I’m wondering if it’s possible to achieve the setup in my head with one expression pedal and my MC6. I’ve set up my HX Stomp to send a stereo signal to the effects send. The left signal will go to another amp sim to sound like a regular electric guitar and the right signal will go to a synth pedal to sound like a pure synth. The idea is to return them back to the HX Stomp and use the Mixer block to blend the two signals together. I’ve set up my MC6 so I can use my expression pedal to sweep up my synth level while simultaneously sweeping down my guitar level on the HX Stomp mixer block with two expression CCs with opposite min and max values. So far so good.
Here’s my question. I want my expression pedal to have a neutral zone in the middle where both guitar and synth levels stay constant at 100% before increasing or decreasing when I move the pedal to the toe or heel side. The CC numbers might look something this.
I know I can achieve this with two expression pedals. Is this possible with a single expression pedal and some creative configuration on the MC6 MKII and HX Stomp?
I don’t quite get the logic of how you want the expression pedal to work. Wouldn’t you want the middle to be 50% / 50% ? If the middle is 100% / 100% , what happens to the side that’s supposed to get louder as you sweep towards heel or toe? Does it stay the same, and you just want the other side to decrease? In that case you basically need to bias the range, so that going one way, the synth sweeps from 0 - 100% at the halfway point, then stays at 100%, and the “dry” signal does the same thing in the other direction.
If you actually just want a spot where both are 100%, independent of the sweep logic, then just have the MC6 turn off the expression messages while sending a final set of 100% / 100% CCs.
No, because then neither side would be at full volume and I want to use this sound for a lead sound.
what happens to the side that’s supposed to get louder as you sweep towards heel or toe? Does it stay the same, and you just want the other side to decrease?
Yes exactly. It stays at full volume while the OTHER side gets quieter.
In that case you basically need to bias the range, so that going one way, the synth sweeps from 0 - 100% at the halfway point, then stays at 100%, and the “dry” signal does the same thing in the other direction.
Great! How do I set this up with my MC6, HX Stomp and a single expression pedal?
If you actually just want a spot where both are 100%, independent of the sweep logic, then just have the MC6 turn off the expression messages while sending a final set of 100% / 100% CCs.
What if I want to fade one signal out while maintaining full volume on the other side with a single expression pedal? And if I want to be able to do the opposite with the other signal in reverse? What messages would I need to program on the MC6?
I don’t own a hx but on boss devices it is usually possible to set act low/high cc values. If I set act high to 64 the volume would be 100% halfway through the sweep. Is it possible to do this on a hx?
Thanks for replying. It is possible to set min and max LEVELS (db) on the HX Stomp mixer block but I have not been able to find a way to set limits on the CC value range for CC messages which is what I think I’m looking for. Setting min and max values just makes those the lower and upper ends of the expression pedal sweep. Setting the max to 50%, for example, would just make my sweep top out at -20db, It doesn’t get the sweep to go to 0db faster and stay there when the sweep exceeds a certain point which is what I’m trying to do.
1 can an hx stomp block or blocks accept midi cc input from 2 channels at once, maybe w command center involvement?
Absolutely. Morningstar even made a video about how to do this. I’m doing this successfully now with the mixer block, it’s just that the levels are not sweeping in exactly the way I want them and I have a feeling I’m pushing the limits of what’s possible with my setup.
2 is there a way, maybe w command center, to turn input from one midi cc channel into two different parameter changes?
There is but I have to separate them out into two CC messages because the expression sweeps go the opposite way. See the video above!
You basically need a MIDI transformer of some sort. For one CC, you just need (CC value * 2) to get a number that hits maximum at the halfway point and stays there afterwards. For the other CC, you could do the same thing on the inverted CC.
The problem is that the only thing I know of that is readily available and easily does this kind of MIDI math is the Empress Effects Zoia. I don’t think either the MC6 or the HX stomp provide the granular control over the expression curve you need (fundamentally, what you’re trying to do is offset the expression curve).
Yes! Exactly. Your response just crystalized the MIDI math for me and I was hoping there was an expression custom response that would do this math on the MC6. It sounds like this doesn’t exist now but it is technically feasible to have this as an expression custom response on the MC6, correct? Just requires enough time and money?
Basically, the feature request is the ability to invert, scale (x2, x3, x4, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc.), and offset (+/- 127) the linear curve of the incoming expression signal, right?
Put much more succinctly and eloquently than I could have.
@james Feature request for your consideration… This is probably a pretty niche use case so I doubt it would get very high on the request list but adding this would make me love my MC6 even more which I didn’t think was possible…
