Assigning a pedal to be on/off through both footswitch and MIDI

[Oskar_Molander]

Hey everyone!
I have a wish of a feature for the Mod Dwarf. TLDR: I wish you could assign a pedal to be on/off through both the Dwarf itself, but also through a MIDI control unit at the same time.

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On my pedalboard I am currently using Ampero Stomp 2 for amp/cab simulation and a boost. Through the FX loop I have the MOD Dwarf connected. So I use the Dwarf for basically all my effects: tremolo, phaser, chorus, delay, rotary, reverb, envelope filters and so on.

I also have a Ampero Control, which is a MIDI control unit. That is connected to both the Stomp 2 and the Dwarf. Through this I can create scenes that involves both pedals.

Now to my problem: I’d like my pedalboard to be as flexible as possible and I want to be able to access all of my different effects in the chain when needed. I also like the use of scenes thoruch my control - it is great as it removes the tap dance during gigs. But I can’t really involve my Dwarf in my scenes as the effects in the Dwarf only can be assigned one on/off. It would be AMAZING if I could assign let’s say a tremolo to both a footwitch on the Dwarf, but at the same time use that tremolo in a scene I create.

I have no idea how much coding is involved in my request, but it would really take the Dwarf to a new level if this was a possibility.

I hope I was able to put my thoughts out in correct sentences

All the best!
/Oskar

[Rom]

There are quite some threads talking about this :

No Device and MIDI control at the same time?

MIDIdesigner2 over a Quiccosound m.1 BT MIDI dongle, works great with my iPhone. The bummer part is when I assign MIDI controllers, I loose the device assignments! That`s terrible, at least for me. I would want to control a parameter from within the machine, but also remotely. Lets say you are working the looper, and you want to engage a distortion pedal, but that is a couple of pages away. So instead of tap-dancing the poor Dwarf, I would have a MIDIDdesigner setup, with all the distortion /…

Request: synchronise MOD with LEDs on MIDI foot controllers

As we all know, the MOD Duo supports plugging in 3rd-party MIDI foot controllers, and then assigning switches to toggle effects (or effect parameters) on/off via MIDI learn. This is an awesome feature, and it works well However this is not the end of the story. The problem with this is that it doesn’t work fully with more intelligent MIDI foot controllers such as the KMI Softstep 2, whose switches can be programmed as toggle switches which track the state of the toggle internal…

Two-way Midi Mapping

It looks like this feature request, no ? There is even a code solution in there I also asked for this kind of feature here : Send Midi CC after Change Program or Snapshot - #2 by Rom [Midi - send message to controller]

The most important :

Midi mapping parameters: Bi Directional?

Hi Guys, I have a Dwarf here, I can map a parameter of a device to an external midi controller and can control that parameter from the midi controller. If I change the device parameter via the editor, or load a pedalboard it is not sending midi back to the midi controller to keep it in sync. At a minimum I would expect it to send the current values as midi when you change the pedalboard otherwise how does the controller know the current values. Hopefully there is some setting somewhere that …

Then, why it is stuck :

Two-way Midi Mapping

It looks like this feature request, no ? There is even a code solution in there I also asked for this kind of feature here : Send Midi CC after Change Program or Snapshot - #2 by Rom [Midi - send message to controller]

[Oskar_Molander]

Thanks, I had searched poorly when looking for threads covering the same topic!

Regarding the Control to CV and the Infamous Mindi, I tried following your steps but I don’t get it to work…yet. I fully believe it’s because of my lack of MIDI competence - or MIDincompentence if you will.

→ the Control to CV value should be 10
→ the Control to CV on/off switch will be the device control, assign it and name it with the effect you want to trigger
→ name the CV output (so it can be used by other plugins)
→ the infamous value should be controlled by the CV of the Control to CV (so it will be 0 or 127)

So far I’m with you, I’ve used the Control to CV before in this manner. But…

• the infamous midi sends a CC message that controls the ON/OFF switch a the effect you want to double-control
  → connect the midi output to the midi loopback, so your plugin can “hear” the midi signal send by the infamous mindi
  → assign the effect you want to double control this this midi signal

This is the part where I get stuck. Could you please dumb it down more for me?
The midi output of the Mindi? To the midi loopback - is that the same as the main MIDI out on the pedalboard?

Thanks in advance!

[kimborg]

As I have the exact same units, I will follow this post to see if you can get this done.
Maybe a bit off-topic, but I struggled with the Dwarf amp/cab sims a year ago, and when I got hold of a used Ampero II, I switched to that. The dwarf has since been an end-of-chain mastering devise using the ShiroVerb and RMPro plugins.
This sounds great, but now and then I wonder if I should move the Dwarf closer to the guitar again. (To be fair to the Dwarf, my quest for the right Amp/Cab sims was prior to the rollout of AidaX, so the game might have changed now.)
So to my question to you would be: Why do you use the Dwarf for effects instead of Ampero’s? Is it because the effects on the Dwarf sound better to you, or are your Ampero pedalboards eating up the capacity on the unit?

[funkypou]

@Oskar_Molander

To the midi loopback - is that the same as the main MIDI out on the pedalboard?

