New rig setup - which way to go with GCPro config??

[AllanWilliams]

Hi. Newbie Alert.
I've just got a GCPro and GCX to drive the new rig I'm putting together.
. I have the GCX to control my various footpedals. (Setup as GCX1)
. Midi then through to my RJM Mini amp gizmo to control my Mesa Mark V for channels selection, reverb on/off and mute on/off. (I have the Gizmo in GCX emulation mode so setup as GCX2 seemed the easiest way to handle that)
. Then through to Eventide Eclipse. (I've seen elsewhere on this board that I'll need my presets in 1-128 range to access them so thats good to know in advance - I'll get them sorted accordingly).

I've got the audio path all sorted and everything communicating midi ok.
I'm wanting to pull all that together and having trouble getting my head around which way to go with programming of the GCPRo (probably simply me not understanding it properly yet).

What I would like - push to activate push again to deactivate operation of the effects pedals through the GCX. Ability to change amp channels via the effects Gizmo on some other buttons regardless of whats going on with the GCX settings. Ability to assign a particular Eventide preset to a button and like with the GCX press for on, press for off.
Overall, select a bank (say a bank for rock n roll) which then might have my amp channels, just two or three pedals and a couple of eventide presets. Another bank (say for John Cougar songs) might again have the amp channels, a different couple of pedals and different couple of presets in that bank that works for those. Another bank for another style or for a particular song, etc.

Thats my thinking. Is that beyond the gear I've got, or is that workable? If so, some recommendations please on what modes to use the GCPro and best way to configure each of the aspects. If I need to change my thinking, happy to be educated from the good experience of those that have been there, done that.

Thanks kindly in advance.
Allan

[nyteowl]

I would suggest running the GCPro in 4 Presets/Bank mode. Use the four buttons on the bottom to call up presets on your Eclipse, and the 8 remaining buttons in the upper two rows as Instant Access buttons to activate/deactivate the effects pedals connected to your GCX loops.

You can program IA buttons to control the Amp Gizmo for amp channel switching, as well as program your presets to change amp channels as necessary when you change Eclipse pre-sets.

Putting your Eclipse in a GCX Loop will allow you to either have it in your signal chain or bypass it entirely by using a single button,

[AllanWilliams]

Nyteowl - you're a legend. Thank you.
Good thought on the tip re switching the Eclipse in and out.
I am setting the rig up with a few redundancies in it for my live gigging. My fav O/D and Dist in case the amp channels or switching fail and I only have a clean channel, then I can use pedals. Sufficient pedal flexibility that I dont need the Eclipse. Eclipse line out straight to desk if the amp fails totally so a few ways to deal with a few contingencies.

Two other topics that I just havent got far enough towards yet, but will very soon.
Tap tempo and volume pedal.

I'm generally ok with just putting the volume pedal along with my tuner just at my feet and first in the signal chain to then run to the GCX input. I use volume swells a lot, particualrly with distortion so I know I lose out on gain in the progress of the swell having it before the preamp. Is there a better way without losing/using a loop (which also means having to run two more cables back to my feet)? Not sure how to make best use of the conenctions in the back of the GCPro in that regard and if they suit this purpose?

Tap tempo is an important issue for me. I am running two delay pedals (TC Flashback and a Seymour Duncan DejaVu) at the moment and will probably access some in the Eclipse as well. Some are not time critical (ie slapback) so I'm not worried about them as i can set and forget. Some of course arent though. With the setup I have what would you recommend there?

[nyteowl]

You are far too kind.

As I'm sure your aware, any IA Button on the GCPro can be configured to act as a Tap Tempo switch. You would just assign it to a GCX Loop and connect that loop to the Tap Tempo jack of your Delay pedal. Since this is all done via MIDI, you won't have to run any extra cables out front.

I rely heavily on a Volume pedal, too, but I never connected an expression pedal to my GCPro to act as a volume pedal because that only controls MIDI volume, e.g. the output volume of a MIDI device such as a G-Major, 11 Rack, or Pod, and not the actual guitar signal volume. I also use a Volume Pedal with a Tuner Out jack to avoid an additional cable run between pedal board and amp.

Personally, I would not "waste" a GCX Loop on a volume pedal because it is not something you'd ever want to bypass, but there is absolutely no reason you cannot insert a volume pedal between GCX Loops. That does involve additional cables between amp and volume pedal, though, as you'd have to run from a loop's Out jack to the Volume Pedal In and then back from the Volume Pedal Out to the next loop's In jack.

