I am looking for a relatively compact MIDI foot controller. I don’t need a ton of buttons or banks yet, but may still get something like a Softstep if it makes sense for the price point and feature set.
The Umi3 seems OK, but I saw someone report that it needs the client software connected even just for sending MIDI? From the manual it doesn’t seem like it should be the case, maybe the hardware isn’t compatible with the Duo’s OS.
Shame the XF4 footswitch isn’t for sale yet. If you just want it for mod, it offers way better integration than any midi device. And (self plug alert!) with the infamous mindi you could set up a pedalboard that uses the footswitches to do pretty much anything any other midi footswitch can do.
If you really need midi, the only thing I have experience with is the behringer fcb1010 with upgraded firmware (uno mod). Its been more than sufficient for me.
Thanks @ssj71, yeah I’ll be glad to buy an XF4 whenever they come up for sale again. I do have an FCB1010 with the firmware upgrade and it does work well enough. It is relatively big and heavy relative to some of the other models, and I feel like 3 - 5 buttons would be sufficient for many of my needs.
The production hiccups for the MOD Footswitch (yes, we have officially returned to this more reasonable name) are almost sorted and we should have them soon (we don’t want to give the official date just yet to avoid jinxing it ).
I’d love to try the MOD-specific controller. My experience so far is with the Softstep 2, which is fabulous - works really well with the MOD, and can send all kinds of messages… also useful if you end up controlling anything else (I use mine to control both the Duo and my Looperlative LP1, and have a number of different ‘scenes’ available to me at any time to do different things to each )
…now I’m trying to work out how to connect my Quneo to the MOD and see if I can get some synth stuff happening too… Though I fear I may run out of processing power pretty quickly trying to do everything I’d want to do
I used to have the Line6 FBV Express MKII, which works great via USB MIDI (and is cheap for having an expression pedal). It’s big for only 4 fs and 1 exp but at least smaller than the FCB1010.
Unfortunately i sold it prematurely, because i was conviced i could bulild the perfect arduino-control chain expression pedal(s). But i still have problems with that (but that’s something for another thread, and i don’t have the time atm anyway…).
get the midi converter for the qneo.
Press a 2 button combination to get qneo to connect
No led feedback but works very well
I use it for kit drums.
Note: the Boppad is really fun as a drum pad for the Mod Duo
I have the MIDI convertor (used it for my Softstep for about 5 years) - my issue is that I also use the Quneo with my laptop, so need to find a way to route MIDI from my laptop into the Duo and then set it up so that the MIDI signal from certain scenes on the Quneo pass through the laptop and out to the Duo… It’s a project for when I’ve got way more time than I have right now. I could easily just hook up the Quneo to the Duo and test the synth sounds, but that’s less interesting to me than running it as part of my normal gigging set up…
Thank you for the update @dwek, that is exciting! I’ll likely buy one of the MOD Footswitches when they are released regardless.
In the meantime, the Express MKII seems like a good option that I didn’t know about. Good price for a unit that includes an expression pedal from what I’ve seen. Thank you @domlo and everyone else, this has been helpful.
That’s awesome! Now i can play chords with my XF4 !!!
Just to trigger the note once would require a momentary footswitch, right? Now, the note is on or off.
Now, when i play a note on FS1, and then on FS2 (both on, but with midi monophonic plugin, just the second sounds), all is good, but when i turn FS1 off FS2 also turns off. Any way around this?
Thanks!
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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