Midi hassle

[highgainer]

Please help !

I'm a plug and play type of player, I plug straight into my Marshall KK and burn ! But then I decided to build a rack rig but I'm stuck trying to figure out how to set up the Rocktron Midimate along with the Piranha ! I have an Intellifex blackface but I don't plan right now to use it, just trying to figure out how to control the Piranha through the Midimate for now. Please, anyone who knows how to set up step by step such rig, please chime in and share your knowledge cause I'm mididumb, a real noob
For example, what should I do if I want to stamp on footswitch number 1 and get a clean sound, then FS number 2 for a highgain sound, then FS 3 for a lead/soloing sound....

Sorry for my dumb request, but a dumbproof explanation will be highly appreciated !

 

[midnightlaundry]

MIDI Maping..
If you want channel 55 on the controller to bring up 55 on your preamp, you have to MAP it that way..
Can you even switch a channel? Set the channels on all gear to OMNI.. That's the easiest for starters.

 

[highgainer]

MIDI Maping..
If you want channel 55 on the controller to bring up 55 on your preamp, you have to MAP it that way..
Can you even switch a channel? Set the channels on all gear to OMNI.. That's the easiest for starters.

thank you for the answer !


Could you please elaborate step by step what should I do exactly to switch channels on the Piranha with the help of Midimate ?

 

[highgainer]

Up my friends !

 

[splatter]

I would suggest buying a book. I was in your shoes a few months back and while I'm still a newbe to midi I'm much farther along than I was. As far as mapping goes that will vary with each piece of equip. For example my Vh4 is looking for different midi commands than my Mezzabarba. IF they weren't then I wouldn't be able to go thru one to the other. Some manufactures have examples of how to map their particular piece of equipment in their manual

 

[JerEvil]

With MIDI switching of guitar rigs, you're probably going to care about Program Changes mostly. You want to hit a button on your MIDI floorboard, and have it change programs on your Piranha and Intellifex. You'll want your MIDI Mate to send on the same MIDI channels as the other devices are listening on. Most devices have something called OMNI mode, where they listen on all channels, and in a lot of cases that's the default.

You will probably hit a button on your MIDI Mate, and both devices will change to that program. then you set your Piranha how you want it, and save the program, then the same for the Intellifex.

The manuals for each of these will tell you what to do. If I were to tell you step-by-step I'd have to read the manuals, and that's probably better for you to do. There will be some trial-and-error involved, but there isn't really a shortcut if you want to know how to run your own gear.

it wouldn't be a bad idea to reset each of them to factory defaults. Depending on how former owners (if any) used them, you may find the default MIDI settings work better out-of-the-box than whatever they may have used.

Best of luck in any case

This. Even if someone tells you exactly what to do, it can still go amok. Get the manuals and start poking around. You can always factory reset. Remember... you can't break it.

 

[midnightlaundry]

It just comes down to what you want to accomplish. It will change as you learn and try new things.

You're also limited on the speed and quality of your Effects Box. For instance, I run and old Lexicon MPX-1. The sound quality is great, but the load time is a bit slow. It will have a slight volume dropout if I switch a Program when I'm playing. SO what I do is use 1 main Effects Program for the most part with different guitar tones. Really I only use Chorus and Delay but I blend them in the mix with Expression Pedals. Lets say the Effects Program is number 212, so I tell my Effects to stay on program 212 for say Preamp channels 20 Lead, 21 Crunch, and 22 Clean so there's no volume dropouts when I switch guitar tones. Make sense??

My Controller can run 2 Expression Pedals. SO on one, I have a light Reverb when backed off, but when I step on it, it blends in Delay and the Reverb out at the same time. The other Pedal I'll blend in a Chorus only. Sure I have different programs like a lot of Reverb on a Pedal, but you make it work for what you're doing.

My old Alessis Quadrverb switches programs instantly so I could just map everything 1 to 1. In other words, channel 55 on my Controller brings up 55 on my Preamp and 55 on my Effects box. Way easier but it doesn't sound as good as the Lexicon! If I wanted the same Effects Program on Preamp channel 56, I would just copy the Effects Program and save it to channel 56. Make sense??

You can control ANY parameter with MIDI like Chorus Speed or Volume Level, so it's whatever you can come up with.

Map it out and rip!

 

[stratjacket]

I’m not familiar with midi mate, but there are some videos it in YouTube that may help showing how to set it up:

 

[highgainer]

Thank you all for your support and feedback. I went looking for a manual online months ago, did my best to understand how it works, but what can I say, I just failed over and over, so at the moment I'm using the preamp as a single chanel amp and each time I want to change a preset I get down and I do it manually since I can't get the damn Midimate to communicate with the Piranha. I understand that there is this Omni solution which is supposed to let me recall the sounds I want through the Midimate but I keep failing ...
The problem is that where I live, no one has any midi rig, it's me and my self and nobody else to ask for any tips.
If someone has a Midimate and a Piranha and is able to guide me through some simple steps like first click on this, then look for that... It would be great !

 

[phil b]

Best tips are you MUST read the manuals. You dont have to understand all the working of midi as all you want to do is get the footswitch to switch presets. To make things easier I would do a factory reset on both pieces so you are starting from fresh basically. If you reset or not you still need to find out what midi channel they are assigned. Most devices are usually in omni mode from the factory. That being said you are running midi out on the footswitch to midi in on the pirantha? The Rocktron manuals are pretty good in explaining
midi parameters but you have to read it. First thing is to get the two to "talk" to each other. Omni is the easiest way to get there. Then worry about programming presets..etc. Good luck.

 

[guitarbilly74]

Make sure all the DIP switches in the MIDI panel in the back of the Piranha are in the down position. Make sure the preamp is turned off when you're doing that. That should be MIDI channel 1.

Your footcontroller should come programmed to transmit on MIDI channel 1 from the factory unless someone messed with it. If that happened do a factory reset on it.

That should solve the problem.

 

[mikey]

The manuals for all of your devices are available at rocktron.com. Look under the support section.

 

[shredhead7]

Make sure all the DIP switches in the MIDI panel in the back of the Piranha are in the down position. Make sure the preamp is turned off when you're doing that. That should be MIDI channel 1.

Your footcontroller should come programmed to transmit on MIDI channel 1 from the factory unless someone messed with it. If that happened do a factory reset on it.

That should solve the problem.

This. The midi cable out of of the midi controller to the in on the piranha. You should be able to press any button on the controller and the patch/preset should change on the piranha. On the piranha, under the midi setup, the midi mapping should be 1-1 or global or omni. I'm not sure what language they use or how that setup works on the piranha. In short, out of the box, plugging the cable into both devices and pressing a button on the floor should change the patch/preset to something.

I usually program to whatever that default is. If the first button brings up dist, but you want clean, then I change all of the parameters of that patch/preset to be clean, and move on to the second button on the floor.

 

[highgainer]

Hello guys ! Thank you all for your support, there was one solution: reset ! I did reset the Midimate, then voila ! Suddenly it was communicating with the Piranha and I could finally walk through the presets of the Piranha. I still have much to learn, but I have at least defeated that deep frustration of not being able to command the presets of the preamp. Now I will need to learn how to mix both the Intellifex Blackface and Piranha into common presets and use them via Midimate.

 

[skullfxr]

I am having MIDI issues here. Subbing.