Ableton Forum

Hi!

I'm going to build a footswitch to, hopefully, trigger loops in Live. I play the guitar so I can't really stop to mess around on the trackpad or even use the keyboard.

I'm going to base my thing on the wonderful MIDI projects at ucapps.de - anyone who wants to build something similar is welcome to contact me, we can exchange tips.

My question is, does Live support "Program Changes"? I guess it's a standard MIDI message. If so I can make somthing similar to this: http://www.ucapps.de/floorboard.html.

(as you may guess I don't know much about the inner workings of MIDI but i'm eager to learn...)

If it's your first time I would consider a simple CV to MIDI solution. Here are a couple of examples:

http://www.doepfer.de/pe.htm
http://www.infusionsystems.com/index.shtml

Or an existing controller with footswitch inputs:

http://www.peavey.com/products/amps_mi/midi/pc1600x.cfm

You could connect any footpedal to one of these units to get the desired result.

While the ucapps products look cool, building the whole thing from a single board computer (MicroChip, Basic Stamp, Javelin, Zorin, etc.) is a lot of work and not necessarily less expensive.

Personally, I plan to start using the Doepfer OEM products for all of my future controller and installation projects.

I don't believe that Live supports patch changes. You would probably be better served by assigning a MIDI note number to the footswitch. In Live 2.0 this would allow assign the pedal to "scene advance".

-Eric