Newbie using Midi and effects in loop... Advice please!

[davidglander]

I have been running my Line 6 PODXT throught the back of my dual rec for a while now and I have had no problems with the thing running in the FX loop, but the thing is limited with the options ou can use from the floor. (I also want to start building a nice rack based system) So someone recommended a MIDI compatible FX processor with a Midi Floorboard.

Now I have found a cheap Behringer DSP2024 in a local Pawnshop (for only £50 !!!!) which I reckon I can give a go - it's cheap which is good, because I dont have to worry about spending a fortune on something I am useless at using ( I haven't bought it home yet, it's reserved for me).. And I understand it is compatible with a MIDI floorboard. However..... the website is vague in what I can use to control the processor... the Behringer floorboard FCB 1010 it advertises isn't exactly inspiring.

I have seen some brilliant Midi floorboards on this site in your rigs, and I'm desperate for some advice from you guys who own them, are these Midi floorboards generic? Would I be able to use one of the many that you can purchase on Ebay? Or (like the Line6 stuff) have to be specific to a product. The Behringer has no specific input, only MIDI... is this okay?

Any advice you can give will be hugely appreciated

Cheers
D

 

[scottieL]

Boss GT-8 or 10 would do the job but the effects on it aren't great. If you feel like dropping the big bucks the TC G-system is an awesome solution

 

[Strategy500]

There are alot of good rack mounted multi effect processors available today. Honestly, I don't know of a multiffect processor that can't be controlled with a midi foot pedal. I think what really differentiates these processors is the quality of the effects and the features. Some of the higher end units allow for some pretty good internal signal routing, and the capability to tweak many of the internal settings real time with your midi pedal via CC messages. Not all midi pedal are created equal though. Some will only do patch changes, some will do patch changes plus CC's, loops, etc. It can get real involved. If all you ever plan on doing is patch changes, any old midi pedal will do. If you plan on being able to manipulate your effects while you are playing, you may need somthing a little more capable. So to sum it up, I would probably decide on an effects unit that would serve my needs, and then pair it up with a pedal with the available functions to control the effects unit.

 

[TemporarilyStairs]

You have plenty of midi-board options, for sure, but I wouldn't totally count out the FCB1010. It's actually, despite the price and "yucky" brand name on it, a quite powerful piece of kit. A little searching on the 'net and you'll find tons of people out there that have all sorts of guides and specifics to work with it... PC editor, custom firmwares, all sorts of stuff. You can definitely do an awful lot with it, if you're willing to dig into it and spend some quality time with manuals and doing a lot of tweaking. It just doesn't look very cool

For more general advice: the boards do vary in what they can specifically control and how they do so, but more or less any midi foot-controller will generally be able to do the bread and butter switching/controlling of just about any midi controlled device. MIDI is a relatively 'universal' standard, so there's not much need to worry about compatability... thumbing through the manual of whatever effects unit you're interested in using would be a good start to see exactly what you want/need to control, and then you can see if midi-floorboard-X can hack it. I guess my main suggestion would be before you do anything, if you don't really have a great grasp on MIDI in general, would be to get on that... do some googling, check wikipedia, etc... and once you get that under your feet a bit, it'll be easy to figure out what boards/effects will suit your needs. However, if all you're doing is switching between presets, almost any board will work with almost any processor with only a little bit of setup/programming. If you're looking for much more complexity, it'd probably be advisable to figure out exactly WHAT you want/need to do, and then somebody more knowledgeable than myself can direct you to what all of your options are.