THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

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Exstus
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Joined: Thu Sep 19, 2013 1:34 am

THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by Exstus » Thu Sep 19, 2013 2:08 am

I can't believe no one has posted this before so, after searching and searching, and beating my head against it to figure it out, here is the way to setup the Behringer FCB1010 pedalboard to control ableton & the looper effect.

KEY POINT: Assign MIDI note values to be transmitted by the pedals, rather than control change (CC) values! If you assign CC values to control looper or other parts of ableton live, it freaks out and does unpredictable things. (at least in my experience) The correct way to setup the pedalboard is to dedicate a MIDI channel for this that you will not be using for anything else...then when you press a pedal, it transmits a note on that MIDI channel, such as C-2 (the lowest note available on a piano) or middle C (aka C3), and so on.

_____________


SELECTING THE MIDI CHANNEL TO TRANSMIT YOUR CHANGES

1) As you power on the FCB1010, keep the DOWN footswitch pressed for a few seconds. This enters the Global Configuration menu, and will allow you to change the MIDI transmit channel. The DIRECT SELECT (green led) lights up.
2) Press the UP footswitch once to navigate to MIDI FUNCTION. The MIDI FUNCTION led will flash.
3) Press the 10/0 footswitch to select the MIDI Note Function. The red light for the footswitch you pressed will start to blink.
4) Press UP/ENTER to confirm your choice. The MIDI CHANNEL led will light up.
5) Choose the MIDI channel you desire by using the numerical footswitches. Enter a number that you do not anticipate using for anything else. Your selected number will be displayed.
6) Press UP/ENTER to confirm your choice.
7) Press and hold the DOWN/ESCAPE footswitch to save your changes

_____________


PROGRAMMING A NOTE TO A FOOTSWITCH

1) Use the UP or DOWN footswitches to navigate to the bank you wish to use. You can change the settings for each of the 10 banks. In this example, let's select bank "00".
2) Press the footswitch that you wish to edit/assign. In this example, let's press the switch labeled "1". The light next to the footswitch will light up.
3) Press and hold the DOWN footswitch to enter preset programming mode. The green light labeled "SWITCH1/SWITCH2" will start flashing.
4) Press UP/ENTER to verify that you wish to edit this preset.
5) If your pedalboard features the factory defaults, the lights next to footswitches 1, 8, and 9 will be lit. Press and hold each of them to clear them. The lights will go off.
6) Press and hold the 10/0 footswitch, to tell the pedalboard that you are trying to assign a MIDI note value. The led lights up, indicating that you are choosing to assign a MIDI note.
7) Quickly press the 10/0 footswitch once to confirm your selection. The led will start blinking.
8) Use the numbered footswitches to enter the numerical value corresponding to the MIDI note you wish to assign. The values range from 0 to 127. For this example, press the "0" switch, which assigns the lowest note available. (C-2)
9) Confirm your selection by pressing the UP/ENTER footswitch.
10) Press and hold DOWN/ESCAPE to save your changes.

_____________


ASSIGNING THE PEDAL IN ABLETON LIVE

1) Click the MIDI button at the top right of the screen to enter MIDI Assign mode. All MIDI-assignable functions will now have a purple color superimposed over them.
2) Using your mouse, click on the function that you wish to control with the pedal you just setup. A border will appear around the purple overlay.
3) Press the footswitch/pedal to which you just assigned a MIDI note. You will see numbers/letters appear over the purple overlay.
4) Press the MIDI button once more to exit MIDI Assign mode.

_____________


Repeat the last 2 sections for any other pedals, and the corresponding functions that you wish to control.

jetjaguar
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Apr 06, 2014 4:52 am

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by jetjaguar » Sun Apr 06, 2014 4:55 am

Thanks for this post!

In your middle section "Programming a note to a footswitch" I'm having something not occur as you said it would.

At step #7 the red light does not start blinking. So I'm not able to start using the numbered footswitches to enter numerical values.

Jet

clan-balache
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Joined: Thu Feb 17, 2005 5:02 pm
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Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by clan-balache » Thu Aug 21, 2014 5:28 pm

after step 7, you need to confirm with enter.up, then you could input the note number, and then, enter again to confirm, and save to bank with hold.escape.down

but the problem is that fcb1010 continuously send midi data to ableton..dont know why..

enjoysbass
Posts: 5
Joined: Wed Jun 24, 2015 4:20 pm

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by enjoysbass » Wed Jun 24, 2015 4:47 pm

Hopefully you will see this because i'm in a bit of a pickle and have a show tomorrow night and my pedal is acting up when it worked fine before. I have a few questions to ask:

In the first section do you only do this one time for the pedal? I'm confused as to what MIDI channel to put in. What is the MIDI channel exactly and what numbers to I have to pull from?

In the second section I originally used this method but I thought I was entering a CC amount so I sued 22-41 which is usually non-specified in most programs. So are you certain it is a 0-127 value? Another tutorial I found was saying it was CC values entered here.

