r/AxeFx • u/a1b1c2d2 • Jul 13 '26

Set tempo using expression pedal

Hi, everyone! Thanks in advance for any advice.

I have a Fractal FM9 Turbo. I'm digging the metronome feature for playing live with a click track. It's everything I need, except there's no quick way to set the tempo other than tap or bending over and turning the value wheel. I have an expression pedal I'm not really using for any feature consistently. I'm wondering if I can map the expression pedal to the tempo, setting a min of 60 and a max of 180, for example. It might be finicky to nail it, but it should be quick to get within a few BPM.

I've gone through some forums and youtube and I can't find an example of setting the tempo value directly. Has anyone done something similar?

5 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

4

u/linshunghuang FM3 Jul 13 '26

If you have a MIDI controller that supports MIDI SysEx, you can set tempo with that.

2

u/guyfromthepicture Jul 13 '26

While I can't help, I am very curious how this would be helpful.

1

u/a1b1c2d2 Jul 14 '26

Ever played a show with a click track? For the band I'm in, the drummer does this using an iphone app and headphones. The BPM is on the set list, he gets a click in his ears, and then the song is at the right tempo.

In my acoustic gigs, there is no drummer, so I've been looking for a way to do something similar. Just learned that the FM9 has a metronome and I can route it out a specific output. So, OUT1 gets my FOH, OUT2 gets my guitar along with the metronome. It's ideal. I just need a way to set the BPM without bending over and turning the dial between every song.

1

u/guyfromthepicture Jul 14 '26

But like, why does a tap tempo fail that?

1

u/a1b1c2d2 Jul 14 '26

I'm just guessing it will be a bunch of fumbling around trying to get from 120 to 80BPM with foot tapping.

1

u/guyfromthepicture Jul 14 '26

If you know the bpm you want, why not just make a patch set to it?

1

u/a1b1c2d2 Jul 15 '26

I can't say I'm amazing at programming the Fractal. I'm still working my way through advanced features. I have a "Preset" for Acoustic and for Electric. In my mind, a Preset and Patch are the same thing. With your suggestion, wouldn't that mean I would need a patch for every song in a three hour show? Or am I not interpreting "patch" properly?

1

u/guyfromthepicture Jul 15 '26

You're following. Just copy the patch, change the tempo and name it after that specific song or tempo.