Dumbass!

Zaphod B

Zaphod B

Raccoons-Be-Gone, Inc.
I was getting kind of uptight last week as I have been having some random intermittent issues with the MIDI connection on my guitar rig's MIDI footboard controller. Sometimes I would not be transmitting any MIDI at all from the controller and sometimes it would work fine, and when it worked fine it would stay working until I unplugged it to break it down, and then on reconnection it would sometimes not. Tried some contact cleaner, which worked .... sometimes. Very puzzling.

And with a two-night gig coming up I was getting nervous that the thing would go into "not working" mode, and that controller is how I switch amplifier channels and multieffect presets.

So to the dumbass part.

The foot controller has a 7-pin MIDI connector, with the two extra pins being symmetrically placed at the ends of the 5-pin semicircle of normal pins. Those two extra pins are for phantom power input.

It turns out that the little indexing bump on the 5-pin cable wasn't quite deep enough to engage the keyway on the controller jack. And I had been inserting the cable into the jack one pin off in either direction, and that's when it didn't work. And if I paid attention to sticking the damned thing in right, it worked just fine. :o :D
 
How does that whole MIDI thing work? Can you use it for stomboxes, multiple amps and such? What do you need for hardware? If there is a thread or tutorial online somewhere just point me at it. It's something I've never looked at.

When I was gigging I played through an original issue Vox Valvetronix. They have 32 presets available through a footswitch so that covered the basics and I had my wah and talkbox hooked up like normal. If I get in a band again I may just stay with that 'cause it was pretty painless and the tone wasn't bad.

But MIDI has me intrigued.


lou
 
Lou, I'm no MIDI expert but I learned enough to be able to get my rig working.

Some stompboxes such as my two Eventide units can be used either like normal stompoxes with no MIDI control, or by MIDI commands. In my case, using MIDI allows me to freely & directly access any of the numerous presets available on either box without having to use the footswitches on the boxes to rotary through the preset banks.

My amp rig is a MIDI-controllable modular unit with 8 channels, and the MIDI controller allows me to to the same with the amp as with the stompboxes - to change channels in any order without going back to the amp and rotarying through the channels.

If you have a device that's capable of being addressed by MIDI, then all you need is a MIDI controller to hook up to it and a little time to read the manuals on how to make 'em talk to each other. There are a zillion of 'em out there, but for a guitarist there are a few good options for a foot controller.
 
So the key is that all the gear you want to run has to be MIDI addressable? So this ain't gonna work with a standard stompbox and an old-style tube amp?


lou
 
Labels aside, just be glad rotating the connector one pin off axis didn't result in the encapsulated smoke in the device from leaving.

Been down that road too many times myself. It's nice when electronics can be forgiving.
 
frederic said:
Labels aside, just be glad rotating the connector one pin off axis didn't result in the encapsulated smoke in the device from leaving.

Been down that road too many times myself. It's nice when electronics can be forgiving.
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I think the saving grace is that, in my setup, there is no phantom power on those extra pins. Otherwise I likely would have blitzed an expensive multiFX.
 
Oh by the way, frederic, I used the roll-on truck bed liner that you recommended and it turned out great. :)
 
Zaphod B said:
Oh by the way, frederic, I used the roll-on truck bed liner that you recommended and it turned out great. :)
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Great, glad my advice was helpful :)

A friend of mine just finished painting his jeep body and frame with the stuff - the body is their bright yellow and the frame is black. He figured using this stuff would be better than having to paint it after every off-road trip he takes with thing.

Though, he takes off-roading very seriously. Wheels aren't always down :)
 
frederic said:
A friend of mine just finished painting his jeep body and frame with the stuff - the body is their bright yellow and the frame is black. He figured using this stuff would be better than having to paint it after every off-road trip he takes with thing.

Though, he takes off-roading very seriously. Wheels aren't always down :)
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Yeah, I saw some pictures on the product web site showing some rock-climbers and jeeps painted with the stuff. Looks pretty good - but you wouldn't want to use a sponge on it! :D
 
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