Going full midi, or not? (Guitarists, please help me out)

[Elite]

I'm tap dancing way to much to change settings for my band's songs in the rehearsal room and at home. I'm using an array of different pedals, an amp that demands channel switching and a multi-effects unit. Well, I have the amp switching and the multi-effects unit now controllable by midi, but I'm thinking (and have been for the past 1.5 year or so) to put everything together into a rack and have just the floorboard and a tuner left before me.

Just to get an idea of what I'm using

- About 8 different pedals (varying from Tubescreamers, to Wahs and time-based effects)
- Mesa Boogie Mark III
- TC Electronic G-Major
- ENGL Amp channel switcher
- Random midi-floorboard
- Guitars

Does anyone have experience with this and how (would) you recommend doing this?

[MajorMatt]

You're going to need a loop switcher to control the pedals via MIDI. What this does is put each pedal in its own loop and then adds or removes them from the main signal path when a midi signal received. You could achieve switching pedals and amp channels with a single device like the RJM Rack Gizmo. Or if you wanted to stick with your Engl switcher, you could see if you could pick up an RJM Effect Gizmo or a used Axess Electronics GRX4. These devices are programmable so you can engage as many loops as you want with each program change.

You would then chain the devices together and program your controller however you please. For example, hitting one switch on your controller could activate channel one on the Mark III via the Engl switcher, activate a program (customised to what loops you want activating) on the Effect Gizmo and a patch on the GMajor.

[Elite]

Yes, I know what everything does (I should have stated this in my OP, sorry), so I know what to get. I was looking into getting a Rocktron Patchmate Loop 8 myself, but the question was more like; is it really worth going down this way or am I seriously overlooking some stuff here? It's going to cost me quite some to get everything to use it, but I really think it will work well. No more hassle when moving my gear, since everything will be stored in the rack and, equally important, tone changes with the single tap of a button on just a single floorboard.

But thanks for your reply anyway, I should have been a bit clearer in my initial post

[kirksnosehair]

So, you're asking if you should go "full midi" in that you don't want to be changing any of your sounds using anything but a midi pedal of some kind?


I've never quite gotten there myself, although I have similar gear to yours.


Here's my rack, but I recently changed out that Delta 1010 with an MBox Pro:



Here's my midi foot controller:



Now, I've got a couple of guitar amps, the Carvin MTS 3200 100-watt 2x12:



I've also got a Peavey, but no picture.

I've also got (as you can see in the rack) the TC Electronic G Major.  I love that thing! 


I've got all 10 of my preset buttons on my controller set to various effects and combinations of effects.


The only thing I haven't been able to do is switch the Carvin between the clean and distorted channels using MIDI so I still use a mechanical foot switch for that.




So, what you're tying to accomplish is to get ALL of it running through a midi controller, including changing from clean to distortion on your amp?

[Elite]

So, you're asking if you should go "full midi" in that you don't want to be changing any of your sounds using anything but a midi pedal of some kind?
So, what you're tying to accomplish is to get ALL of it running through a midi controller, including changing from clean to distortion on your amp?

Yes to both I actually have the exact same Midi pedal and it works fine! At the moment I can switch my amp channels through midi as well, using a midi amp switcher in between, this one to be precise:



I just need to get a rack, a midi-switchable looper for my pedals and a tray to put the pedals in.

So, basically what you're doing there is similar to what I'm planning to do with my stuff
Also, the G-Major is awesome, yes! I got mine secondhand for pretty cheap a couple of years back and it's still functioning a 100%. A great piece of equipment, it's actually going to be the centerpiece of my setup in the end!

[kirksnosehair]

I was surprised to find out that they don't make the G Major any more.  Some really great effects in there.