FCB1010 - how do you use yours?

[Tone Deft]

got one for Xmas, reading the awful manual now. also found this thread.
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php? ... it=fcb1010

I'm thinking of a straightforward setup of making the stomp pedals unique CC#s so I can do the old school midi mapping on a per project basis.

does anyone have any creative ways to use the expression pedals? I prefer my guitar tone to be outside of Live so the usual wah-wah application doesn't interest me as much (but I'll have to give Live as a guitar processor a shot.)

do I need a midi in cable running to it?

from reading the manual it seems that every time I hit up or down to select a bank the next stomp selects a preset? the manual is vague in that area.

[Jekblad]

congrats!

you need a midi cable running to/from it.

Programming it kinda sucks, but hopefully one and done. There are a couple of editor program laying around for both OS.

i programmed all notes, worked better than CC's for some reason, don't remember why. If you DO use notes, in midi pref turn track input off for the FCB, and put it on a midi channel other than channel 1 or 16, so you don't have to worry about midi device management as much.

also get this http://mysite.verizon.net/resoamqr/swel ... /id55.html

afa exp pedals, i'd say use it for delay or reverb dry/wet control, this way it's post "guitar tone" but still useful. in my case, staying simple is the difference between actually using it or not.

from reading the manual it seems that every time I hit up or down to select a bank the next stomp selects a preset? the manual is vague in that area. -correct

[mikemc]

i programmed all notes, worked better than CC's for some reason, don't remember why. If you DO use notes, in midi pref turn track input off for the FCB, and put it on a midi channel other than channel 1 or 16, so you don't have to worry about midi device management as much.

Yep, that is what I did, used notes not on MIDI channel one.

I am not recommending that this is the best way, but... when I run voice or instrument into Live, from the Ext In track, I might run it into one or more 'preprocessing' tracks and then even into a 'finalizing' track. So, you can have different effects on the preprocessing tracks and then crossfade between these. One use for one expression pedal, then, is the crossfader.

Then, on the Ext In track, I can maybe control the levels, of all the tracks involved with the input, or just the ext in, depending.

[edit] the reason I did not use ccs for the switches was because I am used to stompboxes, and so always want things to go on and stay on until I push the button again to turn them off, and never to be momentary or just stay on while I'm holding the button.

[glitchrock-buddha]

I tried it for a while as a preset switcher for Guitar Rig. I had the buttons set up as program changes to switch between presets. That part worked fine. However the pedals sucked pretty bad (on mine anyways) for wah-pedal control, even after calibrating. The range is just really uneven with a sudden value jump towards the top.

[anybody human]

I use mine to collect dust. Bought it to use with Looper, but since Looper is useless I never use it.
I should set up a multi track clip select/record system like Christopher Willitz. You can check out his setup on his "What You Talkin Bout Willitz" XLR8TR podcast, which is awesome and he covers a lot of Live stuff. He's a Max guy also, semi-generative midi guitar stuff, really cool music.

[Tone Deft]

thanks for the tips. taking a break from the fucking manual, what a POS!!!

Jekblad - good point about delays and the like for the guitar, stuff that's not that timing sensitive.

mikemc - crossfader, nice. scene changing stuff.

GRB - I'll keep that in mind. again, maybe a m4L patch to smooth out the jumps? who knows, hope for the best, expect the worst.

anybody human - @the dust, right now I'm with setting it up, I could be playing. I forgot about that guy, I'll check it out. I think Kid Beyond uses one too.

I screwed up, for some reason when I power it up it comes up with blinking "88" on the display. programming this thing is not intuitive. the max4Live stuff is nice for reading what it's sending. I still can't get the right expression pedal to wake up. noobshit, it'll work out, I hope. I have the week off, so...

I don't know how this thing works yet but could an FCB m4L midi translator be in order???

[bosonHavoc]

i dig mine.. i use it with looper, as an effects controller for my bass, and to control ableton while i'm playing my bass...

[timothyallan]

I set it up to handle my transport controls. Was great as I could play the keyboard and do other things while still being able to play/stop/record etc... was also great for my abs even though I looked like I was doing a retarded riverdance under my desk.

[twisted-space]

You might want to check out the Uno firmware, especially if you can program an eprom yourself.
IMO this makes the FCB1010 the controller it should have been.

