New GM40 user here with a question

Hey all, happy holidays to you! I just got myself a GM40, and I’m setting up my Helix Floor to control the GM via midi. I have everything set and figured out, EXCEPT, I can’t get the GM’s effects to revert back to their original state when using snapshots.

When using the Helix itself, you can turn an effect or or off, within a snapshot, and if you hit the snapshot again, if will revert back to the way it was originally set.

With the GM, I can turn an effect on or off, within a snapshot, but I have to select another snapshot and go back, if I want that first snapshot to revert back to the way it was stored.

Is there any workaround for this?

Edit: I’ll add the exact situation. Sometimes I’ll load up my “solo” snapshot that has the GM’s boost, a volume jump, and the GM’s delay. In some solos, I might not need the gain boost or delay, so maybe I’ll turn them off. When using the Helix’s fx by itself, if you do that, and then want the original configuration back, all you have to do is step on the same snapshot again.

When using the GM, those effects stay off until you switch them back in individually, or go to another snapshot. So hitting that same snapshot a 2nd time isn’t triggering the CC message again like it does the first time you engage that snapshot. I’m just trying to avoid the tap dance.

I'm no MIDI expert but I'm pretty sure this is a nono.

GM40D Manual wrote:Heads up: In theory, you could switch GrandMeister Deluxe 40’s effects on and off via controllers as the value 0 actually means “off” to a preset. However, there’s a hitch: whereas switching functions such as Boost or FX Loop have a default value for “on”, this option isn’t available for an effect that is switched off in the preset by storing the value 0. This means it can’t be switched on with a footswitch. If you want to switch effects on and off in live situations, you have to first store the preset with the effects activated. Then you can do things like switch the delay off and back on again when needed. An expression pedal gives you another option: it lets you adjust the volume of an effect regardless of the value stored in the preset, just as if you were to twist the volume knob on the delay device itself.

That's about as clear as the River Ganges at first reading!  Thinking between the lines it seems to be saying that you have to have your GM40D preset saved on the amp with the value for all of those functions ON whether you want them on straight away or not.  Then you are able to send individual CC messages from the controller to the GM40D to turn the relevant functions OFF.  If you save the preset with the Fx funcxtions off you can't send messages to turn them on.

Ok, I would have thought that saving the preset with them on is easy enough.  Then the messages you need to send will be on channels 52-55, (see GM40D manual page 12).  To toggle the Fx Loop for example you will need to send a [CC 55 0] for OFF and a [CC 55 127] for ON.  That is a Control Change message, channel 55 , value 0 or 127.  I'm pretty sure you can't toggle them with the exact same message content.  After that it seems to be down to how you can program your Helix and that presents a problem!

Your Helix reserves a bunch of CC messages for its own use.  And these include 52-55, see Page 72 "MIDI CC" in the Helix manual.  I'm not sure where that leaves us but it seems to be up a gum tree.  Has this made anything clearer?

Yes, that does make sense, and, upon further reading, I have come to the same conclusion.  Furthermore, I have thought to myself, “if I’m already bringing/using the Helix, why not just use the effects IN the Helix the way I want to do it, the same way I have used them with other amps?”

So that’s why I’m going to do, as they are better and more adjustable anyway, and, with a slight philosophical change, I can use the included midi board and some switches to accommodate what I wish to do, if I really wanted to.

That sounds like a good decision to me.  The effects in the H&K amps are not bad.  They are often criticised for being vastly inferior to "boutique" pedals or expensive modellers like your own but a lot of that is cork sniffing in the real world.  They are pretty decent but, that said, they are no better than other pedal effects in any way other than convenience.  And in your own case I think convenience leans towards the Helix and the conclusion you have reached.

The GM40D MIDI functionality is very much aimed at using the H&K FSM432 footswitch unit which I have to say is very good in a live situation.  You have 128 presets for the amp arranged into banks of 4 each with their own switch on the FSM432.  It is easy to arrange what you have described you want to do for a single track into one of those banks of 4 separate presets so you can switch between them at will.  That gives you 32 sets which is usually enough for a set of numbers, even a full gig if they aren't too specialist.  With the ability to upload sets of presets easily from a laptop or tablet, you can even load up a block at a time between sets.  However, with the functionality you have at your disposal in the Helix that gives you another level of control.

Using them as you have decided will at least give you a first opportunity to get to grip with the amp in its basic form.  When you have done that you may well find a better way of addressing the issue.