This is a just a thought, an observation, and my own opinion.
I've seen a trend ever since midi controllers with displays on each switch showed up on the market. Now don't get me wrong, I love them as they give us more information than ever. They are a welcome tool for today's guitar gear.
But I feel that with their creation and availability to the average player, it's allowed our minds to get a bit lazy and also allow us to forget about the performance aspect of performing. It's kinda like the modern smartphone that majority of the population uses these days - it's a double-edged sword.
It's great that we don't need to memorize phone numbers anymore. But that means we don't know anyone's phone numbers anymore. That moment you are without your phone during an emergency or something... you're stuck and can't contact anyone.
I was doing some computer consulting for a 70 year old. He recently got an iPhone 6. He never had a smartphone before. Now this guy had one of the sharpest minds I knew. Piano player, could sight-read fly crap on a paper, his memorized repertoire was daunting, he always knew facts about this or that, even detailed stories from his childhood days in the 40s and 50s. I asked how he was liking a smart phone after just a few weeks of use and what his favorite part was. He said "I love it! It's amazing! I never have to memorize anything ever again because it'll be with me always!"
I finished the consult for that day, but his statement stuck with me. On my follow-up a month or so later, we were revisiting things, and I noticed that he was looking up things left and right on his Notes app on the phone. Simple things that he probably would have memorized no problem before, but now he consciously was not committing anything to memory, and relying on that phone. Now perhaps he was just going all-in for this new approach. But to have to look up his main computer password every 5 minutes when we needed it to install things - a password made of numbers and words very near and dear to him - was a bit scary. It's just a stark contrast. He still knew all the stuff he memorized before, but this new stuff he just wouldn't try to remember at all.
I've seen a similar thing happen with controllers like the RJM MMGT and now with the FCs going out to customers.
Again, it's great that the displays can show us text and color to help us during a performance. But I see a similar "lack of effort to remember anything" because of the displays. Now instead of remembering that we put Drive here, and Chorus there, we instead read the displays first, process that thought, then press the switch. And that moment of reading and processing can interrupt the performance. I see people full on stop playing to look at their smart controller, read all the switches, "aha! that's where it is" moment, then hit the switch, and then start the solo late. If he had just memorized where his lead switch is, he'd hit it and play much faster. (Yes I asked him about this moment and he admitted he forgot where the switch was and had to read it, and he did it several times through the night.)
Another feature I see people requesting due to the displays on switches is to have huge pedal boards with every single switch they possibly ever need all available. With older style controllers without digital displays, I doubt many people would have a 60 switch controller - even with nice labels or masking tape, it'd probably be difficult to see and use. But with the digital displays and color coordination, people almost naturally want a ton of switches in front of them to put every effect ever.
I just feel that this has a few issues that can affect performance. First is what I already mentioned. I can't imagine playing a show and a part comes up and I think "oh wow I want a rotary now" and then spend 4 - 10 seconds searching my pedal board for that switch. Then later I need a ring mod, and I do the same. For a jam or rehearsal, sure that makes sense. But even in an improvisational style performance, it leaves a bit to be desired from the audience, constantly searching, reading, not playing, then finding the switch and moving on.
It's similar to the way I feel about certain styles of Live Looping. It's very common for someone to start looping the drumbeat, then when the phrase is done, they overdub the bass line, then after that is done, the chords, then after that is done, some head or lead line. and many times, they listen to each recording one time through before recording the next part. 3 full minutes later, they're ready to start playing, but the audience has already sang all 3 verses of Hotel California, since the loop has gone by literally 8 or more times. And then the guy starts singing the song, and we now have a 10 minute song haha.
Another thing is just the physical size of such a setup. Many venues don't have that sort of space, something realized only when you get to that gig. Then you have to reduce your setup, but now you feel you can't perform without access to all those options. Reaching that switch probably looks awkward as well.
I know some people successfully have this "60 pedals" setup at their gigs and it works for them. That's great, honestly. We can all experience music and playing/creating music the way we want, and get what we want out of it. But I feel that's just not a common situation in actuality, but many people want to do that at their gigs.
