Please cure my ignorance. MIDI & EDP Questions!!!

[John Metzler <jarofjam@mac.com>]

Hi every one. 
I am a longtime enthusiast of this site and have been on and off for the past few years.  I am finally in a band where I can actually start doing more than just musical masturbation with my Echoplex.  But I have a handful of questions for your seasoned pros.  Please feel very free to email me privately at jarofjam@mac.com, but please be nice, too much technical jargon bums me out.  First let me start with a list of the type of gear I have and might use with looping, what I want to be able to do, and what I think I might need to achieve some of this.

What I have (Gear that could be useful to this discussion)
-EDP (cream colored) running Loop IV w/EFC-7
-Mackie 1402vlz
-Ernie Ball stereo volume pedal (used for EDP Feedback control because of it's 25k ohm pot)
-Ernie Ball mono volume pedal (the 250k ohm pot)
-RFX MidiBuddy MP128P midi foot pedal (Initially added this so I could instantly jump from loop 1 to loop 7 if need be,  but never got it to work)
-Alesis QS 7.1 keyboard
-Roland MPU64 4X4 usb MIDI interface
-MOTU 2X2 Fastlane usb MIDI interface
-Flatpanal iMac G4 800Mhz w/ 768 MB of SDRAM
-iBook G4 800Mhz w640 MB
-Pro Tools 6.2.2 running in Mac OS X 10.3.2
-Boss SE-50 stereo effects processor
-A Bass, an Acoustic Guitar w/pick up, and an Electric Guitar.

I will be playing bass in the band but I also have lofty solo looping aspirations that I have not yet realized.  The drummer in the band,Jim, plays the Roland V-Club kit. I want to be able to have the EDP synced to his drumming and have my button pushes quantized to the tempo.  Then I would also like a way to have a pre-programmed midi track send control messeges to the EDP to do all my button pushes for me to help build sound scapes that would otherwise be too hard using just the EFC-7.

(Gosh, I hope I explain this stuff well enough to merit some good help and advice)

I have had a little bit of luck using Pro Tools as a sequencer.  I have been able to have a sequence in pro tools play back some music through my Alesis QS 7.1 and record a MIDI track EDP Button pushes to control the  EDP upon playback.  Here are a couple of questions I hope to get some useful answers for.

1.  Does any one know if there is a way to start up Pro Tools LE 6.2.2 without any Digidesign Hardware hooked up to the computer.  I wanted to record some EDP button pushes (EFC-7 moves) on a MIDI track in Pro Tools on my lap top.  But it won't open without the Mbox plugged into it.

2.  Does anybody know of any free MIDI sequencing software for OSX 10.3.2 that would allow me to do this.

3.  I want to be able to access any loop from any other loop in the EDP with the push of only 1 button.  This is Why I got the RFX MIDIbuddy foot controller.  It has individual buttons numbered 0-9 and a 10up and 10down button.  I thought I could plug this in and set it up so that pushing button 3 would jump me straight to 3 and 7 to 7 and so on.  I have been unable to do this.  Am I doing something wrong or will this foot controller simply not work for this function.  HOW CAN I DO THIS???

4.  Please stick with me!  Let me explain and then you guys (and Gals) let me know hear what you know and think.  I don't know how much I trust software based sequencing programs to use my laptop at a live gig.  Computers crash more often then dedicated hardware does. I need a rock solid sequencer that I can use as a drum machine (so I won't have to lug my keyboard just for drum sounds) and an EDP trigger  , and sync to Jim's V-Drums, that I can record incoming button pushes on one channel while playing programmed drum sequenced on another channel.  WILL THE AKAI MPC 1000 BE A GOOD CHOICE FOR THIS????  Why and why not?

5.  One last question for now.  (by the way, THANK YOU in advance, to all of you who will doubtlessly give me invaluable advice)  If I got myself a second EDP would I be able to have both run in sync and use one in delay mode and the other in Loop mode?  And would the delay be in sync with one cycle of the loop?

Please Advise.  I am really excited about all this.  I have been thinking about all this for over a year and I am almost in the place to actually start doing it.  This means a lot to me,  PLEASE HELP ME OUT. 

I need to understand, to stand under the light, to be enlightened.

---John M.

I know about pain and suffering and being cold, but I just wanna .......... ROCK!!!!!!!!