So, as a slightly different perspective....I use a "kitchen sink" preset on my FM3. I can get away with that because I like relatively simple setups and specifically dislike reverb most of the time. I also used to use actual drive pedals in front of the FM9 but gave that up at some point. I also play a relatively narrow selection of music, so I don't need wildly different sounds.
The 3 footswitches on the FM3 control scenes, which are all basically the same except for some effects that I never want to use together. They all use the "Scene Toggle" mode, so they work more-or-less like normal pedalboard switches to toggle between the effect sound and the main sound. I would say dry sound, except that there's always one of two possible delays running.
Switch 1 toggles between the main sound and blending in a rotary speaker (which is the default one with the timing set to match a specific leslie that I found online).
Switch 2 toggles between the main sound and a slow tremolo sound.
Switch 2 Hold toggles between the main sound and a fast tremolo sound.
Switch 3 toggles between the main sound and the main sound with a different amp.
Set up like this, I can't use those effects with the alternate amp, but...meh. It's not that big of a deal. I don't actually use those effects that often, but sometimes I just want to hear a different amp.
I have 2 Loopi dual latching footswitches on the board that directly control effects via modifiers.
Loopi 1 switch 1 switches between 2 different tape delays via their bypass switches (set to mute fx in, so I always get the tails).
Loopi 1 switch 2 turns the cab block up 3dB for the best clean boost ever.
Loopi 2 switch 1 turns on a preamp mid boost.
Loopi 2 switch 2 turns on a tube screamer.
One of the delays is just a simple tape delay with a fixed time. The other is longer fixed time with a second head that's the golden ratio of the first one.
I actually mostly use the clean boost with clean sounds, which I get from turning the guitar volume control down. Sometimes, that feels too quiet. It's also a perfect solo boost.
In front of the FM3, I have a DigiTech FreqOut in momentary mode, because that's one thing the Fractals can't do and a mini Turbo Tuner because I just prefer it to the built-in one...probably because I like the retro-future look of it.
All the switches have these cheap plastic caps that color-code them in a way that make sense to me. It's rare that I need/want to press more than 1 switch at a time. But, there are some combinations that I can reach...like TS + clean boost or swap delays + clean boost. I don't use the FreqOut very often, but it's awesome to have almost natural sounding feedback on demand at any volume even with clean sounds. It's release behavior sounds TERRIBLE to me, which is why I have it in momentary mode...I can play around the absolutely stupid release behavior.
I have experimented with only using scenes and found it too limiting, especially with the FM3 only having 3 switches. I've also just had all the tap/hold functions of the footswitches to do all the switching and kept getting confused about how to turn something off.
I've never really liked pages or layers of controls on anything (except my computer keyboard, but that's a whole different animal). I haven't played with the setlist functions, but I don't see myself using it. I take other music things seriously, but guitar has always been a hobby for me. I have an unreasonable amount of fear that incorporating set lists would lock me into some kind of rigidity that very well may be good or even ideal for a modern touring band but is completely antithetical to how I want to play guitar.
A few months ago, I was seriously contemplating adding an FC-6 or some MIDI controller. But...they're all expensive, and I wasn't sure that I was going to like them....mostly, I was worried about how big some of them were vs how close together the switches were on others. And there's nowhere to try the ones I was actually interested in (one of my local shops has a used RJM Mastermind 22...but that's way too big for me). So, I ordered the Loopi pedals and waited a couple weeks for them to be delivered from the other side of the world. And pretty much fell in love. Some of the switches are really close together, and it would be a problem if I were actually performing on stage. But, since I'm a hobbyist who pretty much always plays barefoot or in socks, I can get away with it. If I were actually performing, I'd probably buy one of the smaller masterminds and switch to a larger pedalboard, but mostly replicate the same setup...just with clearer labels and more space between controls.
FWIW, the In2 takes a feed from my computer and sends it to out1, which goes to my IEMs. Out 2 goes to a dedicated speaker. The filter on out 1 is just to balance the levels, and the filter for out 2 helps make the speaker I use not sound like garbage. A stage rig would be a good bit different. And there's a tiny bit of room sound in the Cab...which is kind of like reverb.
