AXE I/O and expression pedals?

[CreepyMo]

Yeah the EP-2 I think is a bit of a bust unless I learn how to use it properly . Maybe I can adjust the tapering. But if I ever want to do expression stuff i'll just grab a dedicated pedal. They seem cheap.
Thanks!
-Mike

[dougs.ik]

I have an M-Audio EX-P that I bought to use with a second Axiom 61 (first gen) a while back. I plugged it into the Axe I/O and it is linear 0-127 (checked it in the Midi monitor of my VST Host - Cantabile)

The pedal is inexpensive and lots of plastic but it works ok.

BTW, FC-7 owners should look at the manual. You can change how the pedal works to some extent.

[CreepyMo]

$30 for something linear is fine with me. Not like I'm taking it on the road these days.
Thanks for the tip!

[dougs.ik]

Please let me know how it works for you.

I'm using Cantabile as my VST host. It gives me the ability to apply different curves to midi input devices. I haven't change the expression pedal curve yet though...

[carlaz]

Well, I finally got back home from the US to S. America, and have set up the AXE I/O that I ordered through Reverb.com -- and, althoughI haven't really put it through its paces yet, I can nevertheless confirm that the Mission Engineering expression pedal I got for use with it "just works".

The Mission pedals are pricey as these things go, but they are built like tanks, like old-style solid metal wah housings, and I like that feel on my foot when playing. I oughta get another to be able to foot control multiple parameters at once!

Having been an AmpliTube user since perhaps just after the original Custom Shop came along (AT3? Or just before?), it is amazing to finally be able to use the wah pedals and similar stomp models properly. Sure it was always possible to run through my real wah pedal and thence into my audio interface, but I am loving playing around with the modeled wahs, etc. (I have to now figure out how the Fox Phaser in the Brian May pack is actually supposed to work! )

[dougs.ik]

Thanks for heads up - I might get a Mission expression pedal. I've been using Efektor WF3607 for wah pedal on keyboards - works really well. Haven't tried it with guitar - will do so and report back. Have used the AT5 wah's with the m-audio pedal - those worked fine also.

[carlaz]

I should note that Mission sells a simple "1 cable out" expression pedal, which will work fine if you just want to turn the wah on or off and play like that; I think the majority of basic expression pedals (regardless of price-point, build quality, etc.) work in this way.

However, Mission also has a "2 cable out" expression pedal that includes a on-off switch in the toe, just like a "traditional" wah. The AXE I/O has inputs for two cables, so you can run the two cables out from the expression pedal (if you got that kind) and control both the rocker and the on/off with the toe switch. This ought make things "work like you expect" for controlling wahs, etc. I presume there are also other companies making pedals like this, but -- as a noob to expression pedals -- I've really had trouble figuring out how different products are expected to work (though it's probably obvious to people more experienced in this area than I!).

[carlaz]

However, Mission also has a "2 cable out" expression pedal that includes a on-off switch in the toe, just like a "traditional" wah. The AXE I/O has inputs for two cables, so you can run the two cables out from the expression pedal (if you got that kind) and control both the rocker and the on/off with the toe switch. This ought make things "work like you expect" for controlling wahs, etc.

Just as an update to my ongoing experiments with the AXE I/O and expression pedals, I can confirm that that expression pedals with 2 "switches" (a rocker pedal and a normal on/off switch, as per a traditional wah) can indeed be made to "work like you expect". There are a few tricks (which may be obvious to others, but were not initially obvious to me ):

• One of the outputs of such a pedal (probably output 1) is the rocker pedal, which needs to be set in the AXE IO control panel as "EXPRESSION PEDAL".
• The other output of such a pedal (probably output 2) is the switch, and needs to be set (apparently) in the AXE IO control panel as "SINGLE SWITCH" of the type "MOMENTARY" (and not "LATCH" as I might have expected).
• In the AmpliTube GUI, right-clicking on the "treadle" part of the wah pedal UI naturally enough gives you access to the options to "learn" the MIDI controls from the expression pedal. (Telling AmpliTube to "learn" the wah and rocking the "treadle" part of the pedal achieves this.
• Slightly less obvious can be setting the on/off part for the switch. Some Amplitube wahs have simple 2-way on/off switches in the GUI; others have a 3-way on-auto-off switch. You can right-click on a 2-way on/off switch to teach Amplitube about your pedal's switch as you expect, but this doesn't work so well with a 3-way switch. For these, however, you can right-click on the pedal GUI's red "on" LED, and this lets you teach AmpliTube to use your pedal's switch for bypass.

