K1ng_Tuck3r Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 Hi all, I'm brand new to Line 6 products and can't seem to find the answer to my question anywhere... any guidance you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I own a Sherlock Fathead amp and I am trying to get my HX effects to change the channels on the amp via MIDI. I am also inexperienced with MIDI programming, hence my call for help. The Sherlock Fathead is an Australian made boutique amp and is (of course) Midi capable. The amp came with a footswitch that I was able to program easily by selecting the settings on my amp, selecting a footswitch to store the settings to and finally I hold the "store" button on the amp for 3 seconds and done. Obviously the HX is more complicated then that. Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4TH Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 I’m fairly new to midi myself, but have managed to rig up my HX with midi, with the help of this forum. So hopefully I can help a bit. Assuming you have all your midi cables set in place - You first need to have your amp and the HX on the same midi channel. Then decide whether you want to use instants (lighting bolts), or have it dedicated to a foot switch. Also whether you use MIDI CC, CC Toggle or bank/program, etc. I use my HX with snapshots, and have it set as follows - Snapshot 1 Instants - bolt 1 Bank/program midi channel 1 Bank CC00 - 64 Bank CC32 - off Program - 1 (hit save) Snapshot 2 Instant - bolt 1 Bank/program midi channel 1 Bank CC00 - 64 Bank CC32 - off Program - 2 (hit save) That now switches channels per snapshot. But check your amps manual for its midi information. That should tell you what program numbers change the channels on your amp. Hopefully someone will give you some better info. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zappazapper Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 I wasn't able to find a manual for your amp, but the product page on their website has a little blurb about midi that seems to explain it. http://www.sherlockamps.com/products/fat-head.html Select a patch number on the Fat Head Controller or any MIDI Controller. Select the amps channel or function using the corresponding buttons on the Fat Head. The led or leds on the Fat Head light up to indicate which channels or functions have been selected. Press and hold the “Prog” button for 2 seconds. The Fat Head will now save this combination and assigned it to the patch number selected on the Foot Controller (in step 1), and your done. What I get from this is that your amp receives MIDI Program Change (PC) messages. So on your Helix you would select a preset, adjust your amp's parameters then press and hold its "Prog" button for 2 seconds to save those settings. Now whenever you select that preset on the Helix, your amp should recall those settings. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell from this brief explanation on their site, your amp does not receive MIDI Continuous Controller (CC) messages, which is what C4TH's suggestion is using. Maybe there's a manual that contains a more in-depth explanation of your amp's MIDI implementation that includes a list of CCs that control individual parameters, but I can't find it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K1ng_Tuck3r Posted October 26, 2020 Author Share Posted October 26, 2020 Thank you C4th and Zappazapper for taking the time to respond, really appreciate it. Zappa, I tried this method while in stompbox mode but not in preset mode, I will give it a shot and report back. C4th, I'm not sure how to get the HX and Sherlock on the same midi channel (can't find that information) and am unfamiliar with how to use snapshots as of now. I got my HX effects only a few weeks ago and haven't had time to dive into it fully yet. I hear that there are some big advantages to using snapshots, I'm just not that far along yet. I will have a go today and report back my findings. Again, thanks for your responses, Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4TH Posted October 26, 2020 Share Posted October 26, 2020 13 minutes ago, K1ng_Tuck3r said: Thank you C4th and Zappazapper for taking the time to respond, really appreciate it. Zappa, I tried this method while in stompbox mode but not in preset mode, I will give it a shot and report back. C4th, I'm not sure how to get the HX and Sherlock on the same midi channel (can't find that information) and am unfamiliar with how to use snapshots as of now. I got my HX effects only a few weeks ago and haven't had time to dive into it fully yet. I hear that there are some big advantages to using snapshots, I'm just not that far along yet. I will have a go today and report back my findings. Again, thanks for your responses, Ben No problem. Yeah, let us know how you get on. And we’ll try and help you from there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K1ng_Tuck3r Posted October 27, 2020 Author Share Posted October 27, 2020 Ok so I've just spent the last hour and a half trying to get this to work for me. I've had a specific goal of getting Footswitch 2 (top row, middle switch) to recall the clean channel settings on my Sherlock Fathead. I have not succeeded. Things I've eliminated are... 1) Changing to preset mode, selecting bank 13C (top row, middle switch) and holding the Program button down for 3 seconds. Did not work. 2) Tried to allocate a Midi CC message to Footswitch 2 Woking my way from CC# 5 to 75. Did not work 3) Tried the same using BankPC, CC05 to CC75. Did not work. I also tried this process with 2 separate Midi chords to eliminate the possibility of a failed cable. What do you think I should try next? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4TH Posted October 27, 2020 Share Posted October 27, 2020 What midi channel are you running the amp and HX on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K1ng_Tuck3r Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 The amp does not have selectable midi channels that I am aware of. In the command centre I ran through Midi Channel 1, CC 5-75 on both the MIDI Ch and BankPC options. Do you think its worth changing the MIDI Channel under the "Base" heading? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K1ng_Tuck3r Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 I just went through the BankPC MIDI channels 1-10 and was unable to get it to respond to the command. Just some info on the process I do each time. I go Menu, Command centre, change the MIDI Ch by 1 (example, from 2 roll the knob one click to 3), hold the prog (program) button down for 3 seconds on the Sherlock then press save on thr Hx. I return to ths main preset screen, test, then stomp box mode and test again. And repeat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C4TH Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 You could try base, as the Sherlock foot controller say it transmits on Omni. It also says that it’s program changes are from 1 to 10. I think the problem is like zappazapper said, that the amp doesn’t recognise cc messages. The only thing I can suggest, is getting in touch with Sherlock somehow, and finding out more info on using the amp with a different midi controller. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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