Big "doh!" moment for me I guess lol. I did not realize that, as
@mr_fender suggested, the MIDI IN on the cable is what should get plugged into the MIDI OUT on the Axe. I had out connected to out. As soon as I swapped this around I had MIDI getting into Reaper within 5 min or so.
I am, however, experiencing another issue. It appears as my FC-12 will stop sending MIDI signals on press after only a few uses. Currently, I have 3 midi control switches setup. All three are used as hotkeys in Reaper: 1 to move to the next project, 1 to move the play marker to the beginning of the track, and the last one to play/stop in Reaper.
After a few uses of each of the foot switches to great success, I hear a small "pop" and then the control switches no longer send midi. All of my other foot switch assignments still work such as swapping presets or scenes or tap tempo etc. It's only the midi control switches that stop sending a signal.
I have to disconnect the XLR cable from the FC-12 and then reattach it, and then the midi control switches begin working again, but only for a short while. I spent 30 minutes in this cycle last night and got frustrated and gave up for the rest of the night. I know I generate a bit of static electricity as I live in Colorado and it's extremely dry here and starting to cool down. But why would a small static electric shock to the FC-12 stop only the midi cs's but not the others?
Have any of you experienced an issue like this and found a solution? If I can't get the FC-12 to send midi signals consistently, I'm going to have to look into another midi controller to control Reaper during live shows.