MIDI help please - Morningstar & Quad Cortex

jimkehoe

Excuse my ignorance - complete midi virgin.
I have a Morningstar pro 6 and a quad cortex.
Can the two be connected by usb or other means to enable communication or does it have to be via 2 x midi cables?
TIA

english_bob

USB miiiiight work, but you'd be better off with a MIDI cable.

You don't need two cables though, just one- one of the two units should control the other, and commands just need to go one way.

From there, it's a matter of working out what you want to be able to do. Seems like having the Morningstar controlling the Quad Cortex would be the logical way round, but you need to decide what additional control you want over the QC, then figure out how to do it.


Fun story. The first time I bought a MIDI cable to connect two pedals, one of my small children asked what it was for. I said "it lets my pedals talk to each other". I think I killed his dreams when I saw the look of delight on his face and said "yeah, but not like Toy Story".

paganskins

USB won’t work directly, needs a computer between or a usb host would work too. 

dangriffiths

Yeh standard pin midi from out of MC6 pro to the in on the QC

jimkehoe

Excellent - Now I know. Thank you all.
Love this forum - so many knowledgeable, helpful and kind members.

jimkehoe

Another query - I have two aux switches to use with the pro 6 and QC. 1 goes into omniport 1 and is set up to go up and down banks on the MC6 Pro. This all works as wanted.
However the second  one which goes into omniport 2 I want to control footswitches D & H of the QC. I can’t figure i5 out at all.
Any guidance/suggestions please ?

english_bob

jimkehoe said:

Another query - I have two aux switches to use with the pro 6 and QC. 1 goes into omniport 1 and is set up to go up and down banks on the MC6 Pro. This all works as wanted.
However the second  one which goes into omniport 2 I want to control footswitches D & H of the QC. I can’t figure i5 out at all.
Any guidance/suggestions please ?

Based on the Quad Cortex manual (p.95), you'd do it via MIDI CC message- #38 for ftsw D, #42 for ftsw H, and a value between 0-127- normally with a binary on/off function like this the lower values signal "off", the higher ones "on".

Using the Morningstar editor you'd want to set up the footswitch so that each press toggles between a high value and a low one.

Beexter

Morningstar have a great set of videos on YouTube that I have found really useful. They've just done a couple on toggle mode which would be worth a watch for your use case.

jimkehoe

Thanks both - I am being daft I know but there doesn’t appear to be the facility in the Morningstar editor to assign cc messages to aux switch ?

Beexter

I think you have to get them to "mimic" a preset switch on the Morningstar. It can get a bit confusing if you're used to working with modellers but I'll try and explain the best I can (I've got an MC6 MkII and MC6 Pro so am getting used to their terminology)

On your MC6 Pro, you have 6 switches on it and the printing on the case names them A-F . Morningstar refers to these switches as "presets". Each "bank" on the Morningstar has 4 pages of these "presets". When you go "up" a page on the Morningstar, your switches become G-L. Go up another page and they become M-R.  Go up one more page and they become S-X. Go up one more page again and they roll back round to become A-F again.

You can assign your dual foot switch to "mimic" any of those switches A-X to control your Quad Cortex - I typically use W or X as I rarely ever need to use all 4 pages in a "bank" on the Morningstar. This means the dual switch will always do what you want it to, even if you are on page 1 of a bank. Morningstar also have a video on adding switches which illustrates the above.
Hope that gets you closer to a solution. If all else fails, posting on the Morningstar forum usually gets a swift and helpful response and often from James himself. 

jimkehoe

Beexter said:

I think you have to get them to "mimic" a preset switch on the Morningstar. It can get a bit confusing if you're used to working with modellers but I'll try and explain the best I can (I've got an MC6 MkII and MC6 Pro so am getting used to their terminology)

On your MC6 Pro, you have 6 switches on it and the printing on the case names them A-F . Morningstar refers to these switches as "presets". Each "bank" on the Morningstar has 4 pages of these "presets". When you go "up" a page on the Morningstar, your switches become G-L. Go up another page and they become M-R.  Go up one more page and they become S-X. Go up one more page again and they roll back round to become A-F again.

You can assign your dual foot switch to "mimic" any of those switches A-X to control your Quad Cortex - I typically use W or X as I rarely ever need to use all 4 pages in a "bank" on the Morningstar. This means the dual switch will always do what you want it to, even if you are on page 1 of a bank. Morningstar also have a video on adding switches which illustrates the above.
Hope that gets you closer to a solution. If all else fails, posting on the Morningstar forum usually gets a swift and helpful response and often from James himself. 

