FCB1010 troubles...

[Niquez]

So let me first start off by saying I'm a guitarist and don't know too much about MIDI
I've had this FCB1010 for a long time and I've pulled it out every few months only to get frustrated because I couldn't get it to work, and put it away....
For whatever reason, decided to take it out today.
Watched some videos, read some manuals, and man...I actually did get it to work.
Kind of.

But I'm running into a weird issue.

Don't think it has anything to do with Amplitube but I thought I'd post here anyway since I'm sure many other folks probably use this device?

I've got a very simple config set up.

Foot Switch 1 sends CC of 14, velocity 127, then 0.
Foot Switch 2 sends CC of 15, velocity 127, then 0.

1 is mapped to the compressor bypass, and 2 is mapped to the Moller drive bypass.

I press 2 on the FCB1010, it sends CC15 velocity 127, the drive turns on.
I press 1 on the FCB1010, it sends CC14 velocity 127, the compressor turns on.
I then press 2 again -- and nothing happens. This is the problem.
I look in the software I'm using to monitor the MIDI commands, and it sent another CC15 velocity 127, when I would've thought it should've sent a 0.

If I press 2 AGAIN -- NOW it turns the drive off and sends the 0 velocity!
It's like it loses focus or something.

Has anyone seen this before?
Appreciate it if anyone could help, thanks.
I've got the latest stock firmware on this thing, 2.501E no custom rom.

[Ryan_IK]

Hey Niquez,

Thanks for your post.

Sorry to hear of your troubles with the FCB1010.

While this is a great device, and Behringer is a great company with some really cool products, we have seen some mixed reviews from users on this unit. I would suggest checking with the Behringer support team. As this issue is related to the MIDI being sent into AmpliTube, they would have the most information on what could be going on here.

https://www.musictribe.com/brand/behringer/support

[Niquez]

Yeah I've already sent a support request to them, unfortunately it's been days and no response.
Interestingly enough, in another thread the user "Bones123" had (or is still having?) the same _exact_ problem. Wondering how he fixed it!

[DarkStar]

From the Guidelines:

Please do not post if you feel IK Support has not yet answered your ticket within the (key word) estimated time frame of "within 24-48 hours (1-2 business days)" M-F 10AM-6:30PM EST - these posts will be locked or removed.

In extreme cases, you can send a private message to Ryan_IK with your ticket number for these inquiries if you feel there may be an issue of something getting lost or missed somewhere along the way.

https://cgi.ikmultimedia.com/ikforum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19505

[Niquez]

From the Guidelines:

Please do not post if you feel IK Support has not yet answered your ticket within the (key word) estimated time frame of "within 24-48 hours (1-2 business days)" M-F 10AM-6:30PM EST - these posts will be locked or removed.

In extreme cases, you can send a private message to Ryan_IK with your ticket number for these inquiries if you feel there may be an issue of something getting lost or missed somewhere along the way.

https://cgi.ikmultimedia.com/ikforum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=19505

BEHRINGER support, not IK...
Facepalm!

[DarkStar]

Oops, my mistake

[Niquez]

OK -- So after ~2 WEEKS of waiting for Behringer support to get back to me, they finally did.
The problem is that the FCB1010 only supports latched switching, not momentary (or stomp box style) switching. To get that functionality out of the FCB1010 the best thing is to upgrade to a 3rd party PROM. After considering the options, I've decided on the "UnO" PROM chip. It will arrive in a few days, that should solve all the problems I am having. I would recommend this to anyone else considering using the FCB1010 with ANY software VST including AmpliTube to control individual stomp box effects. If all you want to do is use each switch to take you to a separate preset, you can do that with the stock PROM chip, but controlling individual stomp boxes or tuning individual effects on and off isn't going to happen.

[Niquez]

Quick update -- got the UnO chip and purchased the UnO editor app to program this godforsaken thing, and finally I've got it doing what I want it to do, but unfortunately, even with the UnO chip, you only get 5 stomp box switches.

The other 5 switches I've got unused right now, not sure what I can really do with them aside from preset control, or maybe looper control.

TL;dr, What a pain! Whoever at Behringer designed this thing was on some crazy crazy recreational substances lol. You would think the option to make any switch a stomp would've been something they included from the get go, but no...Do they not have any guitar players working there?

[stateofepicicity]

you only get 5 stomp box switches

You aren't stuck with that; try a MIDI translator. An old free one no longer developed was Insert PIZ Here, and I currently use Bome MIDI Translator, which is not free but is the best thing ever. MJDJ MIDI Morph might work too. There may be other free ones out there.

One way this is awesome is it allows for you to send a momentary switch as a Note signal, which is inherently momentary in the FCB1010, then have the MIDI translator convert that to a CC, which is what you'll send to Amplitube. With this you can have all ten of your pedals in any combination of momentary and latch. You could even have a Note signal converted to a Program Change message for momentary switching of presets, if you were so inclined.

Now, to send a Latch with a value of 127 the first time and 0 the second time, I know for sure you can do this with the Bome Software by using it's internal "Preset Change" outgoing signal, which allows you essentially to send a different MIDI signal each time you press the same pedal. In your case, you'd send the CC value 127 the first time and value 0 the second time. You can go way way beyond that and program as many steps in a sequence like that as you want, and you can make it as crazy as you want too, so your programming can get as complicated as your imagination. As guitarists, our MIDI needs tend to be humble, relative to synth players or, e.g., or a live mixing engineer automating a million things at once, but if you have a desire to control your VSTs in a way not set up out of the box by the product designers, you should be able to do pretty much anything in the 7-bit MIDI world with an eProm FCB1010 and a MIDI Translator.

Happy MIDIing!

[Niquez]

Dude where were you a few weeks ago when I was working on this ^_^
Can you message me on Instagram or Twitter or whatever service you prefer so I can just ask a few questions?

Actually never mind, I re-read your post and there's a lot of good info there already, I think I'm set. Bome looks great and supports Mac, but it's not free as you said.

Gonna give the trial version a shot and see what I can do with it.
Thanks again man. Just wish you showed up when I was actively working on this :O

[stateofepicicity]

Happy to help! If you do have any trouble with it, I'd say just add to this thread. I'm sure others could benefit from whatever we talk about here. I sure wish I'd found specific steps when I was first wandering the MIDI wilderness. Also, the creator of Bome MIDI translator (Florian Bome) is completely awesome and regularly answers posts on his forum specifically how to do whatever crazy thing you want with his software. What you're looking for is something I've done, so I'll be glad to send you the specific steps if you run into trouble.

[BDeMatteo1966]

I apologize if this seems redundant or answered, either on this thread or a couple others I have looked at, but I'm trying to reconcile some things that don't quite make sense to me.

I have AmpliTube 5 and a FCB1010 midi foot controller. I have been able to program the FCB as illustrated in its manual to send CC messages with different values each time the pedal is depressed; ie., "CC#40 0" on first press and "CC#40 127" on second press. Same issues as others noted, if you press another pedal and then press the original one again it will always start at the first value, ie. "CC#40 0". So if you turn the mp5 pedal on using the FCB "CC#40 0" command, press another FCB button, then return to the original, you have to press it twice to send the off command to the Amp5 pedal of interest. As indicated by others, kind of crazy.

The AmpliTube 5 manual states the following in section 5.3:
Latch - When it is set to off, the selected parameter will temporarily stay to the value imposed by the external MIDI Control. When it is set to on, the selected parameter will toggle between Min and Max values each time the MIDI Control arrives. Use this with footswitches or switches in general, to control on/off parameters on AmpliTube 5.

So I reprogrammed the FCB pedal to just send "CC#40 0" every time it is pressed, assumption being with the "Latch" setting on for the CC, it would toggle between min (0%) and max (100%) as described in the manual.

I confirmed with a MIDI monitor that each time I push the FCB pedal it sends CC#40 0, but the pedal bypass control it is attached to does not toggle as expected.

If someone could help me understand what the manual description of Latch means as it must be something different than what I am interpreting.

Thanks. This is my first post and if I should have posted this in some other manner, I apologize in advance.

[paulfife73]

If it helps, even though it is months later I got this working with my FCB1010. You need to use the "Controller toggle function" on your FCB1010. Turn on both CNT1 and CNT2 for the preset you want to toggle and ensure they are both on the same CC number - by default it'll have 0 for the first on and 127 for the second. If you set this up and then do a learn on the switch you want to toggle it'll work, no latch setting required.

[alanpaul]

hello i am having trouble with my fcb1010 with amplitube in reason 11.The fcb works fine in stand alone mode it controls the effects, but when i open amplitube as a vst in reason it wont lear the midi, i have an uno chip so it should pick it up witjout having to program it, anyone have any advice? its kinda why i bought it the fcb.if theres any links to vids that uou know of would be also great
thanks

[rsmith89]

Hey AlanPaul - when Amplitube is running in Reason, it's running as a VST, and it's receiving MIDI from Reason, not directly from your controllers - that's probably your issue. I wish I had a solution for you - I'm having the same issue in Ableton.