Dio Midi

[Gualtar Pennington]

Hithere. Since I already spent some time on the forum without finding a specific thread (correct me if I am wrong) I thought of creating a new thread dedicated to external control options for the Player. First of all, I already enjoy playing powered toasters (with remotes) in my band since 10 years ago, plus a non-powered rack at home, with a variety of midi footswitches. Now that I finally got my Player, I am exploring the same MIDI control options as we plan to use them as a more convenient fly-in solution.

I connected my Tech 21 Midi Mongoose to the Player using the first rendition of the ESI MIDI-USB cable, previously tested for functionality with a midi keyboard. The Mongoose only transmits PC via Channel 1, but since the Player is set to Omni, this should not be a problem. However, pressing a button on the Mongoose did not change a rig on the Player. I perused the manual but it did not contain any specific info on how to hook up and set up external MIDI controllers with the Player. Nor did I find any MIDI-related setting on the Player and in the Rig Manager.

It's possible that I may have missed something, possibly something quite obvious, even, so that's why I am looking for advice here It looks like we're going the Morningstar MC8 way, which seems to be able to replicate as much as possible from what the Remote offers, plus the addition of Exp Pedals. I know that the MC8 is a very capable and highly-customizable unit, so I have little concern about what it can do.

Will try again with the same cable AND a MidiMan converter, then gonna get another MIDI -USB cable to test it. So far nothing works, even though the Tech21 Mongoose works perfectly with my rack Kemper...

The Player's dedicated Main Manual includes a MIDI chapter comparable to the manuals for the other PROFILER models. It includes all the MIDI comands the Player processes. Everything has been tested. We have no knowledge of any software issues in this area regardless if these comands are fed into the USB-A socket of the Player e.g. via a MIDI to USB interface or if these are fed into the USB-B socket from a PC software (for example DAW or MIDI OX) via the same cable used for Rig Manager and USB audio.

I have connected a Rack with the Player via a MIDI to USB interface, activated "UI to MIDI" at the Rack and the Player follows the comands it knows. You can obviously not control features, that the Player doesn't offer e.g switching on/off effect module D. But the rest is plug and play.

Up to now you cannot specify the receiving MIDI channel of the Player. But this should never cause the Player not to excute MIDI comands. It only causes, that it is executing comands on all 16 MIDI channels ("Omni"). This feature is planned for the next Player OS revision.

Other than that the only "complexity", that comes to my mind, is the logic of the labelling of the 5-pin plugs of those USB to MIDI adapters. The plug labelled as "OUTPUT" is usually the output of that adapter device and belongs into the MIDI INPUT of the receiving device. The plug labelled as "INPUT" belongs into the MIDI OUPUT of the sending device. Sometimes these plugs show arrow symbols, but I experienced it always follows this same logic. So if you have accidentally plugged the adapters OUPUT-plug into the output of your sending device, nothing gets through.

Thank you for your answer, Burkhard. So far I've connected one of the MIDI footswitches around i.e. the Midi Mongoose, to the Player using a regular 5-pin MIDI cable running into Input A of a Midiman, as in the photo below. From the Midiman, a regular USB A-to-B cable goes intro the Player, and everything works seamlessly. I was exceedingly happy to see there was no lag switching between rigs, just like on the rest of my KPAs. Congratulations to Kemper for this lagless switching! (this lag, btw, was the reason I retuned a HX Stomp XL last month).

Now, obviously, the Mongoose only transmits via Channel 1 and can't be programmed for CC#, so it's a fair solution for simple switching rigs 1 to 5 during a live show. Anyway, I've been using 5 presets for my shows for ages now, so there's no issue here. However, on my preset 2 (Drive I call it), I sometimes morph in a phaser, whereas on my preset 3 (Power Drive I call it), i sometimes use "stompbox III" with a flanger.

I know there is no morph right now on the Player, but the manual specifies CC numbers for "node effect I through IIII". I wonder whether I could access I to IIII with a Morningstar MC6/ MC8 MIDI footswitch, by programming some of the buttons to send the specific CC# to the Player. Needless to say that the Morningstar has a USB-B port and this means it should be plug-and-play with the Player, without the intermediate gear, the Midiman.

Furthermore: the MC8 seems to have a 'B' port too... did you try to connect a USB AB cable (a.k.a 'printer cable'). From the specs I read that it even can be powered through that connector.... this should be the preferred way of connecting the MC8 anyway.

Most of the recent control gear has a USB device port (=a USB B or a micro/mini port). The PROFILER can host those devices, and it is much more conveniant than DIN MIDI because IN&OUT cannot be swapped, and you don't need a seperate power cable.

Regarding the use of the Effect Buttons I-IIII .... In principle, these are the same buttons, that the Remote and Stage offer. However, while these are physcial buttons at the Remote/Stage here these are virtual nodes, that could be assigned to the Player's footswitches OR triggered via MIDI CC# 75-78.

By default the Player's FS 2 in the middle is configured as Effect Button I. You could for example assign module DLY with a Phaser in your Rig "Drive" and assign module B with a Flanger in Rig "Power Drive" to Effect Button I and use FS 2 to switch those on and off. You could even assign more effect modules by Rig (up to four) so that multiple effects switch on/off simultaneously or inversly.

The other thing is: Your intended setup seems quite complicated and expensive. For example a Behringer FCB1010 with Uno4Kemper plus a MIDI-USB adapter is way cheaper and offers more functionality. Uno4Kemper chiptuning is not yet ready to send CC# 75-78 yet. But you could assign buttons in its upper row to effect modules A, B, DLY, REV,... individually and switch each of those modules in each Rig. I guess, there is a more cost-effective overall sotution for what you are trying to achieve.

hmm... that USB descriptor looks OK, nothing strange going on there: this should work on the Player (as well as other models) Next thing would be to find out whether maybe the Ampero is causing a MIDI loop. This is tricky, we will discuss this internally and try to find a solution or work-around for this.

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