As I’m slowly building up my MC6 Pro/ML10x system, I was thinking of buying an external TRS footswitch to permanently control bank up/down etc. Then I remembered I still had the old Disaster Area QConnect lying around - clever little device. It’s a 2-footswitch MIDI controller with 6 TRS outs + 2 TRS “omniports” that can do MIDI/EXP/TAP, plus 1 DIN MIDI IN and 1 DIN MIDI OUT ports. The documentation and tutorials on these are notoriously scarce.
Basically I wanted to know if I could use the QConnect as an aux switch for the MC6 Pro banks up and down etc…and if so, could I simultaneously use it as a TRS MIDI hub to connect my TRS MIDI devices to in case I run out of MC6 Pro omniports ? Either using the QConnect just to reach my MIDI effect pedals and controlling everything from the MC6 Pro, or building all of my MIDI presets on the QConnect and send program changes from the MC6 Pro to access those presets (whichever way would be more convenient).
I seem to remember that building presets was a breeze on the QConnect, I kinda liked the immediate workflow. With each pedal connected correctly, you would set it to Preset 1, build all of your sounds and bypass states with your pedals, save those sounds on each pedal, hit Preset 2 and do the same thing with other sounds etcetera…its use was very limited but it was very easy building sounds.
Anyways, if anyone has any tips on the benefits of using the QConnect alongside the MC6 Pro, please let me know !
Assuming that the QConnect can act as a MIDI hub to send info going into back out, I’d connect the QConnect in a loop with the MC6 Pro. That way, it would receive MIDI messages from the MC6 and pass it back out of its ports as extra outputs, and it would send MIDI messages to the MC6 to change its bank or whatever else you wanted it to do.
I’d probably do it on the MC6’s TRS 3.5mm port, making sure that 3.5mm → 3.5mm THRU is turned OFF (to prevent midi loops).
So : I’ve managed to hook up the QConnect in a loop so that it displays a new Preset number each time I change MC6 Pro presets, so that’s good (I’ve matched the QConnect PC number to the PC numbers on my Strymon pedals - it helps me remember what PC number I’ve got on any given Preset).
The ideal workflow that I would love to implement is that the QConnect left switch would bank down and the right switch would bank up, but no matter what configuration I’ve tried, it seems the two switches on the QConnect behave the same. If I set them to MIDI Tip, both switches bank up the MC6 Pro and if I set them to MIDI Ring they both bank down the MC6 Pro. If I set the QConnect to MIDI Both, the MC6 Pro freaks out and just scrolls all of my banks continuously. But I have a feeling that what I want to do is feasible because on the QConnect, the left and right switches can do different things (duh) i.e Preset up and down.
What I could try to set up is to have the MC6 Pro automatically display the PC numbers that I send to my Strymons (same number on all devices), but I haven’t found a way to do that yet other than manually modifying each MC6 Pro preset and that will take me hours.
Wait, what ports are you connecting it into? The 3.5mm TRS inputs are Type A only, so you should set up the qConnect accordingly. Other than that, the qConnect’s manual is pretty extensive, so I haven’t gotten a chance to look in detail, but I’d set it up to control just one device (the MC6), and just bank up and down on that. Now, some basic concepts: “Device Mode” on the qConnect lets you control the current preset of one device at a time, while “Preset Mode” refers to each of the 100 internal presets of the qConnect, which can be set to change multiple devices at once.
My understanding is that the qConnect boots into the Preset Mode. So what I’d do is I’d use the qConnect as a kind of “setlist manager” for the MC6. Let’s say I have 10 songs on banks 1-10 of the MC6. I could program the qConnect Preset 1 to send PC#1 to the MC6, Preset 2 to send PC#2, etc. But let’s say I change my song order. I could rewrite the qConnect presets without messing with the MC6, and have Preset 1 send PC#10 and Preset 2 send PC#5, or whatever.
Yeah you might be on the right track here ! I was using the 5 Pin DIN MIDI ins and outs because the 3.5mm ports were in use. I also was using the DIN MIDI ins and outs on the QConnect, not its TRS outs.
Indeed maybe the way to do it is to treat MC6 Pro just like any other device and having the QConnect send PC# to it to change presets or to bank up/down. That way I could use the very simple “snapshot” type of workflow on the QConnect to set my preset sounds up. I’ll just connect each MIDI pedal to the QConnect, P01 > sounds > save, P02 > sounds > save etc…and have MC6 recall those QConnect presets (possibly I’ll also have MC6 recall those same presets on the Strymon pedals directly, so that I can always access those sounds even if I take QConnect out of the chain). So the MC6 presets control the QConnect presets and vice-versa.
The only thing is that each device you connect to the QConnect has to be set up to be of a certain type (i.e “RIVR” for Strymon Riverside, “MERS” for Meris…) I think it’s because each pedal brand has its own “logic” as per midi implementation. You have Chase Bliss, Empress, the Strymon big boxes, Srymon small boxes etc…I guess it’s DaD’s version of a midi dictionary. So to control MC6 Pro with QConnect I would have to tell it what device type the MC6 Pro is, but Morningstar isn’t an available option in the QConnect setup menu. Or I could just tell it whatever as long as I send the correct PC# to MC6 Pro ?
What I’m leaning towards is to have every midi device I use be coherent in its preset names and respective PC#. MC6 Pro presets correspond to ML10X, Strymons, QConnect etc…It’s time consuming but that way if for whatever reason I’m only able to travel with a small pedalboard, I’ll just take QConnect and ML10X and all my presets will be the same as when I’ll use the bigger board with the MC6 Pro. So best case scenario I’ll use the QConnect as a TRS MIDI splitter and a bank up/down aux switch for the MC6 Pro, that’ll leave more room on the MC6 Pro for connecting other stuff.
I’ll give it a try see if that works, thanks so much for taking the time Jason
Since you’re just sending PCs, I’m pretty sure just Empress/Strymon would be fine. It’s been a while since I’ve used a Disaster Area device, but I believe there’s usually a “custom" mode.
I agree on letting the MC6 Pro handle the pedals in case you ever change things around or get rid of the qConnect for whatever reason. A pretty simple “On Enter Bank” would do it, and since you want them all to be the same PC, you can just make it one command:
