Right, currently toggling the switch once turns the note on, toggling again turns the note off.
I don’t have the footswitch extension, so I can’t test this exactly. Have you tried with more than one synth plugin? It could be that particular synth. I’ll see if I can reproduce this issue.
ah, of course that could make sense. because the synth doesn’t care where the note-off msg comes from. my guess is that with two it should work! thanks!
DIY… why not?
I honestly think most famous foot MIDI controllers are too expensive. One of them can cost half of my Duo.
That said, tth FCB1010 seems to be the one that suits best the MOD devices of all I know.
Every footswitch in a patch can be programmed to send multiple MIDI PC and/or CC messages in multiple channels. This makes possible, with come clever programming, to recall any pedalboard, snapshot or toggle a plugin with just a click. some unofficial firmaker enables even to dedicate some of the 10 footswitches to work as “regular” stompbox switches and use the rest for pedalboard/snapshot navigation.
Anyway, I current use an old Zoom 8050 pedalboard with the duo. It was the companion of some popular Zoom multieffects like the 9030, but it works by itself with a 12V power adapter and a regular MIDI cable. You can find an used one on ebay for 50 dollars.
At its basic you can use it like any other pedalboard, and output a PC message with every click, but has an extended mode, toggled pedal click, that turns all 10 footswitches in “stompbox mode”, where they output a CC message. This means you can toggle between pedalboard navigation and plugin control mode very easily, and you have up to 10 plugins that can be directly controlled from the pedalboard, instead of the 5 thant the FCB1010 unofficial firmware provides.
On top of that the stompbox is not limited to send a “toggle type” CC message, but every one can be programmed to work as latched, unlatched, or even some different sweep modes (quite helpful for flangers or phasers). Ah, you can also connect up to 2 expression pedals.
The downside of this is that you can only set a global MIDI channel, so as it is now, it’s impossible to navigate both pedalboards and snapshots with this device.
Found this too but quite expensive! - https://www.morningstarfx.com/
This one is pretty interesting and cheap, wondering if it is fully programmable - https://iconproaudio.com/product/g-board/
Hey redcloud,
iCON G-Board manual explains that programming is done via iMap software. So it seems like this device is most reasonable for that price, although LEDs are not working.
I was wondering if a DV EVO1 controller [1] might work as it is connected via MIDI, but I’m wary about how it is powered. It uses a standard 5-pin DIN connector while other controllers like the Tech 21 MIDI Mongoose [2] gets phantom power over 7-pin MIDI cable or need an ac daptor.
[1] http://www.dvmark.it/product-detail/dv-evo1-controller/
[2] http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/effects/midi-mongoose/
What about the Meloaudio Midi Commander? I picked one up a couple of days ago on sale from Amazon, and have been testing it out ($179 Cdn, no taxes). But I won’t get to use it with the Dwarf until… well, whenever it shows up (December hopefully). Has some quirks, but seems to do what it needs to do. Hopefully the developer can address a few configuration issues to make it a bit better.
But, if anyone has used it with the Duo, I’m curious to hear how it’s working out.
If I correctly recall it doesn’t cover the entire MIDI protocol.
Being that I’m not a midi guru in any way, could you please explain what the MC may be missing? I do realize that something like the Morningstar MC6 or MC8 is very much more configurable. My needs (I think) would be quite simple. Switch patches/snapshots, turn individual effects on/off, call up the tuner, and maybe tap tempo. Possibly one day toss an expression pedal into the mix. Once everything is configured, I’d like to eliminate the need to bend over to make these changed. And maybe that is all possible with the 3 Dwarf footswitches (the HX Stomp only has 3, and seems to get the job done… or maybe not). Thanks.
Probably you might customize it for your needs but I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t support advanced functionalities like press and hold, double press and hold and so on. It supports only 0 and 127 as CC value. If you need a CC value of 64 for some reason, you won’t be able to send it from Meloaudio to your MOD.
Yes, the Morningstar does seem to have the ability for multiple types of foot dancing. Personally, I’m not even sure how valuable that is (how does it differentiate between a PRESS and a RELEASE, since the RELEASE involves a PRESS… etc, etc). Having 8 simple switches (or 10 if MA gets their act together) is perfectly fine. I seem to be able to make it work in JamUP (mostly) the way I would like. I was just wondering if anyone has used one with the Duo, and have any comments. There are videos on YouTube where a couple of reviewers talk about using the 2 together, but nothing in-depth. I would really like to know if it’s worth keeping for use on the Dwarf?