But for the typical player in typical venues, I just see worries and problems popping up that weren't an issue at all before the gear and tech got smarter. I need more switches, I need a paragraph of text above each footswitch that changes per scene, I need a back button because I can't remember where I just was, I can't remember where I put that lead boost, I need the controller to change to my lead tone after 60 seconds of hitting this other switch... how did we possibly accomplish playing before we had words above each switch?
Whenever I have a gig and I'm taking new gear, or using new presets, or just getting worried about that sort of thing before the show, I always ask myself this: can i get through this gig with just my guitar and 1 or 2 basic sounds? For an acoustic gig, can I plug straight in and do the gig and sound good? For a rock gig, can I use a basic clean and basic distortion tone and sound good?
And even after spending time building presets, balancing levels, adjusting midi, controllers, pedals, practicing looping parts, etc. after all that time... I begrudgingly admit that yes... I can do this gig with the very basics, sound good, make people very happy, and do my job. (then i start thinking why i spent all that time earlier... but that's another topic!)
I think some of this comes from the fear or feeling of needing to have every possible sound ever available... JUST in case I need it. again, maybe your performance style is exactly that, but honestly most aren't. The original song may have had a Phaser on for this part, but you don't have one setup. Well generally speaking, if you play it without the Phaser, everything will be fine, people will enjoy the song, say you sound amazing, and you don't need to worry about it
So my whole point is yes, new tech is great, and helpful in many ways. I love having text above my footswitches. But let's remember how we performed before this convenience. We made 5 different tones for the gig, and switched between them. We knew what switch to hit so we can focus on performing and playing our guitar, rather than reading our footswitches. It's funny that even with the words above my switches, I'm still hitting them mostly without looking down because I'm busy singing. It's like I don't even need the words! It's definitely exciting and useful, helpful, and I think everyone should get an FC or something with displays on the switches. But remember to use the words as a tool, not a necessity.
YMMV, OMGWTFBBQ, and all other caveats are assumed. Do whatever you want. It's just a trend I'm seeing a lot lately.
I've seen a trend ever since midi controllers with displays on each switch showed up on the market. Now don't get me wrong, I love them as they give us more information than ever. They are a welcome tool for today's guitar gear.
But I feel that with their creation and availability to the average player, it's allowed our minds to get a bit lazy and also allow us to forget about the performance aspect of performing. It's kinda like the modern smartphone that majority of the population uses these days - it's a double-edged sword.
It's great that we don't need to memorize phone numbers anymore. But that means we don't know anyone's phone numbers anymore. That moment you are without your phone during an emergency or something... you're stuck and can't contact anyone.
I was doing some computer consulting for a 70 year old. He recently got an iPhone 6. He never had a smartphone before. Now this guy had one of the sharpest minds I knew. Piano player, could sight-read fly crap on a paper, his memorized repertoire was daunting, he always knew facts about this or that, even detailed stories from his childhood days in the 40s and 50s. I asked how he was liking a smart phone after just a few weeks of use and what his favorite part was. He said "I love it! It's amazing! I never have to memorize anything ever again because it'll be with me always!"
I finished the consult for that day, but his statement stuck with me. On my follow-up a month or so later, we were revisiting things, and I noticed that he was looking up things left and right on his Notes app on the phone. Simple things that he probably would have memorized no problem before, but now he consciously was not committing anything to memory, and relying on that phone. Now perhaps he was just going all-in for this new approach. But to have to look up his main computer password every 5 minutes when we needed it to install things - a password made of numbers and words very near and dear to him - was a bit scary. It's just a stark contrast. He still knew all the stuff he memorized before, but this new stuff he just wouldn't try to remember at all.
I've seen a similar thing happen with controllers like the RJM MMGT and now with the FCs going out to customers.
