Connecting a Midi Foot Controller to a DAW w/ Jam Origin

1

Hello,

I’ve been researching different midi foot controller’s to pair with the External Midi option in Midi Guitar (I use GarageBand), and can’t find any tutorials out there on how to connect the two. I’m brand new to the whole midi thing.

I’m looking at Tech 21’s Midi Mongoose & Behringer’s FC1010. Does the foot controller connect to the DAW through an audio interface? I use a Scarlett Solo. Would the midi cable be plugged into the scarlett, and then the foot control would be able to sync with GarageBand and/or any DAW?

I plan to use this for live performance, and can’t seem to find too many people out there that are trying to do the same thing with these foot controllers. Just want to make sure I have everything I need before I make the purchase.

Thanks in advance! Very grateful for the help.

1 Like
2

The MG plugin remote functions only work with incoming midi ( not the automation parameters!)
Garageband,Logic and mainstage do not support forwarding midi to loaded fx plugins. So you can not control MG with these hosts.
Most of the other DAW’s and live hosts support midi forwarding.
Examples of a few DAW’s are here: https://www.overloud.com/node/166

3

I’m just a little confused. I already use MG with GarageBand and it works. But connecting a midi foot controller (FC1010) to my Focusrite wouldn’t work? Is the only way to do this with the Apogee GiO?

4

please tell what yoo want to do with your footcontroller.
ofcourse fcb1010 can be connected to your audio interface if it has midi in input. that is not the problem.

5

I’d like to use the foot controller to control GarageBand (or any DAW) hands free during my live performances. I’d like to easily be able to switch between patches and mute them without having to touch my laptop.

6

if you load MG as a plugin in Garageband, you can not switch the MG patches via remote.
If you use our full version standalone or “MIDI Guitar for Garageband” you can switch patches.
Other DAW’s can send midi to loaded fx plugins, so they can send the footcontroller midi to MG. see links above for howto’s.

7

Right, I was planning on using MIDI Guitar for Garageband. So the foot controller would work with what I am trying to do?

8

yes, you can choose your footcontroller to switch patches with the “pedal” selector,
you’ll have the transpose and sustain fucntions on remote, and CC7 (midi volume) is forwarded to the loaded synth.

9

Ok just spent the last few hours researching and want to double check here one more time for clarification.

I actually will probably purchase the full version of Midi Guitar 2 rather than Midi Guitar for Garageband, it seems more versatile.

A roadblock I seemed to encounter is that my audio interface (Scarlett Solo) which I use right now for the trial version of the program, doesn’t have a MIDI in on it. My basic setup without a foot control is my guitar -> my pedalboard -> Scarlett Solo -> Amp … Scarlett Solo USB connects to USB on Mac w/ MG2. So in order to use the FC1010, I would have to purchase a MIDI interface which would connect to the other USB port on my Mac? And I would have to use two audio interfaces at once?

So something like:
Guitar -> pedalboard -> Scarlett Solo -> Amp/Mac -> FC1010

Essentially I just want to be able to do this live affordably:

10

For live performance I recommend using the standalone full version of MG2.

  • If you choose a 5 pins midi controller, you will have to purchase a midi to usb converter (entry-level price around $50).

  • Behringer FCB1010 is more affordable than Mongoose and it has 2 very useful expression pedals.
    It would cost you around $170 with the above converter.

  • If you already have some expression or volume pedals and some footswitches, you can just purchase a pedal interface such as Midi Expression.
    The Quattro model costs $120 and you can plug up to 4 pedals or footswitches.
    I use it happily with MG2.

11

Thanks for your response!

Will it just simply not work with connecting MG2 to a DAW to a foot controller? Or is it more latency/triggering problems that you encounter?

I was reading that the midi to usb converter is unreliable, would you be able to link me to one that you know is efficient?

Other than all of that, did that pedal chain make sense if using a midi-usb converter?

Guitar -> pedalboard -> Scarlett Solo -> Amp/Mac -> FC1010

12

I use MG2 plugin in a daw only for mixing and controllers are used to manage the daw functions.

For live performance I do not have the use of a daw which is not very suitable, I use my midi controllers with standalone MG2 or MG2 plugin loaded in a vst host (Gig Performer) if I need using background audio tracks, loops etc.

I have used long enough this one with no problem: Roland UM-ONE

In your case, the chain pedal is exactly right (to be fussy, FCB1010 is not in the chain as it is not audio but midi flow).

13

Hey Paul,

I purchased MG2, an FCB1010, and a Roland UM-ONE, and am having trouble on where to begin. I go more into depth in the other topic I created on this forum. It seems as if my FCB1010 can adjust the volume of a patch in GB with one of the expression pedals, and can also switch patches in MG2, but so far that is about as far as I have been able to go. I’d like to be able to switch patches in GarageBand, or be able to take a GarageBand plug-in, put it into MG2, and be able to switch on the fly by doing that. Any insight would be great. Thanks!

14

Garageband is not switchable per midi, and Garageband instruments are not loadable in other thrid party apps.
Mainstage is Apple’s live host, adn comes with way more instruments than Garageband does.