H9 cc#10 bypass problem

[mrspikesir]

Hi, so either I’m daft or this is weird, but the MIDI CC#10 message for BYPASS doesn’t work and is instead changing the status of GENERAL settings …

I use a MIDI controller (RJM Mastermind) to control two H9’s which sit wtihin one of my Switchblade loops. I’ve had to run the H9’s one into the other as I haven’t enough loops free in the Switchblade to run them seperately in stereo – ie. they’re connected in series in the same Switchblade loop. Therefore I need the facility to put one or the other into BYPASS as I won’t always need FX from both. 

The obvious way to do this is to send a CC message from the Mastermind – which is easy because the Mastermind imports all CC’s from other MIDI devices, and you select from a drop-down menu which one you want to send for each patch. And as expected from the MIDI mapping on the H9’s, the CC message provided for BYPASS is CC#10 (it provides the choice of TOGGLE or MOMENTARY, the default being TOGGLE).

Problem is, it doesn’t work – on either H9. When the BYPASS message was sent I could hear the relays clicking and see the lights flicker – so I knew that they were definitely receiving a message related to BYPASS/ACTIVE and responding somehow. But they were both staying in ACTIVE mode.

On futher investigation, using the H9 Control, I discovered that what’s happening is that the CC#10 message isn’t in fact sending a message to go into BYPASS, rather what it’s doing instead is changing the BYPASS ENABLED status in GENERAL SETTINGS to NO – so basically, the units are receiving a message that tells them to disable the ability to go into BYPASS, so they will always stay ACTIVE. Which is clearly plain mad – this is the total opposite of what a BYPASS message is meant to do …!

I’ve tried remapping the BYPASS CC controller onto other CC# numbers, but it makes no difference – it’s the same result. I’ve tried MOMENTARY or TOGGLE – ditto, same result. All software is fully up-to-date, everything else in my rig is working perfectly, and the H9’s are happily receiving PC messages, the MIDI Expression pedal CC#, etc and repsonding accordingly. The problem is specifically this BYPASS issue.

So am I doing something stupid …? Or is this some sort of odd MIDI glitch …? Anyone had this happen …? Any suggestions how to fix it …?

Thanks all.

 

 

[mrspikesir]

Brief update – I shared this problem on the H9 users forum on Facebook. It seems this is a well known glitch – most people end up with a workaround which is to program a patch with mix to zero, and use it essentially as their ‘bypass program’. Of course that’s a long way from ideal as it means your signal is always going through the algorithm, but that’s the least worst solution anyone seems to have come up with. I’m also told that lots of people have raised the MIDI cc# bypass problem with Eventide already.

So: Eventide – you must be aware of this glitch. I get that it’s not as sexy (or lucrative) as a new algorithm (and yes, fair play, I love HotSawz too …!), but this is a pretty fundamental fault. What’s the situation, please …?

[bohan]

mrspikesir wrote:

So: Eventide – you must be aware of this glitch. I get that it's not as sexy (or lucrative) as a new algorithm (and yes, fair play, I love HotSawz too …!), but this is a pretty fundamental fault. What's the situation, please …?

OK, I've tried it with my H9. Here is the thing:

I guess your MIDI controller must have sent two messages to your H9, one is MIDI CC 10 with value 127, which bypasses your H9. However, when you release that switch on your controller, it sends another MIDI message CC 10 with value 0, which activates your H9 again. You should be able to prove my theory and reproduce it by presssing and holding the switch and see if that bypasses your H9, and if releasing it would unbypass (activate) it again.

So 2 sulutions:

1. Set your MIDI Controler to only send 1 MIDI message (CC 10 value 127) when you press the switch on your controller.

2. This is more like a workaround. Map MIDI CC 10 to "Activate" in H9 Control. Then when you press the switch and release the switch, it will activate and then unacitve (bypass) your H9, which is what you want (to bypass your H9).

[mrspikesir]

Brilliant – thanks for your help. I’ll have a go and see what works …

[mrspikesir]

All fixed …!

The problem was exactly as you described. I tried your fixes, but they didn’t work in this case (eg. remapping cc#10 to ACTIVE put the H9’s into BYPASS exactly as you predicted, but then they stayed in BYPASS – I could load a new patch, but it would remain bypassed). However, what I did find is a setting in the RJM Mastermind that allows me to only send ‘on’ messages to the H9’s (ie. removing the problem you idenitifed of ‘on’ on press, and ‘off’ on release), and it worked perfectly.

So all good.

Thanks again for your support. Awesome as ever …!

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