Someoldqueenorother
Groupie
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- 79
Laid bare, as it were
Playing naked would distract from my lack of talent even further.
Naked shoegaze without any FX would be a pretty niche genre. 'Drynudegaze' maybe.
Fractal Audio Systems VP4 - Virtual Pedalboard
- Thread starter laxu
- Start date
Playing naked would distract from my lack of talent even further.
Naked shoegaze without any FX would be a pretty niche genre. 'Drynudegaze' maybe.
Desertdweller
Shredder
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- 1,352
I have absolutely zero issues with mine with any of my amps. It’s excellent in 4CM.
laxu
Rock Star
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I managed to get the MC6 Pro up and running with it tonight. Got one switch doing tap tempo, and another toggling the tuner. Not sure what to do with the other switches. Maybe set them up as midi CC's and tie them to external controllers, so I can have hold/stack modifiers on a per preset basic. Dunno.
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I didn't get much action with it today because I still feel pretty crappy, and sods law, I've now pulled something in my back and have that sharp stabby sciatic pain stuff. Probably resting too much coz of the noro. I hate the human body.
But the bit of time I did have to quickly check it out, an hour or so, I'd say Fractal have kinda knocked it out of the park for me. Every awesome Fractal effect in a box that is not much bigger than a DD-500 or Meris LVX or Line 6 DL4, 4-cable-method support, midi support, a huge great whackin' tuner display with the fantastic Fractal tuner, really great and intuitive footswitching capabilities, with customizable hold actions if you so choose.
I really like the press the page buttons to unlock expert mode thing. I know it sounds trite.. but usually, the top level controls are what you want 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time, you want to just quickly tweak 2 or 3 deeper edit things. This gives you the ability to do that, and then hide them again afterwards. I don't think I can overstate how cool that is.
It is brilliant. I know I'm in the honeymoon period, but also... kinda not really, coz I've had an Axe FX III since 2022 (time flies!) so I knew what I was getting into.
But the bit of time I did have to quickly check it out, an hour or so, I'd say Fractal have kinda knocked it out of the park for me. Every awesome Fractal effect in a box that is not much bigger than a DD-500 or Meris LVX or Line 6 DL4, 4-cable-method support, midi support, a huge great whackin' tuner display with the fantastic Fractal tuner, really great and intuitive footswitching capabilities, with customizable hold actions if you so choose.
I really like the press the page buttons to unlock expert mode thing. I know it sounds trite.. but usually, the top level controls are what you want 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time, you want to just quickly tweak 2 or 3 deeper edit things. This gives you the ability to do that, and then hide them again afterwards. I don't think I can overstate how cool that is.
It is brilliant. I know I'm in the honeymoon period, but also... kinda not really, coz I've had an Axe FX III since 2022 (time flies!) so I knew what I was getting into.
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So I did manage to get the MC6 Pro setup with the VP4:
I had it switching my Mesa Boogie Mark V to the clean channel when rhythm or lead was turned off, or to the respective channels when I hit those switches. I had it turning on the tuner, and then even the top two spare switches were assigned to external 1 and 2 controllers on the VP4.
But the tap tempo... man... the MC6 kinda sucks for tap tempo - midi clock doesn't update fast enough, so the VP4 doesn't update fast enough... and when you use a midi CC to tap the tempo, the MC6 is quite slow to send the messages, even at the fastest switch sensitivity. So what this means is, if you want to tap a tempo faster than say, 140bpm... it is actually borderline impossible. So if you wanted to quickly double tap a switch to set the VP4 to a slapback (even if the delay is set to a quarter note sync for example) then you can't. And I tend to do that quite often.
Maybe I'll do some more investigation, but right now I'm annoyed at it and took it off the board.
I've plugged in my old trusty Boss FS5U into the VP4, and that works perfectly. Great tap tempo performance, and it can tap right up to 250bpm, which is the max the VP4 supports. I put another SPST switch on there too, and assigned that to external 1; which in my first preset is the HOLD modifier on the 2nd delay.
I had it switching my Mesa Boogie Mark V to the clean channel when rhythm or lead was turned off, or to the respective channels when I hit those switches. I had it turning on the tuner, and then even the top two spare switches were assigned to external 1 and 2 controllers on the VP4.
But the tap tempo... man... the MC6 kinda sucks for tap tempo - midi clock doesn't update fast enough, so the VP4 doesn't update fast enough... and when you use a midi CC to tap the tempo, the MC6 is quite slow to send the messages, even at the fastest switch sensitivity. So what this means is, if you want to tap a tempo faster than say, 140bpm... it is actually borderline impossible. So if you wanted to quickly double tap a switch to set the VP4 to a slapback (even if the delay is set to a quarter note sync for example) then you can't. And I tend to do that quite often.
Maybe I'll do some more investigation, but right now I'm annoyed at it and took it off the board.
I've plugged in my old trusty Boss FS5U into the VP4, and that works perfectly. Great tap tempo performance, and it can tap right up to 250bpm, which is the max the VP4 supports. I put another SPST switch on there too, and assigned that to external 1; which in my first preset is the HOLD modifier on the 2nd delay.
