Hi, new here. I’m looking for some advice. i ordered a MC8 and an ml5. i have 4 midi pedals and 5 non midi pedals. any assistance in wiring and control set up ideas would be very helpful.
Thanks in advance
Also forgot to mention, i’m completely new to midi as well. lol
Hi. Welcome to the group! We have videos about Pedalboard MIDI Basics and Setting up. Linked below. Other than the user manual, we also have other videos on our YT channel that will be helpful to you.
Suggest posting your pedals too. I’m in the same boat, 3 or 4 midi pedals and 5 non midi in the ML5. This forum is really supportive and helpful so don’t hesitate to ask more.
Midi pedals: 2x Eventide H9’s, Electro harmonics HOG2, source audio C4 synth, and wouldn’t mind putting my Strymon mobius back on the board.
Non midi pedals: Jam pedals Red Muck and Lucy Dreamer, Boss OC5, Solid gold pedals Lysis.
Cool, so with midi the order is less important. As long as you chain all midi pedals (ML5 included) and have them set to different Midi Channels you’ll be good. Then the fun part becomes the programming. These videos here offer the most insight to start wrapping your head around midi but you’ll wanna have the pedal’s manuals to reference. The ML5 has CC#s assigned to each loop (turn one pedal on/off) or you can send a PC# to call up presets (ex: turn on loop A,C and D while leaving the rest off).
I don’t have any of those midi pedals but I’m sure lots here do if you have specific questions come up in your programming.
I guess my biggest question is.(and it maybe a stupid) When I get it all hooked up. Say I’ve programmed presets. And one or more midi pedals is not used what turns them off. Or if they are not part of the preset are they automatically put in bypass. Or do it have program them off in the other programs. Out of all the videos I’ve watch know one explains this.
Kinda depends on what you’re setting up. In my case, most of my switches on the Morningstar, I’ve programmed to turn off or reset for lack of better word most pedals before sending the PC# for the preset I want to call up. For your example, yeah you’d need to send the corresponding PC# or CC# to turn off those pedals. So you may have a PC#3 going to the ML5 and 3 of your midi pedals (on each respective Midi Channel) and then a CC#/PC# (depending on the pedal itself) on the Midi Channels for the remaining pedals to turn those off.
And no question is stupid! I honestly come across new uses all the time when others ask “stupid” questions I would never have thought of.
thank you very much. like i said I’m waiting for them to arrive. so I’m trying to get things figured out in my head so i can get a running start when they arrive. Im i’ll have many more questions. lol
I would connect the non-midi pedals to the ML5, and connect the MIDI enabled pedals in series directly to the MC6
I use the ML5 to control 5 non-midi pedals - one per channel - always on.
Then you can save patches on the ML5 (using the ‘Learn Button’) to turn on/off any combinations or groups of pedals, or single pedals as well.
MIDI Cables:
out of MC6 into ML5 - out of ML5 into first midi pedal - and continue in/out on all the MDI enabled pedals.
Just make sure that the ML5 and all the MIDI enabled pedals are using unique MIDI channel numbers.
Morningstar has some great content to help get you started on YouTube. If your midi pedals have true bypass you can keep them off the ML5 switcher. Save that for the non-MIDI pedals. I have a preference for analog pedals unless it is a reverb or digital delay pedal so I just got a second ML5 for all the pedals I need to control with the looper. Everything that goes in front of the amp will be on one ML5 and I have a second one for the FX Loop.