Using scenes, perf & mutes with (midi) foot controller. Which?

Hi everyone

I wish to control scenes, performance & mutes on my Rytm MK1 with a (midi) foot controller without using a computer.

Which brand/model do you suggest? Are there other choices than midi?

Welcome. Many informations with the search :
https://www.elektronauts.com/search?q=foot%20controller%20%23elektron-gear%3Aanalog-rytm%20

I have a really good MFC10 Yamaha, pretty big. It has the possibility to control Start/Stop too.

No midi only.

Thanks for the warm welcome and for your reply.

Sounds great, but I’m somewhat displeased with the missing coverage of performance mode since most boards only offer on/off switches. Does anyone have experience with sensitive pads as on a Keith McMillen SoftStep 2 MIDI Foot Controller? Seems a bit clunky with the midi-expander that’s required for midi output to AR input though.

Yes can be really interesting too, especially for perfs. @GovernorSilver can you tell more ?
Midi Foot Controller Question

I’m curious why you want a foot controller…kind of instruments.

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I’ve had trouble conveniently accessing e.g. performance/mute simultaneously when I play my acoustic drumkit. Therefore, I’ve reduced my kit to a 4-piece (hihat/snare/crashride/tom) which lets AR take care of kicks (and much more). That means I have a spare foot to help me to better control my AR. :slight_smile:

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I used it as a foot controller for my Octatrack MkI - but never than simple track select (up and down) and basic record/play of the Pickup machine in the Octatrack.

Unfortunately, I haven’t seen the MIDI Expander that I used to connect the SS2 to my Octatrack since the last band rehearsal that I brought it too. The Octatrack malfunctioned during rehearsal because I had unknowingly overloaded the Compact Flash card, and it was banned from the band by the band leader afterwards. Indeed, the problem with little dongle-like add-ons like the KMI expander is they’re too easy to lose.

My current plan is to use the SS2 to control the iPad, and let the iPad send MIDI messages to connected gear via the cute little USB to MIDI splitter box that I bought from the Meeblip folks last year.

@GovernorSilver if SS2 is midi compliant, it should also work with cheap midi interfaces like Iconnectmidi2+ or Mio2, isn’t it ?

In theory, yes. As long as you don’t use an excessively long USB cable. My SS2 came with a 15’ long cable that caused the software editor on my iMac to not connect to the SS2. The KMI support guy said it’s a known issue but I have to buy a shorter USB cable, lol.

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15 feet, around 4.5m? :scream:

Vraiment! KMI support guy claimed he argued for a shorter USB cable to be packaged w/ the product but lost the argument.

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I have both the Keith McMillen foot controllers. I use the 12 Step with a MIDI expander in a live context to trigger keyboard parts while playing bass guitar on a couple songs. Everything together has more connections/points of failure than I would like (mess, complexity during change-overs, etc), but I made a pedalboard with all of it attached and this has been working quite well. I find the velocity sensitivity difficult to control consistently for playing notes so i have everything set for fixed velocity (and legato). For just on/off it will work fine. Pressure might also be ok depending on how you set it up. Anything you get is going to take time to configure and customize, and more time to get the coordination to play it correctly. Do not expect fast results.

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Interesting! Audio / Video examples?

KMI’s one?

Yes, the KMI midi expander. You’ll see it on the back right of my board with a metal strap over it holding it on.

There is one video example below, at about 2:20 during the second chorus. (On the first chorus I didn’t have the keyboard volume high enough.) I only use it on a couple song so far as it takes a while to get everything set up and rehearsed (along with coming up with the parts.)
https://www.facebook.com/seattlesnowday/videos/1699219333524479/

Keyboard and bass!
(5 or 6 strings? I have a 6 strings bass and a new 8 strings guitar)
IIRC the SS2 can send more different CCs than the 12 Step, I excluded it…but it can play chord apparently.
My MFC10 can too, up to 4 midi messages per switch.

That bass is a 6 string. More bass than I am bass player, but it’s a great bass (Dingwall). I could live without the high C string but it’s useful for bite and occasional chords.

For the OP’s purposes, if going with a KMI device, the SoftStep 2 is probably the right one to get. There are almost too many options on how you can set it up. Recommend downloading the software to see.
The MFC10 is also a good option, but the KMI stuff is really light and I didn’t need the expression pedal at the time, though it would be useful now.

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Thank you all for your replies.

I’ll go with the SoftStep2 unless anyone else has another brand/model worth trying. I’m pretty excited to find out whether it’s actually a useful way to control performance settings.

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