Voodoo Lab

My great behemoth of a board (including px-8, midi clock pedals and other midi controllers + loads of pedals) is too much for just basic stuff where all i need is delay/verb. My Strymon Timeline, Bigsky and midi amp switcher are all I need, which live in a little rack on top the amp anyway. So I've regularly been leaving the big board at home and going back to controlling the whole rig with just my super useful Ground Control (old, non-Pro FW v2.5) via a single MIDI lead/phantom power. I have it in 10-patch mode as I just want presets basically (only using clean/crunch/lead with appropriate amounts of verb + the same 3 with delay in = 6 patches). The only thing lacking is a tap tempo for the delay.

Is there any way I can have just 1 button be a MIDI CC? I presume not?

So I tried sticking a momentary switch pedal I have here in the expression jack and assigning it to CC81(?). It looks all dandy, but the strymon goes silly fast no matter what speed I try. Sticking it through a MIDI monitor it appears it sends 6 CC value 0 on pedal down, and 6 CC value 127 on pedal up. I presume because normally it would be trying to fit at least 6 different values in on a continuous sweep pedal for smoothness. I guess this is confusing the Timeline and thinking I have a lightning-fast 6-tap foot and doesn't look for a pedal up between taps. So it just counts incoming value 0s for timing. Any way to make it only send one down on down and one up on up? I tried the fast and normal expression speeds and they both give 6. If not any other ideas (I know there's supposed to be some kinda sequencer start option, but couldn't understand that, and not sure it has assignable CC anyway)?

Otherwise I'd have to have 4 patches per bank when I need 6, and 5 unused CC stomps. Or just try get a different momentary switch that's compatible with the Strymon tap input, and get another stereo cable for it out to stage front, as the Strymon doesn't like a simple mono-cable momentary.

Hello! Currently rewiring my rack stuff and have a phantom box to power a non-VL thing that'll take 9-12V AC or DC. I want to have my good old trusty GC as a spare and/or other option if I wanna travel light or am playing to an audience of drunken animals with no floor pedalboard though! Ideally I want to use the 7-pin midi cable with 12VDC as it'll be less prone to voltage drop I guess, but not sure if the GC will take that (I know it'll do 12AC or 9DC, but not sure about 12DC).

Will it work? Or will I have to either switch PSU voltage or risk running the usual thing with 9V DC or 12V AC? All options are possible, but if I'm drawing possibly up to almost 800mA sometimes in extreme cases with the other thing, I'll be slightly more relaxed running at the higher voltage, but a "works with everything" scenario would be equally great!

Cheers!

Hello!

Now the PX-8 is out and both it, and the GCX, will work either automatically via a GCP configuring them with sysex, or via preset CCs. Is there any likelihood the pedal switcher will get the same treatment, rather than only work with the sysex config?

My pedal switchers are great, but since I have to send sysex strings to configure them, id happily pay for firmware upgrades if I could just set them to fixed CCs like the PX-8 or GCX can. It'd make my life a lot easier, and sometimes the smaller 4-loop PS is more handy than a bigger 8-loop one!

Thanks!

Thanks John. Yep, I'm fine with the GC by itself, was just trying to get how to use something else. I've cracked it and get the scheme now. So after that sysex command 2x PSs become 80-83 and 84-87. Similarly if there were 2 GCXs on te end of the chain after the PSs, after the sysex, they will then be 88-95 and 96-103.

Is that the limit 3 GCX or 6 PSs? As I read on another thread that 104 upwards was for momentary operation. What's that then (obviously on/off operation is 0=off, 127=on, but I have no idea how momentary operation works)?

Thanks!

I have the 2 PSs already. The GCX is great if you wanna put your pedals in a rack and never touch them. I like mine by my feet though so I can use expression pedals/fuzz probe plate/tap tempo/hold functions/generally twiddle knobs in front of me, etc. 1 PS is in front of the amp, 1 in the loop. Like this...

http://youtu.be/CIApV7ifxy0

Found this thread that says about setting them up with sysex...
http://voodoolab.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2392

Will that sysex command configure both pedal switchers? Then use the next 4 ccs for the 2nd pedal switchers?

Any more related useful midi info for 2 pedal switchers?

Any way I can control it with other things too, other than the GCP? So I can control it from computers and other midi stuff?

Can I program the pedal switcher the same way as that control switcher manual works or did you think I meant control switcher nyteowl? And put it in midi cc receiving mode by holding button combinations? Or like the GCX manual? There's no mention of these in the pedal switcher manual.

im guessing it's not totally proprietary and uses standard messages or sysex?

Hello!

The GCX says it can be controlled via CC80-87 on channel 16. Pedal switchers appear to a ground control like half a GCX. So if I've got 2 pedal switchers daisy-chained can I use Cc80-87 on them or does it not work like that and magical sysex stuff happens too?

What about 2 GCXs or 4 pedal switchers?

Obviously I could try putting my computer in the middle and try to capture midi messages between them but it's a big PITA. I assumed the first pedal switcher takes 80-83, and retransmits 84-87 on 80-83 to the next one so they can all work blind with unidirectional data, but I haven't a clue in practice.

What size is the mondo? It has dimensions for the PP2+ and 4x4, but can't find the mondo dimensions on the web site or in the user manual anywhere.

Btw, is there a recommended distance the VL pedal power devices should be from things like wahs? Obviously it's gonna be quite well shielded for RF emissions but will it give off magnetic emissions? Obviously aluminium isn't ferrous like steel so won't have as much magnetic shielding effect. But the toroidal transformer will help won't it? This new pedal board build isn't happening til the beginning of next year, but I'm gradually amassing the bits and working out the layout and master plan so I don't have any surprises when the time comes. (And it too expensive to buy everything in one go!)