Rocktron ALL ACCESS/HEX expression recognition?

[999]

Hello All:

I recently got an Eclipse, and by advice from the Support section of the site, a All Access MIDI controller with dedicated Hex expression pedal. I am no n00b to rack gear or MIDI programming, but I have tried everything to get the Eclipse to recognize/calibrate the Hex. I have read and re-read both instruction PDFs for Eclipse and the All Access, and I have yet to establish Expression functions… Omni. Any words of wisdom?

[nickrose]

You are not giving enough information to allow me to judge what your problem is. I'm going to guess that you are not able to get the Eclipse to respond to the Rocktron. If this is the case, I would suggest that you put the Eclipse into "OMNI" mode, and then use MIDI Capture. Both are described on p.46 of the latest UM.

If you still cannot get a response, I would try different cables.

[999]

I feel I should also mention, I troubleshooted the TRS cable from the pedal to the controller. I also troubleshooted the Hex itself by running straight through (not connected to the Pedal 1 IN on the All Access) and used it as a standalone volume pedal in front of the amp, and it works… So I do not believe the pedal is failing. 

Every time I try to capture Expression as an Ext, I rock the pedal as the Eclipse prompts, but no connectivity is made, and calibration is then aborted. Does anyone here have experience with this controller? I would really like to use this setup live. Thanks in advance for any advices.

[999]

That's the curious thing about this situation. The Rocktron IS recognized. I am able to make patch/program changes. The only thing I can't do is Expression. And troubleshooting connections/the expression pedal alone is the first thing I did.

[nickrose]

Beginning to see ..

As I understand it, MIDI does not have the concept of an expression pedal – your Rocktron will treat the pedal as a MIDI controller device – you assign it a channel and CC number as part of the setup.

Because of the above, the Eclipse pedal calibration only works with actual foot pedals plugged into it (it can't know that a given MIDI controller is actually a pedal). So, it will be happy to respond to your Rocktron pedals, but you will have to use them as generic MIDI controllers.

[999]

So if I understand correctly, the only way I can get an expression pedal to work with the Eclipse is if I use the dedicated Pedal 1 IN on the Eclipse itself, as opposed to using the Pedal 1 IN on the Midi controller. I will have to get a longer TRS cable if I am going to accomplish this, as all I have is a little patch cable I made. I will report back if this works. 

[nickrose]

Not correct – a MIDI expression pedal will certainly work with Eclipse, but must be set up as a generic controller. This means that any desired calibration must be done by whatever sends it – not unreasonable.

Note that this is not a flaw in Eclipse – it's the nature of MIDI. I guess we could have added a MIDI calibration feature to Eclipse, but it's already a complex little beast.

[999]

THIS PARAMETER CANNOT BE MODULATED. PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE. argh

I have been digging the External as well as the MIDI menu pages for a few days now, to no avail.

I have Ext #1 set to note switch, and this works fine program to program, for the All Access switches presets as desired. 

EXT#2, EXT#x… I have tried many settings such as expression and foot con with no recognition.

I tested the TRS patch cable I made again today, and it is indeed fully functional.

Also, I made certain the All Access recognizes the Hex in Pedal 1 IN, and it is set to Global, not per program. So, what specifically could I be going wrong here?

[nickrose]

Have you specifically tried what I suggested – set MIDI on the Eclipse to OMNI and used MIDI capture to see if it can see the pedal ?

[999]

The setting I am working with is indeed, OMNI. 

When trying to Capture the movement of the pedal in the External menu, the Eclipse reads out "THIS PARAMETER CANNOT BE MODULATED. PRESS ANY KEY TO CONTINUE."

When I go to the Pedal Setup menu, a similar event occurs as it reads "NO PEDAL MOVEMENT SEEN"

What could possibly be going wrong here?

[nickrose]

Please read my earlier comments – you CANNOT calibrate a MIDI pedal on the Eclipse.

When it says ""THIS PARAMETER CANNOT BE MODULATED", it probably means it. What parameter are you trying to modulate ?

You could get this message erroneously on earlier software under certain conditions – make sure you have the latest software.

[999]

I am not running 4.1… I am actually running 4.0… but would that really hinder expression recognition in Mi case? I'm just not catching on to this like I have with everything else in the past, and I am getting frustrated at this point. For now, I will do the update and see what happens. Possibly try a different expression pedal…?

[999]

Nick: I want to thank You for all Your help, as You were right when we spoke on the phone earlier… The Hex's impedance is too high for the Eclipse. After going out and picking up a different pedal, that verified everything. I now have 'Busy' signal from the new expression pedal. Only problem I'm having now is assigning WET/DRY MIX as a Hot Key. I've tried two times now, and the Eclipse froze both times… Perhaps an update is in order. Does anyone else have this (global) parameter as a hot key?

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