It took me a while to work all that out, but I am so digging -- after all these years! -- being able to not just control AmpliTube's wahs with an expression pedal, but turn it on and off with a switch in my physical pedal, just like a traditional wah.

I also got a separate little double-switch pedal, which has two switches each of which can control one "on/off" switch in AmpliTube via a single TRS cable into a single expression pedal input on the AXE I/O. These (in contrast, apparently, to the on/off switch on my dual-switch expression pedal) do need to be set to "LATCH" (in the "DOUBLE SWITCH" controller type in the AXE IO control panel) to work as expected, though actually I can see uses for setting them as "MOMENTARY". It's kind of too bad the that the AXE I/O only has 2 expression pedal inputs: with 3 inputs, you could then have a dual-switch rocker pedal to control wahs and similar rocker pedal stomps in a traditional way (with an on/off toe-switch) and also a separate dual-switch on/off pedal to turn two other stomps on and off as well. Still, that's not a huge issue for me as someone who is principally recording at home, and I guess people who are wanting to do the live things are probably using the iRig Stomp I/O or the iRig BlueBoard.

[carlaz]

One other practical tip about "teaching" AmpliTube the MIDI control for a secondary on/off switch in a "rocker/treadle-type" expression pedal: When the software is "waiting for MIDI input", don't "teach" it by rocking the "treadle" down onto the on/off switch. This confuses the software, because you are actually rocking the primary MIDI control (i.e., the treadle). Instead, just press the on/off switch with your finger (being careful not to move the "treadle" while doing so).

[Arthur21]

This helped me a lot! Had same same “problem” and this video resolved it.
https://youtu.be/4vBzXhUaVV4

[b0uch3]

While waiting for my axe I/O order to get passed the In Progress status, this post just taught me that this feature exists. I didn't even realize I could do that.

I have a Line 6 Ex-1 expression pedal that I assume will work. Now I will actually be able to use the Wah models and other variable pedals properly! So exciting.

[carlaz]

This helped me a lot! Had same same “problem” and this video resolved it.
https://youtu.be/4vBzXhUaVV4

That's a great video for anyone with Logic who needs to set things up with expression pedals and Amplitube.
I would just add two notes:

1. (This is shown in the video, but I am not sure it was specifically mentioned.) Besides having both tracks (audio and software) armed to record, I think one needs to have the software track selected when one starts to record -- otherwise, audio will be recorded, but not MIDI automation.
2. I think you can actually record with either the audio track or the input selected for the side chain into AmpliTube on the software track (which is logical), though if one records with the input selected as the sidechain, also logically enough one has to switch over to the audio track input to hear playback.

That Airstep unit looks pretty cool, BTW. I wonder how well it plays with Amplitube, the AXE I/O, and Logic (etc.) ....

That said, the Airstep might be vast overkill for my wants, which could probably be fulfilled by a IKM Blueboard. As noted in my previous post, I have spent ages thinking, "Eh, I don't really need to have a foot controller with AmpliTube, since I'm mostly doing home recording and I'll just do all that stuff in Logic with the mouse", etc. But now that I've got my expression pedal going with AmpliTube's wah pedals, I kind of feel like I would like more foot controllers to at least turn other stomp models on and off. I've got a little MIDI expression switch, but it doesn't help me much because the expression pedal has two outputs (one for the pedal, one for a toe switch as on a traditional wah pedal) that eat both inputs on the AXE I/O. So now I find myself thinking, "But the Blueboard would let me toggle four other pedals on and off ....."

[carlaz]

And here's another tip that I discovered just today about recording in Logic with AmpliTube and an expression pedal: you can record in Logic's "low-latency mode" like using the technique shown in the video linked in the posts above, but you need to switch out of low-latency mode for playback (otherwise you will get silence).