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Help me understand MIDI foot control options for solo performer
Hi all, long time, no post! I was around waaaay back in the day, but after a hiatus from making music I'm picking things back up. I could use some advice, since a lot has changed in the iOS music landscape since the original AB release, and I'll probably have more Q's to come...
My main focus has always been guitar, and I'd like to build out a complete one-man-band looping rig built around iOS. I'm planning to run the looper app, plus drum loops, guitar FX processing, occasional synth sounds and possibly the occasional vocal part, all through my iPad. But I could use some help figuring out to make the MIDI foot controller portion work to orchestrate all this.
Here's my MAIN question:
Let's say I want to trigger multiple apps from footswitches. So 4-6 footswitches for Group the Loop (I'd like independent track control, hence the large # of switches), 4 for Bias FX (individual stomp effects and/or presets), and a couple more footswitches for other things (triggering loops or patterns from other apps, possibly doing vocal FX or some other global FX mod).
Would it make more sense to have one big pedal like a Behringer FCB1010 or Line 6 FBV Shortboard Mkii and slice it up to do all those functions in one, or would it make more sense to have 2-3 discrete foot controllers with enough switches for each specific application? So like a 6-switch controller dedicated to Group the Loop, and a 4-switch for Bias FX, plus a "utility" controller for misc stuff?
BONUS QUESTIONS 
I don't really understand how to use MIDI controllers dynamically. Like, I get that I can send different MIDI signals to different apps from one physical controller, but how do I make the controller change functionality on the fly for different songs? Can you make the controller change CC layouts dynamically, like changing banks or something? I would hate to build some complicated switch layout that works for certain songs but doesn't work for different songs.
And FURTHER, how can you create a "template" of apps/settings used for a certain song? Like if I wanted to play a song that needs apps X, Y and Z, is there a way to call up those apps with the appropriate presets selected? Is there where an app like OnSong would come in?
Comments
I'll pick off one area: product selection.
How do you feel about wires (5-PIN MIDI or USB) vs Bluetooth wireless? I personally prefer fewer wires and would go with Bluetooth Pedals. An older designed Pedal will also have 5-PIN MIDI which can be adapted to Bluetooth with a Yamaha BT-MB01 adapter. THis also keeps that critical Lightning Port free for your Guitar or other audio gear to run through the iPad and for the audio to get out in a digital format with less noise vs the headphone jack. For this use case Bluetooth does not add noticeable latency.
Loading a group of apps with presets is best done with AUM or AudioBus 3.
An App is usually the MIDI target for a pedal. I'm not sure anyone makes a pedal that could output different channels. So a pedal per app might be needed. OR send all Pedal MIDI events to a running instance of MidiFire and have those events get converted there to send events to various apps. MidiFire allows you to receive MIDI and generate additional MIDI events programmatically. It's a complex programming language to master but there are people at the vendor that might help since your use cases are really detect a push of pedal 3 and send out CC # to App on MIDI Channel 4. One-to-one conversions of MIDI events.
Keep asking questions... you have a million small decisions to make and new friends to help solve the puzzle.
You might start with one pedal and start figuring out 1 app at a time using that pedal and buy another when you have one app solved. When you learn that pedal you'll probably solve more of the puzzle and be able to report on what does and doesn't work.
Thanks friend
Yep, I've seen the BT-MB01, looks like a nice piece of kit. Let me step back a bit.. I recently bought an iRig Stomp I/O thinking it would be the ideal interface to get my guitar connected, along with 4 footswitches and MIDI in/out. So yeah, I can add a traditional MIDI foot controller to the Stomp, no problem. So it checks all those boxes, but I'm wondering if maybe I should step back and build my own solution instead of the iRig. The two big downsides are (1) only single channel input, and (2) only 4 footswitches, which is probably just enough for Bias FX, but not really for looping and for Bias (or anything else).
So that is part of my dilemma.. I can still return the Stomp I/O if that money is better spent on a dedicated 2/4-channel interface plus 1 or more dedicated foot controllers. I think I could build my own 4-channel, 13-switch rig for roughly the same price as my 1-channel, 4-switch Stomp I/O. Not as small and tidy, but way more bang for the buck.
(And before you ask...
I don't NEED 4 channels right now, but as I start looping and adding bass & vox, it would be ideal to have those jacked in and ready to rock. There's really no way to accomplish that with my Stomp I/O)
When I "left" these parts, AUM didn't exist and I think AB 2 had just dropped. I really need to catch up on the capabilities of AB and AUM. So I can have profiles where a group of apps will launch, ideally with a certain song/preset config loaded, and the MIDI/audio routing configured?
