X/Y switching: owner's manual

X/Y switching: what is it

Cliff: "The idea behind X/Y is that people often have multiple distortion/chorus/delay/etc. pedals on their board but they rarely have more than one on at a time. So rather than creating more instances of effects, which sucks up CPU, have each instance capable of more than one sound."
X/Y-switching occurs at block level, not on preset level.
The X/Y state of an effect can vary per preset scene.
There's no crossfading when switching between X and Y. If you want crossfading on the Axe-Fx II, you can use scene controllers as an alternative to X/Y switching.

Press the "X" key on the keyboard to switch a block between X and Y.
The X/Y-states of the blocks are displayed on the grid, without needing to select the block first.

An assigned modifier always applies to X and Y block states. It's not possible to have different modifier settings for X and Y. The architecture doesn't allow for this. Source

Using Recall effect on the Axe-Fx II will always import the entire effect block settings: X and Y. You can't use Recall for X or Y only. Use Axe-Edit to copy and paste the X- or Y-settings.

X/Y is an easy way to compare sounds when tweakings. Example:
1. Go to the Amp block, state "X".
2. Double-click the "Y" knob on the front panel, to copy the "X" settings to "Y".
3. Select "Y" and re-select the amp type to reset the model's advanced parameters. Or doubleclick Bypass and to reset the block entirely.
4. Now alternate between X and Y on every tab page of the Amp block to see the differences.
You can also do this in Axe-Edit.
An alternative approach to comparing sounds: save a preset as a Snapshot in Axe-Edit. Select Revert to get the original sound back. Then drag and drop the snapshot file into Axe-Edit.

You can configure X/Y effect blocks to engage the effect in either X or Y mode. Source Example:
1. IA Switch 1, ON message: DELAY 1 ON, DELAY 1 X (CC#47:127, CC#106: 127)
2. IA Switch 1, OFF message: DELAY 1 OFF, DELAY 1 X (CC#47:0, CC#106: 127)
3. IA Switch 2, OFF message: DELAY 1 ON, DELAY 1 Y (CC#47:127, CC#106: 0)
4. IA Switch 2, OFF message: DELAY 1 OFF, DELAY 1 Y (CC#47:0, CC#106: 0)
Or use the controller's group/switch-link functionality.
On the MFC-101 X is green, Y is red. If you prefer the default state to be green, use Y as the default state.