Help me think here: Advancing states

[Derek]

Or a BOSS FS-6 is a dual version of the FS5 (so they will always be in the same place relative each other). You can separately program the polarity of each switch and whether or not it is momentary or latching.

And built like a tank. I like it as it is the same pedals as those on the FC300, and they need a good old press to activate, so odds of an accidental press are slim.

[Derek]

@Torsten

@Derek

I’ve never been conformable with a patch advance button, and often I need to go back several states as well (as opposed to programming multiple occurrences of the same state instances in a forward direction only). So my preference is an FC300 MIDI foot controller where I can select the state I want in a “random access” manner.

Sure - makes sense if you need this “random access” capability. And I guess if you train enough, you’ll be able to hit the switches “by feel” without looking.

I love @brad’s feature of “linked clones” for song states, which enabled me to go completely “linear” in my state changes without having to maintain separate copies of the same state when editing.

But my approach only makes sense when the state sequence stays stable across performances - if I needed to flip between states semi-spontaneously (more improvised material where I want to be flexible with sounds), I’d probably work with drum pads (easier to hit than buttons) for individual states when standing up and a foot controller when sitting down.

Hi, Torsten, horses for courses of course and we all have different work flows but thought I’d offer my “use case”. I like the flexibility that the FC300 gives me, although these days with Cantabile, I am migrating more of the song specific stuff into Cantabile songs, now the computer is the hub of my rig and not at the end of the MIDI chain. But I still like the fact that with the FC300 I get patch selection pedals, the two built in expression pedals, the 3rd expression pedal that I have added, the two built in general purpose control pedals, the other three control pedals I have added. With all of that, I need to sit down of course! but that all gives me a hell of a lot of flexibility whilst two hands remain on the keyboards.

Of course if all people need is a patch increment feature then all of that is overkill, but I find the FC300 indispensable. So much so that I have just purchased another one as a spare, as my original is now ten years old (but still as solid as the day I purchased it) - and that itself is amazing that a ten year old product is still on the market. Roland must have gotten something right with it and they must still sell well.

[Torsten]

@Derek

So much so that I have just purchased another one as a spare, as my original is now ten years old (but still as solid as the day I purchased it)

Yes, definitely a great workhorse - similar to the Behringer FCB 1010, which has the added advantage that you can use custom ROM chips with it to adapt it to its use case. I’ve got two of them sitting on my MIDI tool shelf - always have a spare… I’ve got one of them equipped with a custom ROM that allows to reduce it to a “dumb” controller that only sends different CC messages for all its pedals - no banks or patches, ideal for Cantabile.

@Derek

But I still like the fact that with the FC300 I get patch selection pedals, the two built in expression pedals, the 3rd expression pedal that I have added, the two built in general purpose control pedals, the other three control pedals I have added.

How many feet do you have - are you an octopus?

Cheers,

Torsten

[FredProgGH]

I am going to be sitting down too. Done with standing… I have something I forget about, I’m going to try it first. Will report if it works.

[FredProgGH]

I finally bought a power supply for the Bass Pod XT, so now I have 11 solid buttons and an expression pedal to play with! Seems to work very well. If anything it’s just TOO many possible pedals to hit. But I’m going to experiment with different setups using it.

One thing I’ve noticed, I don’t seem to be getting instantaneous changes between one or two states involving VB3 and Mtron Pro. There’s about a 750ms lag and I haven’t determined what is causing it- other states work the way they should. All that’s happening are mutes/unmutes and changes in transposition, no patch changes so I don’t see why there would be a lag. Any thoughts??

[bartok2112]

Fred,

I use both VB3 and Mtron Pro. For VB3 I use only the host automation rather than presets and it is very quick. For Mtron Pro I used to have that problem, but when I installed the update back in May (3.0.1) state changing improved a lot.

• Paul

[Corky]

Hey Fred

I will put foot in mouth. You said only mutes/unmutes and transposition. Are you transposing with C3 or the vst? I had lags with transposing sometime back. Another thing, are you using racks and rack states? I found VB3 much easier to tame in a rack on several things, and just make rack state changes. I don’t use Mtron enough to make a reply.

[Neil_Durant]

@FredProgGH

All that’s happening are mutes/unmutes

Why the mutes? I sometimes find they seem a little slow, subjectively. You might find things work better enabling/disabling MIDI routes to racks/plugins, or modifying route targets, rather than muting/unmuting the sound sources (which also has the benefit that song state changes won’t then cut reverb/release tails).

Neil

[FredProgGH]

Transposing with C3. I just set this up quickly to get an idea how I want to map things. You’re right, doing routes is a better idea. VB3 is in a rack but Mtron isnt. Now that I I know how I’m settling it up I’ll do it in a tidy way and see if the lag clears up…

[FredProgGH]

Yep, that did it. Just setting up MIDI on off and not mutes fixed everything. And the Pod works a treat (as you Imperialists say) The heck with an FC-300; I’m set, looks like.