Midi Foot switch advice

[Emilio86]

Hey there guys,

I am a solo artist looking for the most appropriate midi foot switches for live performance. I sing and play guitar, but am looking for your opinion on the best devices for:

- Triggering backing track/samples to play along with
- Create live loops
- And eventually velocity sensitive foot pedals for real time backing instruments (e.g. synth violins etc)

Some direction, and any personal experiences with these would be hugely appreciated!

Cheers

[snugglepuff]

Well I don't have any hands on experience with MIDI foot controllers but I'm looking to get one soon too and here's what I've found so far:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... er-fcb1010

The Behringer MIDI Foot has two expression pedals, some switches and a great price. It's probably the one I'll start with, and move up when I know it's limitations and what more I want.

https://www.roland.com/us/products/fc-300/

The Roland FC-300 also has 2 expression pedals and a bunch of switches also. It costs way more I assume boasts more features than the MIDI Foot or is more customizable, but I haven't thought about it too hard since connecting any MIDI expression pedal to Reason would be enough to keep me and my guitar happy for a long time.

https://www.audiofront.net/MIDIExpression.php

One option that looks really cool is the Audiofront MIDI Expression. It's just a converter you can use with any expression pedal, or several, and it converts the output the MIDI. Neat!

https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/softstep/

Finally there's the SoftStep and 12 Step from Keith McMillen. I've never gotten into Keith McMillen stuff since I'm not made of money and it's hard to image liking squishy pads more than and actual expression pedal, but the keys are pressure sensitive, so there's that.

I hope this helps. Hopefully we'll hear from people with hands on experience with these devices too.

[Emilio86]

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Well I don't have any hands on experience with MIDI foot controllers but I'm looking to get one soon too and here's what I've found so far:

https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail ... er-fcb1010 (https://sweetwater.sjv.io/c/4241666/789347/11319?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sweetwater.com%2Fstore%2Fdetail%2FFCB1010--behringer-midi-foot-controller-fcb1010)

The Behringer MIDI Foot has two expression pedals, some switches and a great price. It's probably the one I'll start with, and move up when I know it's limitations and what more I want.

https://www.roland.com/us/products/fc-300/ (https://www.roland.com/us/products/fc-300/)

The Roland FC-300 also has 2 expression pedals and a bunch of switches also. It costs way more I assume boasts more features than the MIDI Foot or is more customizable, but I haven't thought about it too hard since connecting any MIDI expression pedal to Reason would be enough to keep me and my guitar happy for a long time.

https://www.audiofront.net/MIDIExpression.php (https://www.audiofront.net/MIDIExpression.php)

One option that looks really cool is the Audiofront MIDI Expression. It's just a converter you can use with any expression pedal, or several, and it converts the output the MIDI. Neat!

https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/softstep/ (https://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/softstep/)

Finally there's the SoftStep and 12 Step from Keith McMillen. I've never gotten into Keith McMillen stuff since I'm not made of money and it's hard to image liking squishy pads more than and actual expression pedal, but the keys are pressure sensitive, so there's that.

I hope this helps. Hopefully we'll hear from people with hands on experience with these devices too.

Thanks man, that is very helpful, and i think for what you're browsing you should check out: https://heavy.com/tech/2017/02/top-best ... interface/ (https://heavy.com/tech/2017/02/top-best-midi-to-usb-foot-pedal-controllers-footswitch-interface/)

That list has been great to investigate.

What I am looking for specifically as I start out is just a sample/backing track pedal, that allows me to trigger sections of the songs for me to sing and play guitar with, effectively it would have a USB or memory stick that I could load with ready files to be played through the PA/monitors as I play live.

Eventually, I will want to have more control over what is happening on stage and will invest in more controllers ala the list above! But for now I am just looking for something a little more simplified!

[BertKoor]

If you use Ableton Live, you can probably launch clips / scenes and start/stop recording loops with midi messages that originate from the pedal board. Not sure whether other hosts can do something simular...

[Emilio86]

If you use Ableton Live, you can probably launch clips / scenes and start/stop recording loops with midi messages that originate from the pedal board. Not sure whether other hosts can do something simular...

Thank you, will check it out.

[S9DD]

I use Ableton or a VoiceLive3 (Extreme), which has 10fsw's, extendable to 13 or 16.
https://www.tc-helicon.com/Categories/T ... ME/p/P0CMD

Features:
- dedicated Vox effects
- dedicated guitar effects
- looper with three 3 levels
- backing track player
- tap tempo
- auto level setting

It is aimed squarely at guitarist/singers.
Backing Tracks are loaded as MP3 or WAV from USB stick.

Limitations are that it does not know if it should be on a surface or the floor. Some controls which should be remotely controllable are not, and you cannot trigger the backing track playback using MIDI, so it cannot be synchronised to the outside world at all. Why they do not upgrade the firmware to solve these things is a mystery. They have omitted to implement MIDI Realtime response to Start, Stop, Continue, and MIDI response to controllers is just a mimic of what the switches do. If you are into MIDI CC, this is not the unit for you.

