Hi, I recently upgraded from a GigRig Quartermaster to an MC6 pro so i could add pedal presets into my fx loops as well as pedal combinations. The main thing I really liked about the Quartermaster was when you pressed any of the loops on it would automatically disengage the other loop, therefore when changing from a huge drive tone to a soft chorus tone (both tones using multiple pedals) it would be a single button push and you wouldn’t need to disengage the first before pressing the second.
Is there a simple way to command this with the Mornigstar MC6 Pro? I assume it could be done rudimentary in a sense that every preset automatically sends a message to disengage every other pedal not being used on the preset but that seems like a really bad way of doing things as every preset would require a message being sent to every device to make sure the correct ones are off and the correct ones are on
Is there a simple toggle in the editor I can use that automatically turns off whatever the last preset turned on when a new one is triggered?
Hi,
common practice would be to program an otherwise unused preset (anywhere, in any bank) that turns everything off. This preset can be triggered by an ‘engage preset’ as the first message in every patch.
Thanks, kinda makes sense, thought using an “off everything” preset on each switch would be the trick but it seems a bit of a cumbersome way to do that, is there no simple toggle that changes the whole functionality to isolate each preset that it disengages the previous one- or rather undoes what it did? Similar to a looper with flip/flop like GigRig/Buzz Electronics?
There are two things at hand. There is the looper functionality (do you actually use a looper?) and there is the midi control functionality. Midi can control turning things on and off. If you have a looper then the idea is that everything stays on but the loops are only engaged when needed to avoid excessive electrical resistance and its effect on your tone. The thing with midi controllers is that they can do what they are told, but just like any AI proposition someone has to actually input the intelligence. This being said….all your midi pedals are designed to operate on their own. Being that there is likely no system software connecting them they continue operating on their own…though they are willing to do what they are told if told to do so. In your particular case, and in the case of most, the issue is that they are not being told what to do. More to the point….” functionality to isolate each preset that it disengages the previous one”…there are a minimum of 2 “presets” at hand. The Morningstar presets (sets of commands that have zero audio components) and the presets on your specific pedals (do not have zero audio components, but rather are designed to modulate audio signals). The midi controller has no way to be aware of the states of your other pedals…it only has the ability to “know” what it can do or has done by accessing its own data. All of this just to say that there isn’t a GigRig way to do it unless you are also using a looper that functions in the same manner. Loopers and controllers do not serve the same functions but there are overlapping relationships.
Hi, thanks for the reply, yes I do use a looper, a GigRig Quartermaster is a looper.
I understand how midi works and that each ‘action’ you want the switch to make will need the reverse programming if thats what you would like it to do, im just suggesting this is a very roundabout way of doing things for something that is a normal function.
For example the ML5 has CC#6 - 10 for this- one push hits the loop on with this CC and a second switches it off. I understand you can use toggle modes for this to do the same function but I feel they’re should be an easier way to have this function on the MC controllers, where as by default when hitting the switch a second time it “undoes” what it did or by hitting a new switch it “undoes” what the previous switch does. The reason for this as it seems like excess programming to have to write in toggle states and presets linked in which can just lead to error if forgetting a single line of code during a live performance.
Either way I get that that is simply the complexity of midi and that complexity is what makes it versatile.
I only answered so thoroughly because I know many people will be searching for solutions in the forum and it is helpful if things are stated as such. It is unfortunate that having control means having responsibility. There is no default operation that would likely benefit the normal user. Knowing that you are still using the GigRig looper then you can solve your problem with that pedal allowing the M6Pro for the other functions the GigRig was lacking in. Even so, forgetting a single line of code will always cause a problem.
Hi thanks for the reply, as I say I have upgraded from a GigRig to an MC6 Pro, I no longer use the GigRig and have opted for 2x ML5s instead to function as the looper part of my rig and to include non-midi pedals. As I say the ML5 has CC6-10 that will do what I am suggesting, toggle on/off depending on the state of the pedal, I understand you can do this with toggle shifts but it seems odd to not have this functionality plugged in, maybe as a bank option you can set the bank to ‘disengage’ whatever it engaged when flicking between presets.
