Re: behringer controllerRe: EDP pedals

[Jeff Larson <Jeffrey.Larson@Sun.COM>]

I did a fair amount of research on various MIDI pedals recently.
For me, the most important limitations about the Behringer were:

  - Program changes cannot include bank select.

  - Channels are assigned globally, 5 for programs and 2 for channels.
    This means you can only send control change messages to 2 devices,
    same with the pedals.

  - If you want momentary switches sending control changes,
    your two controllers per switch must be assigned to the
    same global channel.  This means that you're now limited to sending
    control change messages to a single device.

So, if you only want to control one device, or if you want to control
two devices but only use momentary control changes with one of them,
then the Behringer is the best value out there.  Obviously based on
other posts it is fine for a combination of the EDP and Repeater, but
if you've got anything else you need to control you'll probably find
the Behringer limiting.

The only thing that's even close to this price range is the Rocktron
MidiMate.  It's got its own flaws, the most important being lack of
momentary switches.

I ended up with a Ground Control Pro which is pricey but flexible.
If I had to do it over again, I would reconsider the Behringer.  
The GCP is relatively compact, but it's also harder to operate
with your feet since the switches are closer together.  Since I
always route through a computer, I can remap MIDI messages to work
around the Behringer limitations.

The pedal I actually liked best except for one crucial flaw was the
Lexicon MPX R1.  A good combination of channel and event flexibility
for the switches at a mid-range price.  The flaw: the expression
pedal can have only a single global channel.  Again, if you're only
controlling one device this is ok, but if that's the case
the Behringer is a much better value.

Other pedals that had deal-breaker flaws for me but may be of interest
to others:

   Rocktron All Access
     The mother of all MIDI pedals, no flaws but extremely expensive
     and hard to find.
 
   Yamaha MFC10
     Global channel for the pedal, can't combine program changes
     and control changes on a switch.

   Roland FC-200
     Single global channel for everything, game over.

   Original Ground Control
     Too few momentary switches.

Jeff