Manual, includes a MIDI chart at the back.
http://cdn-downloads.tc-helicon.com/med ... nglish.pdf

Ableton + Laptop + Footswitches is more hassle, but more flexible.

[In The Mix]

Nektar is also going to release a new one that's called Parse or Parce or something.

I saw the soft step series at the Namm this year. I'm sure their flexible but I didn't like the built at all. I don't know if I liked them for a FOOT PEDAL. They seemed too narrow, light and thin. I'm not sure what type of physical response you'll get from them.

For me so far the FCB1010 is been great. There's A LOT of 3rd party support for it as well which are also affordable. Behringer has done a super lousy job with the pdf manual. It took me a week or so to figure it out...once you're past that, there's tons of things you can do with it. You'll probably never run out of banks and presets. There are even FREE 3rd party editors that makes the programming experience A LOT easier. I recorded two videos, one for the actual real FCB1010 and one for a free 3rd party editor:

FCB1010 Manager (Mac & PC Editor) Tutorial:


FCB1010 walkthrough/video manual:

[seangm]

I use Cantabile running on a Windows tablet for live playing. It hosts VSTs and you can create a playlist of mp3's that can be triggered on/off through midi if you need a backing track. I trigger backing loops using a regular midi piano sustain pedal, but for something more complicated you probably want one of the pedals other people are mentioning above. So far Cantabile has been rock solid for me.

https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/

[Protocol_b]

Heads up on the FCB1010 - it DOES have lots of footswitches, but you can only program like 2 MIDI cc's overall. It is geared toward sending MIDI note numbers instead so you have to work with that approach in mind.

[experimental.crow]

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... 9#p7073999

I'm very excited about this one. I've been involved in this project for some time and I'm so happy to see it finally get a public announcement.

http://www.nektartech.com/pacer-midi-da ... oller.html

Nektar Tchnologies have just announced a new controller to add to their range of integrated MIDI controllers. This time its a MIDI floor controller which features 11 footswitch controls each with 3 RGB LEDs.

PACER also has up to 6 prgrammable external footswitch control inputs for accessing even more parameters. It seems like this could be a great addition to a live rig or studio based control of DAW, which was what PACER was originally desigend to do.

“Originally, PACER was intended to be a DAW controller providing musicians with hands-free control of their computer music setup”, says Nektar Chief Niels Larsen. “Then enthusiasm got the better of us and we couldn’t help adding a host of useful additional control functionality. Now you can also control MIDI preamps or effects as well as switching channels and reverb on non-MIDI amps with the on-board relays. PACER’s switching power will boost your creativity whether you are recording or playing live.”

Features:

10 programmable footswitches each with RGB LED
1 preset footswitch
2 row LED display
1 encoder with push switch for programming, navigation and control
24 user configurable presets
2 Read-only presets for DAW track and transport control
Sends up to 16 MIDI messages or relay switches on preset recall
Up to 6 MIDI messages or actions programmable for each control
2 expression pedal sockets
2 TRS jack connectors for up to 4 external footswitches
2 TRS jack connectors for controlling up to 4 switch sockets (FX or channels)
MIDI output (USB MIDI interface/direct MIDI connection)
USB connector for connecting to a computer, USB host or USB power supply (for power only)
PSU socket: DC 9V / 600mA, center negative (PSU not included)
Factory Presets include Line 6 Pod and Helix, Fractal Audio AxeFX, Avid Eleven Rack, Kemper Profiler, Elektron Octatrack Pickup Machine, Electro Harmonix 45000 Looper, MIDI Machine Control, a Relay Preset for non-MIDI amps and more.
Nektar DAW integration for Transport and Track control

PACER is available in April 2018 priced at: $229.99 US / £199.99 / €229.99 MAP

I have used other MIDI foot controllers over the years but even before I worked at Nektar, I thought the concept could be done better and significantly expanded. My biggest gripe has always been with the amount of configuration it requires to setup most foot controllers for even basic DAW control functions. So that is the core of this product. We took that idea much further, giving the user the ability to switch between easy to use DAW control modes (Track and Transport) and a deeply programmable User Preset mode.

For years, I was surprised that more focus hasn't been placed on the Relay functions of the foot controllers that have them. Yeah, they can be used for channel switching on amps that have a foot switch input but relays can do so much more than that. In fact, anything that has an input for a momentary or latching footswitch can be controlled from Pacer's relays. Sustain input? Yep! Tap Tempo input on a guitar FX pedal? Try tapping the tempo of 4 pedals at once! Effects with external bypass or hold inputs? Now your rack effects can operate like stomp boxes. Since each Stomp Switch can control 6 functions at once you can toggle relays and MIDI messages at the same time (or in sequence).

There is so much this thing can do, it's difficult to cover all of it in a single post!