Re: FC-300 (was How to simulate a piano sustain pedal)

[Mech <mech@m3ch.net>]

At 6:55 PM +0200 10/29/07, Sjaak wrote:
>Thanks for all your replies. It appeared that the FCB1010 was too 
>big to fit under my synth stand; second: my supplier told me that a 
>lot of the FCB's have been returned within a year due to hardware 
>failures..... So I have decided to buy the Roland FC-300
>
>First impression:
>+ all pedals can be of type latch or momentary => piano sustain can 
>be programmed :)
>+ good positioning of all pedals
>+ good visibility of green and red LED's on stage
>+ easy to progam, no manual needed
>+ build like a tank => as the FC-200

I've got an FC-300 too, and this is a fine summary of many of its 
good points.  Although you will probably need the manual to look up 
many of its more subtle functions.

>- 1 global midi channel setting => it's not possible to store 
>different midi channel's with a pedal setting

This is not correct at all.

Ignore Standard and Control Modes (as well as Sysex Mode, unless 
you've got a VG-99).  Those modes are worthless unless you want to 
dedicate the FC-300 to a single device, and I never even bother with 
them at all.  The fourth Mode -- Patch Mode -- is where you want to 
be.  In this Mode, the FC-300 will send MIDI messages to any MIDI 
channel, programmable per pedal.

In fact, this is where the FC-300 gets over the MAJOR complaint I 
always had against the FCB-1010 (even though I've got one an FCB 
too): the expression pedals (not the switches) on the FCB could only 
ever be set to a single channel.  So, for instance, you couldn't 
control Feedback on your Looper, then switch patches and use that 
same expression pedal to control, say, Filter Cutoff on a synth 
module.

Not only can the FC-300 do that (I'm doing it with several different 
patches), but you can actually use a single pedal to control SIX 
different parameters simultaneously.  These can each be on different 
MIDI channels if you like.  You can not only scale the control range 
(parameter 1 may have a range of 0 - 127, while parameter 2 only has 
a range of 50 - 70), but you can also reverse the ranges of 
individual parameters (1 may have a range of 0 - 127, while 2 has a 
range of 127 - 0; accomplishing a nice little crossfade between 
sounds/effects, for instance).

At Y2k7, for instance, I had programmed all the volume swells for the 
VG-99 into the right-most expression pedal (I could have easily done 
it by switching to SysEx Mode, but I wanted the convenience of 
staying in one Mode during the performance).  The left expression 
pedal controlled a variety of different functions, depending upon 
patch: Feedback on my Looperlative channels; Volume of specific 
tracks; Feedback of the echo effect built into the VG; Speed of the 
Leslie effect on one Patch; Track Playback Speed on the LP-1; etc., 
etc., etc.

I kept the CTL 1 & CTL 2 switches the same on every patch (Rec/Dub, 
and Stop Now;Erase) for purposes of consistency, but I could have 
programmed those for independent functions per patch.  Likewise, I 
attached an FS-6 footswitch for CTL 3 & 4, and dedicated those to 
Previous Track and Next Track functions on the Looperlative.  The 
individual patches cycled through a variety of functions too numerous 
to name here.

You imagine it, and you can probably program it in Patch Mode on the 
FC-300.

>- only 1 control message per pedal

Again, not correct.

In Patch Mode, you can actually send multiple messages to multiple 
channels (up to 6 messages, IIRC) on pedal press.  In addition, you 
can send an additional 6 messages on pedal release.  The pedal 
release messages can be programmed (per pedal) to fire off on either 
physical release (good for Note Off messages, so you can turn it into 
a set of MIDI bass pedals, or whatever etc.).  Or they can be delayed 
until the next pedal is pressed, so that the release messages are 
fired off just prior to the next pedal's messages are sent.  This 
latter function might be good, for instance, for setting up a series 
of chords that sound until the next "chord" pedal is pressed, at 
which time all the appropriate Note Off's are sent before the new 
chord's Note On's arrive).

Look, even though I was extremely skeptical at first, this thing will 
in fact practically mow the lawn.  It does everything except for 
"roll your own" SysEx (and it will do GM SysEx as well as NRPN stuff; 
you just can't program in an entire Hex String from scratch).  That's 
something that I actually use pretty rarely these days anyway.

I'm using it to replace my Digitech PMC-10, which is no longer being 
manufactured of course.  That's how good it is.  And at a price of 
only about $300, it's less costly than many of the other "full 
featured" MIDI pedals out on the market today (Ground Control Pro, 
etc.).

Sjaak, dig a bit more into the programming on the FC-300.  I'm 
confident that with a bit of work, you'll find most, if not all, of 
your misgivings will quickly evaporate.

        --m.
-- 
_____
"the wind in my heart; the dust in my head...."