Honestly, the best form factor I've experienced is the Gordius Big Little Giant.lqdsnddist:
Yep, I have similar problems with the MFC-101.
I like the look of the FC-series footcontrollers, but I'm hoping that the center-on-center distance between footswitches is a little larger now than it used to be on the MFC-101. That would help.
Another thing which would help (or, would have helped) is: staggering the switch position by rows.
If this represents the current version of the FC-12...
.___________________________________________________
| . logo. . . . . [ L C D Screen ] . . . . logo. . |
|___________________________________________________|
| . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . |
|___________________________________________________|
| . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . |
|___________________________________________________|
...then, imagine having it look like this, instead...
.___________________________________________________
| . logo. . . . . [ L C D Screen ] . . . . logo. . |
|___________________________________________________|
| . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . |
|___________________________________________________|
| . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . O . . . |
|___________________________________________________|
The offset footswitch positions makes it much easier to avoid hitting the wrong one. (I know; I used to have a Digitech/Johnson Millennium amp with a footcontroller like this.)
Partly it's the increased distance between the switches: In the non-staggered layout, if the rows are 3" apart, then the footswitches (center-on-center) are also 3" apart. But with the staggered arrangement, they would be...let me see here, square root of the hypotenuse, ummm...4.2426" apart!
But it's also the fact that, when your foot is going towards a given switch on the top row, it's just not horizontally lined up to easily touch anything on row 1.
So I really kinda prefer the staggered arrangement. Looks like they didn't go with that, for the FC-series. Oh, well! But I hope that maybe the switches will be a little further from one another than on the MFC.
If you need more switches buy two! They made them chainable just for you!
Honestly, the best form factor I've experienced is the Gordius Big Little Giant.
View attachment 44775
The combination of staggered buttons and putting some on an angle really helps with not hitting the wrong button.
Edit:
Apparently the button layout is mapped to the black and white keys of a keyboard, which is weedy there is some unused "space" on the upper row.
An interesting note: all the pro rigs I've helped with have had their MFCs set up so only the first and occasionally the second row of buttons are active during a performance. The rest of the buttons are either duplicates in the event of a misstep or disabled.
Why? Just curious... Everyone has their preferences.I hate that thing. Different strokes, I guess.
Danny W.
I hate that thing. Different strokes, I guess.
Danny W.
Why? Just curious... Everyone has their preferences.
I thought it was genius! I never felt like I was stepping over the first row of buttons. In the past I bought a Ground Control Pro after years of using the original Ground Control pedal because I wanted more buttons. I really didn't enjoy 3 rows... And the GCP became my backup as soon as I found a Ground Link pedal (a sort of "extension" for the GC) - both had two rows of buttons.I just like all the switches to face in the same direction. I never had a problem using the MFC, other than it's too big and heavy.
Danny W.
An interesting note: all the pro rigs I've helped with have had their MFCs set up so only the first and occasionally the second row of buttons are active during a performance. The rest of the buttons are either duplicates in the event of a misstep or disabled.
This shouldn't turn into an argument, you don't know at this point what you can do with the existing 6/12 footprint. I mean (for example) if you've got 6 scenes across the top with 6 stomps below that change with each of the 6 scenes, and then hold down button #1 and have access to 12 presets? holy crap!
Bigger vs. Smarter??
I will go with smarter - So many options here - Awesome
On the other hand there are so many pros and world famous pro players who use 3 or 4 rows on their midi FC's - Gilmour and the Edge comes to mind - or pros who use 3 rows of stomp boxes if they rock a traditional pedalboard.
I guess it's different strokes for different folks - including among the pros !!
I've always preferred a 3 (or 4) row board that is 6-9 switches wide, so I wouldn't have to do-si-do to get from one end of it to the other. and also keeps the size and weight of my board flight case down a bit which is getting more and more important.
Please, don't pay attention to the bad photoshop skills (I just did that quickly to explain what I meant in previous messages), but here's how I could imagine a FC12 with a FC12EX (Expansion), where we could just "slide" one into each other, but some screws and make it "one".
THAT... would probably already work way better for me.
View attachment 44843