What MFC lay-outs and settings are people using to control Scenes?

Hugomack

Hugomack

Experienced
I use five presets along the bottom, and the rest IAs, with a two-switch external and two Expression pedals. I'm wondering how best to control the Ver 9 Scenes. How are the experts approaching this great-to-have problem?
 
For me, I think I'll use 5 IA's on the bottom to select a Song (1 song per bank) and use the IAs to switch between the first 5 Scenes. So far I think I like it.
 
I am still pondering this greatly for myself. I will be using scenes but have not yet figured a way to best fit what I do.
 
I was always wanting to be able to turn amp Boost on and off; and also have several alterations come in at once - which seems like the ideal sorts of use for Scenes; but I can't work out how best to set up the MFC.

Currently I use Presets in banks not in Songs mode. I'm thinking about the combinations of changes that might be relevant to every patch - from 'mild' using scene 1, through to radical in Scene 8. These might something like: changing levels of compression along with overdrive, delay and reverb; or sticking to my current IAs of Drive, LEAD, AMPS 1 AND 2, TREM, CHORUS AND ROTARY, but using scenes to change other things to compliment the labelled changes....

That would leave four IAs free...

But this feels like a rather limited way of thinking about this....?
 
I need to plan things before I commit.
There isn't enough MFC real-estate.

What about having a double tap of the reveal button to enter 'scene mode' where you can directly access individual scenes?
or assign IA17 (assuming tap is on hold for IA16) to enter 'scene mode'?

This would make a lot more sense to me than having to cycle through them incrementally.
 
I haven't installed the new firmware since I have a gig tonight, but I've been thinking about this too. Right now I treat each bank as a song, more or less. I'm hoping that with scenes I can consolidate each song into 1 preset.

Was thinking of using a bank size of 0 (switch preset with bank up/down) and have the bottom 5 IA's switch scenes. Then I'd just use amp X/Y to handle clean/dirty amps. Not sure if this will work logistically or not, hope so though.

This is basically the setup I do now with a bank size of 5, except each preset serves as a scene. Can't really think of any song where I'd need more than 5 scenes.
 
I've been using MFC presets, which act like scenes, and bank size of 5. So for a given Axe patch, I may have from 1 to 4 MFC presets depending on how I've set up the patch, and what fx I want to change simultaneously for whatever song(s) I use that patch for. The rest of the IA's (#6-17) control individual fx. I also have 2 Ext pedals that I've been using for the Vol +/- function (CC 34 & 35), but I don't really need that any more.

What I'm thinking of doing for scenes is keeping the MFC set up exactly as is and adding 2 more XS to my board, for a total of 4, which access Scenes 2-5 (Scene 1 is on the MFC IA switch). I can't imagine I'd have a song where I needed more than 5 scenes, plus turning on/off individual fx... I'm going to need to take some time to work thru this and see if it really would work for me.

One thing I like about MFC presets is that you can name each one separately, so I can have "Plexi," "Plexi Lead," "Plexi Lead Delay," etc. Can you assign a name to each scene that would display on the MFC?
 
Having direct access to at least five presets is huge. Having "instant access" to each effect in the chain, is, IMO, not so huge. It's great if you're jamming with freinds, trying to put together a sound on the fly. Otherwise, avoiding the multi-button tap dance is a big reason I've gravitated towards modellers.

I would pare off four or five of those IA buttons, and use them for "instant access" to my scenes.
 
Pretty sure I'm going to set up the Reveal function for my scenes. Not sure yet if you can "page" through scenes like you would a bank switch. That would be nice too.
 
Experimenting with Alternate Presets on the MFC to select scenes. Won't be using more than 2 scenes per preset, except for my main preset.
 
Last edited:
I see two "modes" of using Scenes: one for when you need to get sounds together on the fly - depping for bands etc. And another for specific patches for specific songs or uses.

Song mode seems to have been overtaken by Scenes, in that each patch can have seven related scenes. As I'd probably not change a sound within one particular song radically enough to require different patches, this would work. When I do stuff like use organ, I currently use the Global patch to get back in one touch to my guitar sound.

If using Song mode, assuming you have one Song per bank and 5 patches per bank, if you go to the next patch then return to the first patch, using Scenes, does it return to the Scene you were last in, or default to Scene One?

There are so many questions here, so deciding a basic method of operation seems to be the first thing to do...?
 
count_chocolat said:
This is what I'm thinking, can you do it?
Click to expand...

Yes. It works, but it's takes some effort to implement!

Example:

I have a main preset (preset 0), with two amp blocks (1: Divided by 13, 2: BE). Both Amp blocks have Y and X states where X has more gain.

Goal:
- Press preset switch 0 to activate Amp 1 - Y. Press it again: activate Amp 1 - X.
- Press preset switch 1 to activate Amp 2 - Y. Press it again: activate Amp 2 - X.

For this to work I programmed 4 scenes in preset 0:

Scene 1: Amp 1 engaged, state Y, Amp 2 off, Reverb on.
Scene 2: Amp 1 engaged, state X, Amp 2 off, Reverb on.
Scene 3: Amp 2 engaged, state Y, Amp 1 off, Reverb off.
Scene 4: Amp 2 engaged, state X, Amp 1 off, Reverb off.

