Kemper Footswitch Prototype

    I thought about adding expression pedal jacks. What speaks against it is that you need to calibrate these pedals. Which means that you need more buttons on the pedal. You can still connect your expression pedals to the KPA directly. The only downside being that you have to run a cable from the exp pedal to the Kemper which is usually a bit longer than the patch cable you'd be using to connect it to the footswitch.

    That's pretty kool!!! but i also agree being able to get at least one expression pedal would make it much more useful, and the other thing why limit it to only 10 presets? why not just make one switch always go up every time you hit it, and the other go down without limitations, this way in studio or live you can just keep scrolling to any preset.

    Quote from benvdd

    EXP pedals connected directly to the FC would calibrate just fine (MIDI cc readout on KPA)


    I've checked the manual & my KPA. I can calibrate the analog pedals on the Kemper, but not the signal of a midi expression pedal. If I should be mistaken, please let me know how to get there.


    As for DigitalTube's wish to use more presets - that's how I had it in the first place. However, this is MIDI. If you have all 127 slots assigned to rigs, then you'll just cycle trough them. But if you assign say 5 rigs only, then the pedal doesn't care about that and the KPA doesn't care if you send MIDI program changes for a program that's not assigned... Unfortunately, there's no 2way communication possible between the KPA and any MIDI pedal.

    I'm far from an expert so correct me if I'm wrong but...
    2-way communication over an RJ45 connection, which is what the FC will use, is perfectly possible. In other words, all expression pedals hooked up to the FC will connect via an analog (stereo) jack cable, and the position will be translated into MIDI cc, hence the need for calibration.

    Quote from benvdd

    I'm far from an expert so correct me if I'm wrong but...
    2-way communication over an RJ45 connection, which is what the FC will use, is perfectly possible. In other words, all expression pedals hooked up to the FC will connect via an analog (stereo) jack cable, and the position will be translated into MIDI cc, hence the need for calibration.


    It sounds like you're referring to the proprietary Kemper pedalboard. This will obviously use RJ45 and bidirectional communication. However, it seems that they're not using standard MIDI. And I guess that it will take a couple more months until their unit will be available.


    In the meanwhile I've hooked up my Mission Engineering pedal to my footswitch and can report that with this combination, there's no need for calibration.

    Quote from ballantine

    Excellent work!!! :thumbup:
    Can I know how you do all these functions and how you connect the KPA?


    I'd like to do something like that... Do you have any documentation or tip for me? :whistling:;)


    Everything is controlled via MIDI. The heart of the controller is an Atmel processor.


    The final version is done. It has a power led, a stereo jack connector for an expression pedal (wah) and works with my Mission Engineering pedal without calibration. It is connected to the KPA with a 7 to 5 pin MIDI cable. That allows me to have the DC adapter next to the KPA on the backline and run only one cable for both MIDI & power to the footswitch.


    For now, I won't release a documentation on how to build the pedal, but if you want one, then I'll build one for you.
    My asking price is 280 Euros. This would be a one-off, hand soldered by me.


    You'd need to add shipping & local taxes, a 7 to 5 pin cable and a 9V DC adapter if you don't already have that stuff.


    Contact me at [email protected] if you're interested.


    Cheers,


    M.