Again, it's great that the displays can show us text and color to help us during a performance. But I see a similar "lack of effort to remember anything" because of the displays. Now instead of remembering that we put Drive here, and Chorus there, we instead read the displays first, process that thought, then press the switch. And that moment of reading and processing can interrupt the performance. I see people full on stop playing to look at their smart controller, read all the switches, "aha! that's where it is" moment, then hit the switch, and then start the solo late. If he had just memorized where his lead switch is, he'd hit it and play much faster. (Yes I asked him about this moment and he admitted he forgot where the switch was and had to read it, and he did it several times through the night.)
Another feature I see people requesting due to the displays on switches is to have huge pedal boards with every single switch they possibly ever need all available. With older style controllers without digital displays, I doubt many people would have a 60 switch controller - even with nice labels or masking tape, it'd probably be difficult to see and use. But with the digital displays and color coordination, people almost naturally want a ton of switches in front of them to put every effect ever.
I just feel that this has a few issues that can affect performance. First is what I already mentioned. I can't imagine playing a show and a part comes up and I think "oh wow I want a rotary now" and then spend 4 - 10 seconds searching my pedal board for that switch. Then later I need a ring mod, and I do the same. For a jam or rehearsal, sure that makes sense. But even in an improvisational style performance, it leaves a bit to be desired from the audience, constantly searching, reading, not playing, then finding the switch and moving on.
It's similar to the way I feel about certain styles of Live Looping. It's very common for someone to start looping the drumbeat, then when the phrase is done, they overdub the bass line, then after that is done, the chords, then after that is done, some head or lead line. and many times, they listen to each recording one time through before recording the next part. 3 full minutes later, they're ready to start playing, but the audience has already sang all 3 verses of Hotel California, since the loop has gone by literally 8 or more times. And then the guy starts singing the song, and we now have a 10 minute song haha.
Another thing is just the physical size of such a setup. Many venues don't have that sort of space, something realized only when you get to that gig. Then you have to reduce your setup, but now you feel you can't perform without access to all those options. Reaching that switch probably looks awkward as well.
I know some people successfully have this "60 pedals" setup at their gigs and it works for them. That's great, honestly. We can all experience music and playing/creating music the way we want, and get what we want out of it. But I feel that's just not a common situation in actuality, but many people want to do that at their gigs.
But for the typical player in typical venues, I just see worries and problems popping up that weren't an issue at all before the gear and tech got smarter. I need more switches, I need a paragraph of text above each footswitch that changes per scene, I need a back button because I can't remember where I just was, I can't remember where I put that lead boost, I need the controller to change to my lead tone after 60 seconds of hitting this other switch... how did we possibly accomplish playing before we had words above each switch?
Whenever I have a gig and I'm taking new gear, or using new presets, or just getting worried about that sort of thing before the show, I always ask myself this: can i get through this gig with just my guitar and 1 or 2 basic sounds? For an acoustic gig, can I plug straight in and do the gig and sound good? For a rock gig, can I use a basic clean and basic distortion tone and sound good?
And even after spending time building presets, balancing levels, adjusting midi, controllers, pedals, practicing looping parts, etc. after all that time... I begrudgingly admit that yes... I can do this gig with the very basics, sound good, make people very happy, and do my job. (then i start thinking why i spent all that time earlier... but that's another topic!)
I think some of this comes from the fear or feeling of needing to have every possible sound ever available... JUST in case I need it. again, maybe your performance style is exactly that, but honestly most aren't. The original song may have had a Phaser on for this part, but you don't have one setup. Well generally speaking, if you play it without the Phaser, everything will be fine, people will enjoy the song, say you sound amazing, and you don't need to worry about it
So my whole point is yes, new tech is great, and helpful in many ways. I love having text above my footswitches. But let's remember how we performed before this convenience. We made 5 different tones for the gig, and switched between them. We knew what switch to hit so we can focus on performing and playing our guitar, rather than reading our footswitches. It's funny that even with the words above my switches, I'm still hitting them mostly without looking down because I'm busy singing. It's like I don't even need the words! It's definitely exciting and useful, helpful, and I think everyone should get an FC or something with displays on the switches. But remember to use the words as a tool, not a necessity.
YMMV, OMGWTFBBQ, and all other caveats are assumed. Do whatever you want. It's just a trend I'm seeing a lot lately.
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