Best AxeFX LOWER Cost controller

[Gasp100]

Any recommendations for a lower cost foot controller to pair with the AxeFX? I've read the threads that seem to indicate the Liquid Foot is pretty much the best out there right now (until the Axe controller comes out). But I definitely do not need anything right now close to that ballpark figure just for ground control.
What I would really like is:
1. Self powered (or the config where the foot controller power is sent down a 7 pin midi cable from the AxeFX
2. The ability to change presets with my foot... and "program" the foot controller with EASE.
3. Maybe the ability to have one preset (say, a Voxy amp) with different pedals bypassed within the patch and the ability to turn the stomps on/off. Nothing too crazy really...
Thoughts? What will I give up by doing with a medium level controller? Tuner display on floor?
Having to manually enter patch names on the foot controller?
Other?
(sorry, I'm new to the midi foot controller game)

[Eric Thomas]

I'm looking too, and making plans for an Axe-Fx purchase, but I have not bought the Axe-Fx yet so I don't have first hand experience.

Here's the ones I have narrowed it down to:

It seems like the Liquid Foor Jr gets a lot of good press. If it has enough buttons for you, that one looks like a great solution for a mid priced unit. It will also allow communication with the Axe for tuner display on the floor.

The Voodoo Labs Ground Control Pro is next on my list. I don't remember if it will allow power through a 7-pin midi cable. I think it does. No communication with the Axe for tuner display.

The Behringer FCB1010 looks like a great low cost unit, but no powering with the 7-pin cable unless you modify it. No communication with the Axe for tuner display on this one either.

The Liquid Foot Jr is my first choice, but I hoping the Fractal controller will come out before I need to make a decision. I'd be curious to know what you decide on.

[iaresee]

By all accounts the Behringer FCB1010 + Uno chip get you pretty good results, but you have to run mains to it. Otherwise it does 2 and 3 on your list. It's definitely got a nice price point. There's the Roland version of the FCB1010 -- model eludes me right now.

I just bought used Lexicon MPX R1 -- hasn't arrived yet. But that should be an interesting experiment with the AxeFx. It appears to be fairly flexible in its CC programming so you've got lots of buttons to use for tap tempo, mute-to-tune, enable/disable bypassed blocks, etc. It was hella cheap. Under $100.

[Gasp100]

Cool, thanks all. I just checked out the How To demo on youtube for programming the Ground Control Pro... nice demo, very cool of that guy to do that. I guess my price point would be around $300 or less. I'm not gigging at the moment, it just would be nice to be able to scroll through patches and enable/disable stomps via foot power even at home. It looks like the GCP does have the 7 pin cable option and the tutorial ties one of the pedal's to the tuner, but he doesn't show the end results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH1XEWWhnCQ&feature=related

[Matt Jones]

I use the Rocktron Midimate. $150 and it can be powered via a 7-pin midi cable.
In controller mode you can have access to a bank of five patches and five assignable on/off switches than can be assigned to pretty much anything.

It does not allow for patch names to be displayed but I personally have never found this to be an issue and I use it live quite a bit.

[Ventanaman]

I use the Rocktron Midimate.

It does not allow for patch names to be displayed but I personally have never found this to be an issue and I use it live quite a bit.

You can actually go in and edit the titles of the patches manually so that the displays match.

Hit 2nd ... scroll to titles ... use up/down to pick the character ... press save.

I think for price and simplicity, it's hard to beat the MidiMate ... but I have a LF Jr. on order.:)

[alexgrignon]

I decided to try 2 cheaper units. The midimate (off ebay for $100 something) and the Peak FCB4N2 (http://www.peak2005.com/i/product_info.php/products_id/46?osCsid=e5e6148b96fc41cfa98f496b44b3ab80).

The midimate is a really nice unit. I wasn't sure if i'd like the rubbery buttons but they are ok. There is a nice tutorial on how to use it stickied in the fractal audio forum. Really easy to set it up. The only "cons" I can think of is that you can't (from what I can tell so far) program in custom patch or controller changes. So I don't think I can have a button that sends CC#0 value #1 for switching to bank 2 (preset 128+) on the axefx. So i'm not sure how to access any patches over 128 with it. You also from what I can tell, program those stomp pedals to be something else in a different bank. Like if I wanted to switch to a different set of them and control different effects. I think you can stack them to control multiple effects at once....maybe i'll have to explore that more.

The peak FCB4N2 had a little more of a learning curve but has more powerful options. You can send up to 4 program changes and 8 CC's per button. 4 buttons in a bank. 32 banks. But you have to tap dance a little more since it has less buttons. It'd be easy to set up Bank 2 with 4 amp rigs, Bank 3 with 4 stomp pedals and Bank 1 with Tuner / Tap Tempo / Looper type stuff you'd have access to a decent amount within 1 bank of your main patches.

I figured my decision on which to keep would be really easy once I used them...but they both have interesting pros/cons. Guess i'll have to keep both and keep "testing". :)

[hobbes1]

shameless plug: i have a used but excellent condition rocktron midimate for sale in the emporium. cheaper than the price listed earlier in this thread.

[arsnova]

Hey you still have the rocktron midimate for sale??? if so for how much?

shameless plug: i have a used but excellent condition rocktron midimate for sale in the emporium. cheaper than the price listed earlier in this thread.

[solo-act]

Rocktron midimate

[screamtone]

I used to use a MidiMate but I moved to a Ground Control Pro after a month or two. The buttons were too close together for me on the MidiMate, and since the top and bottom rows were so close, I was never comfortable I would hit the right button on the top row. It didn't have enough Instant Access switches for me. If you assign one to the tuner and one to thee tap tempo, then you've only got three left. If you do that with the GCP, you'd have six IA's. The GCP and the MidiMate are both super easy to program for the Axe Fx, especially if you use the YouTube vids as a guide. I had gigs on the days I the days I received them both and had no trouble getting them programmed immediately. There's nothing really wrong with the MidiMate, but the GCP form factor and features made it best for me.

