Boss VF-1 Effect Processor

'blur40@...' got very excited and asked loads of questions about my
posting regarding the FCB1010.

WARNING:
I am still working this out myself, so there may be inaccuracies as a result
of my own inexperience - I have several queries outstanding with Behringer
seeking to clarify my own understanding of the workings of the FCB1010 - for
'gospel' answers to your questions you'd best speak with their technical
people (links on their webpage http://www.behringer.com)

I would recommend that you look at the FCB1010 manual on the Behringer
website which I found at
http://www.behringer.com/eng/products/guitarworkstations/fcb1010.htm


>>Does it allow real-time editing like the guys at roland say the 
 fc-200 can do. For exaple...say i'm running a patch, with modulation
 eq, wah, amp setting (distortion)etc... can i turn off one of the 
 effect while playing. You know like say the amp setting, can i turn 
 it on and off with a push of a button on the pedal.<<

Yes it does but I have never used an FC-200 and therefore comparisons are
difficult. Initially I expected the FCB1010 to work as a 'remote control' to
the VF-1 - I expected the VF-1 to change patches when I pressed the 'Up'
switch on the FCB1010 for example. However the FCB1010 is a unit which can
be programmed to send MIDI messages to any MIDI device and what it does when
you select a patch on the FCB1010 is completely programmable.

For example; if you select Bank 0 Patch 1 on the FCB1010 this does not
necessarily mean you will get patch 001 on a remote device (unless that's
how you've programmed it - and it certainly is programmed that way
'out-of-the-box). What you get on the remote device when you select FCB1010
Bank 0 Patch 1 depends entirely on what MIDI messages you have programmed
the FCB1010 to send when you select Bank 0 Patch 1.

The FCB1010 has 100 patches (10 banks - numbered 1 to 0) each containing 10
patches (also numbered from 1 to 0). Each of these patches can be programmed
to send up to 5 MIDI Program Change messages, 2 MIDI Control messages (and
on top of this you can program the 2 expression pedals to provide
continuously changing MIDI control messages once a patch has been selected,
but they'll confuse the issue right now, so we'll come back to them later)

The MIDI Program Change and Control messages are sent as soon as the patch
is selected. There is no point setting FCB1010 patches to send more than one
MIDI Program Change message or more than one Control Change message per
patch since we are only controlling one MIDI device (our VF-1's) and all the
messages are sent as soon as the FCB1010 patch is selected. However this
would be a useful facility if we were controlling more than one MIDI device
as each of the MIDI messages can be assigned to a different channel - so if
we were using the VF-1 with a MIDI controllable guitar AMP we could program
the FCB1010 to send one MIDI message to the VF-1 (to select, say a strong
Chorus effect) and send another MIDI message to the guitar amp (to select,
say, the clean channel with a mid-boost)

Therefore (based on my own understanding at the moment) I think the best way
to use the FCB1010 to control just a VF-1 is to view it's 100 patches as 100
hundred opportunities to EITHER select a specific VF-1 patch OR to send a
MIDI control message which could, amongst other things, turn off one of the
effects components within a VF-1 patch (you mentioned the 'amp' setting as
an example).

>> If the above is possible how many effects of the chain can i modify
 at a time. How many does it support basically for real-time editing <<

Not sure I understand the question - but the number of effects 'components'
you can control is limited only by the VF-1 and the way you choose to
program the FCB1010 patches

>>Whats up with the up and down pedals, do they work properly, or do
 they both do the same function. I dont understand what you're trying
 to say<<

Because I expected the FCB1010 to act as a remote control for the VF-1 I
expected the Up pedal to select the next bank up on the VF-1 and the Down
pedal to select the next bank down on the VF-1. However they select the next
bank up (and down respectively) on the FCB1010

>>this pedal lacks a "ctl" button that is found on the fc-200 do you
 know what that pedal does<<
I don't know what the 'ctl' button does on the FC-200 - however given that
you can program the FCB1010 to send a different 'Control' message for each
of it's patches I'd guess that gives you the equivalent of up to a 100 'ctl'
buttons on the FCB1010

>>how do you use. what kinda of control do you have and how many cables
 did it take to hook it up.<<
Depends how you want to use it - I use just a MIDI lead between the FCB1010
and the VF-1 (plus the mains lead in the back of the FCB1010). 

You can also use the FCB1010 to control a guitar amp (for example if your
amp uses a footswitch to change from rhythm to lead channel and another to
switch the reverb on and off - the FCB1010 can duplicate these functions
internally, but you'd obviously need 2 extra jack to jack leads to do this)

The way I use the FCB1010 currently - and this may change as I learn more
about how it operates, is that I've programmed a number of patches on the
VF-1 and programmed that FCB1010 to send the necessary program change
messages to select each of the patches in turn. (Note that because you can
tell the FCB1010 to send any program change message you like when you select
a patch the patches selected on the VF-1 need not be sequential. For
example, you could program FCB1010 patch 01 - Bank 0 Patch 1 - to select
VF-1 patch 003 and FCB1010 patch 02 - Bank 0 Patch 2 - to select VF-1 patch
027) and to send the necessary control change messages to allow me to
control the VF-1 'Foot Volume' with the left hand expression pedal and one
other 'useful' parameter with the right hand expression pedal.