… and there are plenty of normal users looking to do this, there are atleast 8 threads i’ve seen on here asking about it that’s how i’ve figured out what to do. When using a midi controller to engage/disengage various fx loops made of pedal combinations it’s common practice to want that switching to be as easy as a single button push.
Yeah it is how toggle mode works but you have to program that all in manually, one slip up and it doesnt work. The ML5 has the function to do this without programming (CC6-10) since most people using loopers like each button to disengage the last bank when pressed im suggesting that this could be a bank feature for controller?
Or something thats easier and more foolproof than having to manually program all pedals to turn off then program the ones you want on for each preset, thats alot just to get a flip/flop.
Would be nice to have that feature, maybe we get something like that in the future when Morningstar implements an AI that figures out on it’s own what messages to send to disengage any device.
Sorry for being sarcastic here, but I can’t see how this could work. But I might be wrong and it is possible somehow. Would be nice to have for sure
On a second thought, if one could specify ‘on/off’ messages for specific midi channels this might work indeed. But you’d need the ability to set up multiple toggles per channel to take stuff like multi fx and loopswitchers into account
Could be implemented like ‘select expression message’. Pull up the menu and just check the boxes for the fx you want to engage.
That could work for most pedals, not for my boss 500 pedals though. For those one needs to send two messages to engage.
Here is a link where you can request features. The difference with the Gig Rig Quartermaster and the ML5x are many, but the first aspect that stands out is that the fact that the GRQ is not a midi capable device and thereby relies on physical switching vs digital switching. The GRQ buttons are either on or off whereas the Morningstar buttons can literally send an email to the housekeeper to remind them to feed the cat…if you program it to do so. These products come completely unprogrammed and are in a blank state because they can be used for an infinite number of reasons. The GRQ is basically just for playing music. There is likely a way you can program a bank to make that bank function exactly like the GRQ. Regarding turning pedals “off”. Being that most people using loopers keep the pedals on and engage or disengage loops then it might not be necessary to turn the pedal off per preset. Having said that, @GuitarWolf had mentioned that you can set up presets that have on/off states of pedals or loops that you can recall as “engage preset” to do what you need. It is not necessary on every preset to dial up engage or disengage CC#s for all 20 of your pedals. If you had 10 presets that would be 200-400 lines of code for on an off. Let’s say you have 10 common combinations. Create a preset for each combo. When you want to use that combo for a sound then just use “engage preset” and chose the one you want.
Chose Engage Preset (to determine which pedals are in use)
Send CCs or PCs to those pedals to tell them what sound you are dialing up
All of this will be in one button press if you program it to do so.
Thanks for the reply, I do understand all of this, and the wide array of possibilities of sending messages to all sorts of midi capable devices, but having banks of sounds that you can turn on in the middle of the song without having to disengage the previous bank ranks probably at the top of why these things are useful, the reason I upgraded from a looper to this is so I can also integrate saved pedal presets into my banks of sounds.
The Morningstar ML5 has the capability of automatically turning on/off the pedal depending what state it is in, yes its just switching the loop on/off rather than the bypass of the pedal but it’s still something that would incredibly useful on the MC controllers.
To do what you are suggesting wouldnt work, as pressing that preset would just turn on the next batch of pedals leave the previous ones on, the only way to program it is to first send a PC to every pedal on the board to be off, and then engage the presets of the ones you want on, this just seems overly cumbersome as it takes up a huge chunk of the 16 devices you can send messages too.
The way I understand it is that this system is like having the ability to program whatever you want down to the smallest detail. Other systems do more of the programming for you but give you less flexibility. Part of it is figuring out how to do what you want and learning the architecture so that it works for you. It can take a while. Do you know about the user library where you can save custom cc and pc messages?
