MIDI foot control

[insch]

Is there a MIDI foot controller for Live that will display the current active scene? Looks like this might do it http://loopcommunity.com/looptimus but I'm in the UK and can't see it for sale here. So maybe I'm left with the Behringer FCB1010, Roland MC300 or Yamaha MFC10 (I know that there are others too). I'm not sure how much I'll need expression pedals since I'm looking for a pretty straightforward control of Live - mainly cycling throught the scenes but being able to select individual scenes could be good. It seems that a lot of Ableton users use the FCB1010. Is it big? And not very robust? It's price is attractive to me because this is a new area for me and I'm not quite sure what my needs will be - I am a guitarist so may develop some integration with my pedals. If I make a mistake with this unit it's not such an expensive one.

Any thoughts?

[hirse]

I use the Icon g-board and i like it. It's robust enough for any live situation and the price is ok.

[insch]

Thanks. That looks neat.

I want to be able to cycle through Live scenes when using a pedal board - go to next and previous scene etc, and ideally see what scene I'm currently on on the board. Not sure which board will be right for this yet.

[slatepipe]

i use a softstep 2. apparently you can get it to display stuff in its window using max for live but i havent tried to do that yet

[insch]

Thanks - looks like a nice pedal board. I heard the MK I could be unreliable. How is the MK II?

[slatepipe]

i've found the softstep 2 to be fantastic so far, i've had it a year. i was using an fcb1010 before that, but one of the pedals stopped working when i spilled beer on it. it's probably fixable but i haven't tried yet. the softstep 2 is obviously a lot lighter and durable, and you can throw it around without fear of damaging it. i'm pretty sure it's waterproof too which would take care of my beer troubles.

being lighter it's better for travelling with

and it has a 4 digit display instead of 2 with the fcb

[insch]

It looks like you can use the pedals as expression pedals too? Is there a way to cycle through the scenes - next, previous etc? Did the FCB1010 have that option?

[slatepipe]

i've got a mfl patch made so i can move up, down, left and right using four different pads. i tried to have all movement on one pad but it was too fiddly. i have other pads assigned to arm, record, play, stop, mute, solo, track volume, and send amounts for 3 sends. works great. you can program about 10 different things on each pad - foot on, foot off, pressure, X, Y, long press, short press etc etc, i can't remember them all. i find it's best to just have one pad do one thing. you can make more presets and switch between them on the nav pad

[insch]

sounds good

thanks

[micksmuse]

i would love to just have a one button midi foot switch to hit "record"/"f9" on ableton. what is the cheapest/easiest way to accomplish that?

[yur2die4]

Put a USB qwerty keyboard on the floor

Glue a block to the F9 key.

[micksmuse]

that will work. thanks. i knew i would find the mother of invention here. thanks.

[Coupe70]

I wouldn't limit my choice of floorboard by insisting on a display (if there even is such a floorboard).
The FCB1010 is fine. Take your old smartphone, attach it with velcro and use TouchOSC or something similar
to display the needed information.

[Matt_Quinn]

With a little digging, you can find these for $50-60 usually, and they work perfectly with Live. Compact, bus powered, 4 switches & a dual function Volume/Wah pedal. I will never understand using an FCB (and I owned one for a long time) over the Line 6 FBV or Shortboard (if you need more pedals).

http://line6.com/footcontrollers/fbvexpressmkii.html/

[EnjoyRC]

i use a softstep 2. apparently you can get it to display stuff in its window using max for live but i havent tried to do that yet

Love my Softstep 2. Not only can it have a 4 character display based on the selected patch on the controller, but you can send text to it from an Ableton Live clip.
I have clips send text to it and clips that modify the LEDs on it all of the time.