Here's some examples.

FCB1010 patch 01 sends;
 
one program change message (to select VF-1 patch 001 which I have programmed
with a Chorus effect)
no control change messages
The left-hand expression pedal send MIDI information on Channel 7 in the
range 0-127 (which the VF-1 uses to control 'Foot Volume'(
The right-hand expression pedal sends MIDI information on Channel 14 in the
range 0-127 (which the VF-1 uses to control the depth of the Chorus in
real-time)

FCB1010 patch 02 sends;

one program change message (to select VF-1 patch 002 which I have programmed
with an Octave effect)
no control change messages
The left-hand expression pedal send MIDI information on Channel 7 in the
range 0-127 (which the VF-1 uses to control 'Foot Volume')
The right-hand expression pedal sends MIDI information on Channel 14 in the
range 0-127 (which the VF-1 uses to control the volume level of the 'Octave'
sound in real-time)


I understand Behringer are working on a document that will give more detail
on how the FCB1010 can be used and how it is programmed.

Hope this helps

Thanks for posting your experiences with this new foot board. They've 
been a big help since I got mine.

Now for my .02$...

The FCB1010 is a clean, rugged unit. As good in construction quality 
as any of the FC200s I checked out at stores. And, you can't the 
price versus the FC200. I got mine thru 8th Street Music in Phila, 
PA...good price, quick shipping, blah, blah, blah.

I've got a pretty basic setup...FCB1010 -> midi cable -> VF1, guitar -
> 1/4" mono cable -> VF1, VF1 left -> amp1, VF1 right -> amp2.

When I first plugged in the unit and tried using exp. pedal a to 
control the rate of the phaser in a patch, it pretty much operated in 
binary mode...pedal all the way down sent 127 to VF1, other wise 0 
was sent. And looking at the little midi signal indicator proved that 
the FCB1010 wasn't sending continuous signals from either exp. pedal. 
After trying just about everything, I reset the unit to factory 
defaults and then everything was fine :)

I'm as interested in using the FCB1010 to control real-time 
parameters of the VF1 as I'm sure you and others on this list are, so 
let me say a few things about this:

1) The VF1 (OS 1.12) only allows 4 control assigns for each patch. 
So, no matter how fancy the midi foot board, you're only gonna be 
able to control 4 parameters in real time _within the same patch_.

2) To get any real-time parameter control, you have to program your 
VF1 patches. THis is done in the Master section, again you only get 4 
assigns.

3) The expression pedals are _easy_ to use to control real time 
parameters. This was covered in a previous post.

4) To use the numbered pedals on the FCB1010 to change real-time 
parameters (toggle 'em on/off) _within the same patch_, you're gonna 
have to program the patches in the FCB1010 to not send a program 
change signal (otherwise you'd switch patches) and to send the 
appropriate control change that your VF1 patch is checking for (#2 
above).

5) If you configure the FCB1010 for DIRECT SELECT (see user's manual 
link in previous post), you could use the UP/DOWN pedals with a 
stereo 1/4" cable plugged into the EXP/CTL jack on the VF1. This 
would allow non-midi control of real-time parameters. See the VF1 
user's manual for details.

That's what I know so far. Let's keep the info coming on this new 
foot board!

S

Ok, a reply to my own reply, kinda lame but I've got more midi foot 
board facts.

After reading the FCB1010 and VF1 docs, and playing with 'em some 
more, here's a couple more tidbits of info.

First, some more differences between the FCB1010 and Roland FC200:

The CTL pedal of the FC200 acts like a shift key, in that, when it's 
pressed the unit sends Control Change message instead of Program 
Change (see pg. 129 in VF1 manual). In other words, when CTL is 
pressed you can use the numbered pedals to change patch parameters 
real-time instead of just for changing to another patch. The FCB1010 
does not have such a pedal...you will have to program a patch in the 
FCB1010 to send the Control Change instead.

Score one for the FC200.

Also from pg. 129 in the VF1 manual, it looks like you can attach up 
to six more foot pedals/expression pedals to the FC200. Roland 
expression pedals are pretty cheap, so you could easily get one, plug 
it in, and have the same number of exp. pedals as the FCB1010. More if 
you really wanted.

Score another one for the FC200.


Second, a recipe for using the UP/DOWN pedals of the FCB1010 to 
scroll up and down thru VF1 patches:

1) In the global config for the FCB1010, enable DIRECT SELECT and 
UP/DOWN  to control SWITCH 1/SWITCH 2, respectively.

2) Connect a stereo 1/4" cable between the FCB1010 SWITCH 1 jack and 
the VF1 EXP/CTL JACK.

3) In the system section of the VF1 utilities you set CONTROL 
1/CONTROL 2 to NUMBER UP/DOWN, respectively.

4) Double punching UP or DOWN on the FCB1010 now scrolls thru VF1 
patches one at a time. Note I said _double_ punching, appearantly the 
VF1 expects the controls to be momentary pedals, not latch pedals 
(that's what the VF1 manual calls these things). I found this less 
than optimal.

As a test, I plugged the 1/4" cable from the FCB1010 into the channel 
switching jack of one of my old crate amps (it has four channels 
tube/ss, lead/rhythm.) and I could control channel switching just 
fine. PRETTY COOL! If only I liked the sound of that old crate!

S