[smutek]

Hey Tone - check out this thread. Here's links to the 2 resources I was going to recommend you check out, iFCB - it lets you program your unit using a computer interface, as opposed to doing the riverdance. It's OSX only (can't remember which platform you run or if you have a mac around the house) and also Manuel's Preset Dump, which I use because I got tired of programming mine and this just made the most sense.

I think there were some issues with L8 that I am not sure whether or not they have been sorted, and you seem to like a higher level of control so I'm not sure it the Manuel dump will help you or not, but I thought I'd mention it regardless.

http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=112527

[acroberts]

Tone - check out these vids for programming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4yUKWpTQeY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYTQwAOtSvw

If you don't want or need to screw with MIDI channel assignment, ignore video one.

I program by hand and got pretty fast with it, but if you want an app, check out the down and dirty RipWerx.

drew

[nuxnamon]

disregard if you've tried this already.. Free FCB editor..I wasn't able to use this cuz I'm on MAC but I imagine it's probably better than the manual.


http://www.ripwerx.com/

instructions
http://www.voes.be/fcb1010/pdf/fcb1010% ... ftware.pdf

[UKRuss]

Tone - check out these vids for programming:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4yUKWpTQeY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYTQwAOtSvw

If you don't want or need to screw with MIDI channel assignment, ignore video one.

I program by hand and got pretty fast with it, but if you want an app, check out the down and dirty RipWerx.

drew

Oooo, my videos. Apologies for the socks.

Sure you'll get to grips with it soon enough Tone but if you do follow my vids and have any questions, hit me up.

[Soundscapemusic]

i use mnine like this:

pedals 1-10 launch clips
pedal 1 launches a base drop (for climax of course)
pedal 9-10 is respectively set to launch clips in particular songs as per the set list. (i.e pedal 2,3,4 could be song 1 with 2 being intro, 3 being bridge, 4 being outro, etc etc.)

exp pedal 1 controls autotune, specifically what key it is in.
exp pedal 2 controls autotune, specifically the retune amount and tracking amount (to act as dry/wet)


i have two mics plugged in on my firebox (each get their own channel) with their respective vocal effects.
and then clips for every song in a set.

and i play guitar at the same time hahah

it ends up like this:

http://www.youtube.com/hfts1

[Tone Deft]

I had a hardware sequencer running into the FCB1010 (merged and sent out with the FCB1010.) on powerup that connection locked up the FCB on bootup. I powered it up with no input connected, it's fine. wasted hours chasing that one.

thanks to Russ' socks, it all makes sense. I just programmed bank 00.

I launched the java editor but Live's running in the background. I'll program it by hand, err foot, I like to know how to do it without software. it takes a while to program, all the 'hold down for 2.5 seconds' suck.

when I assign buttons (notes) to Live the pedals send out info sometimes, screwing up the assignment. heads up for that.

thanks to all, lots of good info.

Expression B wasn't working but I found the calibration instructions on the Behringer site. FWIW: (this also helps me find it again later.)

"Question - One of the expression pedals is not responding. Can I recalibrate the unit ?

Answer - This can be cured easily by performing the re-calibration procedure.

Press and hold footswitches #1 and #3 during power up. All LEDs will self-check (sequentially)for about 10 seconds.
When finished, press each footswitch 1 through 10 including up and down (the sequence is not important). The display will momentarily show A0, after the short relay test the display will read A1. Press the footswitch marked down. The green LED value 1 and the red LED above pedal A are lit. The display will show a value (hexadecimal - so it may include a letter).

Press expression pedal a all the way back (up). When the end of the pedal travel is reached - press the footswitch marked up. The green LED value 2 and the red LED above pedal A are lit. The display will show a value (in hex - so it may include a letter). Press expression pedal a all the way forward (down). When the end of the pedal travel is reached - press up. The green LED value 1 and the red LED above pedal B are lit. The display will show a value (in hex - so it may include a letter). Press expression pedal b all the way back (up). When the end of the pedal travel is reached - press up. The green LED value 2 and the red LED above pedal B are lit. The display will show a value (in hex - so it may include a letter).

Press expression pedal b all the way forward (down). When the end of the pedal travel is reached - press up. After a short pause, the unit is ready for action. The pedals will now respond correctly. * Important Note - this procedure is valid for all firmware versions. "