So, the Axe FX 3 was Announced

[GreatGreen]

EDIT: Good news, just heard from Cliff and everything will be available via MIDI. We should be able to implement some very nice support for the III! I misunderstood a previous conversation and didn't think it was going to be possible, but I'm happy to be wrong about that.

That's fantastic news! Great to hear.

 

[rjmmusic]

@rjmmusic

Okay Ron, here's an idea.

X/Y switching will replaced with channels in the Axe-Fx III. Many effects have up to 4 channels.

This poses the question: how can we select those channels (apart from presets and scenes). Well, a MIDI CC can be assigned to each effect's channel, and 4 CC values are assigned to the 4 channels.

So we can switch channels through presets, through scenes and with switches assigned to those CCs.

But, this leaves the question: how can we access those channels at will, without pre-programming?
Example: at a certain point in a song I want to switch to channel C of the phaser, but I haven't programmed it on forehand.

"IA Steps" offer sort of a solution, but not 100% and they still require programming on forehand.

It would be great if the MM GT can provide a channel select mechanism. Such as: press-and-hold the Phaser button to engage "Channel Select" mode, then step on switch 1-4 to select the channel. A single press still engages/bypasses the Phaser.

Whadayathink?

Another suggestion: the III gets scene names. We already have Preset Menu and Song Menu commands in the GT, now let’s add a Scene Menu too!

Good ideas, but writing special support and modes for devices is tricky and requires a great deal of care - I can't do anything that makes it incompatible with other MIDI devices, and have to make sure the "special stuff" is hidden/disabled when not using an Axe-Fx. I'll need to see the Axe-Fx protocol documentation before I can even think about this much, everything depends on how we're required to communicate with the Axe-Fx and what its capabilities are.

 

[Alexander]

Of course, Ron. Just brainstorming about stuff where the MM GT can make the difference.

 

[rjmmusic]

Of course, Ron. Just brainstorming about stuff where the MM GT can make the difference.

Definitely! I'll be happy to work with you all on this as soon as I have the information I need to get started.

 

[Mike]

With the AxeFx III first units shipping tomorrow 3/7, any idea how long until the Mastermind GT will be functionally ready?
Will this just be a firmware update?

 

[rjmmusic]

With the AxeFx III first units shipping tomorrow 3/7, any idea how long until the Mastermind GT will be functionally ready?
Will this just be a firmware update?

I'm waiting get the specifications on the Axe-Fx III's communications protocol, and I also need a III in here so I can test with it. Until I have both, I can't even start on it.

In the meantime, I'm sure it can be configured as a generic MIDI device.

 

[Sleestak]

I have an AxeFX III inbound. Looking forward to getting underway with it. I'll see how the GT10 behaves with it, and will report.

 

[Mr.E]

I want to add something to Alexander's brilliant idea:
on the second line a way to show which state is selected.
So a long press could open a menu to choose between A-B-C-D
Let's say you want to change the state of the Drive block to C
After selecting, the second line would show the chosen state.

 

[dpeterson]

I get my III tomorrow, willing to help beta test if you need it.

 

[rjmmusic]

It would be great if someone who has an Axe-Fx III would look to see what the default values are in the MIDI/Remote Bypass, Channel and Other pages. For some reason, the manual and wiki do not say.

 

[jasonmauer]

Just got my III today, still have default settings. Here's what I'm seeing.

MIDI/Remote Page 1: General
GENERAL
MIDI Channel: 1
Display Offset: 0
Scene Offset: OFF
PC CONFIGURATION
Program Change: OFF
Ignore Redundant PC: OFF
Send MIDI PC: OFF
MIDI PC Offset: 0
PC Mapping: OFF
INITIAL VALUE
External Control 1: 0%
External Control 2: 0%
External Control 3: 0%
External Control 4: 0%
External Control 5: 0%
External Control 6: 0%
External Control 7: 0%
External Control 8: 0%
External Control 9: 0%
External Control 10: 0%
External Control 11: 0%
External Control 12: 0%
External Control 13: 0%
External Control 14: 0%
External Control 15: 0%
External Control 16: 0%

MIDI/Remote Page 2: Mapping
PC: 0 | To Preset: 0 | To Scene: AS SAVED
PC: 1 | To Preset: 0 | To Scene: AS SAVED
[etc... goes from 0 to 127]
PC: 127 | To Preset: 0 | To Scene: AS SAVED

MIDI/Remote Page 3: Bypass
Contains a long list of blocks (Amp 1, Amp 2, Cabinet 1, Cabinet 2, etc). All have their bypass value set to NONE by default.
Values available include any CC number (0-127), or various foot controller options like FC 1 SW 1, FC 1 PEDAL 1, etc. FC 1 thru FC 4 are available. each with SW 1 thru 4 and PEDAL 1 thru 4 as available options. Also PEDAL 1 and PEDAL 2 are available (for the 2 expression pedal jacks on the back of the Axe-Fx III).

