RAC12

Why would they do this when the III already has encoders built in and seemingly will have an update for an assignable performance mode ?

Not to knock Al’s fine product in any way, but he built that exact thing, it sold well enough to a limited number of customers, and now it’s gone kind of obsolete.

Why would FAS want to put the time and effort into duplicating something that already exist, and which in itself had a limited market and largely has been negated obsolete by the latest modeler?

If they would of done it, the time to have done it was a few years ago, when the II’s were still new technology and there was a small, but decent market for such a product.


Well, as of right now I can't be on stage, realize I need to tweak something, then go turn a knob that's sitting right there. Instead I have to navigate menus first, which is tough to do when you're on stage or even just in front of a few people. It's pretty much the single remaining advantage real amps have over an Axe-Fx.

It would be incredibly useful to have an immediately accessible row of full sized knobs that feel like actual amp controls. Even with customized pages like "Page 1 = Amp 1 basics, Page 2 = Amp 1 GEQ, Page 3 = Drive 1, Page 4 = Delay, etc." all accessible with page up/down buttons, it would still feel more immediate and intuitive than menu navigation.

If the price was right and had Fractal's design, build quality, and support, I could see them selling pretty easily.
 
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That's why I still go on using the RAC as a midi controller. It's knobs are programmed as midi controllers that send CCs. The CCs are assigned to the axe-fx's 'external controllers'. These external controllers keep their value even over preset changes, so they work global over all presets.
In all of my own presets I have the same modifiers assigned with it.
Example:
3 filter blocks in the presets work as global eq-bands (lows, mids, highs) that get controlled from a knob on the RAC.
That's almost like using (active) tone knobs on an amp.
 
When connecting the RAC to the III (only to use it for midi-CCs) the RAC tries to start a two way communication with the axe-fx on and on and it takes some time until it finally gives up and the page with the midi controls appears. After that it works as intended.

Is there anything I can do, to stop it from trying to establish a two way communication and show up the page with the midi-CCs at once?
I don't know any other midi rack gear that is able to send midi-CCs, so the RAC is my only solution for that purpose. I'd be happy to find something else with this ability.

Maybe he uses it in cc mode, so it's very limited

I think that's what he's doing.
 
Hi there,
It's all about midi. No sysex functions work with the III and the RAC12. And it's one way midi communication from the RAC to the III.
You need to clear at least one page on the RAC from every propietary command, only midi cc controllers should stay left.

The RAC waits for a signal from the Axe-fx at startuo. Push 'Level' to stop that. It then starts to work.

I have defined cc numbers for each action. Every press sends an 0 or an 127 to switch things off or on and every turn sends a cc command with a value to control a parameter.
All my presets are based on the same template so each control always does the same job on every preset but it would also work in a diffetent way.

The controls do
Drive push: Enable flat EQ as gain boost
Drive turn: volume of distorted presets.
Bass push: Enable bass heavy GEQ
Bass turn: Gain on filter block at 200 Hz before amp block.
Mids push: Enable flat EQ as gain reducer
Mids turn: Gain on filter block at 1700 Hz post amp.

and so on... you get the idea for the rest of the knobs.

Two ways to handle things via midi.
1.
External controls: Once an ext ctrl receives a midi cc it holds it value until you send a different value to it or you turn the axe-fx all off. Preset changes do not change the value of an ext ctrl. So when you turn up reverb for a ballad it lasts over all scenes and presets. Don't forget to turn it down again when the slow song is over.
2.
Direct assigments.
When you assign an on/off function in the midi ctrl menu a cc affects the current scene and preset only. When you change to a different scene the cc has no influence, also when you come back to the former scene it has no influence.

That way you can choose whether you want a cc to last across scenes/presets or not.
 
Which begs the question . . . could the RAC firmware be transformed to be a 1 way true midi device in general?
 
No because the memory is full

I'm not saying make it work for the III (directly). I'm saying start over to make it a pure MIDI device. Open source the software, I'm sure someone would tackle it.

I'm not sure what CC Mode is (I never had a RAC12, but wanted functionality like it). I'm saying, expand on the premise of the RAC12 being in CC Mode.
 
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No because the memory is full
Couldn't the current memory for the II be deleted & replaced with functions for the III? I would be glad to donate to make that happen & I would think others would too, especially considering the initial cost of the RAC12 & what they are going for on the used market now.
 
Couldn't the current memory for the II be deleted & replaced with functions for the III? I would be glad to donate to make that happen & I would think others would too, especially considering the initial cost of the RAC12 & what they are going for on the used market now.
I have no time for this and the sourcecode doesn't build anymore with latest arduino environment.

I'd be ok open-sourcing the firmware and editor code but i'd need @Admin M@ and @sebastos08 authorization
 
The RAC is a full midi cc unit. There's nothing left to optimze as far a midi goes.
You just go into the editor and define which midi cc number ypu want for what knob. And it's 16 pages of 12 knobs. That's a lot.
The display shows cc number and value.
Perfect for midi.
 
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