Advice on foot controller for Ableton Live

acibahia · Post by **acibahia** » Thu Nov 06, 2008 8:48 pm

Hi everybody,
I'm a guitar player and I need to buy a foot controller to use with Ableton Live, to launch loops and sounds on stage.
I've found these two models. The Yamaha seem's to be nice.

http://www.thomann.de/it/yamaha_mfc10_midi_leiste.htm

http://www.roland.com/products/en/FC-300/index.html

Can anyone advice me a bit?

Many thanks

Atomikat · Post by **Atomikat** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:23 am

Behringer FCB1010...

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 3:49 am

Atomikat wrote:Behringer FCB1010...

what he said

fishmonkey · Post by **fishmonkey** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:01 am

here's a comparison chart fer ya:

http://www.musicplayers.com/tutorials/g ... nChart.pdf

sparklepuff · Post by **sparklepuff** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:04 am

Atomikat wrote:Behringer FCB1010...

Aaaaaaaaaaaand 3rd time's a charm.

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 6:13 am

sparklepuff wrote:
Atomikat wrote:Behringer FCB1010...
Aaaaaaaaaaaand 3rd time's a charm.

my girlie has a yamaha mfc10
i like it alot.. its solid and has 4 extra inputs for expresion/foot pedals

i have the behringer fcb1010
i bought it for $60 at a pawn shop.. it works, seems solid enough except th expresion pedals but what ever,, it works and it was only 60 bucks

chrisedmo · Post by **chrisedmo** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 8:58 am

sparklepuff wrote:
Atomikat wrote:Behringer FCB1010...
Aaaaaaaaaaaand 3rd time's a charm.

+1

I have had mine for over a year now and use it all the time, its had magners spilt over it and, whilst sticky still works.. It's great.. I was a little gear snobbish at first, but i'm glad i got past that to buy it.

It does take a little while to get your head round their programming style, but one you do its ok. I have mine set up to control some guitar effects, change presets on my keyboard and to trigger loops and loop myself sometimes.

acibahia · Post by **acibahia** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:07 am

Thanks for your answers! So the Behringer FCB1010 seems to be some kind of standard.. I'll check it out! Thanks again.

fishmonkey · Post by **fishmonkey** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:13 am

i've been thinking about getting an FCB1010... on my travels i found this app for Mac OS X which looks like a good way to program it...

http://www.wabbitwanch.com/iFCB.html

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:19 am

bosonHavoc wrote: my girlie has a yamaha mfc10
i like it alot.. its solid and has 4 extra inputs for expresion/foot pedals

i have the behringer fcb1010
i bought it for $60 at a pawn shop.. it works, seems solid enough except th expresion pedals but what ever,, it works and it was only 60 bucks

Only downfall IMO, expression pedals seem cheap. If I had extra money I would probably go for the Roland, but it and a decent mixer from them are my two low brow scores in many ways.

That Yamaha is aesthetically fucking sexy as shit though.

UKRuss · Post by **UKRuss** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:22 am

I find one other downfall....it's noisy. I think the FCB is great value and personalyl I found it easy to programme anyway although the manual is crap.

It's just the noise....the PSU noise...

Other wise it's great I have four banks set up to control Live and one to control GR3 and off i go.

fishmonkey · Post by **fishmonkey** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:38 am

what kinda noisy? does it hum or what?

UKRuss · Post by **UKRuss** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:04 am

It hums. But its mroe of a studio environment issue that a live one. Live there is enough noise going on that it doesnt matter.

fishmonkey · Post by **fishmonkey** » Fri Nov 07, 2008 10:31 am

does anyone else have this humming issue with their FCB1010?

bosonHavoc · Post by **bosonHavoc** » Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:48 pm

fishmonkey wrote:does anyone else have this humming issue with their FCB1010?

wow lol.. i never noticed that before
ya it has a hum but it is really quiet though.
i just turned mine on and i had to put my ear up close to hear it.
i can see how that may be an issue in a well treated studio enviroment.
but i highly doubt it woul be an issue in any other instance.

the yamaha mfc10 is dead quiet
(i'd say if you need to be concerned about the barely audible noise then the $300 for the mfc10 or other more expensive pedal board is prolly not that big of an issue otherwise the FCB1010 should be fine)