Thanks @Beexter. That’s really helpful. I’ll have another try.

dangriffiths

Yep - make a preset that works on the unit (use a normal button on MC6 to test etc) and then assign triggering that on the switch in the aux part of the morningstar editor

jimkehoe

dangriffiths said:

Yep - make a preset that works on the unit (use a normal button on MC6 to test etc) and then assign triggering that on the switch in the aux part of the morningstar editor

Thanks Dan.

jimkehoe

Yahoo ! Success - Not sure how I did it but thanks for tips/guidance.

jimkehoe

Another problem/question:

Is it possible to engage the tuner and totally mute the Quad Cortex with one press of a foot switch on the MC6Pro and then return to exactly where the unit was by a longer press of the same 

footswitch ?
I’m not very good at this MIDI stuff !

english_bob

jimkehoe said:

Another problem/question:

Is it possible to engage the tuner and totally mute the Quad Cortex with one press of a foot switch on the MC6Pro and then return to exactly where the unit was by a longer press of the same 

footswitch ?
I’m not very good at this MIDI stuff !

The manual doesn't indicate that there's a simple mute command, but you might be able to set up a preset with the output volume set to zero, then set up the Morningstar so that a footswitch press sends a MIDI PC message to select that preset, and a CC #45 message to turn on the tuner.

jimkehoe

english_bob said:

jimkehoe said:

Another problem/question:

Is it possible to engage the tuner and totally mute the Quad Cortex with one press of a foot switch on the MC6Pro and then return to exactly where the unit was by a longer press of the same 

footswitch ?
I’m not very good at this MIDI stuff !

The manual doesn't indicate that there's a simple mute command, but you might be able to set up a preset with the output volume set to zero, then set up the Morningstar so that a footswitch press sends a MIDI PC message to select that preset, and a CC #45 message to turn on the tuner.

Thank you.
I’ve managed the tuner part just not the mute.
So does your suggestion mean two separate actions with 2 foot switches or could it be combined with one action?

english_bob

jimkehoe said:

english_bob said:

jimkehoe said:

Another problem/question:

Is it possible to engage the tuner and totally mute the Quad Cortex with one press of a foot switch on the MC6Pro and then return to exactly where the unit was by a longer press of the same 

footswitch ?
I’m not very good at this MIDI stuff !

The manual doesn't indicate that there's a simple mute command, but you might be able to set up a preset with the output volume set to zero, then set up the Morningstar so that a footswitch press sends a MIDI PC message to select that preset, and a CC #45 message to turn on the tuner.

Thank you.
I’ve managed the tuner part just not the mute.
So does your suggestion mean two separate actions with 2 foot switches or could it be combined with one action?

I don't actually have either of those devices, but the Quad Cortex manual is much easier to follow. I think you can assign two MIDI commands to the same footswitch on the Morningstar- I'd be very surprised if you couldn't.

jimkehoe

english_bob said:

jimkehoe said:

english_bob said:

jimkehoe said:

Another problem/question:

Is it possible to engage the tuner and totally mute the Quad Cortex with one press of a foot switch on the MC6Pro and then return to exactly where the unit was by a longer press of the same 

footswitch ?
I’m not very good at this MIDI stuff !

The manual doesn't indicate that there's a simple mute command, but you might be able to set up a preset with the output volume set to zero, then set up the Morningstar so that a footswitch press sends a MIDI PC message to select that preset, and a CC #45 message to turn on the tuner.

Thank you.
I’ve managed the tuner part just not the mute.
So does your suggestion mean two separate actions with 2 foot switches or could it be combined with one action?

I don't actually have either of those devices, but the Quad Cortex manual is much easier to follow. I think you can assign two MIDI commands to the same footswitch on the Morningstar- I'd be very surprised if you couldn't.

Brilliant. Thanks. I’ll endeavour to give it a go.

Beexter

No experience of Quad Cortex but with the Fractal units or Helix/HX, you can set the units up to mute when selecting the tuner. Simply sending a CC message to the unit to activate the tuner also then mutes the output.

jimkehoe

Beexter said:

No experience of Quad Cortex but with the Fractal units or Helix/HX, you can set the units up to mute when selecting the tuner. Simply sending a CC message to the unit to activate the tuner also then mutes the output.

Not with the QC unfortunately. There is a mute switch on the QC itself - well one of the QC footswitches gives you the option to mute.
Ah ! So how do I add tat to the FS on the MC6PRO to activate at the same time as the tuner?