Ableton Forum

My MPK61 has shit itself and could be away for a month, in the meantime I want to try and use my guitar pedal as a midi controller but I have no idea how to connect it.

That pedal is an AX3000G, I've got a few midi cables so I can plug it into my UA-25 EX but I have no idea what to do from there. What preferences do I have to mess around with in Ableton? What needs to be turned on or off? And would it be possible to sync the pedal with Live so the effects are rolling around at the correct BPM?

Also is there any simple way to use my Hori Fightstick as a controller? I need something for making drumbeats.

I don't think it can be done. You need a unit that can assign/send MIDI CCs or -notes with the footpedals. Most guitar pedals only send program changes and expression pedal output. I think the GT-10 is flexible enough to handle that kind of stuff if you're an advanced user, but it's about the only one. The AX3000 hardly has midi out at all, as far as I remember, just PCs... But check the manual in case.

wasoota wrote:I don't think it can be done. You need a unit that can assign/send MIDI CCs or -notes with the footpedals. Most guitar pedals only send program changes and expression pedal output. I think the GT-10 is flexible enough to handle that kind of stuff if you're an advanced user, but it's about the only one. The AX3000 hardly has midi out at all, as far as I remember, just PCs... But check the manual in case.

Program Changes CAN be converted into other MIDI messages using Bomes or a similar MIDI translator.. May be worth looking into.

outershpongolia wrote:

wasoota wrote:I don't think it can be done. You need a unit that can assign/send MIDI CCs or -notes with the footpedals. Most guitar pedals only send program changes and expression pedal output. I think the GT-10 is flexible enough to handle that kind of stuff if you're an advanced user, but it's about the only one. The AX3000 hardly has midi out at all, as far as I remember, just PCs... But check the manual in case.

Program Changes CAN be converted into other MIDI messages using Bomes or a similar MIDI translator.. May be worth looking into.

True, didn't think of that. If you're using the pedal for guitars at the same time though it might eventually be easier to do the 'stripped keyboard' thing though. The programming matrix is giving me headaches just thinking about it...

wasoota wrote:

outershpongolia wrote:

wasoota wrote:I don't think it can be done. You need a unit that can assign/send MIDI CCs or -notes with the footpedals. Most guitar pedals only send program changes and expression pedal output. I think the GT-10 is flexible enough to handle that kind of stuff if you're an advanced user, but it's about the only one. The AX3000 hardly has midi out at all, as far as I remember, just PCs... But check the manual in case.

Program Changes CAN be converted into other MIDI messages using Bomes or a similar MIDI translator.. May be worth looking into.

True, didn't think of that. If you're using the pedal for guitars at the same time though it might eventually be easier to do the 'stripped keyboard' thing though. The programming matrix is giving me headaches just thinking about it...

Pick up an FCB1010 and put it next to your guitar pedals.. The stuff you already have will control your amp or whatever hardware and the FCB can conrol Live.

Sounds like I'm going to have to accept that I can't control Live with my pedal, what about the fight stick though? Is there an easy way to just plug it in and make some noise?

GlovePie and MidiYoke, there's currently a thread in the howto even. It's easily done, but not exactly plug & play.

Seems like you can use your Wii Balanceboard as a Guitar or Midi-pedal now:

Version 0.42 includes lots of hardcoded Wiimote, Nunchuk, SIXAXIS, and Dual Shock 3 (PS3 controller) gestures. So now it's as easy as:
Ctrl = Wiimote.Stabbing
Space = Wiimote.CircleClockwise

And the Wii Fit Balance Board now works properly, as do wireless and third party Nunchuks and Classic Controllers, and Wii Guitar Hero World Tour instruments, including Wii Drum Kits. In theory there's also partial support for the Wii DJ Hero turntable.

http://glovepie.org/

I've just tried using my Korg AX300G to control Looper effect in Ableton. Here's what I've discovered (with some issues)

There is a way to configure each pedal to send a specific CC MIDI message.
See "CONTROL CHANGE (GLOBAL “CCHG I/O”)" and other surrounding sections in the manual:
http://www.korg.com/uploads/Support/AX3 ... 500000.pdf

You have to press and hold the UP button to switch the unit into INDIVIDUAL mode. Then each other pedal button will send CCs.

I only got the Looper's multi-purpose transport button to work properly with the CONTROL pedal button. Every other button, e.g. "PRE FX", "DRIVE/AMP" etc doesn't work as expected. I.e. if I MIDI mapit in Live to the Looper's transport button, it take 2 presses to activate it and then I'm experiencing some weird behavior, e.g. the button gets automatically pressed. Perhaps CONTROL is a momentary button and PRE FX is a toggle button, or vice versa. I'm not that familiar with MIDI.

By the way, I was able to MIDI map any pedal button to a track's On/Off button. That could be useful if you want to silence or bring back a particular track in Live.