The controls you will actually use
The handful that account for nearly everything you will do, plus the gestures nothing on the chassis mentions.
04 · 6 min
Footswitches: nine, with nine switchable layouts. Learn how to store a preset before you learn anything else — the edited indicator does not prompt you.
Click anything
Every control on the FM9, and what each press, hold and turn does.
FM9 · Top panel · schematic, drawn from Line 6’s panel diagram
The nine footswitches
Nine switches, each with a colour display above it that renames itself to whatever the current layout has assigned.
- Press
- Does whatever the current layout assigns — a scene, a preset, a block bypass, a tap. FM9 Owner's Manual
- Hold
- Usually steps to another layout. What exactly depends on the layout you are in. Fractal Audio Footswitch Functions Guide
Worth knowingThe nine factory layouts are designed around exactly these nine switches. If you add an FC-6 or FC-12, you will be building custom layouts — the defaults assume nine.
Store, or lose it
Changing anything lights an edited indicator. Change preset with that lit and your work is gone — there is no confirmation and no undo.
Press STORE. It is the same discipline every modeller needs and this one gives you the least warning.
Get into the habit on day one. Losing an afternoon's work to a preset change is a rite of passage nobody needs.
FM9 Owner's Manual