MIDI/Remote Page 4: Channel
Same menu config/options as the Bypass page. Default value for all blocks is NONE.

MIDI/Remote Page 5: External
External Control 1 thru 16, assignable to a controller like the Bypass and Channel pages. All of them default to NONE except 16, which is set to FC 4 SW 4. (Not 100% sure if that was from me thumbing through the menus or if that was the actual default setting.)​

​

MIDI/Remote Page 6: Looper​

Assignment options for the following:​

• Record​
• Play​
• Undo​
• Once​
• Reverse​

Like the prior assignment pages, the default values are set to NONE.
​

MIDI/Remote Page 6: Other​

Tempo Tap: NONE​

Tuner: NONE​

SCENE​

Scene Select: NONE​

Scene Increment: NONE​

Scene Decrement: NONE​

I/O
Input 1 Volume: NONE
Input 2 Volume: NONE
Input 3 Volume: NONE
Input 4 Volume: NONE

Output 1 Volume: NONE
Output 2 Volume: NONE
Output 3 Volume: NONE
Output 4 Volume: NONE

(same assignment options as prior pages)​

 

[jasonmauer]

And here's the list of blocks from the Bypass and Channel assignment menus:

• Amp 1
• Amp 2
• Cabinet 1
• Cabinet 2
• Chorus 1
• Chorus 2
• Compressor 1
• Compressor 2
• Compressor 3
• Compressor 4
• Crossover 1
• Crossover 2
• Delay 1
• Delay 2
• Delay 3
• Delay 4
• Drive 1
• Drive 2
• Drive 3
• Drive 4
• Enhancer 1
• Enhancer 2
• Filter 1
• Filter 2
• Filter 3
• Filter 4
• Flanger 1
• Flanger 2
• Formant 1
• Formant 2
• Gate 1
• Gate 2
• Gate 3
• Gate 4
• Graphic EQ 1
• Graphic EQ 2
• Graphic EQ 3
• Graphic EQ 4
• Input 1
• Input 2
• Input 3
• Input 4
• Input USB (Channels 7/8)
• Looper 1
• Megatap 1
• Megatap 2
• Mixer 1
• Mixer 2
• Mixer 3
• Mixer 4
• Multiband Compressor 1
• Multiband Compressor 2
• Multiplexer 1
• Multiplexer 2
• Multitap Delay 1
• Multitap Delay 2
• Output 1
• Output 2
• Output 3
• Output 4
• Parametric EQ 1
• Parametric EQ 2
• Parametric EQ 3
• Parametric EQ 4
• Phaser 1
• Phaser 2
• Pitch 1
• Pitch 2
• Plex Delay 1
• Plex Delay 2
• Resonator 1
• Resonator 2
• Return 1
• Return 2
• Reverb 1
• Reverb 2
• Ring Modulator 1
• Rotary 1
• Rotary 2
• Scene MIDI
• Send 1
• Send 2
• Synthesizer 1
• Synthesizer 2
• Ten-Tap Delay 1
• Ten-Tap Delay 2
• Tone Match
• Tremolo/Panner 1
• Tremolo/Panner 2
• Vocoder 1
• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Volume 3
• Volume 4
• WahWah 1
• WahWah 2

Man this thing has a lot of blocks.

 

[GreatGreen]

So I'm a bit confused about the blocks. In the Axe-Fx 2, most blocks had two CC's. One for bypassing, and another for X/Y switching.

However, in the Axe-Fx 3 it looks like there's only one CC you can associate with any particular block? What about channels though? So for most blocks, will each CC have the following values available to associate with it?...

1. block active
2. block bypass
3. channel A
4. channel B
5. channel C
6. channel D

 

[rjmmusic]

That's what I was afraid of. You'll have to manually assign CC numbers to every one of those blocks you wish to use, one for bypass and one for channel. I suspect the reason that Fractal didn't predefine any CC numbers is that there aren't enough CCs to control channel and bypass for every block, you'll have to pick and choose which ones you control and which ones you don't. This is going to make it pretty difficult to support using CCs - I can't hardcode CC numbers if Fractal doesn't provide default CC numbers.