Hi,
There is some info about that in the wiki :
https://wiki.mod.audio/wiki/MOD_Web_GUI_User_Guide#MIDI_USB

[Oskar_Molander]

I wouldn’t say it has anything to do with what sounds better, as I haven’t really tried out all the new amp-sims in the Dwarf, but the ones in the Ampero sounds great so I haven’t felt the need to switch And the effects on the Dwarf sounds amazing too. I built a faux Halo (Andy Timmons delay) together with a Shiroverb and I love it!

I have two amp-sims in the Ampero - one clean and one crunch/lead. They together with an IR cab (and some small effects) eats up most of the CPU power, so I then load up the Dwarf with all my modulations and reverbs. I’m sure it would work the other way around too, right now its just too much hassle to rebuild the pedalboard

[kimborg]

Thanks, Oskar. Yes it will probably work the other way around, too. Hope you figure out the midi issue. I have a Midi Maestro that I use to control several units, but haven’t tried it on the Dwarf. Perhaps its time to give it a go.

[Oskar_Molander]

As I mentioned before, I first got stuck when it came to the infamous Mindi. I did everything according to the step-by-step by Rom, but I’m too inexperienced with MIDI and couldn’t get it to work regardless. The Control to CV controlled the Mindi, which controlled the effect I wanted. So far so good. But I couldn’t understand how I was supposed to control any of this from my MIDI controller. Turning the Mindi on/off through my MIDI controller didn’t work since the mindis value (0 or 127) was the parameter controlling the effect, not the on/off status of the mindi itself.

I did some trial and error and I found a workaround that worked for me (somewhat). It’s not exactly as the step by step my Rom and from the forum posts I’ve read, I haven’t seen anyone else post this exact method. If someone else already has posted this exact method, I apologize. I’m not trying to steal any credit!

Okay, so here is my workaround so far
→ A Control to CV with its control set to 10v. The on/off of the Control to CV was assigned to my MIDI controller.
→ An Infamous Mindi with its value being controlled by the Control to CV. The Mindi is connected to the Virtual MIDI Loopback. The effect I want to control is then assigned to the MIDI message from the Infamous Mindi.
→ On the Infamous Mindi I also made two presets: One called ON with the value of the mindi set to 127 and one called OFF with the value set to 0. These presets were then assigned to a footswitch on the Dwarf. By choosing LED color to “cycling” under the Advanced tab, the LED switches between White and Red depending on the status being on or off. (The presets have to be made before assigning the value to the Control to CV)

Pros:

• I am now able to control a effect on the Dwarf on/off with both the footswitch on the Dwarf as well as with a footswitch on my MIDI controller.

Cons:

• The LED on the Dwarf only cycles when using the Dwarf.
• Since the effect now has two footswitches; if you alternate between the footswitches (turning ON via the Dwarf and turning off via the MIDI) it takes double presses on each switch for it to work.

It’s a work in progress, but it’s at least a step forward. Right now it’s late and I’ll leave it at this for now. Any improvements and feedback would be highly appreciated.

All the best!
/Oskar

[funkypou]

I’m not sure but what I understand from @Rom’s method is that you should assign :

• the Dwarf footswitch to Control to CV On/Off
• the MIDI controller signal directly to the plugin you want to turn on/off.

Something seems missing : I guess you should configure Mindi to send the same signal as your MIDI controller.

[steve]

@Oskar_Molander

Cons:

• The LED on the Dwarf only cycles when using the Dwarf.

Have a look at the mega post on using the vave footswitch where the poster talks about using cv logic gates to allow two different footswitches to do the same thing:

The image is here:
https://forum.mod.audio/uploads/default/original/2X/8/8e5b90c6a138ec816fd08b19726412716d94c859.jpeg
The whole thread is here

MIDI "Chocolate" controller with the Mod Dwarf, an introduction

Hello, it’s a tutorial of the M-VAVE Chocolate Bluetooth Midi controller. It’s divided into three parts. The first is something like a Manual of the equipment. The second is related to ideas to configure it with the Mod Dwarf and other Mod devices. The last part is some personal considerations. A quick manual M-VAVE Chocolate is a cheap MIDI controller. With it, it’s possible to send MIDI messages by USB, by MIDI TRS and by Bluetooth (but apparently the company doesn’t licensed the Bluetooth t…

[Oskar_Molander]

Oooh, didn’t think of that! It does make sense, I’ll try that

[Rom]

Sorry, I come after the war…

@Oskar_Molander

• The LED on the Dwarf only cycles when using the Dwarf.
• Since the effect now has two footswitches; if you alternate between the footswitches (turning ON via the Dwarf and turning off via the MIDI) it takes double presses on each switch for it to work.

You’re right ! This is why a definitive solution would be the double-assignation that @AndyCap has made.

@steve

Have a look at the mega post on using the vave footswitch where the poster talks about using cv logic gates to allow two different footswitches to do the same thing:

The image is here:

The whole thread is here

Nice solution !
It’s a bit of a nightmare if you have multiple plugins to trig like this, but it seams perfect !

[plutek]

@Rom

It’s a bit of a nightmare if you have multiple plugins to trig like this

yep. that’s a good example of why we need multiple select and copy/paste, or a ‘plugin blocks’ facility! lol