Rocktron MIDI Xchange Very Basic Review

  • Today I've decided to buy low cost MIDI foot controller for using until the release of the KFC.


    Here's my basic review:It flawlesly works. :thumbup:


    And it is rock solid.

    Sound Engineer, Musician, Animal Rights Activist.


    Fender '89 Clapton Strat, EMG DG20, KPA, Martin, SSL, Neve, Manley, Tube-Tech, Millennia, API, Lynx, RME, Avid, Apple, Adam...

  • I'd say yes.
    Consider that the two external switches let you navigate among the patches, and the central one is used to recall the one you have chosen. And the fact of having two expression pedal inputs allows you to use 4 switches in order to control the FX. :thumbup:

  • P.S: the only real downside is that the cc's sent are fixed on #7 and #17.


    Yeah, you can connect two expression pedals. "The CC17 port is the default volume controller for all Rocktron products. Thus, all you need to do to control the volume of each preset is plug an expression pedal into this port and it will control the volume on all Rocktron products. The CC7 port is the default volume controller for most non-Rocktron products."

    Sound Engineer, Musician, Animal Rights Activist.


    Fender '89 Clapton Strat, EMG DG20, KPA, Martin, SSL, Neve, Manley, Tube-Tech, Millennia, API, Lynx, RME, Avid, Apple, Adam...

    Edited once, last by Noyan ().

  • Just gave a look at it.


    Is it much more versatile than just a 2-switch analog pedal?


    There's one on sale 2Nd-hand here in Italy for 65 €.


    65 € is a good price. If you're planning to buy a controller like this, I recommend this one. I have tried the Tech21's MIDI Mouse which operates very similar but, it's switches are narrower then MIDI Xchange's switches. It is less comfortable to use on stage.


    Oh, you can power these pedals with a 9 Volt battery by the way.

    Sound Engineer, Musician, Animal Rights Activist.


    Fender '89 Clapton Strat, EMG DG20, KPA, Martin, SSL, Neve, Manley, Tube-Tech, Millennia, API, Lynx, RME, Avid, Apple, Adam...

  • Well, actually there's no else. :) It is just a little, portable, simple but stable smart controller.


    And this one remembers the position of the volume pedal while switching presets.


    If don't need to jump between long distance presets on KPA for example from preset #1 to preset #112 then you won't need one of these "portable smart controllers". However, if you are interested in these little controllers, I recommend this one. :thumbup:

    Sound Engineer, Musician, Animal Rights Activist.


    Fender '89 Clapton Strat, EMG DG20, KPA, Martin, SSL, Neve, Manley, Tube-Tech, Millennia, API, Lynx, RME, Avid, Apple, Adam...

  • So 65€ flies like an eagle :thumbup:

    Sound Engineer, Musician, Animal Rights Activist.


    Fender '89 Clapton Strat, EMG DG20, KPA, Martin, SSL, Neve, Manley, Tube-Tech, Millennia, API, Lynx, RME, Avid, Apple, Adam...

  • I've just downloaded the manual. It seems that you have to press two switches in order to change rig: the first one calls the next rig, the second engages it.


    Also, it seems that the two pedal sockets have a fixed CC# assigned. The manual mentions to change the CC# assignment in the controlled unit in order to do different things with those pedals. But in the Profiler MIDI assignments are fixed.


    The above seems to be a dealbreaker for me, specially because you can't really "jump" to a different rig with just a single press.


    Since a 20 € amp switch does basically the same, and I can connect pedals to the Profiler, it seems to me that 120 € is definitely (and definitively) a lot of money :D
    Furthermore, my amp's 2-switch pedal comes for free and requires no batteries LOL


    Please let me know whether I've overlooked something :)

  • About jumping; all these kind of pedals operates in the same way AFAIK.


    If you want to jump with just one pressing then I'd recommend Tech21 MIDI Moose It has 5 switches other than bank up and bank down switches

    Sound Engineer, Musician, Animal Rights Activist.


    Fender '89 Clapton Strat, EMG DG20, KPA, Martin, SSL, Neve, Manley, Tube-Tech, Millennia, API, Lynx, RME, Avid, Apple, Adam...

  • Yeah, thanks Noyan, I'm aware of other kinds of products. I'm considering the P\Q for my purposes :)
    Having to every time press two switches for selecting a rig makes this pedal much less appealing to me :)