This looks interesting (MIDI "event processor")

[TieDyedDevil]

Link: MIDI Solutions Event Processor Plus

Briefly, a programmable MIDI widget that can map, filter, trigger, and sequence MIDI data...

Why is this interesting?

Case 1:

Consider the Roland FC-300, which (by design) can not send CC #s higher than 95, while the ER has about a dozen CC #s above 95. You can use the ER's multi-FX mapping to change up to four parameters from one CC # (whatever the ER has assigned as the multi-FX CC, which *is* in the FC-300's range). I use this to toggle rotary speed from a CTL switch on my FC-300. But what if I want to change another "high CC" parameter? I can't - I've already used up the only mapping available to me.

With a properly-programmed EPP, though, I could map all twelve of the ER's "high CC" controls to be accessible from unused CCs in the 95-and-under range (there are about two dozen such unused CC #s in the ER). Then I could access *all* of the ER's CCs from my FC-300, referring to a list of mappings to translate the ER's "high CC" controls to the 95-and-under range.

Case 2:

This one could be really cool, if it works. Y'all are surely aware that there's no way for many foot controllers to send all of the stomp-switch data when sending a PC (program change) message, which can cause the stomp switches to get out of sync with the new program. The ideal, of course, would be to have two-way communication between the ER and the floorboard such that the stomp switches for a saved program would get automagically loaded into the floorboard, thereby syncing both the switch and indicator states. That's not going to happen any time in the foreseeable future.

What we could do is to use an EPP to record the the most recent state of each stomp switch every time it changes. Then add a trigger program to the EPP to send all of the stomp switch states to the ER immediately after a PC message. This'd have the effect of making the floorboard the "master" for stomp switch states; the floorboard would override whatever's stored in the newly-selected ER program. It's not necessarily what we'd like, but at least the floorboard and ER would remain in sync w.r.t. stomp switch state.

This trick, BTW, is not specific to the FC-300.

Note that I said "if it works". This'd have to be determined by trying it out. The one thing that might throw a monkey wrench in the works would if the ER "goes deaf" to MIDI for some period following receipt of a PC message. That's not a given - the 60ms sound gap has nothing to do with processing MIDI controls - but it's a *possible* design choice...

Case 3:

If (as I do) you happened to have a "policy" of programming all of your patches with the same initial state for the stomp switches, you could program the EPP to send messages back to the floorboard (using sysex commands) to initialize the stomp switch states every time the floorboard sends a PC message. You'd need a MIDI splitter in addition to the EPP, or perhaps you could loop the MIDI through the ER back to the floorboard.


NOTE WELL: All of the above is purely speculative at this point. I have an EPP on order to try this out and see whether I can make any of the above work for me. If I do, I'll let you know how it goes.

[60Strat]

These would be cool...especially if they occur automagically...are you in the IT field by any chance ?

[madgt621]

very nice. I would definitely love to expand the functionality of my FC300.

It's too bad that the software is Windows only, and the proposed workaround would probably be way too much of hassle, as I am constantly tweaking my setup. To go back and forth between a Windows machine that I don't have, and back to my Mac to test it out is too much.

Let us know how you get along though. I'm definitely excited to see what comes of this.

[TieDyedDevil]

Originally Posted by madgt621

very nice. I would definitely love to expand the functionality of my FC300.

It's too bad that the software is Windows only, and the proposed workaround would probably be way too much of hassle, as I am constantly tweaking my setup. To go back and forth between a Windows machine that I don't have, and back to my Mac to test it out is too much.

Let us know how you get along though. I'm definitely excited to see what comes of this.

All of my computers run Linux. I could - if I get stuck - try to run the config tool under WINE.

I think I grok the file format, though. I'm planning to try to construct the config files by hand and load them into the device using pmidi.

If I get something working I'll post the files.

Yah, I write software for a living.

[TieDyedDevil]

The EPP arrived early.

The first thing I checked was whether the EPP can be powered by the FC-300. It can!

Next I loaded the EPP with the program to map high CC#s to lower numbers. I used my M-Audio Uno MIDI interface on my Linux desktop, sending the data via the pmidi command-line utility. Again, no problems; it just works.

Finally I connected the EPP between my FC-300 and Eleven Rack, changed the FC-300's Leslie speed CC# assignment from 11 (I was using the ER's multi-FX assignment to map that to the speed control) to 81 (which, using my EPP program, maps to 113; that's the speed control for the rotary as FX2 on the ER). Works great!

If anyone's interested in using the EPP program, let me know and I'll upload it somewhere...