Scene 1: pretty standard. When pressing preset switch 0 on the MFC, Preset 0 on the Axe-Fx is activated, scene 1.

Scene 2: must be done using Alternate Preset. This means that another preset (PC) must be send to the Axe-Fx, which is then mapped by the Axe-Fx to preset 0, scene 2. So I program the MFC (Preset menu) to send preset 70 as alternate preset when pressing preset switch 0 twice. On the Axe-Fx I set Mapping to Custom, and map preset 70 to preset 0, scene 2. (Why use preset 70? I do not access presets 70 -127 through my MFC. Actually it doesn't matter what preset 70 contains.)

Scene 3: when pressing preset switch 1 on the MFC, Preset 0 on the Axe-Fx is activated, scene 3. This is done by mapping preset 1 to preset 0, scene 3, on the Axe-Fx.

Scene 4: when pressing preset switch 1 on the MFC a 2nd time, Preset 0 on the Axe-Fx is activated, scene 4. Accomplished by using Alternate Preset again. I program the MFC (Preset menu) to send preset 71 as alternate preset when pressing preset switch 1 twice. On the Axe-Fx preset 71 is mapped to preset 0, scene 4.

Advantages of this approach:
- expand the use of preset switches.
- one-click direct access to my 4 favorite tones.
- no dedicated scene CC switches. More room for other switch functionality (Axe-Fx IAs, general use IAs).
- accessing scenes through PC Mapping keeps the MFC LEDs in sync (scene selection through CCs does not).

Disadvantage is the work to program the MFC and Axe-Fx. And it may not be an intuitive way for everybody. Note that only my main preset has 4 scenes. I use max. 2 scenes in all other presets.

Other relevant settings:
- IgnoreRedundantPC: On.
- Switch Links: Off. I would like to be able to use this to make sure only one Amp block is engaged. But in some way it interferes with scene selection.
- TotalSync (MFC): off. If it's on, the MFC doesn't pick up fast double preset stomps.
- Global preset: off.
 
Last edited:
So if i understand correctly you use 2 MFC switches to have these 4 sounds?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
octatonic said:
What about having a double tap of the reveal button to enter 'scene mode' where you can directly access individual scenes?
or assign IA17 (assuming tap is on hold for IA16) to enter 'scene mode'?
Click to expand...

I do not prefer such a method: In Live situations i would loose control and overview with to much "layers". Right now, we`ve three: Preset / Reveal / Looper. Adding a fourth one would be to much. Secondly, it costs time: First select on Preset Layer the preset, than switch (with double switching?) to scene layer and from scene layer to the scene, you need? I count right here 3 or 4 steps to get, what i need! And now, you play ... by the way you forget in which scene you are ... next song: You hit next preset ... but oh ... you still in scene layer .. the band starts to play, your sound is wrong ... you look to the bottom of your MFC, think about whats wrong , try to realign where you are ... in the meantime you forget to play your stuff ...

...no ... no good for me. What i want: The ability to select within a PC automatically a scene from 1 to 8 with one step and get the re-informations about my CC stats on the MFC. This you`ll have right now, when using PC Mapping on the Axe-Fx, but this still just works by loosing all Presets behind Bank A ... and you`ve do the settings on the Axe-Fx and the MFC, YEK has describe ...
 
Replying to original topic:
I was thinking whats the best way to incorporate scenes into MFC without losing access to iAs, so i decided i will leave my MFC as it is and have external Boss dual footswitch connected to the back of MFC, for 2 additional scenes
 
pauliusmm said:
Replying to original topic:
I was thinking whats the best way to incorporate scenes into MFC without losing access to iAs, so i decided i will leave my MFC as it is and have external Boss dual footswitch connected to the back of MFC, for 2 additional scenes
Click to expand...

If those ext.switches are of the latching type, be aware that their state will carry over to the next preset.

Example: you're in preset 1 and you press one of those switches to switch to scene 2. If you then switch presets, the last preset will also have scene 2 enabled. You can set th switches to "TypTOG' on the MFC to change this, but the switch LED (if present) won't sync anymore.

Alternatively you can use momentary switches, set to TypTOG (turns a momentary into a latching switch, without carrying over its state).
 
pauliusmm said:
Replying to original topic:
I was thinking whats the best way to incorporate scenes into MFC without losing access to iAs, so i decided i will leave my MFC as it is and have external Boss dual footswitch connected to the back of MFC, for 2 additional scenes
Click to expand...

This seems clean and workable . thanks.

Yeks method allows 2 Scenes per switch... so would a four switch external would access all eight Scenes?

Eight seems excessive, but one of the truths of technology is that what seems excessive rapidly becomes the norm, once you've worked out how to use it.

Maybe each of four EXT switches could control specific types of sound (requiring multiple FX and setting changes), with the second Scene per switch being a more extreme version - like Yek's method of controlling his Delays (which I like). These eight Scenes could then be the same per patch - at least for the basic patches.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom