PC to control widget

Hi, I’m wondering if it’s possible to use a program change to turn a widget (switch) on/off? I’m using the FCB1010 and would like to use it to both switch racks and also turn widgets on/off. Still learning MIDI here.

Many thanks.

If it’s only about switching widgets on/off with your pedals, then you don’t need to use PC messages at all - just “learn” the MIDI pedal to the respective widget (maybe you have to tick the “latching” option on, so the widget keeps it state when the pedal is released).

If you do want to make use of PC messages, then you should work with “rackspace variations”, where each variation has its own PC-number. A variation of a rackspace only saves diffrent states of the widgets it contains (nothing else!). That way you may switch the widgets and adjust the faders, etc. the way you need them, and then save this state as a new variation which has its own PC-number.

Each of those ways is quite easy to go… no witchcraft at all! :sunglasses::wink:

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Thanks for the reply,

Well my FCB1010 sends PC messages by default and when I try to have a widget switch “learn” one of those, it doesn’t seem to see it. The racks in Gig Performer seem to automatically be assigned to specific PC numbers, so I’m wondering if that’s why it’s being blocked in the widget. I know I can re-program the FCB1010… but I’m hoping to not have to.

Now the “variation” idea seems like it might work for me. Is there a way to create one variation with a widget, and then copy that variation into all of my racks, so that a single PC message would work for all racks?

Since my knowledge of MIDI is still low, perhaps I should explain what I’m trying to do:

I’m using Pianoteq with Valhalla (for reverb). I’ve created a separate rack for each of my presets with Valhalla (7 total). I want to set one of the FCB1010’s pedals to control a wah-wah effect, which I can apply universally to all racks (wah-wah is within Pianoteq). That part seems straightforward, but I also want one button on the FCB1010 to turn the wah-wah on/off.

In Cantabile the setup was much simpler. All of by FCB1010 PC messages were programed inside Pianoteq, so I could switch from one preset to another, and use other PC buttons to turn the wah-wah on/off. The only problem was the sound would get cut off when I switched presets. That’s why I’m interested in switching to Gig Performer – that “persistence” function is fantastic. But I suppose this rack system is necessary for the persistence to work?

Thanks again.

FCB1010 sends PC messages by default. In the current version of GP PC messages will always switch to a rackspace or a variation that you assigned that PC number to. To get the nice and smooth transitions or take advantage of our Patch Persist feature you have to use rackspaces. Using rackspaces is a much better way to design your rig anyway.

Now … pressing a button on your FCB1010 should just jump to that rackspace. You can control the “fade out” for each individual rackspace as it is being muted.

FCB1010 can have buttons 9 and 10 be MIDI CC messages rather than PC message. You can use some free applications to change and reprogram it. You do not need hardware modifications to do that.

On another note … any unused PC messages CAN be passed on to the plugins. You have to explicitly enable this option in the midi options. If this is enabled and you have rackspaces 1-7 for example and then push the button 8 on your FCB1010 - the program change 8 will be sent to the midi input blocks/plugins connected to them. this might be another workaround for you.

Thanks very much, this option to enable unused PC messages to be passed onto plugins is just what I was looking for. Also good point about rackspaces being a better way to design a rig, I think I’m starting to understand why that might be true.

I’ll eventually have to test out a software based interface for the FCB1010, but for now this workaround should serve the purpose.

I do appreciate it.