This might be part of my confusion. In testing my Stomp I/O, I was able to trigger Quantiloop and Bias FX at the same time, on the 4 footswitches, even if Bias FX was running in the background. I think maybe because both apps were set to "omni" they were listening on all channels.
So I don't necessarily need a different channel per app, but perhaps a different set of CC's per "bank" on the pedal itself (so bank 1 might send CC's 0 to 12; bank 2 might send CC's 0 to 6 and CC's 13 to 18, for example). As long as the CC's correspond to an app that is configured to respond to those CC's, it seems like it would work. But this is beyond my scope...
That's really good advice. I should probably just enjoy my Stomp I/O for what it can already do right now, which is a lot!! But on the other hand, the Stomp was a pretty big $ investment for me, so if there's another approach that would give more flexibility for my use case without needing to re-buy later, that would be ideal.
Thanks for the encouraging comment!
Maybe you should add a Bluetooth Pedal for Looping controls and keep using the iRig Stomp which gives you guitar input and buttons for FX.
If "Group the Loop" is your targeted Looper ask for the best Pedal that folks have that use that App. IK Multimedia Blueboard is probably a good choice but I do see some complain that the buttons don't give much of a physical response which takes getting used to. I also don't like a lot of power cord connections personally but a lot of working musicians hate the battery tax. I just don't play often enough to have that as my concern. I like fast set up and tear down with minimal cable rat's nest. It's the small details that seem to get lost when giving advice.
Setting Apps to listen on Omni would let a single pedal trigger multiple apps for sure.
MIDI TIP: There's an app called "MIDI Wrench" that shows all MIDI events which can be very useful when creating these interconnected setups. There's a similar capability in MIDIFire which is the program that lets you create MIDI tools. There might be more of these MIDI Analyzer apps out there. Observing MIDI events is helpful when troubleshooting why things are working like the way they are.
Two options that may be worth looking into are the Morningstar mc6 and Keith McMillen Softstep 2. I think both of these you could set up to easily toggle between the apps, or maybe 12 buttons on the Mcmillen is enough for both. I have not used with those two apps, but was able to set them up fine with Modstep.
Midi Designer Pro has the concept of “Pedal Boards”. Once you set up a control surface, you can then map an external controller to the controls on the control surface. So, your control surface becomes like a middle-man between the hardware and the apps. This might give you the level of flexibility you’re looking for, but represents another potential source of failure. Generally speaking the simpler, the better for live setups.
Audiobus 3 is the iOS game changer here, as you can set midi assignments profiles, and even switch smoothly between AB presets. Hyper powerful. I’m still exploring its new features. You can also do your assignments in the looper or in AUM.
BlueBoard and Midifire is a nice combo. 4 physical buttons for up to 24 actions with single/double/triple/hold and single + hold / double + hold for each button. It’s even a bit too much, but you can have less if you want. You can even set buttons as CC automatic knobs with ramp up/down time settings. MidiFire is a killer app. Blueboard is hyper reliable, I’ve never encountered any BT issue.
I use it too with my Windows laptop for my Ableton Live setup though iPhone using usb cable and rtpmidi, works perfectly. But for stage, I plan to buy Sofstep2 for maximum reliability. Lot of physical buttons with pressure, XY, advanced editing, etc. However time delay for multiple taps is better on BB/Midifire combo.
Live setup needs a long path to be established perfectly, and this is totally related to your personal needs and preferences. And that’s a huge fun to experiment too
Midi Designer Pro and Midifire both look like excellent options. I can tell I will need to sit down and map out how I would actually like to design/use my "rig", both from a physical and virtual switch configuration, and see how to connect all the dots. But I think I may not need as many footswitches if I can do the virtual pedalboard approach.
Thanks for giving me some ideas to chew on.
@Janosax It looks like (from your previous thread) the BlueVelvet works by sending MIDI note data, not CC. I don't think BIAS FX responds to MIDI notes, is there any news on the CC control functionality for BlueBoard?
I had the project and Nic from MidiFire has written rules for me. Perhaps you can go to their forum and ask him if a blue velvet CC version can be written too?
You will be more free with Softstep 2.
See Midi Pedals: https://beatbars.com/en/midi-expression-pedal.html, https://beatbars.com/en/midi-footswitch.html.
I´m using the MIDI pedal in my studio.With Logic Pro X, I usually control MIDI volume when I´m playing virtual synths and samples.This way I can play with my both hands and still control the volume. :-)