Re: PMC-10

[Kim Flint <kflint@chromatic.com>]

You might want to try the Rocktron All Access pedal. It looks to me like 
the
most powerful and rugged pedal out there, although the price is quite a bit
higher. ($500?)  The people I know who don't pay much attention to the 
price
tag all seem to use the Rocktron. I'm not sure if it does what you're
looking for though.

BTW Miko, I'm positive I've met you before. You came by g-wiz at some 
point,
right? Do you know Chris Muir? He has a rocktron pedal, if that's helpful. 

As far as the PMC-10 crashes, I've heard that too but not experienced it.
I've also heard that it has a tendency to dump its memory contents every 
few
months. I haven't experienced that either. The guy I bought it from said he
got a software upgrade from Digitech that fixed the problems, so you might
want to check with them again. The pmc-10 does have sysex dump capability
and midi-in, so you can save the memory contents and recover quickly if
necessary. A lot of pedals don't do that, which is very annoying 
considering
how much effort you are likely to spend programming them. The worst thing
about the PMC-10 to me is the hand-held programming thing, which seems to
break very easily. Paul Dresher says the best thing to do is just buy a
gross of them from Digitech! Being a hardware geek, my plan is to replace
the programmer's poor quality cable and crappy switches with more rugged
stuff. Looked pretty simple, really. The versatility and programmability of
the pedal far out weigh those inconveniences, IMHO.

Isn't the Lex pedal only dedicated for the MXP? I didn't think it was
actually a midi pedal, but I could be wrong.

Speaking of evaporating memory contents, the other day I turned on a drum
machine that I've had for about 7-8 years (an alesis HR-16B). It started up
ok, I wacked a drum trigger to see if I had audio, and the drum machine
display goes all weird. I turn it off, turn it back on, and all the stuff 
in
memory is gone. Years of sequences programmed and tweaked go poof! Some
stuff in there I'd spent months on a few years back and hadn't gotten 
around
to recording. And guess when the last time I backed it up was? ooooops. man
was I bummed..... so people say, "well, its good to get a fresh start
sometimes..."  somehow not quite consoling.....

kim


At 10:02 AM 12/18/97 -0800, Mike Biffle wrote:
>     I too use a PMC-10 and have found it to crash sometimes 
>unexpectedly. 
>     More than once I've been recording with others or performing (only 
>     once) and had it dump on me. Ouch!!!! I've had it to Digitech a few 
>     times and they've been very helpful but not completely successful. 
>     It's been quite awhile since I've had a crash... (Fingers crossed).
>     
>     That said, I've been hoping to see more sturdy units capable of 
>     assigning multiple controllers to one ex-ped or another. And the 
>     ability to assign each individual controllers midi channel as well. 
>     This gives you the ability to control several midi module real time 
>     controllers with a single pedal. 
>     
>     Has anyone tried the new Lexicon MXP floor controller? What is it's 
>     architecture like? Is it easy to program?
>     
>     Thanks
>     -Miko
>
>
>______________________________ Reply Separator
_________________________________
>Subject: PMC-10
>Author:  patrick@his.com (Patrick Smith) at INTERNET
>Date:    12/17/97 8:40 PM
>
>
>On 12/17/97 Kim Flint said:
>
>>The short answer is, no the echoplex can't be usefully controlled by a 
>DMC
>>Ground Control. Despite popular opinion among guitar players, the ground
>>control is actually a fairly limited midi controller and not able to send
>>appropriate midi commands for the echoplex. There are other pedals which
>>work great, the web page describes what to look for. My personal
>>recommendation is to pick up a used Digitech PMC-10. I got mine for $100,
>>and have been quite happy with it.
>
>
> I also picked up an used PMC-10 for $100, about one year ago upon Kim's
>reccomendation and I whole heartedly endorse it. I do not use it with an
>Echoplex, since I do not own one, but I do use it to control three 
>separate
>Jam Men. Currently I've been working with the Expression Pedal part of 
>this
>machine to control a Sherman Filterbank. The PMC-10  is deep unit capable
>of much more than I'm using it for. Porbably why it did not catch on.
>
>Patrick
>
>
> ***  ***    ** Fingerpaint http://www.his.com/~patrick/FNGP.html  ***  **
>
>  
>
>
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>
________________________________________________________
Kim Flint                      408-752-9284
Mpact System Engineering       kflint@chromatic.com
Chromatic Research             http://www.chromatic.com