[screamtone]

The end result is you don't have the tuner displayed on the GCP display. I think you can do that with the Gordius controllers, but they start at 499 euros.

It looks like the GCP does have the 7 pin cable option and the tutorial ties one of the pedal's to the tuner, but he doesn't show the end results:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH1XEWWhnCQ&feature=related

[iaresee]

Forgot all about this thread.

I've been, more or less, happily using the R1 now for a few months. Fits nicely in the Gator gig bag made for the Micro Korg. Built in expression pedal with toe switch is teh awesome. The only gripe, and I can't decide if this is just an occasional gripe or an always gripe, is it doesn't send CC state along with program changes. So the FX CCs get out of sync with reality. But sometimes I like that it does it that way.

I'm running it with a 7-pin cable for easy setup.

[buddaman71]

Tech21 MIDI Moose is affordable, compact and can run on batteries for 200 hours.

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/effects/midimoose.html

[iaresee]

Tech21 MIDI Moose is affordable, compact and can run on batteries for 200 hours.

http://www.tech21nyc.com/products/effects/midimoose.html
That's the kind of super simple bit of kit that turns an Axe-Fx into a dead simple to use, uber power rig. Nice. Add your expression pedals straight to the back of the Axe-Fx and you've got everything you need, nothing you don't, in a small setup, on the cheap.

[mwc2112]

That's the kind of super simple bit of kit that turns an Axe-Fx into a dead simple to use, uber power rig. Nice. Add your expression pedals straight to the back of the Axe-Fx and you've got everything you need, nothing you don't, in a small setup, on the cheap.

Unless you want to switch effects on and off within your patches, but if all you want is patch switching, there's not much that is simpler.

[bkd_guitarist]

I used the FCB1010 with the UnO chip before I got my Liquid Foot Jr. Pluses to the FCB1010:

-Cheap. And reliable, BTW. I've had mine for quite a few years and used it to control other devices before I got the Axe-FX. Never had an issue with it.

-Allows a lot of flexibility with preset and IA switch programming, once you install the UnO chip.

-The expression pedals feel good, travel smoothly, and are easy to set up/calibrate. And they don't "wander off" from calibration later on, which some pedals do.

-It's easy to program with the Ripwerx software editor.


Minuses to the FCB1010 (and why I bought the Liquid Foot):

-Very limited panel display, red LED with numbers only. I hate not being able to see the name of the patch that I'm on.

-No tuner display.

-No phantom power without modification.

-Physically large.

[brain21]

Ouch! $179 for the MIDI Moose? Though you need external power you could probably get a clown vomit ART X-11 Midi pedal that has the exact same functionality on Fleabay for like $25 or something (2 sold last week for $19.99 and $20.50). The X-15 ultrafoot, which is the same as the X-11 but adds 2 expression pedals runs in the $30-$60 range on fleabay. Is the advantage of being able to run off of a 9volt or phantom power worth $150 extra bucks?

I have an original DMC Ground Control (not the Pro version). Its fairly small (about 22"x8" and 1.5" high in the back). The FCB1010 + Uno is a great pedal for the money, but I really wanted an Alpha-Numeric display (besides I got the Ground Control way before I go the Axe). You can get them for around $100-$125.

I used to jones for the Ground Control Pro, but not anymore really. I like the smaller size of the Ground Control. I don't think I have as many IA switches (I only have 5 on the GC), but I'm OK with that. Also, apparently, you cannot calibrate expression pedals with the Ground Control Pro, so some may not work, or the range will be weird (the effect gets to minimum or turns off before the pedal is completely rocked back, or you can never get the pedal value to 0 even if rocked all the way back, etc.), so you have to make sure you get the right expression pedals. With the original Ground Control you can calibrate the expression pedals, so no worries.

With the addition of a Mission SP-1 the switch in that can act as yet another IA switch. Soon my pedalboard will consist of:
- Ground Control
- 3 expression pedals
- Very Tone pedal (varitone switch in a pedal)

and that's it. If I can trade for a Dr Distorto I might add that for the feedback effect. But that's it. Nice, small, and light.

[LaXu]

How difficult are these to program? I haven't bought a MIDI floorboard yet because most are way expensive for my needs and the FCB1010, while having nice features, seems like it would be a nightmare to program to work with the Axe.

I tried the Ripwerx program and couldn't get my head around what each thing did. Maybe it's more obvious when you actually own the board.

[Gasp100]

I had the Ground Control Pro and I found it very easy to program, but I was not doing anything fancy at all. It was used, so I first learned how to reset to default. Then I used it in "normal" mode meaning that I just used it to switch from patch to patch (no IA's for turning FX on/off within the patch) and it worked really well. I also learned how to name my patches manually which was a lot easier than I had imagined.
Then I followed the YouTube video on setting it up for the AxeFX with IA's and that was pretty easy too. In the end switching from patch to patch was easy enough for my needs at the time. It's big, rugged, fits perfectly into one of the Gator pedalboard bags and the display is huge. Only minus is no tuner display on the floor, but that's not a deal breaker for me.
I also had a Midimate for a very short time. It actually seemed much more solid than I first thought, also pretty simple to program (especially using the YouTube vids) and smaller/lighter.
BOTH allow use of the 7 pin midi cable which is a HUGE plus for me; for a live player I think it would be an absolute must.
The GCP Pro goes for ~$300 used, the MIDIMATE ~$150 or so used.
I have time on my side this time so I'm most likely going to check out a Liquid Foot Junior eventually, depending on used pricing.