Midi foot pedal on the cheap

Branshen · April 2018

I want to send some midi commands to ableton, either through USB or midi in on my 2i4 interface, but I'm not clued in on what's available.

Ideally I'll need two foot controlled buttons, one to start and stop recordings and one to delete clips.

What are my options? I'd be happy with cheap and cheerful as long as it works.

mrkb · April 2018

Does Ableton need PC (programme change) or CC (Control Change) messages for those commands? PC message controllers are easy to find. CC is more tricky.

Branshen · April 2018

Now I'm not sure what messages it takes. I believe it should be CC. I will check.

The idea is this, I usually use controllers like my novation launchpad or Korg nanokey to control Ableton (i.e. use it as a looper). Now, I think it'd be convenient to use a foot pedal to act as a pseudo-loop pedal, instead of taking my hands off my instrument to press a button on my desktop controllers.

Branshen · April 2018

https://www.quietpc.com/usb-footswitch

Here is an idea, use a USB footswitch that sends out input like a regular keyboard, and then program ableton and set it to the functions I want (as explained in the article below), ridding the need for a midi footswitch.

http://sonicbloom.net/en/ableton-live-tutorial-computer-keyboard-as-midi-controller/

mrkb · April 2018

The USB foot switch might be much easier than a midi foot switch. I’ve tried this with a standard PC message midi foot switch and it needed some extra software to map a midi message to a key press. The USB foot switch does that natively.

Branshen · April 2018

Thanks for the input @mrkb. What midi footswitch did you use?

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Midi foot pedal on the cheap

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