Roland FC-300 - love it

Sportacus said:
can you use any of the switches on the fc 300 as a tap tempo?
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Yep it can. I just bought the FC-300 myself and tested it with a tap tempo. Any of the CC pedals on the FC-300 can control it. BTW, if you enable "control change" mode on the FC-300 then you'll have more cc pedals at your disposal.
 
Thanks for replying. Ive got a GT10 which is very robust and the FC300 looks similar in build quality. The only downside is lack of display but at the price it seems otherwise great as a floor controller.

Stewart
 
Yeah. Actually I was a bit surprised by the FC-300. It's pretty hefty. I loved my Vox VC-12 which was very sturdy and was expecting the Roland FC-300 based on the pictures to be lighter but I was surprised at how much heavier it is than I was expecting. Not having the patch names show up in the LED was a concern too, but it hasn't bothered me, but I think only the Liquid Foot controller can? At least until the Fractal Audio foot controller comes out.

BTW, a note about power adapters: the FC-300 doesn't come with a power adapter. It uses 6 AA batteries. I guess since most people use it for the VG synths, like VG-99 guitar synth module, the FC-300 also is able to get its power from that module. Otherwise, you'll have to buy a power adapter if you're using it with an Axe-Fx like me. A 9v DC adapter, but maybe you can use your Boss adapter if you buy the FC-300. It recommends the Boss PSA series adapter, but I bought a Danelectro Zero Hum and it works fine. I read that the standard Boss Adapter's wiring can shred so the Danelector is more sturder and much cheaper than the Boss adapter too!

Currently $7.61 at musiciansfriend.
http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=151851

I guess some 9v adapter hum, so you'll want one that doesn't hum like the Boss or Danelectro.
 
I know this has to be a simple setting I am missing, but I can't get Exp pedal 2 to do anything other than volume. I got pedal 1 to control volume. I am just trying to use 2 for wah and other things. I know what I am doing all day today...
 
Ok, I figured it out. For any other Axe challenged people out there like myself.
What I needed to do was go into the I/O menu, page over the the CTRL Page, Nav down to External 2, then press Enter and the Axe will flash "Learning" then you just step on the the expression pedal.
 
MarkR said:
Ok, I figured it out. For any other Axe challenged people out there like myself.
What I needed to do was go into the I/O menu, page over the the CTRL Page, Nav down to External 2, then press Enter and the Axe will flash "Learning" then you just step on the the expression pedal.
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Yeah, getting an expression pedal to work with the Axe-Fx is one of the first major learning curves with the Axe-Fx. It took me a while to figure that out. I read a couple wiki pages on the wah-wah and modifiers to figure it out.

In my post about how I set-up my Axe-Fx I also wrote about how I got my FC-300 expression pedal to work as a wah (wah block) and digital whammy with the pitch block. See the third post on expression pedal here.
New Axe-Fx owner journal - my experience may help you.

- I read that also adding some millisecond of damping is a good idea for expression pedals. I think like 3 or 4 milliseconds.

0ddb0d, who did the very helpful Rocktron Midimate & Axe-Fx tutorial, which helped me out with my FC-300, is planning to do a video on hooking up an expression pedal.
Video Tutorial: Setting Up The Midi Mate With The Axe
The thread, in the later pages, has some written advice on hooking up an expression pedal too.
 
Resonant Alien said:
Despite there not being much mention of it here, I decided to go with the Roland FC-300 foot controller for my Axe. I gotta say that it is an awesome controller with the Axe. It is rock-solid construction - metal housing, tough buttons and pedals. It has 2 integrated expression pedals, both with toe-down bypass. And you can easily switch between prog change and control modes, making it easy to go from switching presets to having a "stomp box" style button set for bypassing effects.
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Resonant Alien, How's it going? I just got the AxeFx Standard and The Roland FC-300 a couple of weeks ago and I'm just curious how you have yours setup. Thought I might be able to get a few tips from you. Thanks in advance.

Any FC-300 users, feel free to chime in.
 
Ok, a question.

