What Am I Doing Wrong?

[WW Audio]

Just got my MFC101 Mk3 today. Much joy. Except not. Here's the basics:

- Axe FX II XL running Quantum 2.0 f/w
- MFC 101 Mk 3 running 3.08 f/w
- MFC connected via FASLINK via XLR cable with the Axe
- FAS EVP1 connected to pedal 1 jack on the MFC
- Mission EP-1 connected to pedal 2 jack on the MFC

I've also got MFC Edit, but I'm not even at the point where I want to mess with that just yet. Here are the issues I'm trying to figure out. Note: When the pedals were connected directly to the Axe itself, everything was working perfectly and exactly the way I expected them to.

The MFC powers up with the Axe seemingly just fine. I read in the MFC manual that I need to calibrate the expression pedals in a similar fashion that I did when they were connected directly to the Axe. Ok, so far so good - I run each through their full range of motion according to the instructions. The EVP1 shows all zeroes for the Min and a full 127 for the Max. The Mission shows zeroes for the Min, 116 for the Max. Then, section 7.2 in the manual (page 32) states that I must now assign a MIDI function to each expression pedal for it to send any data. Here's where things start to get confusing. Bear with me, even after 4+ decades of being a musician and recording studio owner/operator, I'm still MIDIot.

Going to EDIT > MIDI > paging to XP1#011 Ch01 BegOFF on the MFC:

I change BegOFF parameter to PDL for both pedals - the manual states that PDL is the default setting, but my MFC was set to BegOFF from the factory. I've now tried both the PDL and BegOff settings and am seeing the following behaviors:

1. Even in patches that have no volume block, my external 1 pedal (the EVP1) is still acting like a volume pedal. Connected previously to the Axe directly, it had no effect on volume - which is what I wanted.

2. In cases where the patch has a volume block in it, the basic volume function does work, however, now things like reverb and delay tails are cut off abruptly as you go to heel down. Connected previously to the Axe directly, the reverb/delay tails would fade off as I wanted them to.

3. In the example patch below, what should happen is that, heel down on external 1, only row 2 plays a nice clean tone. When you go toe down, you get a swirling, phased ambient tone added to the clean tone. That's what was happening with the expression pedals connected directly to the Axe. With them connected to the MFC, you get nothing at all when heel down on pedal one, and everything when you go toe down.

I'm certain I'm missing something somewhere in the setup on the MFC, but what? Also, is there anything I need to change on the Axe itself in the I/O setup?

 

[h.c.e.]

By default the MFC-101 is set to have XP1 control Output 1 volume (midi CC #11), and XP2 set to External Control 1 (CC#16). How you might want to setup yours will vary greatly, but I for example prefer having XP1 set to External Control 1 and XP2 set to External Control 2. I believe many (most? all?) of the factor presets will default wah to External Control 1 (so your XP2 would probably control a wahwah in a factory preset currently).

From what you're describing with you're current patch in #3 it sounds like you *might* have External Control 1 set to Pedal 1 and External Control 2 set to Pedal 2? To double check that...

1. Press I/O on the AxeFX front panel
2. Page to CTRL page
3. Check EXT CTRL 1, if it says "Pedal 1" change to "16" (the usual default)
4. Check EXT CTRL 2, if it says "Pedal 2" changed to "17" (the usual default)
5. Press Exit

If you want to then have XP1 and XP2 be External Control 1 & 2 respectively, you can:

1. Press EDIT on the MFC-101
2. Select MIDI (switch 4) options to edit
3. Page Left (switch 6) twice
4. Parameter Right (switch 12) and set XP1 from #011 to #016
5. Parameter Left (switch 11) and hit the UP/incr button to go to XP2
6. Parameter Right (switch 12) and set XP2 from #016 to #17
7. Press EDIT again to SAVE

The reason you're losing reverb and delay tails with it's default config is that Expression Pedal 1 defaults to Output 1 volume, so the whole patch fades off post amps and post effects, if you want it to control input volume globally (which will retain effect tails) you could set XP1 to CC #10 (input volume) instead of #11, I prefer to use an external controller (usually 1 in my case) to drive a volume block instead, others prefer to assign it to the amps input drive or input trim instead.

If what I'm supposing about that your current patch is setup for Ext Ctrl 1 to drive fading in row 2 or not, post the patch and I'll see if I can better grok what's going on w/ your setup.

Oh, and the believe the BegPDL has to do with having your control value sent to whatever the pedal is currently at (so if it's half closed your patch will receive 50% modifier value when you start the patch, but if you have it BegOff the patch will automatically have the pedal set to off until you move it... I tend to leave it at BegOff myself, as i want to implicitly change the value when I go to a new patch and tend to be too lazy to reset my pedal to heel or toe down before changing presets.

Hopefully that helps some... Oh, and Chris has some great videos on setting up expression pedals with the MFC, def worth checking out to get the full 411 on using pedals w/ the MFC!

 

[WW Audio]

Basically, I want both expression pedals to function exactly as they did when they were connected directly to the Axe. I typically have pedal 1 controlling things like volume, delay/reverb mix, rotary, etc. Pedal 2 (the Mission) is used mostly for Wah duties. I've skimmed thru Chris's first video and I think I see where I missed a step - I believe it's what you mentioned above about the default value set to control Output 1 volume. Always found Chris's vids very straightforward and helpful - great job Chris BTW! I'll be tweaking on the MFC later today based on the vid but I think that's the issue.

Thanks again!