I think the FC7 is pretty sturdy myself, but the FC9 is definatley more so.
With the FC9, you can have a typical volume control for two channels at a time. So, a stereo instrument, two mono instruments or one mono instrument and a CC controller all at once.
Another option is the FC7 or FC9 and say a MFC1 MIDI stomp box. They can be had on E-Bay for less than $50.00 and then you have something like 8-discrete patch selections, or up to 128 or so in a chain and can plug the FC7/FC9 and an FC5 switch into it and it will work with any MIDI compatible device.