would turn off. Similarly, say you wanted a block to only come on when another block goes to a certain channel, you'd just set the blocks bypass knob expression to "Block2.Channel == 'C'"... Could open things up to doing other cool stuff like setting a knob's value to always be 2* another knob's value and so on and so forth
 
+1
Transplanted from the other similar thread:

I like this idea, to be able to tell a block's channel to follow the status of another block's channel would essentially create up to 4 sub-scenes or scenes-within-a-scene.

I imagine a dropdown list with all the blocks in the preset, plus 'none' as a way of selecting channel follower status, with items following the block you are editing directly or further down the chain greyed out to prevent looped assignments.

One button to switch a subset of things within a scene could really open up the playing field....
 
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Someone on one of these threads mentioned the concept of Scenes having Channels. That might be the easiest path forward for all 3 of these related wishes, as well as the other wish for more scenes, as it would effectively give 32 scenes if each of the 8 had 4 channels....
 
Sorry but no, scenes are really different from the proposed feature. Changing Amp+Cab while maintaining the current state of all other fx is not possible with scenes.
 
Sorry but no, scenes are really different from the proposed feature. Changing Amp+Cab while maintaining the current state of all other fx is not possible with scenes.
If your other scene has the same on/off/channel settings for all but the amp/cab, then it effectively only switches just those items' channels. I have done this in my "per-song" presets, where the next scene is a duplicate of the one before in every way except which channel of the Multiplexer block and Amp2 block are selected.

If each Scene could store 4 different "Channels" with different or same Bypass and Channel states for every block, it would effectively give you what you want and more, as well as fulfilling a lot of other related wishes, I think.

I like the idea of handling the interface like Channels in blocks are handled, too. The "copy channel to clipboard" and "paste channel from clipboard" functions in particular, as applied to a scene channel, could be very powerful ways of copying scenes for tweaks to the bypass and channel statuses of the blocks contained in them....
 
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Scenes are pre-programmed. The bypass state and channels of the blocks in each scene are fixed.

The idea behind linking Amp+Cab is that it lets you change just those two, while maintaining the current state (bypass and channel) of all other effects (which may be different from the stored state).
 
Scenes are pre-programmed. The bypass state and channels of the blocks in each scene are fixed.

The idea behind linking Amp+Cab is that it lets you change just those two, while maintaining the current state (bypass and channel) of all other effects (which may be different from the stored state).
I get that.

But, you could, if Scenes had Channels, stay within, say, Scene 2, and switch your Scene Channel B and get, essentially, any new combination of bypass and channel states for any/all blocks that need to be switched, which would be able to cover what you want (Amp1 Channel A->B and Cab1 Cannel A->B with the rest untouched), as well as a whole lot of other wishes, I think.

I have used Scenes to (un)bypass and/or switch channels on a few blocks at the same time while still keeping other blocks the same, and it has been seamless, so what you want could be handled by a change of scene, or by the new "Scene Channel" concept, with equally good results, I think.

Bottom line, although the "Chained Channel Tracking" is also a good idea, and should be implemented in addition to this, I think this would be a bit easier to implement due to possible reuse of similar structures and routines, and would give a lot of the same benefits in a small scale as a 'quick win' while the more complicated "Chained Channel Tracking" was worked on....
 
@yek
The first three wishes right now are all surrounding more or less this sort of topic. :D

Also, I am sure I remember seeing and even +1-ing a "more scenes" and a "more channels" wish, as well as a "more controllers" wish, a while back. Methinks we might get some attention to this. I hope thet do both "Scene Channels" and "Chained Channel Tracking", as they both seem worthwhile and could easily coexist if done right, to give us all a HUGE new range of possibilities....
 
I get that.

But, you could, if Scenes had Channels, stay within, say, Scene 2, and switch your Scene Channel B and get, essentially, any new combination of bypass and channel states for any/all blocks that need to be switched, which would be able to cover what you want (Amp1 Channel A->B and Cab1 Cannel A->B with the rest untouched), as well as a whole lot of other wishes, I think.

I have used Scenes to (un)bypass and/or switch channels on a few blocks at the same time while still keeping other blocks the same, and it has been seamless, so what you want could be handled by a change of scene, or by the new "Scene Channel" concept, with equally good results, I think.

Bottom line, although the "Chained Channel Tracking" is also a good idea, and should be implemented in addition to this, I think this would be a bit easier to implement due to possible reuse of similar structures and routines, and would give a lot of the same benefits in a small scale as a 'quick win' while the more complicated "Chained Channel Tracking" was worked on....

It's an interesting idea... But I don't think it's easier to implement. Because the current display and switches are not equipped to indicate "scene channels". I also suspect that the idea is quite hard to understand for many users, knowing that new users often already struggle to understand scenes. Anyway, we'll see.
 
It's an interesting idea... But I don't it's easier to implement. Because the current display and switches are not equipped to indicate "scene channels".

I guess that depends entirely on how the code that does the channels menu and display for the blocks is implemented. If it's done fairly modularly in functions or routines that can be called to render the display and attach the functionalities of holding onto the stored settings for the four channels, it may not be too hard to get it done, as long as there's room to store the data. There's plenty of empty space next to the Scenes list when you aren't looking at a block:
Screen%20Shot%202019-08-07%20at%2012.37.11%20AM.png

They could pop in a piece like this or similar (obviously saying "Scene" and labeled "Scene __" underneath), next to the text in the big bottom section, and it could work:
Screen%20Shot%202019-08-07%20at%2012.39.32%20AM.png


Of course, those who code this awesome piece of kit will know best, but being someone who works with other varieties of code, and who wrote his first computer program in the late '70s, I am at least somewhat familiar with how segments of code can be reused if things thought out well, and I get the general sense the Fractal folks are probably fairly sharp coders themselves. :)

I also suspect that the idea is quite hard to understand for many users, knowing that new users often already struggle to understand scenes. Anyway, we'll see.

Well, that may be true, but there's also a fairly decent amount of folks who were asking for more scenes and channels, which this would give in spades, and new users aren't new forever. They could grow into the capabilities. I know I had to, coming from a '90s rack and dumb MIDI controller mindset into the Axe3/FC way of thinking took more than a few iterations of "rebuild this preset better".... :)

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Still, the idea of chaining any block's channel to any other block's channel (using a list of blocks in the preset as the selector choices) is a great idea too. I could use it for the same trick you want to use it for, and save Amp2 and Cab2 for other things most times. Instead I use a Mixer or Multiplex block after to switch, depending on how the switching is being done.

I hope both get implemented. :)
 
I'm reposting an old wish of mine.

I'd like to be able to link Amp and Cab channels in a preset.

This would allow me to switch from (e.g.) a Fender amp model (channel A) to a Marshall model (channel B), and have the Cab block automatically switch along, from a Fender cab (channel A) to a Marshall cab (channel B).

To keep things simple, this would be limited to this:
AMP Channel A = CAB Channel A
AMP Channel B = CAB Channel B
AMP Channel C = CAB Channel C
AMP Channel D = CAB Channel D

It would require just one action instead of multiple.

+1

Not trying to hijack this, but I also missed this function in the III. That's why my MX Midi footcontrollers have this special function included.

 
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