One way I've found to eliminate extra cable runs is to use a Pedal Snake:

www.PedalSnake.com

With one of these, you would have a single Base snake running between your amp and/or rack and GCPro, and use the appropriate pigtails to make all your connections.

[AllanWilliams]

Good thoughts. Thank you.
I had sort of settled on volume in line from the guitar, and same as you I have one with a tuner out which works tidily so will stick with that. No fuss, no mess, all good.

I switched my program to 4 presets/bank mode last night as per your first response. It was wins for most things.
For the GCX pedals, its obviously a straight pedal board behaviour and for the RJM mini amp gizmo driving the amp functions it was fine for most. Reverb on/off. Solo on/off, mute on/off - all ok.
For channel selection though I got some behaviour I cant think of how to sort.
Outputs 1, 2 and 3 of the gizmo are grouped as these control the amp channel selection and so provide the natural function that if say channel 2 is on the channel 1 and 3 cant be - etc. Any one on, means other 2 off.
The channel selections in some cases operated on 1 click from the GCPro, sometimes needed two and the lights indicating which channel was selected didnt necessarily follow at all after bouncing around through them somewhat.

I had a G-System previously and dont recall that I had to do anything too particular for this aspect, but it has been a fair while so perhaps I've just forgotten. Age-us Old-us setting in perhaps!

[nyteowl]

Sounds like you need to revisit the Group Mode programming on the Gizmo. Perhaps reprogramming it a second time will do the trick.

[AllanWilliams]

I checked in with Ron at RJM and he explained what was going on. In the group mode, the gizmo responds with a channel change to an ON signal. Switch for 1, it sends an ON to ch1 and thats what I hear. Switch for 2 sends an ON to Ch2 and thats what I get. Switch 1 again sends an OFF for ch1 and nothing happens, I'm still on two. Switch for 1 a second time and now its sending an ON again and then it changes. Makes sense to me now and fits perfectly with whats happening.

The impact on the GCPro then in IA mode seems to be that I need to assign 3 of the presets to the 3 amp channels. So with the top 8 discretely assigned to the other couple of amp functions (solo and reverb) leaves me 6 for foot pedals via the GCX and/or preset sounds from the Eventide but thats it. Banks arent going to do anything for me so its a one setting pedal board effectively. Not too bad for some things but feels pretty constrained and I cant pull any range of effects from the Eventide and so I'm already feeling a few buttons short.
Have I got my thinking right, or am I totally missing something here.

If my head is straight on it, then I've either got the one fixed setup deal above, or I switch back to 10 preset mode, but I have to define every sound combination of whats on/whats off into the preset and not have the ability to mix these two modes and I just have to think through and define my sound combinations. Not saying thats bad, but I do need to make that thinking shift and completely go over to that mode and definitively establishing those preset combinations. Cant have my cake and eat it too??
Is that right?

By the way Nyteowl, you definitely are a legend! After trawling over this forum for gems of information, its easy to see that you have helped a truck load of people and been very generous with your time and advice. Very cool mate. Very cool.

[nyteowl]

Thanks again for the kind words. I remember how frustrated I used to get trying to make sense of things when I first got involved with MIDI gear, and I'm just trying to help others avoid all that confusion.

So you need 2 IA Buttons for Solo and Reverb and 3 IA buttons to "control" the Amp Gizmo, which leaves 3 IA Buttons open for other assignments, providing you're running 4-Presets/bank mode. If so, the 4 buttons on the bottom row would change your Eventide presets, no?

[AllanWilliams]

Current setup - 2 IA buttons for solo and reverb on/off on the amp, 4 IA buttons on GCX switching on/off stompboxes. 2 unassigned at present. If I stay with this config, then I would probably assign the other two - one for tap tempo, one for amp mute on/off, so they'd be full.

Of the preset buttons - 3 are occupied with 1 per amp channel (because the IA mode doesnt play right with the gizmo group switching but does in preset mode as per our earlier discussion and info from RJM Ron), so 1 preset of the 4 is left for Eclipse preset, which would mean 1 bank per preset. Not that thats the end of the world for me; its not too bad, but it does mean I am at capacity for the board and couldnt add in another stompbox since the IA buttons are all allocated, even tho the GCX has capacity for 8, or a second eclispse sound in the same bank.