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- 407
Sciatica sucks. I've been battling it for almost a year now.
The best thing I've found for it is the "Captain's Chair":
It strengthens your core and helps decompress the discs in your back. Since I've been doing it my pain has gone from "can't tie my shoes" to "almost unnoticeable some days".
Three sets of 15-20 a few days a week is doing wonders.
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Yep!! 100% !!Sciatica sucks. I've been battling it for almost a year now.
The best thing I've found for it is the "Captain's Chair":
It strengthens your core and helps decompress the discs in your back. Since I've been doing it my pain has gone from "can't tie my shoes" to "almost unnoticeable some days".
Three sets of 15-20 a few days a week is doing wonders.
I used to be a lot better at taking care of myself. Used to run 5-7km 3 times a week, used to lift (not huge weight though) 3 times a week. The last few years I've just properly slid into "ughhhhh can't be arsed" territory. Need to fix that! Kids and Covid sorta threw me a bit.
Some life changes soon should help with it.
GTR37
Rock Star
- Messages
- 3,803
That’s really cool and much more intuitive , I hope that comes to the Axe and FM editors at some point down the road
deadpool_25
Roadie
- Messages
- 880
I need to try that. Is it a standard rep or is it a thing where you hold for a few seconds each rep.Sciatica sucks. I've been battling it for almost a year now.
The best thing I've found for it is the "Captain's Chair":
It strengthens your core and helps decompress the discs in your back. Since I've been doing it my pain has gone from "can't tie my shoes" to "almost unnoticeable some days".
Three sets of 15-20 a few days a week is doing wonders.
yeky83
Roadie
- Messages
- 981
I got sciatica during Covid times, wrote a “help” post on the Fractal forums and all. I was stuck on my hands and knees for two weeks and couldn’t walk properly for a few months. Then had numerous bad flair ups over the next couple years—one time I sneezed wrong and it took me out for a week!Sciatica sucks. I've been battling it for almost a year now.
The best thing I've found for it is the "Captain's Chair":
It strengthens your core and helps decompress the discs in your back. Since I've been doing it my pain has gone from "can't tie my shoes" to "almost unnoticeable some days".
Three sets of 15-20 a few days a week is doing wonders.
The best thing I’ve found for mine is the glute bridge, but heels fairly close to the butt and stick a hard ball (basketball) between the knees and squeeze the crap out of it with your knees while doing the glute bridge. It activated like a never-used sliver of my posterior chain (glute, ham & hip joint) that felt super foreign & weak on my sciatica side, and grooving that chain has helped a ton. This, as well as further mindful adductor activation in everyday movements, has been so helpful to me in gaining back function after a couple years of feeling terrified & debilitated all the time.
Since finding this, it’s unnoticeable most days now. Still can’t really do anything explosive without getting the toe tingles after, but I can now even sleep in more than one weird position I was stuck to before!
laxu
Rock Star
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- 6,575
You too, huh?
Last month I finally lit a fire under my ass and started going to the gym again. I can't overstate how much it has done for both my physical and mental health. I feel I'm having a clearer mind, sleeping better and just overall moving around feels easier. Even lifting that Mesa Mark V combo around didn't feel too bad.
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Right. Foxy Tone fuzz going back. Cioks DC7 and Crux high current addon incoming instead.
Will power my VP4 and whatever additional pedals I ever manage to decide on!
Definitely my wah. Probably my volume pedal as well, but also.... an expression pedal can control the VP4's input or output volume. Sooo.... I could go that way and take out a gain stage from the pre effects.
Will power my VP4 and whatever additional pedals I ever manage to decide on!
Definitely my wah. Probably my volume pedal as well, but also.... an expression pedal can control the VP4's input or output volume. Sooo.... I could go that way and take out a gain stage from the pre effects.
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- 7,662
Right. I think I'm sticking with this for a while. See how I get on.
The layout should be fairly self explanatory. But I'll just walk through it quickly:
Guitar > Volume > Wah > LVX > MXR Reverb > VP4 > Stereo Out
I can do stereo effects if I need to, all the way through from the LVX. The MC6 changes my Mark V amp channels via the relay switches. Rhythm or lead, and if I hit the currently activated one it will flip over to the clean channel.
Left two switches activate the tuner and tap the tempo for the VP4.
Then I've got Reverb Freeze and Delay Hold - those also send midi CC's in, but assigned to external 1 and external 2. So really I could attach those to anything on the VP4.
LVX is mainly on there to fill the gap to be honest with you. I could use it as a looper for now, or use it for some more glitchy effects, but I doubt I will - not in the new band anyway.
SillyOctpuss
Rock Star
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- 2,616
Are you keeping the plethora and dd500 for now or moving those on?
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- 7,662
Keeping them. They're very good.
SillyOctpuss
Rock Star
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- 2,616
That's a sweet place to be pedalwise
