This is kind of a workflow question. I am controlling about 7 pedals with my mc6 pro, and what I am trying to do is have each preset start by returning my pedals to a “beginning” state (basically, all pedals bypassed) and then enable just the ones that need to be enabled for that preset. This is the cleanest way I can think of to manage it - otherwise, every preset has to be aware of the state of every other preset in order to get things into the correct state.
I have gotten pretty close to my goal by having a preset in a “Utility” bank that bypasses all pedals, which I call using “Engage Preset” as the first step in all of my song presets. Then, I go ahead and enable whatever pedals I need for that preset. The only downside to this approach is that in some cases, I end up bypassing and then re-enabling some pedals, which can cause a brief dropout in audio, or cut off delay trails and such.
What I’m looking for is a way to only disable the pedals I’m not going to use in my preset. I’ve found a way to do it using toggles, but it’s a complicated multi step process, and it’s messier than I would like. Does anyone have approaches to this problem that are clean and reusable? What’s the “Morningstar Way” to do this?
Because different pedals enable bypass in different ways it could be very difficult on its own. One pedal might use two CC messages - one for enable and one for disable. If this is the case it’s straight forward as you just send the disable message and then enable if you want it in the path. But if you have a pedal that uses the same CC message for on and off there’s no way to intelligently set it to a bypass state as there’s nothing keeping track of what state it’s in. This is where loop switchers such as the Gigrig G3 or Morningstar ML5/10 earn their money. With loop switchers you set all pedals to enabled and just MIDI switch the loops on and off for the loops (pedals) that you want in the signal path
I don’t think you’re quite understanding what I’m trying to do, but thanks for giving it a try. I understand how to enable and bypass my pedals with cc messages, but when I have multiple different pedals enabled in one preset, and another set of pedals enabled in another preset, switching back and forth is problematic because I need to know what pedals are enabled in preset A so I can disable them in preset B… but if I have preset C enabled and then switch to preset A, the set of pedals that need to be bypassed for preset A is different. Like I said, there’s a way to do it with toggles, but it’s messy. Maybe I’ll make a video or some screenshots showing what I’ve got going.
I think I do understand and appreciate that you know how to manipulate them. My comment still stands but if all the pedals fit into the first scenario I said (two different CC messages, one for on and one for off) you could do this:
Entering a new preset
Send CC messages to all devices to bypass them
Send CC message switching specific pedals on for that preset
Repeat for each preset and every time you switch it bypasses everything as it enters the preset and switches on the pedals you want to use.
If you can’t switch them on and off with two different CC messages then loop switching is likely to be the solution. The Morningstar doesn’t have the ability to track as it’s just sending messages, not knowing the status of the downstream equipments state at any time
Yup, that was my initial approach - but as I mentioned earlier, bypassing the pedals and then re-enabling the ones I want for the preset has the undesired effect of cutting off delay and reverb trails, and sometimes putting a gap in the audio. Cheers!
I’d suggest to do a reset only for the first patch of the song and program the other patches individually. It’s the most efficient way in my experience. You don’t have to keep track of all pedals all the time. You might want to add a manual reset patch in case you need to go back a patch in rehearsel scenarios or stuff like that.