The different events of PRESS and RELEASE could be used to emulate a latched pedal, i.e. while you keep the switch pressed you enable an effect, and when you release it the effect is disabled.
Oh wow, I didn’t even think about something like that 
. It makes more sense now. But clearly it’s not something that I would require at this point (or probably ever, since I’ve started learning guitar too late in life).
I’ve tried the iCON G-Board, but it didn’t work. 
In factory default configuration all switches send Note on with a following Note off message (e.g. G#) which doesn’t make sense to me for controlling anything. So I changed working mode to Control Change and mapped 20 to 27 to each of the switches. I checked both setups by monitoring MIDI messages with receivemidi [1] tool. But when I reconnect it to my MDX and try to map a switch via MIDI learn, it still doesn’t work.
I’m not yet familiar with MIDI message types, so I might be misunderstanding how to do a proper setup, but there are limitations with that device I consider it to be useless for learning how MIDI works and getting a flexible controller for a reasonable price. One of those is that changing the working mode relates to all switches.
To me this means that I cannot setup a Control Change for switching a distortion plugin on/off while having another switch to control tap tempo of a delay plugin via note on command.
All of this leads to the situation of looking for another MIDI controller. The list of supported devices is sparse and I already tested the Behringer FCB1010 [2] as well, which seems to be feature-rich but is definitely to heavy and chunky.
Before ending up with Keith McMillen’s flagship Softstep 2 [3], I’d like to find a cheaper solution that is similar in the way of flexibility to control the MDX as a guitarist and singer.
One candidate seems to be the Tech 21 MIDI Mongoose, which I’ve mentioned before or the Source Audio Soleman MIDI Foot Controller. The latter is bus powered which I’d prefer over the Mongoose, which probably needs a 7-port MIDI connection to work at all or without an ac adaptor. And the Soleman device seems to be programmable without a software editor. This criterion is even harder to satisfy. Background is that I’m completely on Linux and Wine doesn’t implement support for direct USB device access like those switch editing/mapping software need.
Does anybody has similar experiences and found a way?
To sum up, I’m looking for a MIDI footswitch controller featuring:
[1] https://github.com/gbevin/ReceiveMIDI
[2] https://www.behringer.com/Categories/Behringer/Accessories/Midi-Foot-Controllers/FCB1010/p/P0089
[3] https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/softstep/
[4] https://www.sourceaudio.net/soleman-midi-foot-controller.html
An alternative could be to use the iCON G-Board chassis only and fill it with DIY arduino board.
This might be a good idea for another student project. At the moment I’m too busy for hacking things like this myself, but thanks for such a hint.
Disaster Area Designs make a bunch of really useful MIDI foot pedals:
https://www.disasterareaamps.com/product-category/midi-controller
I have a hot pink MIDI Baby and love it. Affordable, highly customizable (via USB and a web app) and built super sturdy. I currently use it as the clock master for my entire setup plus an expression to MIDI control change (have my Hotone Soulpress attached to it). The foot switch is setup as tap tempo but also will toggle between sending start/stop commands when I press and hold the pedal. And this is just one possibility. You can set the stomp to cycle thru any other specific MIDI commands (ex. send program change 1, then 12, then 27, etc), send multiple commands simultaneously, or just a simple toggle on/off of any MIDI parameter. It’s also class-compliant so you can hook it up to the Mod directly via USB if you want to leave the 5-pin ports open for something else. Really can’t recommend it enough.
Would this one work?
It’s odd that the G-board doesn’t work for you, cause what you describe here is exactly how I use mine. Of the eight switches on the G-board, seven of them are used to switch pedals on/off, and one of them I use as a tap tempo for the delay plugin.
At first use I had the G-board and the Akai plugged in at the same time, had an piano simulator for the Akai and when engaging a footswitch on the G-board it played a note. Not knowing how anything worked (still don’t do, really 
) I used the iMap-software that came with the G-board to change things around and I got it to work. I had to map the G-board differently as to not interfere with the keys/knobs/switches on the Akai, but I manage to sort it out.
The only downside of the G-board is (as mentioned earlier) that the LEDs don’t turn on/off when engaging a footswitch. Still havent got this to work.
Hope you find a MIDI foot controller that suits your needs!
So just to recap, has anyone tried the Midi Mongoose from Tech 21? Definitely looks like an interesting option for me who wants to set and forget to some degree.