Footswitch control questions

[mace]

Hi,

I’ve discovered that when the amp toggle switches are ON for REVERB, FX and SOLO that the footswitch can still turn these functions off and on. In other words, the toggle switches don’t really keep the function ON at all times. Accidentally hitting a footswitch button will turn things off.

The Mark VII footswitch behaves the same way.

My question: what is the point of setting the toggle switch to ‘ON’ when the footswitch will override it? As opposed to ‘OFF/FS’ which implies that the footswitch will only function when the toggle is in this position.

Is there any way to turn the FX loop on and make the footswitch button inactive (to avoid accidentally turning off the FX loop). I’m not a good dancer and have clumsy feet when gigging!

 

[bandit2013]

Those functions that can be changed by the footswitch are also midi assignable features that can be stored with a channel change command. So if you wanted to turn on and off the FX loop for CH2 it would require using two control buttons on a midi interface unit. At least the footswitch can change that feature at will without having to consume another button on a 3rd party midi interface system.

At least the FX loop, reverb and GEQ on the Mark VII are on the top row. I guess you get the solo button on the TC instead of the GEQ. If you are doing this on a dark stage, you may need some glow in the dark button caps. There may be a way to prevent you from changing the feature, stick a tube over the button so you cannot press on it. If these will fit over the button for the FX loop, it will prevent you from pressing on it by accident. Then again, you will not be able to change it unless you press on it with your finger. Not sure this will fit onto the button though. The shaft of the button may be too large. Something like this would work but have not tried to look for this sort of thing.

http://stompshield.com/

 

[mace]

I guess what I was saying is that there is no way to deactivate specific footswitch buttons when the footswitch is plugged in. For example, on the Mark V:90 the toggle switches for EQ have 3 positions. ON, OFF and FS. When toggled to ON the EQ is on regardless of the footswitch button being pushed, same with OFF. It seems that Mesa either couldn’t implement this or didn’t want to on the MIDI amps.

It just kind of bugs me that when the EQ toggle is set to ON on the Mark VII and TC-50 that it doesn’t mean it will stay ON…it remains footswitchable.

 

[bandit2013]

That is correct, some of the toggles that are marked as off(FS) will allow the footswitch to override the function when that channel is selected or if the feature is global like the reverb and FX loop. JP2C has the FX loop set to on/off(midi) and there is no way to turn it on or off using the footswitch as that feature was not part of the midi command structure. I found having the GEQ toggles set to off was annoying if I turned it on with the footswitch, then changed to another channel that had it set to off the GEQ would turn off. I just leave it in the on position so I can turn if off if I need to. Comparing to the Mark V90, the FX can be turned on/off if you have the rotary knob in a preset state for say CH1, you can still enable or disable it on CH2 and CH3. If you set it to all, I do not believe the footswitch can override that as the rotary control makes a hard connection to ground. The Mark V90 does not have a means to store information like the TC, Mark VII or JP2C that can do so for external midi controllers.

The only Mark series amp with midi capabilities that cannot control the FX loop by the footswitch controller is the JP2C, they never made provisions for it. Also it is marked as "on/off(midi)" I assume you need to set the switch to the on position before you store the settings, and off for when you want to change to no FX and store that.

If you really want to have more confusion: daisy chain two TC together with the midi thru and midi in. If the toggle switches are not set the same on each amp including the channel select, it will do some wonky things. Also, you need to confirm both TC amps are configured the same way before you power up. The one with the footswitch connected should be turned on first, then the one connected with midi should follow. I have done the daisy chain trick with the TC100 and TC50, it works great but if things are not followed in sequence, it gets confused.