I haven’t personally posted any of these here, and I don’t know if they make their way over from other platforms, but I figured I’d start posting them here as well.
Just released the latest video in a series I’ve been doing about MIDI control of the QC. While this is still pretty limited (on the QC) at this moment it doesn’t mean you can’t find ways to implement some interesting and useful stuff. Hopefully these videos help others unlock the full potential of the device.
Most recent video here:
Playlist of all videos here:
Feedback, suggestions, questions always welcome but if you can post them as video comments so that anyone else coming in the future to watch can benefit from the info/exchange - thanks!
I was watching video, but it’s a little hard to logically follow for my particular controller, the RJM PBC/6X in mind. Has anyone done the same or similar but for the RJM PBC/6X (or PBC 10) (RJM Music Technologies)?
I honestly don’t know. There is a lot of “general” stuff that will transfer between controllers, but I admit a lot of what I am doing might be Morningstar “specific” - it might be difficult to replicate if your controller doesn’t have similar functionality.
I am always in Scene Mode on the QC. Is it possible to stay in Scene Mode and use the Morningstar Controller to toogle and effect on the QC on and off? Or is it necessary to be in Hybrid Mode on the QC to be able to do that?
Short answer - no, not in scene mode, yes for hybrid (but only the 4 stomps).
If you really plan to leverage the MC8 with your QC I would suggest always having the QC in stomp mode.
The reason for this is there are MIDI commands to trigger the physical footswtiches - this is the way you can toggle individual (or groups) of blocks on/off directly - assign them as needed to any of the 8 stomps. And then there are 8 dedicated scene switching MIDI messages - you can send those from the MC8 and they will change scenes regardless of the QC being in stomp mode. In this way you can have an 8x8 hybrid mode vs a 4x4 when using only the QC.
This will get you what you want - if you have both devices on the same board you can even just always have the MC8 sending scenes and the QC always for stomps, but even if they’re not on the same board, you can program the MC8 to send everything you want or even combinations of commands.
TL;DR - For maximum flexibility keep the QC in stomp mode and send scene changes via the dedicated MIDI commands. To trigger stomps send the dedicated footswitch toggle commands.
Thank you very much for this interesting info. Are you explaining in one of your videos how to trigger stomps on the QC via the Morningstar while the QC is in stomp mode? The thing is that until now I have mainly used the Software Gig Performer to send Program Changes and CCs to the QC in order to change Presets and Scenes on the QC. This works very good. (I am also sending Program Changes with Gig Performer to change presets on my RJM Mastermind PBC10 and PBC6 units in order to trigger Pedals on my Pedalboard which also works very good.) The thing is I was afraid that if I had the QC in permanent stomp mode this wouldn’t work anymore, but if I understand you right the QC will react correctly to PCs and CC even in permanent stomp mode, right? It seems this way are opening up a lot of possibilities and flexibility. So how can I trigger stomps via the Morningstar on the QC in stomp mode?
One more question because I think you really got a profound knowledge of things like MIDI routing, sending MIDI etc.:
Lets say I want to control with the Morningstar PC6 Pro the following devices via MIDI:
Quad Cortex
RJM Mastermind PBC6
RJM Mastermind PBC10
These devices including the Morningstar PC6 Pro have all USB Ports which are able to send and receive MIDI from the Computer when they are connected via USB with my Mac. The problem is that I think the Morningstar can only be connected to one USB MIDI Device at the same time. In this scenario the computer. But how can I route the MIDI Messages which are send to the computer in a way that they will be received by Quad Cortex and the two Masterminds devices? I would prefer the solution to send everything to my Mac via USB and then route it to the other devices because otherwise it gets a little complicated. I would have to use MIDI Split Boxes I guess and/or MIDI Y Cables because the PCB6 has only one MIDI OUT DIN Port and no MIDI IN DIN Port. Update: I was in contact with a helpful guy from RJM Mastermind. He reminded me of something very obvious which I somehow have managed to ignore. I should be able to configure the Morningstar Controller to send his MIDI Messages for each of my 3 devices on a different MIDI Channel. This could be the solution.
OK, so the trick is to switch just temporarily to stomp mode and then immediately back to scene mode which means that I can stay basically in scene mode all the time because I am used to that. Thank you very much! I can’t wait to make this happen, but now I have to be patient because it will probably two months until the MC6 Pro will be available again. But I have other MIDI Controllers to try this to a certain degree. Thank you!
You don’t need to switch modes - leave the QC in Stomp mode. To switch scenes send CC43 value 0-7 (scene A-H).
You can send that while IN stomp mode and it will still switch scenes. To trigger a stomp (while in stomp mode) just send CC#35-42 with any value to toggle the stomp. You don’t need to use multiple messages
Yes you can (and should) use multiple MIDI channels - the issue I see you might have is with the single MIDI OUT port on the PBC6 - if the only way to get MIDI in to that is via USB you might need an extra device to make it all work off the MC6 Pro. Other than that it’s not a huge issue to chain together all the devices you have and enable MIDI THRU to let all the messages pass down the line. Just avoid MIDI loops - never connect MIDI out from the “last” piece of gear back to the MIDI in on the “first” piece of gear or any other previous link in the chain. Make sure the last device only has MIDI in connected.
OK, I am using Program Change and CC43 all the time. So this is partly familiar territory. Thank you one more time. That was very helpful. And your videos are really great! I wouldn’t say that you overexplain. It is nice if someone really goes with so much care into the details because very often the devil is in the details, right?
You need to switch t ostomp mode temporary if you jsut want to switch stompbox on or off. Unless yo uhave created scene for it but that was not what I understood
zappafrank was mentioning he always uses scene mode so that’s why I mention the option to switch temporay to stomp mode and switch effect on and go back to scene mode again.
I’m using an 10 button PaintAudio MIDI pedal. The first 4 buttons on the top and bottom row control the scenes. I put commands in to set to Scene Mode, change to the designated scene number, and then force back to Stomp Mode. That way it always puts me back in Stomp Mode.
The far right lower button (10) puts the unit in preset mode so I can get to all 8 presets in a menu besides the normal raise/lower by 1 preset buttons. The top (5th) button, I made another tuner toggle, but will probably change it to Tap Tempo even though I don’t use it much. Works great. Hoping they open up more MIDI options like preset raise and lower capabilities. Don’t think this one is quite programmable enough (although it can write 8 downpress and 8 uprise MIDI actions). So it is multi command capable with one press and release.
Hey there,
my “problem” should be simple but I’m no good in midi so might aswell ask the experts.
I’m coming from the Fractal AX8 and although I really do like QC, the AX8 has a switching system that (to me) is far better than QC’s although they have exactly the same amount of switches.
The concept was, The Λ button was getting your screen in PRESET mode where you could select your preset from the numbers or go up and down banks with the Λ V and then chose the preset with numbers and after you chose your preset the screen was getting into STOMP mode so you (that’s how I have it anyway, I’m oldschool and not very keen on scenes)
Can I do something like that with an extrernal (small preferably) midi switcher?
This, stepping on both switches to change modes, really gets on my nerves and you can make mistakes while gigging.
The AX8 even though is 14yrs old is still a charm to work with