Has anybody programmed the ctrl switch 1 and 2 to anything yet? If so, when you engage the switch, the light comes on and it does whatever you programmed it to do. All good but! when I go to another patch, the light stays on. Even when I go back to the original patch. And then to activate the function I then have to step on the ctrl switch to disengage the light (the effect isn't on tho) and then step on the ctrl switch again to activate what was programmed.
Now this happened with my previous setup controlling a Triaxis/Gmajor/VG99 but I thought it was specific to 'Patch Mode' but I'm currently running in 'Standard' mode with only the AxeFx and it's happening too!
I'm going to be changing to a FCB1010 when my second one arrives but I'd love to know if there is a work around. I tried all sorts of things with my previous rig to no avail.
This is purely a FC300 issue and happens in Standard and Patch mode. I believe it's fine when just running the VG99. I'll confirm after the next rehearsal (2 wks time) where I use the VG99 with a combo setup

Cheers!
 
rdomain said:
I'm going to be changing to a FCB1010 when my second one arrives but I'd love to know if there is a work around.
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UnO firmware if you want an easy way via "stompbox mode." Or tedious FCB patch programming without UnO.
Further, this is assuming you meant "when I go to another patch" via the controller. If you go to another patch via the Axe-Fx, the controller doesn't know that, so it won't update its lights. (This is the reason 2-way communication specifically designed w/ the Axe-Fx in mind is awesome in a controller like the Liquid Foot or the upcoming Fractal controller.)
 
godprobe said:
rdomain said:
I'm going to be changing to a FCB1010 when my second one arrives but I'd love to know if there is a work around.
Click to expand...
UnO firmware if you want an easy way via "stompbox mode." Or tedious FCB patch programming without UnO.
Further, this is assuming you meant "when I go to another patch" via the controller. If you go to another patch via the Axe-Fx, the controller doesn't know that, so it won't update its lights. (This is the reason 2-way communication specifically designed w/ the Axe-Fx in mind is awesome in a controller like the Liquid Foot or the upcoming Fractal controller.)
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Yep, I reckon I'll be getting the Uno chip for it for sure.
And correct "when I go to another patch" with the FC300. I tried everything I could think of. I eventually gave up and just lived with it. :shock: :lol:

The LF or Fractal controller look sweet but probably a bit rich for my liking. The FCB1010 is amazing value and has done everything I've ever needed it to do. From multi racks to software. And it doesn't matter if it gets trashed live. They're pretty bloody tough :D
 
I have the same exact issue with the FC-300, only Im using it with a Digitech 2120. What a terrible disappointment. I tried programming from scratch in patch mode & no luck there either. Im baffled at how such a simple feature cannot be attained with such a (so called) advanced MIDI controller.

If you figure anything out please let me know!
 
Eptesicus79 said:
I have the same exact issue with the FC-300, only Im using it with a Digitech 2120. What a terrible disappointment. I tried programming from scratch in patch mode & no luck there either. Im baffled at how such a simple feature cannot be attained with such a (so called) advanced MIDI controller.

If you figure anything out please let me know!
Click to expand...

If you by "simple feature" are meaning the updating LEDs issue, it´s not possible to do without bi-directional communication and a specification on the footcontroller itself on how to read/display the bi-directional information. Which it rarely exists within footcontrollers except those aimed towards a specific product. Digitech footcontrollers can do things like these features with Digitech rackeffects. Roland/Boss footcontrollers can do it with Roland/Boss rackeffects. A Digitech footcontroller/rackeffect CAN NOT do it with a Roland/Boss rackeffect/footcontroller, UNLESS there would be an specification (OS) aviable to download into them. But neither Digitech, Roland/Boss or any other brand are interested in making their products compatible with any other brand. Not to hard to understand why...

I agree that it is a shame that it isn´t a standard, so that any foot controller could have been used in an "advanced" LED-update mode with any rackeffect. But, it´s also a shame that the metric system didn´t became the standard it were aimed for worldwide... :lol: :lol: :lol:

A lot have happened since the MIDI specification first were set, as far as I know there are plans to update this MIDI specification from the MIDI organisation. I guess that a standard like this could be implemented if enough manufacturers within the MIDI organisation were up to it. But I wouldn´t hope that they are this time either. Which features would/should one decide go into a standard anyway? That´s the reason of why RPN (Registered Parameter Names) and NRPN (Non Registered Parameter Names) exits of todays MIDI standard. It simply makes the MIDI standard a long-living stable specification for all manufacturers to rely on, while the NRPN allows the experimental ones to go as wild as they want with features (however these features are only for their OWN products)...

For those who are interested:
http://www.philrees.co.uk/nrpnq.htm

/Mike
 
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