Midi Mayhem – trying to set up MIDI foot controller(s), UNO chip, etc

    I've had my KPA (Power rack) for almost a month. Played a show, got 3 more coming up quick. Sounds good!


    I’m currently using a FCB 1010 with the UNO4Kemper chip – my MIDI needs are simple, yet specific. I have a hi gain rhythm “rig” and a version of the same rig with delay and an EQ bump for solos. I also over use a wah pedal (Bad Horsie II) :whistling: For less than $200 USD the Berhinger w/ UNO4Kemper has been a good solution. I also tried to use the standard Uno chip…. More on that below. I’m currently gathering gear for my “perfect” controller set up (I hope).


    FCB1010 w/ UNO 4 Kemper chip
    The good: works great, easy to set up, supports 2 way MIDI w/ KPA so you see the tuner on the FCB display plus the stomp LED’s light up in sync. I’ve replaced both wah pedal and tuner so now only the FCB on the floor in front of me.
    The not so good: Expression pedals only will control wah and volume; cannot be edited at all with desktop software (that I know of), so a lot of neat stuff you might think up or see others doing you can’t implement (like assigning the expression pedals to different functions); “Switch” function inactive. The overall size is a little large.


    FCB1010 with standard UNO chip
    My experiment with this was a fail – but probably due to mitigating circumstance: A cheap MIDI>USB cable didn’t seem to recognize the chip, Ed’s PC editor referred to it as “berhinger – unknown”. Might also have something to do with XP OS on my PC… but I could, kinda send programing to the UNO chip. The volume pedal function worked fine and I managed to assign the other pedal to delay mix, cc #68, on Kemper but it just seemed to turn the delay on – moving the pedal back to heel didn’t reduce the delay mix… A bunch of other stuff obviously wasn’t working, like the stomp box features, maybe due to cable issue so I decided to quit while I was behind. Broke a leg off the UNO chip removing it ;( so this line of experimenting is finished for the meantime.


    The good: A lot more flexible than UNO4Kemper (in theory – see above)
    The not so good: Doesn’t support the 2 way MIDI so you don’t get tuner or stomp box light sync. A lot more work (and obviously) more chance for problems.


    I popped the UNO4Kemper chip back in and quickly got back to square one.


    I would, ultimately, like to have 3 expression pedals , Wah, Delay Mix, and volume – then I could just use them live and not need to jump around between presets – I find simpler better for me live.


    Liquid Foot LF+ JR+ with 3 pedals
    This is what I am now trying to put together … I got a Mission spring loaded so I can have the “touchless” feel of the Morley ( the FCB is OK but I really miss the spring action) and 2 Roland EV-5 pedals, mostly because the footprint; the JR+ and these 3 pedals should fit in a 24” pedal case.


    I am already hitting road blocks – it looks like the JR (or any Liquidfoot controllers) only sweep expression pedals from 0-127, one can’t designate a min and max range…? If this is true I’m a bit taken aback since I presumed this would be basic functionality which I believe a lot of controllers have… ?(


    Also, just trying to order a Liquid Foot product has been a bit frustrating. The details of the communications are dreary so I won’t go into them here, but I’ve been trying for a week and it’s unclear to me whether I have successfully ordered and/or if I can expect one at any time soon.


    That’s all I got folks! My eyes are bleeding from forum reading... I get a replacement KPA this week since the one I have has dead pixels in the display so I'll be busy restoring my sound to the new unit the day before the big show!! (opening for the Dickies at the Long Beach Zombie Walk) 8o

    I have worked extensively with both the UnO and the UnO4K.
    The pros and cons have been documented for a long time.
    If you need to do delay mix by pedal you should give the UnO another try using a more appropriate, working USB Interface.
    For myself I have found I'm quite happy NOT HAVING to program each and every patch and Continental to use the UnO4K for now.
    Instead of doing delay mix by pedal I have changed my workflow to storing several rigs with different delay wetness within one bank of the performance mode. This is really convenient.

    You problem was using Ed Dixon's program which doesn't properly recognize the latest UNO version. Since I have absolutely zero need to cycle though hundreds of presets, I found the extra flexibility of the standard UNO ideal and never updated to the UNO 4 Kemper. Pick up the FCB/UNO Control Center (the official UNO editor) with the regular UNO (not UNO 4 Kemper) and it's a breeze. I used to have mine programmed with the bottom 5 switches as: clean, clean w/ trem, diirty, dirty with flanger, and fuzzed out. With the top 5 pedals as boost, chorus, rotary, reverb mix (from more subtle to full wet), and delay feedback (from more subtle to oscillating into feedback). This set up (with a Zoom G3 for reverse reverb and a random filter effect) covered all my gigging needs at that time. You absolutely get stomp box light sync, you have to program it that way. For example, for any effect which is locked on the KPA, you need to set that CC for no change when you switch patches. For all the other patches, you need to set the initial value of the CC to on or off to match the patch. This would of course be extremely time consuming if you had to do it for every rig in the unit, but given most people take a good deal of time planning out their sounds for gigging, programming the FCB to align really only adds a nominal amount of time in the grand scheme.


    http://www.lg-fcb.com/lgfcb_software.php


    here's a more detailed thread covering the topic I wrote a while back:


    MIDI Programming Tips

    Thanks both for the advice! - I have a better interface on the way and I might go down the regular UNO path again.... I basically put up this post since after hours/days of trying to get concise info (like a side by side comparison chart, known issues like the interface, editing software recommendations) on both those chips I still ended up having to try them myself. And learn the hard way!


    Will, if I understand your tip for syncing the stomp lights, you achieve it w/o the 2 way MIDI?


    Thanks again - I've read alot of posts here from both you guys and learned a lot in 3 weeks... I appreciate the sharing of knowledge. :)

    Quote from ewrath

    Thanks both for the advice! - I have a better interface on the way and I might go down the regular UNO path again.... I basically put up this post since after hours/days of trying to get concise info (like a side by side comparison chart, known issues like the interface, editing software recommendations) on both those chips I still ended up having to try them myself. And learn the hard way!


    Will, if I understand your tip for syncing the stomp lights, you achieve it w/o the 2 way MIDI?


    Thanks again - I've read alot of posts here from both you guys and learned a lot in 3 weeks... I appreciate the sharing of knowledge. :)


    There is no 2-way MIDI with the standard UNO, or at least I couldn't figure it out. You simply need to program the FCB to mirror the KPA rig. For example, program an FCB to trigger rig assigned to MIDI PC 1, and then you program all the stomp (CC) pedals to match their state in when the rig loads. Then whenever you stomp on the pedal assigned to MIDI PC 1, all the CC pedals will light up accordingly.

    Quote from Will_Chen

    There is no 2-way MIDI with the standard UNO, or at least I couldn't figure it out. You simply need to program the FCB to mirror the KPA rig. For example, program an FCB to trigger rig assigned to MIDI PC 1, and then you program all the stomp (CC) pedals to match their state in when the rig loads. Then whenever you stomp on the pedal assigned to MIDI PC 1, all the CC pedals will light up accordingly.

    Nice work around! I really like the idea of 3 expression pedals - even if FAMC never get back to me I could put a pedal directly into the KPA and use the the other 2 on the FCB (with the regular UNO chip)
    (( and a decent MIDI interface ;) ))
    ((( and the official editor :whistling: )) )
    (((( and not breaking the chip :pinch: ))))