FR8x & possibly FR4x controlled by Behringer FCB1010 MIDI Foot Controller

[JerryPH]

I was talking more about THIS world. Its crazy how much stuff is out there to mod Behringer pedals... tons of utilities, tutorials and what not!

 

[Keymn]

I was talking more about THIS world. Its crazy how much stuff is out there to mod Behringer pedals... tons of utilities, tutorials and what not!

These are good if you need just midi in on the 4x. But if you need the midi out, to an arranger as well, like the 8x, this is practical. The ud-bt01 is my only option at this time, connected to the computer port on 4x. AirTurn BT-105 which I already had, does work to change UPG up/down, Set up/down.
Any other suggestions?

 

[Keymn]

I was talking more about THIS world. Its crazy how much stuff is out there to mod Behringer pedals... tons of utilities, tutorials and what not!

I found this interesting app for Behringer pedal.

FCBFF -- your Guitar MIDI Foot Controllers Best Friend Forever by Secret Base Design https://appsto.re/us/1TjB1.i</QUOTE>

 

[torch]

I was talking more about THIS world. Its crazy how much stuff is out there to mod Behringer pedals... tons of utilities, tutorials and what not!

The FCB1010 is quite capable. A couple of PC editors available making it really easy to program. I think it can send midi on 5 channels, but can access higher banks of sounds for one channel only. That wont be a big problem; you can access all the fancy sounds in a module for the treble, and use sounds for the bass and chords in the default bank 0-127 or 1-128.

Anyway, a quick report. Yesterday I managed to control my 4x from my keyboard, Softstep foot controller or just about any midi controller that can send note on/off messages through the Midi Event Processor Plus. I bought the programming from Uwe for 20 euros. The loading would have taken 20 seconds, but I wasted a lot of time all because of one faulty midi cable. I should have known it and checked it with midi cable tester sooner.

 

[Keymn]

I was talking more about THIS world. Its crazy how much stuff is out there to mod Behringer pedals... tons of utilities, tutorials and what not!

The FCB1010 is quite capable. A couple of PC editors available making it really easy to program. I think it can send midi on 5 channels, but can access higher banks of sounds for one channel only. That wont be a big problem; you can access all the fancy sounds in a module for the treble, and use sounds for the bass and chords in the default bank 0-127 or 1-128.

Anyway, a quick report. Yesterday I managed to control my 4x from my keyboard, Softstep foot controller or just about any midi controller that can send note on/off messages through the Midi Event Processor Plus. I bought the programming from Uwe for 20 euros. The loading would have taken 20 seconds, but I wasted a lot of time all because of one faulty midi cable. I should have known it and checked it with midi cable tester sooner.

Nice to have this shared on this forum. I am going to continue to share my experience with ud-bt01 interface. I just set up songbook+ app on iPad (accordion bank/program change when selecting a song). Chat later!

 

[torch]

Nice to have this shared on this forum. I am going to continue to share my experience with ud-bt01 interface. I just set up songbook+ app on iPad (accordion bank/program change when selecting a song). Chat later!

I think this warrants a new thread. Why dont you start a new thread for easy future reference? Once you start one, I will post comments and questions.

 

[Acon]

Just found this thread so I decided to ask here. I'm an FR-3xb owner and started recently to let it lay on my desk in an orientation that I can play it like a piano. In that way I won't be able to access the left-hand buttons (which is fine for me) and I have to set the Bellows Curved to Fixed (so I can produce sound without using it). It's quite cool when I use the organ sound to play organ pieces, but I also lost the sound volume expression. Is it possible to use FC-300 with FR3-xb and those pedals on it to control the expression like kind of a foot bellow? It's also good to use those foot buttons to switch different voices in playing (although in this playing position it's quite easy to see and use the registers on the FR-3xb front panel).

It seems there are only FR-4x and FR-8x officially mentioned to pair with FC-300 with a menu to configure it easily. How about the FR-3x?

 

[JerryPH]

There has been a good bit of talk about the Behringer vs Roland pedals in the Yahoo groups. It seems that there is a guy there that makes an interface box that basically lets one do as much as, or more than, a Roland pedal on that Behringer pedal with the 8X.

On top of that, there is a little known subculture that makes mod chips for the Behringer pedals for not only the Roland V-accordions but other MIDI instruments.

Depending on the person, if you want to put out the cash and not invest in a few mods and extra bucks and in the end still save a couple hundred dollars, the Roland is there. However, want to save that ca$h, have the patience to find that mod chip (google is NOT that hard to use), and find that guy that makes the chips (cough... Greg Volovic... cough)... and you have the time and patience, it can pretty much all be done on the Behringer pedal.

I honestly PREFER the Roland pedal... but I also prefer NOT to be screwed over for an over-priced product. For the time being, I choose neither... but I know that I am the same guy that years ago took my brand new stock 1999 Pontiac Grand Prix GTP and spent a year making a 29mpg car with 240hp and a 127mph top end in to a car that did 42mpg, 165mph top end and 490hp. I am a modder at heart, and I love to futz with things.

 

[Acon]

Thanks for sharing Jerry! So if I decide to go Roland is it compatible with my old FR-3Xb or it's only the new FR-4X and FR-8X that have the easy configuration tool to use it?

 

[JerryPH]

Acon, I cannot tell you for sure as I don't own either the 3X or the Roland pedal. However, my guess is that there has to be at least some level of compatibility.

 

[Acon]

Thank you Jerry. I just recalled that I knew a a guy working in Roland Australia here. Maybe he can help me to figure out if I should spend such a money to buy the FC-300.

 

[Simon Max]

I saw that Richard Noel uses a Greg-v pedal and found this post, so I'll try to add the link here.
Richard Noel playing "Hello" using a Greg-V pedal.