The main problem I am having is when I hit any pedal I have calibrated with a value, It will also either activate the record button in a clip of a scene that is highlighted, will engage the record all function at the top, or activate the master play button. Every pedal does it that I calibrate.

Did you calibrate the pedal beforehand? I heard you have to hold down some buttons at startup in order to have the pedal sync with whatever program you have open.

matteprints
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Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2015 5:27 am

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by matteprints » Tue May 24, 2016 10:54 pm

Hey quick question,

How do you get the foot controller to store your presets. I just basically want to use it to trigger scenes. That's cc I think right? How would getting it to recall, like if I set up the controller to channel 1 being #12 will it remember that when I power it off and on again?

matteprints
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2015 5:27 am

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by matteprints » Tue May 24, 2016 10:54 pm

Hey quick question,

How do you get the foot controller to store your presets. I just basically want to use it to trigger scenes. That's cc I think right? How would getting it to recall, like if I set up the controller to channel 1 being #12 will it remember that when I power it off and on again?

solger
Posts: 89
Joined: Mon Jan 09, 2012 10:57 am

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by solger » Fri May 27, 2016 7:34 am

matteprints wrote:... like if I set up the controller to channel 1 being #12 will it remember that when I power it off and on again?
Yes, if you program or change settings on the FCB, these changes should be stored and remembered (even when the FCB is powered off and on).

ben amato
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Location: BENAMATO.NET

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by ben amato » Tue Sep 05, 2017 3:04 pm

Thanks so much for post. Had forgotten the arcane process!

One detail - anyone wanting to have the exp pedals(A and B) available for use for the odd fader needs to have them on for all the footswitches in the bank they are using... not off as suggested in the list. It's weird cos one can have a different cc set for each foot pedal , which would work for a guitarist selecting whole patches , but for us ableton types its about a bunch of foots witches , plus two pedals, if you know what I mean.

Angstrom
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Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by Angstrom » Tue Sep 05, 2017 3:44 pm

If anyone else is still using one of these and has a little knowledge of programming Python I advise making your own ableton controller script for it.

My own BCF1010 script is made for acting on the current clip slot, because if I want to record a clip my hands are busy so it helps to punch in with my feet, also when I want to record automation that takes up both hands so again ... feet!
My layout has the bottom left pedal as "play current clip" then Session Overdub, Undo, Redo, Delete.
Then the top row is "set to a base 2 loop length" (2,4,8,16), then "double loop", quantise, do swing (on selected clip), then the last pedal I leave un assigned.

It's much more useful this way. Worth trying out.

ben amato
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Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2008 9:10 pm
Location: BENAMATO.NET

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by ben amato » Wed Sep 06, 2017 3:30 pm

Wow angstrom... that sounds freakin great. Have been wondering if that were possible. I may have to bug you for some jedi tricks:)

amirdariobaharkoush
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jan 19, 2018 7:57 pm

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by amirdariobaharkoush » Fri Jan 19, 2018 8:32 pm

Hi guys! hope all these years were been such great experience with yours perfomance hahah! im interested to know if exist a script file that amstrong mentioned... if someone have it will be great to share it.. or maybe negociate it?

Regards!

Stonehouserecords
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Mar 23, 2018 11:22 am

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by Stonehouserecords » Fri Mar 23, 2018 2:34 pm

OK I've got a script for the FCB that's been floating around for a while and I can't seem to find it online anymore and I've modified it for the UnO chip as well,
https://1drv.ms/u/s!AsEa8wMzR84hiAhbUMQIxrv_ynL1

If you have trouble with it not showing in the list of controllers , run Ableton is Administrator mode and that will fix it

Titus 2020
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Joined: Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:51 pm

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by Titus 2020 » Wed Mar 28, 2018 3:58 pm

Hi,

I'm having an issue with the fcb1010 (using 2.4 firmware chip) with ableton 9. I went through the set up procedure, now when it comes to assigning midi functions the footswitch is behaving as though the pedal is being repeatedly pressed ie the assigned loop plays for a second and then keeps repeating :cry: . Has anyone else experienced this and if so do you know how to resolve it. Thanks

daltz_183
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:44 am

Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by daltz_183 » Tue Apr 03, 2018 6:49 am

I'm having a problem withe the ableton part. I've done all the steps to assign the values to the pedals on the controller. But when I attempt the MIDI mapping in ableton, I click the device in ableton that i want to map, then hit the first pedal I assigned, but nothing appears in the MIDI mappings list.

I've got the controller connected via a USB to MIDI IN/MIDI OUT cable. Not sure what else I need to do to get it working??

Has anyone had this issue and figured out how to resolve it?

Thanks

Angstrom
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Re: THIS is how to setup Behringer FCB1010/Ableton/Looper

Post by Angstrom » Tue Apr 03, 2018 2:12 pm

first thing to do is get a midi monitor program to check that the signals are really reaching your computer.
On Win7 I'm still using this ancient beast: http://www.midiox.com/

if it;s reaching there then start Live, and check that the midi input indicator flashes in the top corner when you press a pedal.
If no - then go into prefs and make sure the FCB input is activated.
Don't exit this step until that little indicator flashes when you press a pedal.

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