I searched the forum, but didn’t see this particular request mentioned…
It would be great if Aux switches could have a different global function for different action types - e.g., press, release, long press, etc. It seems that the functions in the Omniport configuration menu are limited to a “press” action for the aux switches.
If there’s a workaround here (i.e., another way to get more than 3 functions out of just 3 switches), I would love to hear any ideas.
Thanks!
-Jon
[EDIT: I’m using the MC6 Pro, in case that makes a difference.]
Don’t know any workarounds, but I second this! I’d love to see aux switches have the same options as normal ones, at least for the internal message options. I know James has said the MC6 doesn’t have onboard memory to straight up add presets to pages via aux switches.
This is precisely why I do not use aux switches. Instead, I use a seperate MIDI controller (MC3) to access the MIDI implementation on the MC6P. I think of it as a “smart aux switch”. I do all navigation with the smart aux switch and all preset selection with the MC6P.
For example - using regular aux switches to do 4 different bank jumps would require 4 switches. I do it with just one, using multiple button actions - release, long press, double-tap release & long double tap.
Same goes with bank up/down & page up/down. Most people will use 4 switches. In this case, I do it with 2. On 1 switch, Bank up = release and Bank down = long press and second switch same actions for page up/down.
However, the biggest benefit is the switches can operate dynamically, meaning that banks in the smart aux switch can be programmed to have it’s switches do different functions with different banks/presets of the MC6P.
That’s just a few of the ways that I use it and it works perfectly. It takes a little practice to get handy with the button actions but the pay-off is huge with the amount of space that’s saved on the pedalboard.
There is quite a simple and effective way to achieve this:
If you have presets that are not used within each bank (which would be quite likely especially if you are using the MC6 PRO that has 24 presets per bank), assign your aux switches to trigger them as shown in the example settings below.
Then program presets V, X, W to function as you like with multiple action types.
You can then copy preset V and triple click the ‘Paste’ button to paste it across all banks. Do the same for presets X and W and you effectively have global multi-action preset switches.
Assigning letter presets to the aux switches is the way I originally had mine setup. However, I ran into issues doing it this way. Primarily, any presets within a bank that had an “on disengage” message would do just that, disengage when selecting an aux switch. Same thing with tap tempo with CCs.
A great use for the smart aux switch that I did not mention in the previous post is access to the expression presets with switches instead of an exp. pedal. The exp. presets appear to operate independently from the letter presets, so disengaging is not a problem. I would think most people just use 1 of the 4 exp. presets. So, that leaves a spare 3 that can be used globally. This can be quite handy and used in creative ways. It’s what I use to tap tempo with CCs amongst other uses as well.
My song setup is 4 songs per bank, 1 song per page. So, globally sacrificing 2 or 3 presets per bank for an aux switch is just not an option. I’m sure there are solutions/work-arounds for the issues I experienced with aux switches, but I found that just by simply using another MIDI device controller to access the MIDI implementation on the MC6P, makes the work-flow more streamlined. It also opens up future options for additional MIDI implementation with every firmware update.
I wonder if the memory constraint applies to MC6 Pro too?
I can see how having additional “active” presets loaded for each page could run into memory issues. What I was hoping was to be able to add extra options to the global functions for the aux switches, not necessarily have them replicate the behavior of the onboard switches — but maybe memory is an issue either way.
I started googling small MIDI controllers that could fit in the narrow space I planned to put a Pedalnetics aux switch. I had to laugh because my original intent (before going down the MIDI rabbit hole) was to just add a small controller to my board to do universal tap tempo. Now here I am a couple months later looking for a small MIDI controller that can run my big MIDI controller.
You were totally right - this did just what I needed. I agree with Strunz1967 that it would be nice if there was a way to do it that didn’t take up the presets across all banks, but I don’t think that will be an issue with my setup.
The first controller I had to do the “smart aux switch” method was the Disaster Area MIDI Baby 3 which I bought used for cheap. That was a huge leap forward from aux switches but it was not able to operate dynamically like I described in the first post because it didn’t have banks. So that’s why I went with the MC3 which luckily I also scored for cheap. Plus it has the benefit of a display.