 

[Keymn]

I saw that Richard Noel uses a Greg-v pedal and found this post, so I'll try to add the link here.
Richard Noel playing "Hello" using a Greg-V pedal

You can also do this with Irig Blueboard with a standard pedal plugged in. A YouTube video I did a while back. But demo with the Korg pa1000. You can also use blueboard pedal to change registers. I am preparing a video with FR4x...

 

[Alan Sharkis]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree that many early products that were put on the market were almost impossible to configure or program. If ever I lost the documentation to a wristwatch I had to keep it on daylight saving time all year round or throw it away and buy a new one. Advancing a clock is such a simple operation. But on many electronic watches it often required such an illogical sequences of button pushes that it is impossible to guess without the documentation. It's pretty funny when you think about it. A good technical education does not necessarily prepare you for the modern world. I congratulate you in your natural skill for hacking through these things.

I agree that a smaller pedal unit is attractive. Since I mainly use "UPG Up" for my playing, which accomplishes orchestral changes by switching to a next part, I could actually get by with just one pedal. Having "UPG Down" is nice of course, as well as a few other possible feature selections that I might apply interactively as I play. But "UPG Up" is the biggie. The other things are not absolutely essential. And I certainly don't really need two volume pedals. Actually, did you know that by using the FR-4x menu system for configuring the FC-300 only one of those volume pedals actually works? Crazy, isn't it? But hey, I'm not complaining. With the FC-300 I have for the first time a working pedal unit on a V-Accordion, and I'll fight to the death if you try to take that away from me.

I'm happy to be able to share my experience on this forum for others who visit these threads and who are like me, but who fear that the FC-300 is an overpriced rip off or massive overkill. Of course it is overpriced if you have the ability and the time to accomplish the programming necessary to get the Behringer FBC1010 working. And you should be pretty proud of yourself if you can actually do that. But if, like me, you cannot accomplish the required programming for whatever reason, the FC-300 is a fine solution. It allows anyone with basic comprehension of adjusting system parameters on their V-Accordion to assign the pedals with negligible learning curve. I was up and running in about 30 minutes, and I'm a slow worker when trying out new instrument features. I think most people could accomplish the same in 10 minutes.

Leon

The Event Processor and Event Processor Plus are just two of the products from a company called MIDI Solutions. I don’t have the url for their website handy, but I strongly suggest that you Google it and take a look. I have an Event Processor Plus and I’ve used it to do a variety of tasks with MIDI messages over the years.

 

[Keymn]

The Event Processor and Event Processor Plus are just two of the products from a company called MIDI Solutions. I don’t have the url for their website handy, but I strongly suggest that you Google it and take a look. I have an Event Processor Plus and I’ve used it to do a variety of tasks with MIDI messages over the years.

And if you have an iPad or iPhone. The app “midi flow” has the ability to map control change, sysex and program change messages.midi solutions has some nice hardware. All good stuff...thanks for sharing...

 

[Alan Sharkis]

And if you have an iPad or iPhone. The app “midi flow” has the ability to map control change, sysex and program change messages.midi solutions has some nice hardware. All good stuff...thanks for sharing...

Yes, people, if there’s an iPad in your kit, that’s another way to go.

Also, before I switched to an iMac, I found that an old, free program from the Windows 95 days still ran under Windows 10. Anybody remember MidiOx?

 

[Keymn]

Yes, people, if there’s an iPad in your kit, that’s another way to go.

Also, before I switched to an iMac, I found that an old, free program from the Windows 95 days still ran under Windows 10. Anybody remember MidiOx?

Midiox a good program to monitor midi messages. A friend of mine is using to identify the sysex messages sent by the control buttons of the Ketron SD90. there are other uses too...

 

[Keymn]

Times have sure changed since this was published. Talked to Widi about this awhile back. Now they provide widi uhost or widibud pro with a softthru setting. No need to deal with sysex. Just plain midi control messages. The cost effective Airturn bt500s-6 has 2 pedal ports that will work with this system…the Airturn pedal pairs direct to the widi product…now control modulation or pitch blend with a expression pedal…sounds more realistic…just a couple settings need on vaccordion. The Airturn app does the rest for programming your midi messages. Thanks to Airturn and widi for providing product support to test this…see in this video how I use modulation with my left expression pedal.

 

[davidplaysaccordion]

I’m doing the build my own gear route. It seems that everything that is available is lacking in some way for my needs (or are they wants?).
I have an fcb1010 but it’s mains powered and BIG. Thought about the airturn switches but not enough switches. Looked at other similar boxes but not battery powered etc etc.
I’ve been playing with an arduino nano BLE and I’ve got it sending midi and connecting to a CME WIDI device but it’s not perfect, plus no eeprom on the nano so cannot change settings without reprogramming it.
I think I’m going to go arduino nano for the Logic (it has eeprom) with a CME WIDI CORE X to handle the wireless midi. I already have a WIDI setup between the 4x and the bk7m so it should just blend right in.
Oh, I might get to play some accordion as well st some point.
Gotta love the wireless stuff though. I used a. Couple of pairs of Getaria gws 28s. My bk7m sends the audio to my 4x and then I send the combined audio to the pa so I can wander around while playing. Pretty cool.
Now I need a wireless midi chin switch so I can change backing tracks on the bk7m without having to be next to the foot pedal.

What’s funny is, when I learned piano as a kid my father, who didn’t play, said you just need to turn up and play. Well, maybe 60 years ago!

It’s still all fun though. Sometimes I just turn off all the extra gizmos or pick up the acoustic accordion and just play the way it was meant to be.