Making the conceptual shift to MC8 Pro from another MIDI controller

The Lounge General Discussion
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For years, I have been using an FAMC LF+JR+ MIDI controller and it has served my needs well. However, recently things got to a point where, without device support, I couldn’t even edit the LF+JR+ anymore on my regular computer. For this reason, I decided to grab an MC8 Pro as a “replacement” since the LF+ JR+ will not last forever.

I’ve been playing with the MC8 Pro on and off for the last couple of months or so trying to find a way to make it work for my way of doing things and I’m still uncertain about it.

Case in point: With the LF+JR+, the user conceptualizes a 60-button page layout with eight physical buttons that can jump between multiple groups of those buttons (1-8, 9-16, 17-24, etc.) and you can also jump between different pages. I have about 40 of the 60 buttons assigned commands and I use button jumps to navigate between the eight-button groups. It’s very effective.

One of the convenient functions it allows is having a set of switches where a number of buttons are permanently allocated to preset selection (say five), other switches can be allocated to bank up/down (1-5, 6-10, 11-15, etc.). In this way, all 384 presets can be accessed from a single eight-switch area using the bank up/down switches. I really cannot see a way to arrange presets like this on the MC8 Pro.

So, that’s just one example where my thought processes are falling short. For anybody who has come over to the MC8/6 Pro from a Liquid Foot controller, how have you made it work for you? And how do the majority of users lay out their switch programming? For all the MC8/6 demos online, nobody really shows functional usable layouts, but maybe I’ve just not caught the right content.

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With ‘Bank Change Mode’ you can access any bank after pressing a switch.

Screenshot_20251207_230924_Chrome
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Alternatively use ‘shift’ and set up a navigation in shift mode.

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Hi @GuitarWolf, thanks for your reply.

I’m probably missing something here. Presently, I’m working with an external aux switch for bank changes up/down and I’ve been thinking that “MC8 Pro bank = LF+JR+ preset” so I can run through banks and they’ve been programmed to trigger MIDI PCs, obviously sequentially. This is fine in principle, as long as you only want to scroll through banks in sequence. But if the user wants to be able to move to any bank (or what I think of as a preset) non-sequentially and on a whim, how would this mode or the shift state help? It seems the target bank must always be defined.

I’m coming from a “guitarist-using-multi-fx” mental frame and in my experience, there is always a system to navigate from variable point A to variable point B pretty quickly, albeit not instantly. Sorry if this enquiry is annoying, I’m really try to find a way to make it work for me. The device has so many strong points in terms of design and features.

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That’s what bank change mode does. You can choose a bank without loading every bank between the current and the target bank.

If you want instant access, you could programm a ‘navigation’ bank with presets that contain bank jumps to specific banks. Or use shift to accomplish basically the same thing.

You could set up a message scroll preset to trigger bank jump messages stored somewhere else.

There are tons of options to navigate banks and pages. It’s different than what you are used to but I’m certain you’ll find a way that suits your needs, with a little creativity.

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I can see how this would work based on a test I just ran, though it’s not quite as elegant as how the LF+ controller handles it. But in reality, I don’t need 384 presets, so this method is workable.

I don’t really understand this. Could you perhaps elaborate?

There sure are! I just don’t want to find myself using the most programming-intensive method if there’s an simpler way to achieve a particular result. Thanks again.

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If you want (almost) instant access and name your bank jumps, method one is the most straight forward.

If you could use an external switch to jump to some sort of ‘home page’ that would be the most elegant way to set this up.

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You are not missing anything

This is a very common and very real friction point for players moving from Liquid Foot to Morningstar.

You are not overlooking something obvious. You are running into a genuine architectural difference between the two systems.

Why the LF and LF Jr. mental model does not translate cleanly

How Liquid Foot thinks

Liquid Foot is built around a virtual surface concept.

  • There is a large logical button space, for example 60 buttons
  • A small number of physical switches act as window selectors
  • Banks are effectively offsets into that large button space
  • Preset numbers feel global and absolute

This design enables:

  • Fixed physical locations for preset selection
  • Bank up and down that only shifts the viewing window
  • Fast, non sequential access because your feet learn positions, not numbers

Key point: Liquid Foot treats presets as global addresses.

The limitation you are feeling on MC8 Pro

There is no native way on the MC8 Pro to do all of the following at the same time:

  • Permanently dedicate five switches to preset selection
  • Permanently dedicate two switches to bank up and down
  • Scroll through a long, linear list of presets
  • Keep preset positions consistent across all banks

Why this matters:

  • MC banks are self contained
  • Preset numbers are local to a bank, not global
  • A switch cannot calculate current bank plus offset

The MC8 Pro always requires the target bank or preset to be explicitly defined.

This is why the idea of jumping anywhere at any time feels blocked.

Why Shift and Toggle do not solve this

Shift and Toggle are powerful, but they do not change how presets are addressed.

Shift

Shift provides:

  • A temporary alternate function
  • More actions per switch

Shift does not provide:

  • Variable destination logic
  • Relative bank math
  • Dynamic indexing

Shift is state based, not positional.

Toggle

Toggle provides:

  • Two states per preset
  • Visual feedback
  • Mutually exclusive behavior through reset groups

Toggle does not provide:

  • Bank indirection
  • Preset remapping across banks
  • A virtual button grid

The closest MC8 native workflow that works

This is where most Liquid Foot users eventually land, even if it feels uncomfortable at first.

Reframe the hierarchy

Instead of thinking:

Liquid Foot preset equals sound

Think:

  • MC bank equals song or sound group
  • MC page equals mode or variation
  • MC switch equals action or scene

This is practical.

A pattern that works well in practice

Bank equals song or rig

  • Entering the bank sends a PC to load the rig
  • The bank name reflects the song or rig

Page 1: Core sounds

  • Clean
  • Crunch
  • Lead
  • Ambient
  • Solo

Page 2: Modifiers

  • Boost
  • Delay
  • Reverb
  • FX on and off

Page 3: Utilities

  • Tuner
  • Tap tempo
  • Looper
  • Global actions

Navigation behavior

  • Bank up and down changes songs or rigs
  • Page up and down changes function layers

This mirrors how most experienced MC users actually work, even if demos rarely show it clearly.

How to approach jumping quickly

Option 1: Curated jump banks

Create a small number of navigation banks where each switch jumps to a specific target bank.

Example:

  • Favorites bank
  • Switch A jumps to Bank 12
  • Switch B jumps to Bank 27
  • Switch C jumps to Bank 43

This uses Device Messages such as Jump to Bank.

Pros:

  • Fast
  • Reliable
  • Fully supported

Cons:

  • Static
  • Requires planning

This is how many touring players operate.

Option 2: Song list driven workflow

This is where the MC8 excels, but only if you accept the design shift.

  • Each bank represents a song
  • Bank order represents the setlist
  • Bank up and down becomes musical, not technical

Random access happens by rearranging banks in the editor, not by improvising with your feet mid song.

This aligns directly with how Morningstar designed the controller.

Option 3: External brain

This is the only way to truly recreate Liquid Foot behavior.

An external layer that:

  • Tracks the current position
  • Performs relative math
  • Sends explicit jump commands to the MC8

This is not supported natively.
This difference is exactly why Liquid Foot feels fundamentally different.

You already arrived at this conclusion intuitively, which means your instincts are correct.

Why the MC8 still makes sense

You already identified its real strengths:

  • Excellent editor
  • Long term device support
  • Deep MIDI flexibility
  • Strong visual feedback
  • Reliable hardware

The MC8 is not trying to be Liquid Foot.

It is designed to be explicit, predictable, and deterministic.

Liquid Foot optimized for navigation freedom.
Morningstar optimized for reliability and clarity.

My honest conclusion

You are not doing anything wrong.
Your mental model is not flawed.

The MC8 Pro simply does not implement a virtual preset grid.

The adjustment I had to make was this:

  • Stop thinking in absolute preset numbers
  • Start thinking in musical context
  • Accept explicit jumps instead of relative scrolling

Players who cannot accept that usually end up adding an external control layer.

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And there it is. This spells it all out very clearly. Thanks for taking the time to generate that very in-depth analysis of the differences.

I had been theorizing in recent days about how I might employ a dedicated second controller (not desirable but functional) — maybe a SoftStep 2 — to have a PC layout (0-9, 10-19, 20-29…120-127) to control MC8 bank selection and then treat the MC8 banks like LF pages or button start moves. This would be close to Option 3 above. This would appear to overcome the difficult shift I’m experiencing, but there’s one big issue. It is not practically possible to have the SS2 sync its selected PC state if I initiate bank changes directly on the MC8 or the software that the MC8 ultimately interacts with. I’ve played with this recently, and it is one of the design shortcomings of the SS2. And so, I would need a second controller that supports that particular approach, but that defeats the purpose of downsizing the controller situation in the first place.

I could simply dedicate a master bank in the MC8 wherein maybe four switches on bank 1/page 2 link to other banks and duplicate that behaviour in the target banks, so say bank 1 allows you to select 1 (already there), 2, 3, or 4 and then a bank jump switch takes you to bank 5 wherein you can select 5 (already there), 6, 7 or 8 + plus bank jumps — one up to (9), 10, 11, 12 and one down to (1), 2, 3, 4. My logic isn’t tight yet, but it’s close enough for the planning stage. This is basically Option 1 from your reply. I’m sure this’ll work. It’s just a headache to program. And I always change things up, so I’m not sure I can invest the time into this far more complex approach.

So, I’ll certainly be giving the song list-driven approach some further thought.

Thanks again.

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The MC8 performs best when banks are treated as musical objects like songs, rigs, or sound groups, with bank up or down used for progression and pages used for variations.

Keeping the total number of banks intentionally limited preserves speed, clarity, and reliability, and avoids the constant rework that other navigation schemes demand.

Have Fun!

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