Re: oberheim echoplex used with midi foot switch

[James Reynolds <tritone@dsp.com>]

>Has anyone used or have knowledge of using a digetec ground control or any
>other midi foot switch with an Oberheim echoplex digital pro?
>

janet,

i have a digital music corp ground control i'm using with my echoplex.
unfortunately, for most echoplex functions, the ground control is useless 
(i
realized this after having spent a couple hours programming it for use with
the echoplex).  

firstly, and most significantly, since the GC is meant mainly for 
guitarists
to use to change patches on their midi-controllable effects, it so
"intelligently" filters out redundant messages (it won't send the same
program change twice in a row).  the idea is that if you're on, say, effect
patch 29 and you select it again, you won't hear the audible "click" of
reloading the patch.

that's a great idea for simple effects patch switching, but it SUCKS for us
loopers.  any echoplex pedal button that needs to be pushed twice in a row
(record, overdub, multiply, insert, mute, next loop) is useless unless you
happen to want to use one of the famous "alternate endings", which i 
usually
don't use.

another big problem for most people is that the GC sends out program change
messages, while the echoplex needs to receive note or continuous control
messages.  i made a max patch that translates the message types, so it's 
not
a problem for me.

finally, any command that requires you to hold down a button on the 
echoplex
pedal (such as holding down "record" to erase a loop) is useless with the
ground control.  the ground control sends out a one-shot program change 
when
you press the pedal, it doesn't matter how long you hold it down.

in spite of all these limitations, i still use my ground control to select
loops 1-9, which is better than having to hit "next loop" on the echoplex
pedal several times to select the relevant loop.

james