Axe-Fx Preset/Scene configuration

[rjmmusic]

I recently helped a band set up a GT with an Axe-Fx so that the GT preset buttons recalled scenes instead of Axe-Fx presets. There has been some discussion about similar things on this forum, so I'd like to describe what I did in case it's helpful.

1. Use the default setting of preset buttons with scene buttons underneath (in IA Mode)
2. Set the Scene buttons to have Send on Preset Change and Update on Preset Change turned on. Set them all to the same group, turn off IA Link on all scene buttons. Set the group with "Allow all buttons off" and "Send off messages" turned off. This makes the scene buttons "take charge" and send their messages to the Axe-Fx without paying any attention to what the Axe-Fx is reporting back to the GT.
3. Take the number of preset buttons you have in your configuration and create that many presets per song.

• • Each preset within the song should send the same PC number to the Axe-Fx
  • Edit each preset, use the IA buttons to choose which scene should be active. Each preset button should select a different scene

This way, you can make full use of the features presets and songs offer, but select scenes instead of presets on the Axe-Fx.

In the case I was working on, this covered everything the band needed. There have been proposals to add features to achieve a similar goal - does this strategy work for everyone, or is there something it's missing?

 

[Victor Vos]

I was thinking of something like this and it could work as scenes are presets then but needs a lot of work for all 64 songs...
And you would first need to set to IA mode. that takes another button.
I want to start from homepage that has no scene buttons but a single button that goes to scene 2 and select scene page...
Then, selecting the active scene (2 if I don't change) should bring me home...

Why allow all buttons off?

 

[rjmmusic]

You don't need IA mode for general use, only for programming in the editor, and in there you just use the IA Mode checkbox. The IA buttons that select scenes are triggered automatically when you switch presets, so there's no need to ever actually press them.

You turn off "Allow all Buttons Off" because a scene is always selected on the Axe-Fx, there's no possibility of having no scene active.

I'll post specifics about your setup in the thread you posted.

 

[Mr.E]

I use only one preset per song.
For the rest, I did just exactly that.
The lower five buttons for scenes using the above settings. The 6th for tuner/tempo
The rest of the buttons, I use for displaying the IA blocks in the Axe-fx and switching them on the fly if I don't want to use scenes.
I can combine scene buttons with "custom" buttons and put them all in the same group.
This way, only one of the buttons of the first row is on.
A custom button can be:
- selecting a scene
- turning on an extra block
- sending cc to modifiers
-....

On the Gordius, they had something called banks.
A bank was a collection of buttons.
You could use a bank per song or a bank for multiple songs.
You could "inherite" settings from another bank.

I had a bank called "standard song"
The first button was for sending specific parameters for a song (tempo, cc's,..)
The rest were based on scenes so it could be used for a song until I figured out what specific buttons I needed to program.

But the fact that you could use inheritance was easy.
I only needed to change the standard song bank to update all the rest that were linked.

Anyway.
What I lacked was the ability to display what blocks were used in the Axe-fx and to be able to turn them on/off on the fly if I felt like it.

So that's why I use this method.
The lower row for each part of a song (intro, verse, chorus, break, solo,...)
The rest of the buttons for controlling indivdual blocks.

No need for more than one preset per song if it's based on one preset on the axe-fx.

There are songs where I use an extra preset - mostly for weird sounds. But I can easily program a button for that and also add it to the group.

 

[Victor Vos]

Sounds familiar. I also had a Little Giant.
I used a 'home' bank for all songs. On this bank the second button activated scene 2 and changed buttons 1-8 to scene selectors. a second press on the active scene took be back to the 'home' bank.
I am recreating this on my MMGT10. Sure this will work, I love it!
Only minor about this is that you can only change scenes to scene 2 from "home'. For me this is no problem as I almost always start with scene 2. If you need scene 5 from home you would have to press 2 - 5.