Re: Ground Control

[ejmd@erols.com (Ed Drake)]

Kim said:

>Another thing you should know if you own or are planning to get an
>Echoplex, is that the Ground Control cannot control an echoplex. At least
>not with the plexes current software. This is because the plex doesn't use
>Program Change to control its functions, and that is all the Ground 
>Control
>sends. (I talked with the President of Digital Music about this, with the
>idea that maybe we could work out some deal where he adds some more
>functionality to his pedal and we recommend it as the preferred pedal for
>our products. That's when I decided the guy was a jerk, because he had 
>that
>"guitar players are too dumb to understand anything like that, so there's
>no point in changing" attitude.)

Kim , you may be right about the Pres. of Digital Music being a jerk, I
don't know, I've never spoken to him, but he may have listened to you and
Fripp just a little bit because with the version 2 software the Ground
Control can be set up to send Control change on/off messages as well as the
program change and continuous controller messages. There is a mode which
allows you to set up your banks of 10 in a configuration where footswitches
1-4 are presets (Program changes) and Switches 5-0 are control change
messages. Whether this will allow people to use The Plex with the GC now ,
I don't know. What do you think? There is another pedal called the Ground
Link
( List $160) which can be linked with the GC and it can be configured to
have all 8 of its' footswitches be used as Control Changes .

>There are a few reasons for the Echoplex being that way. One is just
>adhering to the midi spec. Midi program change messages are intended for
>changing programs, not executing functions like Start Record.

I don't understand a lot of the technical business of MIDI but I wonder how
Lexicon got the Jam Man to use Program Change messages to control Recording
, Layering, Cueing Loops, etc.

>That being said, in reality a lot of people use dumb midi pedals like the
>Ground Control.

I hope that doesn't mean you think the people that use the Ground Control
are dumb  ;-)
Seriously, I got a GC recently because I needed more MIDI control than I
had with an old ADA MC-1 ( which is for sale, email and make me an offer).
Sure the GC is not perfect but it sounds like there is no perfect MIDI foot
controller out there at the moment anyway, that doesn't cost an arm and a
leg. The only things in my price range were the Ground Control , MIDI
Midigator, and the ART Ultrafoot X-15 . I have friends that have the ART
and the Midigator and I was not impressed by either of those ( The
Midigator and Rocktron All Access being too expensive anyway). I paid $220
for the GC which suits my budget as a married musician with a wife, child
and a house. True the GC doesn't have a MIDI in and it sounds like it
doesn't have anywhere near the MIDI control the Digitech PMC-10 has, it has
enough for what I need and if I need more in the future I'll just sell it
and get something else, isn't this what musicians do all the time anyway?
Kim, it sounds like the Digitech isn't perfect in your mind either so why
don't you design a MIDI controller with everything we'd need ? :-)
Also, I think it would be a great idea for you to put a tutorial together
on footpedals and the Plex.

Keep up the good work ,  Ed