Now that the Fractal AM4 is out, I’m wondering when it might be possible to have deeper integration with the Fractal AM4 as well? I’d imagine there’d be a lot of similarities between the VP4 and AM4 sysex implementation even if it would be a subset of what’s available for the axe-fx devices.
So far with the MC8 Pro I’ve been able to do some midi scene selection using the scene select midi feature from the fractal to send a midi message to the MC8 to “sync” the right toggle state. However, it would be even better to have the scene selection pull names and do that same for presets too if that would be possible via sysex like it is for the Axe-fx iii/FM3/FM9.
Most of the hard tasks for end-users integrating these devices with midi is managing state, I’d also love to be able to know FX/Amp block type and bypass state so for example if I wanted to enable an external stereo reverb pedal in the AM4’s insert loop, I’d know where the AM4’s reverb block is so I can selectively bypass it (or vice versa). Right now that can probably be done on the presumption that the block is in a specific position, but that might not be the case for all presets.
Another state issue also like to have a better way to know when the tuner is exited from the AM4 footswitch side since there’s no way to know that if the tuner is exited from the AM4 footswitch rather (That said the easy workaround for that currently is to use the MC8 for switching that both on and off).
Seconding this! Having the integration automatically sync preset and scene names and states would be huge, and was honestly one of the features that drew me to Morningstar when I had an FM3. But alas, now I’ve fully switched to the AM4 and have been really missing that.
@muffinresearch How’d you get the two-way toggle state sync working with the AM4? Can you describe your configuration? I tried to configure that myself using the AM4’s Send Scene Sync config, but somehow wound up creating an infinite loop of Scene Sync messages because apparently the AM4 sends that message even when triggered by an external MIDI controller (like the Morningstar), not just when triggered by its built-in footswitches.
I’m still refining this but I’m using both the 3.5mm in/outs of the MC8-Pro attached to the AM4.
I have a scenes option on my first bank page pointing at a new bank/page which has Scene 1/2/3/4 on it as well as a back preset (that goes back to where started).
Position 1 of the toggle for the Scene 1 preset calls the relevant AM4 Scene #CC to change the Scene, the scenes sync midi settings on the AM4 are set to the MC8’s midi channel to send to #cc 2 to toggle the same preset, which creates the active state for that scene in lock step with the AM4. I am also seting the reset toggle group to the same group for the scene presets. I don’t have the preset midi (on the AM4) turned on currently, but that would likely enable something similar for presets - though I could see this potentially causing issues depending on the way that’s setup. I also have remember toggle states enabled so that the toggle state is retained between banks.
I’d ideally have liked this to have switched back to the original bank/page (similar to how the AM4 does it natively) but the problem with doing that is the message from the AM4 comes too late and toggles the wrong item. I’ve tried delays on the bank switch but haven’t found this to work it seems to block the incoming message in some way (maybe a bug?).
I’m thinking that doing this without banks might simplify some of this and make it more robust, but clearly if the sysex based integration was available that would be better still.
I’m recalling this from memory so let me know if this isn’t clear and I can look to add some screenshots of the exact settings.
Thanks a lot! This is actually exactly how I have mine configured, but when I change scenes on the AM4, the previously toggled Scene doesn’t get cleared, leading to this fun state on my MC8 Pro:
I haven’t managed to figure out why the Scene Sync message from the AM4 isn’t clearing out any previously toggled switches - it’s almost like CC#2 on the MC8 Pro doesn’t respect Toggle Reset Groups. Everything works great if I only change the scene from my MC8 Pro - it only becomes an issue if I change the scene on the AM4. Here’s my setup for each Scene preset on the MC8 Pro:
Toggle Reset Group: 1
Toggle Mode On
Msg 1
Action: Press; Type: CC; Pos: Both
Sends the Scene Select message I configured on the AM4
I think you might need your scene message to the am4 to be position 1 only. Otherwise it will be sent again when the am4 sends its message back to the Morningstar.
This is a fractional sysex constraint, not a toggle reset group problem.
The am4’s scene shift causes the mc8 to view another cc#2 and not obtain state data to clear the group. When mc8 is the source, reset groups work properly.
Proper fractal sysex scene state sync would let the mc8 hard-set switches instead of guessing.
for now:
send scene choose position 1 only * or disable toggle mode and transmit scene-specific on/off.
This is normal till fractal unlocks am4’s deeper sysex.