For what it's worth, when set up manually, it works fine. I've been working with John Petrucci and his tech Maddi, and they've got an Axe3 and GT22 working together.

We have to hope that the promised advanced communications interface will work out better, we shall see...

 

[GreatGreen]

Maybe this is an issue that could be fixed by updating the capabilities of the Generic Midi Device section of the editor?

If the capabilities of the editor were expanded to let users name each of their own defined CC’s per Generic MIDI Device, and then a drop-down selection list containing all those custom named CC’s was added to the button editor, then editing could be a lot more streamlined so users wouldn’t have to remember what each CC does. At least that would be something.

Or when you create the Axe-Fx 3 as a selectable item in the editor’s list of supported devices, let us use the editor to custom name the Axe-Fx CC associations to match our own settings in our own Axe-Fx 3’s.

 

[jasonmauer]

So I'm a bit confused about the blocks. In the Axe-Fx 2, most blocks had two CC's. One for bypassing, and another for X/Y switching.

However, in the Axe-Fx 3 it looks like there's only one CC you can associate with any particular block? What about channels though? So for most blocks, will each CC have the following values available to associate with it?...

1. block active
2. block bypass
3. channel A
4. channel B
5. channel C
6. channel D

You only need 2 CCs to do both bypass and channel switching, same as with the Axe-Fx II.

Bypass works the same as before -- one CC that's either off (0) or on (not 0).

Channel is similar to how X/Y switching worked, but now there are 4 options (A, B, C, D). To select channel A, pass 0; channel B is 1; channel C is 2; channel D is 4. (There's a table on page 139 of the Axe-Fx III manual showing every potential value for scene and channel select, and what it selects.)

 

[rjmmusic]

So I'm a bit confused about the blocks. In the Axe-Fx 2, most blocks had two CC's. One for bypassing, and another for X/Y switching.

However, in the Axe-Fx 3 it looks like there's only one CC you can associate with any particular block? What about channels though? So for most blocks, will each CC have the following values available to associate with it?...

1. block active
2. block bypass
3. channel A
4. channel B
5. channel C
6. channel D

It looks like each block can have a bypass CC and a channel CC assigned to it. I'm not sure why they didn't choose to combine the two into one CC as you propose, I will suggest that to them.

 

[rjmmusic]

Maybe this is an issue that could be fixed by updating the capabilities of the Generic Midi Device section of the editor?

If the capabilities of the editor were expanded to let users name each of their own defined CC’s per Generic MIDI Device, and then a drop-down selection list containing all those custom named CC’s was added to the button editor, then editing could be a lot more streamlined so users wouldn’t have to remember what each CC does. At least that would be something.

Yes, I've had a lot of requests for something like that, and I am thinking about it. It would be the first time we'd have a feature that exists in the editor only, but not in the GT itself. Up until now everything that could be done in the editor could also be done on the GT. But, I don't think it would be possible to allow for custom CC names in the GT itself. Still, it would probably be worth it. Most people use the editor most of the time.

 

[jasonmauer]

Having device templates in the editor would be great. Along with naming CCs, you could define settings (like how bank selection works for the device, max presets, etc), so people wouldn't have to wrestle with that each time they're adding said device to the GT. Load up a template and boom, the GT editor knows how to work with your MIDI device.

Another option for Axe-Fx III support is having the Mastermind emulate a FC6 or FC12, or potentially have support added as a device type in the Axe-Fx. I'd imagine for FC6/12 mode you'd assign GT buttons to FC buttons, and then you can define what they do from within the Axe-Fx itself. With that setup, there may not be a need to assign CCs at all. Not sure if that's fully baked yet, or what the deal is with having four switches and pedals available per controller -- FC6 and 12 both have more switches than that.

 

[greiswig]

I should be getting my AxeFX III in the next week or so. I have to say, my GT16 is still about the best money I’ve spent on my live rig. The fact that, Cliff willing, there will soon be 2-way communication via MIDI available from the AFX means that my favorite controller should work, and that is money I won’t have to spend on a dedicated Fractal controller.

Nobody out there has the configurability, readability, usability and support that the GT series does, and I’m really tickled that I’ll be able to continue using it. Do let me know if/how I can help support your efforts, Ron.