GCX + GCP + 2 Pedal switchers almost working but...

[Steven Latch]

Hi,

I have the following setup:

- One rack with a GCX
- One pedalboard with two pedal switchers
- A ground control pro

The midi out of the GCP goes in pedal switcher one, pedal switcher one goes into pedal switcher two and pedal switcher two goes in the GCX.

The pedal switchers are recognized by the GCP as "GCX1"

All is working fine except for the following:

When I recall a preset, if I stomp upon one of the pedals of the pedal switcher to add an effect on the fly, it won't work. The led WILL light up but the fx is still bypassed. As soon as I enter the "edit" mode on the GCP, if I click the pedal again, then the fx is on!

Any ideas?

[Steven Latch]

I have did many tests and narrowed down the issue.

What is happening is the following:

- If I switch, say from preset 5 to preset 1, everything is normal. Both the GCX and pedal switchers trigger the right loops.

- Now, if I switch from preset 2 to preset 1, the GCX will work fine, however, the pedal switchers will light up the correct loop but they won't be activated and won't be until I go into "edit" mode on the ground control.

[JohnClark]

This is certainly a strange one... I am trying to mimic your setup but I don't see the same failure. the presets should always perform the same way regardless of what the previous preset was. What are your presets 1, 2, and 5 programmed to do? Please include anything programmed on each preset... any program changes for named devices, GCX loop status, GCX status for that matter... do any of the presets display the GCX in parenthesis, like: "(GCX-1)", are expression pedals used... etc...etc.

Do you have any sort of MIDI sequencing software? If so, can you dump the memory from the Ground Control Pro and email it to me as a text file?

[Steven Latch]

Hi John,

I have wipped clean the memory of the ground control and tried again setting it up. Here is a bug that is consistently happening.

Here are the symptoms and below is my full configuration patch by patch.

Issue: On bank 0, when altering between presets 9 and 0, some leds on the first pedal switchers are activated but the signal can't be heard. However, if preset 7 is played before either of those patches, they behave perfectly!

Now, and this is the interesting part, this bug occurs only when patch 9 recalls a loop from pedal switcher one. If instead it recalls a loop from pedal switcher 2, it all works fine.

Configuration that bugs:
Preset 7: GCX: No loop activated - Pedal switchers: No loop activated
Preset 9: GCX: Loop 2 and 5 activated - Pedal switcher 1: Loop 1 activated - Pedal switcher 2: No loop activated
Preset 0: GCX: Loop 5 activated - Pedal switcher 1: Loops 2 and 4 activated - Pedal switcher 2: No loop activated

Configuration that works:
Same as above exept in preset 9, Pedal Swicher loop 1 is off and Pedal Switcher loop 2 is on instead.


A little more background on my setup:

GCX 1 and 2 are on in the setup menu. 3 and 4 are off
Midi: Device 1 is on channel 16 as both my preamps and G-Major are set to this channel. No other device declared.
Each patch recalls a program change that matches the preset: IE: Patch 8 recall program change 8.
No expression pedal

Cheers

Renaud

[JohnClark]

OK, well I just am not seeing the same thing here. How about if you start turning other things off within the Ground Control Pro? The problem area here seems to be the first Pedal Switcher so what if you turn off and disconnect all the other devices? Did you buy these Pedal Switchers brand new, in the box? Have they been modified in any way? If you power up your Pedal Switcher with button 4 held down, do you get any LEDs to light up? If so, which ones?

On another topic, why do you run all your other MIDI devices on MIDI channel 16? The Ground Control Pro can send Program Changes on up to 8 MIDI channels at once. You can assign the preamps and the G-Major each to their own MIDI channel. That way you do not have to map all your devices to line up with a single Program Change.

[Steven Latch]

Hi,

I have done many more tests and came to the conclusion that loop 1 is indeed the troublemaker. Only when this active loop is saved do I have the bug. Switching presets calling any other loop is fine. I have tried stripping down the system to the bare minimum and always get the same results. So I can live with that altough it is not perfect. I will just re-organize the pedals so that loop 1 is used for a pedal I only ever use on the fly rather than through presets.

Cheers

[JohnClark]

Well I would still like to get to the bottom of this. How are you powering the Pedal Switchers?

[Steven Latch]

Hello,

Each pedal switcher is powered by a voodoo lab power pedal 2. The CGP itself is powered by the midi cable of the first pedal switcher.

[JohnClark]

Hello,

Each pedal switcher is powered by a voodoo lab power pedal 2. The CGP itself is powered by the midi cable of the first pedal switcher.

What outputs and settings are you using to power the Pedal Switchers? They should be powered from outputs 5 and 6 with the switch set away from Normal (On).

[Steven Latch]

John, this was indeed the issue! The pedal switchers were on the right power pedal setting but on the wrong outputs (1 and 2). Switching to the right ones, 5 and 6, solved all the bugs instantly. Many thanks for taking the time to check all the setup with me.

One last issue I have now is not related to the pedal switchers. The power pedal 2 is fixed underneath a pedaltrain pro pedal board. The two pedals that are directly located on top of the pedal power, a fulltone mini deja vibe 2 and a digitech whammy, are both generating a loud hum whenever engaged. It seemed to be solely due to their proximity with the power supply. What would be a possible remedy since my pedalboard is full and I can't shuffle the pedals around?

Cheers

Renaud