Using my MC6 Pro foot-controller, I want to access a few presets of Fabfilter’s Volcano to modulate an OB-E synth patch, in GigPerformer. Volcano’s presets use both bank and presets numbers—for example one is 3/88, so bank 3, preset 88.
I’ve been reading around here and elsewhere about how CC0 and CC32 are used to access banks and presets and tried a bunch of things on MC6 and in GigPerformer, but couldn’t get things to work.
On the MC6 Pro side of things, how should I go about it? From what I understand—which might be wrong—one needs to send a sequence of messages related to a PC#, a CC#0 and a CC#32. But how do I program that exactly in the MC6 ? One Volcano preset is MIDI 3/88. So, bank 3, preset 88. Then there’s the PC#. So what would that look like? Use 3 consecutive messages with something like those ?
Or that’s not it. So what is ? One thing I also wonder is what should be done on the side of GigPerformer. I’ll bring this issue up in their forum too and see what support I can get there.
Basically, MIDI values are 0-127, and using this MSB LSB concept, it allows you to access values of up to 16383. This only works if it is supported by the MIDI device you want to control.
@james Well, now I’m more confused. “Some devices use a MSB and LSB CC system, which might be somewhat confusing for new users.” No joke. And “There you have it! MSB and LSB explained.” Well, I wish, but I obviously lack some basic knowledge to follow all this.
Also, “This only works if it is supported by the MIDI device you want to control.” It looks like Volcano does. On the help section of Fabfilter, about Volcano we read that "Loading a presets can also be done via MIDI, using Bank Select and Program Change messages. Click ‘Options > Enable MIDI Program Changes’ in the preset menu to enable or disable this feature. When enabled, the corresponding bank/program numbers are shown in front of the preset name (for example ‘(0/65) My Preset’). This means that you can load that preset by first sending a Bank Select message to select bank 0 and then sending a Program Change message to select program 65. " "
I’m looking at the MSB LSB Calculator in the Editor right now but I have no ides what to do with it. How do I use it ? In Volcano, for one I want to access preset 88 in Bank 3. How do I specifically program that in the Editor ?
I tried to look up Fabfilter Volcano’s documentation but it didn’t make things any clearer. So you’ll have to experiment.
First, make sure that you have the MIDI channel set on Volcano. That’s where the message should be sending on the MC controller.
Now, just make a footswitch preset that does this:
Press => CC#32 = 3
Press => PC = 88
That might just work, giving you CC#32 as the bank selector and PC as the preset selector. Many companies keep the MSB at 0, so you never have to set it. If that doesn’t seem to do it, add CC#0:
Press => CC#0 = 0
Press => CC#32 = 3
Press => PC = 88
Make sure it’s always this order, and you may have to play around with whether CC#0 or CC#32 actually corresponds to the bank in Volcano. Good luck.
I managed to have it work. It turns out that using CC#32 and the PC# of the presets in the Morningstar was enough, with using a MIDI In block wired to Volcano in GP5. Thanks again for your support.
Now, to the next piece of this puzzle of a setup of mine… I’ve used hardware loopers for quite some time and I want to see if I can integrate a digital one in this setup. I browsed around, a few come up, mainly SooperLooper, Enso and Mobius. The catch is that, for all I see, there isn’t much detailed information on how to integrate them with GP and the Morningstar. In any case, so far Mobius seems to most promising, but let’s see how this part unfolds.
Mobius has pretty extensive capabilities for MIDI control, though note that you’d have to define all the MIDI bindings yourself. A spreadsheet and our editor’s User MIDI Dictionary will be helpful.
@jason.nguyen By “note that you’d have to define all the MIDI bindings yourself”, what do you mean—as opposed to go about them in the conventional way ?
@jason.nguyen You make me wonder about that since someone in the GP5 forum shared a rackspace he created with Mobius, while he also shared the MIDI bindings he used. Are the functions in Mobius already assigned to certain CCs ? I don’t know.
In Mobius, you have to go into the settings and define all the bindings you want to use. It’s not too complicated, but you do have to keep track of it.
I did that—assigned simple controls for Mobius on my MC6 Pro.
Haven’t gotten very far with it, busy with other gear.
I think it’s worth my time, but as Jason said, you have to “roll your own”.
@Gnarly If you could share how you managed to assign those controls—I also only need simple ones, like Record/Play/Undo/Overdub—that would be really helpful. One thing that throws me off is that it’s easy enough to assign CCs in GigPerformer and on the MC6, but I can’t manage to find anything in Mobius that correspond to them. So far.
For instance, if I look for “Record” in all the Mobius menus, the only place I find that is in the Bindings section, where in Function, then Recording, there’s a “Record” option, that comes with 3 options, “MIDI, Keyboard, Plugin Parameter”. But MIDI is blank, Keyboard only offers the letter R, and Plugin Parameter only Output and Feedback. So there’s nothing in there that helps me finding what Mobius setting or command corresponds to Record in a way that makes sense for GP5 or the MC6.
For all the simplicity of its GUI, Mobius is surprisingly complex. There’s tons of stuff one can do with it, but all I want is to be able to use it simply, the way I got used to use hardware loopers. I don’t know if I’ll get there, but I’m open to keep trying, to experiment. For some time anyhow. What would be definitely helpful is to get a detailed step-by-step explanation of how to make it work in GigPerforner with the MC6 by someone who got it to work with those.
I am back!
I hooked up the Morningstar to the computer, and it seems to record tracks.
I have triggers added under bindings for play, record, overdub, stop, and next loop and previous loop.
Next step is to hook up a microphone and a speaker, so I can hear what’s going on.