FrankenStrat
Experienced
I received my FC-6 yesterday and spent the evening with it.
It is an impressive piece of equipment. I would say the killer features are how the FC is so tightly sync’d to the Axe FX and the ease of setup. Very powerful and capable.
The FC-6 can do a lot. To all of the people who have struggled with choosing which FC to get, the FC-6 probably could handle what you want to do. The question really comes down IMO to “will you be happy with how it does so?”. I have my FC-6 setup for my workflow with preset changes, scene changes and a stomp box setup. Everything flows very smoothly and intuitively.
The general approach I went for was to have presses change sound and use holds to navigate and access utilities.
I do think the FC-6 has a bit of a math problem. The Axe III supports 8 scenes per preset and 24 Per Preset Controllers. I defined the following layouts to support my workflow:
The second scene layout (layout 3) has 4 unmapped buttons. This is the first place that I think the FC has “math challenges”. With the 12 I could have linked all 8 scenes to a single layout and had PPs 1-4 on the same layout as “priority IAs”, that single scene layout would serve the majority of my in performance switching needs.
The second place that there is a small math problem in my opinion for the FC-6 is with the PP (per preset) controllers. There are 24 PPs available per preset. It takes 4 layouts to expose all of the PPs if you need/want access to them all. The navigation through those layouts requires some attention, but it is not “painful”. Perhaps one could say it is less efficient. On an FC-12, all 24 PPs could be exposed with just 2 layouts.
On the FC-12 I could have implemented my workflow in 5 layouts instead of 8. I am not saying the FC-12 is better than the FC-6 with this statement. I do not say this as a negative, but to provide insight for those who are tying to choose between the FC-6 and FC-12. My advice is to think about how you want to navigate, read the manual, and plan out your layouts before you purchase. Then choose. I think this would probably help most people determine if they actually need a 12 or if a 6 will serve their needs.
I think that the FC-6 is a very powerful piece of equipment. It is far more capable than one might initially expect given that it has half of the buttons of an FC-12. I think for those trying to choose, the question really boils down to: “how efficient do you want to be?”. For less navigation and higher efficiency, an FC-12 will get you there. For those who have lighter demands or are not concerned by efficiency the FC-6 is a very capable choice.
It is an impressive piece of equipment. I would say the killer features are how the FC is so tightly sync’d to the Axe FX and the ease of setup. Very powerful and capable.
The FC-6 can do a lot. To all of the people who have struggled with choosing which FC to get, the FC-6 probably could handle what you want to do. The question really comes down IMO to “will you be happy with how it does so?”. I have my FC-6 setup for my workflow with preset changes, scene changes and a stomp box setup. Everything flows very smoothly and intuitively.
The general approach I went for was to have presses change sound and use holds to navigate and access utilities.
I do think the FC-6 has a bit of a math problem. The Axe III supports 8 scenes per preset and 24 Per Preset Controllers. I defined the following layouts to support my workflow:
- Layout 1 - Preset Navigation
- Layout 2 - Scenes 1 thru 6
- Layout 3 - Scenes 7 thru 8
- Layout 4 - PP 1 thru 6
- Layout 5 - PP 7 thru 12
- Layout 6 - PP 13 thru 18
- Layout 7 - PP 19 thru 24
- Layout 8 - Looper
The second scene layout (layout 3) has 4 unmapped buttons. This is the first place that I think the FC has “math challenges”. With the 12 I could have linked all 8 scenes to a single layout and had PPs 1-4 on the same layout as “priority IAs”, that single scene layout would serve the majority of my in performance switching needs.
The second place that there is a small math problem in my opinion for the FC-6 is with the PP (per preset) controllers. There are 24 PPs available per preset. It takes 4 layouts to expose all of the PPs if you need/want access to them all. The navigation through those layouts requires some attention, but it is not “painful”. Perhaps one could say it is less efficient. On an FC-12, all 24 PPs could be exposed with just 2 layouts.
On the FC-12 I could have implemented my workflow in 5 layouts instead of 8. I am not saying the FC-12 is better than the FC-6 with this statement. I do not say this as a negative, but to provide insight for those who are tying to choose between the FC-6 and FC-12. My advice is to think about how you want to navigate, read the manual, and plan out your layouts before you purchase. Then choose. I think this would probably help most people determine if they actually need a 12 or if a 6 will serve their needs.
I think that the FC-6 is a very powerful piece of equipment. It is far more capable than one might initially expect given that it has half of the buttons of an FC-12. I think for those trying to choose, the question really boils down to: “how efficient do you want to be?”. For less navigation and higher efficiency, an FC-12 will get you there. For those who have lighter demands or are not concerned by efficiency the FC-6 is a very capable choice.
Last edited: