Two buttons one effect?

Morningstar Gear MC Pro Series MIDI Controller
1

Hello.

I have a very small setup issue.

I would like to configure two buttons, let’s say G and H, on the MC8 PRO.

Both buttons will control the same effect, the Walrus Mako M1 (MIDI channel 3).

The G button will scroll through PCs 1 to 5, for example, and the H button will scroll through PCs 6 to 10, for example. (Scrolling will be done with a “press” or “release” action.)

The display always has a colored background (blue for G and green for H).

To turn on G or H, I use a long press.

No strip = effect off
With strip = effect on

There should never be two strips on at the same time. How can I achieve this?

Of course, when I scroll from 1 to 5 or from 6 to 10, I rename the selected effect so I know which one is selected.

Thanks everyone, if you have any ideas…

PS: I read that you can make a selected preset blink. If nothing else works, would that be an option?

2

Blink is for the old black and white displays.

Use message scroll to setup each switch independently. Make sure your Release actions are set to “pos:both” . Turn off Toggle Mode and instead put one Release All (pos:1) => Toggle Preset at the end of your messages. ( see: Preset Message Scroll (scroll through messages within a preset) | Morningstar Engineering )

Now set them both to the same Toggle Reset Group( Preset Toggle Reset Groups | Morningstar Engineering )

3

So, I programmed the 2 presets like you told me. What I see is that:

  • each time I switch from preset G to H or from H to G, the counter advances by 1. That’s already very annoying because if I want to have for example
    G on chorus and H on tremolo, for example if I have these 2 effects in a song, I would like to switch from one to the other without having the counter moving forward
  • in addition when I switch to another preset the counter sometimes advances by 2. Hard to explain, I’ll make a video.
  • if I want to select the next effect (G or H) without it being turned on… with a release action the effect remains off but the strip lights up… which I absolutely do not want, because it is no longer synchronized.
4

Instead I found another solution from a not 100% functional preset but with a healthy base that I owe to the friend @GuitarWolf
I programmed 3 messages every time by PC#

1- release - send programm change-PC #1

2- release - trigger message-trigger message from Preset G - #31 selected

3- release -set toggle- disengage toggle - G and H selected.

4- release - Peset name - short name -no -name

5- release - send programm change-PC #2

6- release - trigger message-trigger message from Preset G - #31 selected

7- release -set toggle- disengage toggle - G and H selected.

8- release - Peset name - short name -no -name

9- release - send programm change-PC #3

10- release - trigger message-trigger message from Preset G - #31 selected

11- release -set toggle- disengage toggle - G and H selected.

12- release - Peset name - short name -no -name

13- release - send programm change-PC #4

14- release - trigger message-trigger message from Preset G - #31 selected

15- release -set toggle- disengage toggle - G and H selected.

16- release - Peset name - short name -no -name

message #29: Press - utility - Pos.both

                    \* Manage preset message scroll

                    \* Set number of messages to scroll

                    \* number of messages 4

message #30: Long press - CC# - Pos. 1

                   \* CC#31 - Value: 127 (engage effect)

message #31: Long press - CC# - Pos. 2

                   \* CC#31 - Value: 0 (bypass effect)

message #32: Long press - toggle preset - Pos.both (to show wich preset is selected with the strip)

The problem I have is that if I switch from preset G to H with a long press, the strip changes from the preset to the nex but I do not really switch from the effect G to H because it is a “release” action that allows
to switch from one effect to another. What I do there with long press is the visual side but does not perform the lever of the preset from G to H or vice versa.
How to solve this problem?
On first engage, On first engage (only this), On disengage could they solve my problem?

here you could see it:

5

No one here to help me?

it’s really a pain in the as. to achieve this properly

6

If I get it correctly, you want each of your main presets A → D to also have its own settings for presets G and H, which have to (1) toggle; and (2) sync to a scroll position. Correct? That’s a lot of overloading of the functions, where you have to set which switch sends what and in what position, and you’ll have to program it pretty precisely. You’re probably not getting any responses because nobody does that. :laughing:

I think I know what you’re going for, but not entirely, so can’t just give you a bank. A couple of thoughts though:

  • If you want A → D to set G and H certain ways, don’t try to get G and H to send the midi messages. Send the midi messages from A, B, C, or D, and then have them change the states of those switches. Use Set Toggle if you need to do that, or use Utility → Set Message Scroll Counter if you need to set the message scroll to a particular position.
  • Switches programmed with Message Scroll will fire the message scroll whenever you release. There’s no way to keep it from doing that: that’s the basic logic. Many people get around this by having the engage/bypass on a different trigger Action, like long press or double tap.

If you’d like me to take a deeper look, feel free to send a copy of your bank backup to help@morningstarfx.com and put Attn:Jason in the subject. In that email, try being really clear about your intended mechanic. If you’re using the basic functions, these controllers are point-and-click, but if you want multiple interlocking responses, then you’ve essentially just become a programmer!

7

@jason.nguyen It is necessary to consider A,B,C,D as 4 channels of an amplifier. Nothing more or less. Certainly, they pilots a Boss OD-200 but in the end… These 4 switches are nothing more than a footswitch for 4 channels. The only thing I ask in the presets A to D is to turn off G and H. (for example if I am on my B/crunch channel and I have a modulation effect on, well when I pass into A for example G,H are to be off.)
And it doesn’t matter if I activate A, B, C or D, I would like to be able to scroll, turn on and scroll the effects of my modulation pedal . Except that instead of having a single switch, let’s say switch H, to drive this pedal in Scroll mode, I would like to do it with two switches.

Why 2? Because I want to scroll, for example 8 different modulation effects and would like to avoid scrolling like a fool on a single switch and prefer to divide them into 2; in short, 4 scrollable effects on G and 4 scrollable effects on H (but of/from the same pedal - walrus mako M1)

Here , my preset H that works very well. I would just like to succeed in duplicating it for G with of course other PC#'s

preset_H_data.json (3.1 KB)

8

I will send you an email these days with detailled problem and link to the video.

9

@jason.nguyen i have send you the mail.

thank you

10

@jason.nguyen have you received my mail?

11

Yeah, it took me some time to get a response together. I sent it an hour or two ago.