FCB1010- does it send power over midi?

  • As the question states.


    Because the KPA doesn't have a footswitch, i'm having to use its only midi in for both a FCB1010 for manual switching and a laptop for auto switching. To do this i'm going to do a midi merger, and as far as i can tell theres only one product in the world that does this for some reason.


    http://www.amazon.com/MIDI-Sol…nput-Merger/dp/B0002GH8LQ


    Its overpriced and doesn't include a power supply, so i'm relaying on the FCB1010 being able to do this over midi, otherwise i literally don't know what im going to do.


    Thanks for any help.

  • MIDI mergers USED to be very common. But, Keyboardists don't need them anymore, because all of their gear is designed with much deeper MIDI implementation - everything works on 16+ simultaneous channels of MIDI, and the MIDI connector itself has been replaced by USB . It has been that way for a LONG time.


    Guitarists have had very little use for MIDI (to the point where each new generation of MIDI guitar gear tends to do LESS with MIDI).


    Since there is pretty much no demand, used MIDI Merge/Split boxes and MIDI patch bays are DIRT CHEAP. Look at eBay, and at used gear in stores. They really never "break" - there's not much to them.

  • Only one midi cable going into the merger needs to carry power. Maybe your laptop's interface has a powered midi out?


    I bought the same device for the exact same purpose. While I haven't actually tried the whole setup yet (we still have to program everything), connecting the merger to our interface's midi out made the led on the merger turn on, so I assume it gets power from there.


    The interface is a PreSonus. I'm not sure which model though.

  • Actually... I just connected my Kemper's midi out to the merger and the led lit up this time as well!!


    I don't have the tools with me right now to test it extensively, but when I connect my keyboard's midi out to the merger's non-power receiving input and play some notes, the led flashes, so it seems to be detecting midi notes all right...


    I can't guarantee anything at the moment but it does seem as though the Kemper's midi out is powered, or at least enough to power a small device such as this.

  • Actually... I just connected my Kemper's midi out to the merger and the led lit up this time as well!!


    I don't have the tools with me right now to test it extensively, but when I connect my keyboard's midi out to the merger's non-power receiving input and play some notes, the led flashes, so it seems to be detecting midi notes all right...


    I can't guarantee anything at the moment but it does seem as though the Kemper's midi out is powered, or at least enough to power a small device such as this.


    Thanks for the testing dude but i'm not sure why you'd want or need to connect the KPA's midi out to a merger :)

  • Oh... Right!!! :D :D :D D'oh!


    I'm planning to do the same as you -- merging the FCB1010 and a signal from a laptop to automate the Kemper and still keep a manual backup -- so no way I'd need the Kemper out to go into the merger.


    Sigh. It's Sunday alright. :rolleyes:

  • Ok. Me again, hoping to kind of save face. :)


    I just did what I meant to do the first time: I connected the FCB1010's midi out to the merger's power receiving input. Guess what: the led lit up again!


    Then I connected my own audio interface's midi out to the merger's non-power receiving input, and the merger's midi out to the KPA's in. So, basically the setup you were hoping to use, since your interface can't power the merger. Right? (I'm not even sure anymore, it is SO Sunday).


    Anyway, it seems to work. I can control the KPA with the FCB1010 just fine, and I can switch rigs and toggle stomps from my DAW as well (I tried CC#17 for stomp A on/off and CC#50 and #51 for performance slot 1 and 2, if you're curious). The only thing that, at first sight, seems to be a little less reliable is the continuous values #1 (expression), #4 (pitch) and #7 (volume pedal): looking at the midi settings page in the KPA's system settings, I can see that the bars sometimes don't immediately follow what I'm doing in my DAW.


    But overall, it seems to be working the way I need it to, powered by the (non-modded) FCB1010.

  • Yeah, let us know how it works!


    We're still in the planning stage for automating our effects so I haven't experimented a lot yet. I actually hadn't tried it with the FCB1010 powering the merger before. The only thing I tried before today was simply connecting the merger's power requiring midi in to our band's audio interface's midi out, and that turned out to work, so I knew the merger's power requirement was covered anyway.


    I may have read somewhere before that the FCB1010's midi out is unpowered, like the first answer to this thread states. It can't receive power over midi; maybe that's why people assume it can't supply power to other devices either?


    Anyway, as soon as we get our system up and running, I'll share our experiences.

  • Bad photo will get a better one later: http://imgur.com/zd9vLF9


    THAT is seriously cool.


    We're running nothing as integrated as that. A Kemper, controlled by the FCB1010 and going into two Alto ts112a's for me, and the other guitarist a 5150ii and a jumbo pedal train filled with a huge and ever changing collection of pedals. And a Line 6 g30 wireless each.


    We already have a synth backing track running along from a laptop (using Ableton Live), with a click track going to our drummer. That's why we're thinking we might as well automate our patch changes.


    It won't be anything fancy though, just a couple of midi cables going back and forth (FCB1010 out + interface out > merger > KPA in, KPA out > FCB1010 in, KPA thru > the other guitarist's GT100 probably), once we get everything programmed. That's the er, "system" I was referring to. 8o:D

  • Asked this question on the Reaper forum just pasting here in case anyone can help:


    "Theres also a roland spds connected to a midi "in", with reaper programmed to "go to a marker and play/stop".


    Reaper seems to be sending out bank change messages when play is pressed and possibly when jumping to markers too.


    In the midi preferences, all the "on stop/play" boxes are UNTICKED."

  • Quote

    Cool. We've had to use 2 midi interfaces rather than using the thru, as we have patch changes happening at different times. Bit of a pain.


    Huh, so why not use different midi channels then? I'm asking because we might run into the same problem...


    Edit -- maybe because you're both using FCB1010's with Uno4kemper and they're hardwired to the same midi channel or something?


    (Can't help you with the other question.)


  • Huh, so why not use different midi channels then? I'm asking because we might run into the same problem...


    Edit -- maybe because you're both using FCB1010's with Uno4kemper and they're hardwired to the same midi channel or something?


    (Can't help you with the other question.)


    Yes. FCB+uno requires either midi channel 1, or "all". Can't use all, have to use 1 on both kempers.


    Large amounts of problems will be solved if they'd hurry up and release an official FS using the network socket.