Can't Get Roland FC-200 To Select Axe/Fx II @128-155

[stringrazor]

I recently got a Roland FC-200 for free and have been playing around with it to compare with my FCB1010/Uno. I consider myself to have a pretty decent understanding of MIDI, having coded a DOS program in C to edit patches on a Casio CZ101 long ago, lol. I later gave the source to a French guy who ported it to Windows. Anyway, one MIDI feature I have not really used much is Bank Select.

I cannot seem to get the FC-200 to call up Axe/FX II patches 128-155:
Bank 12 Pedal 8 on the FC-200 calls up Axe/Fx #127
Bank 12 Patch 9 on the FC-200 calls up Axe/Fx #158


I am able to call up Axe/Fx II # 128-155 using MIDI-OX. I have tried everything I can think of on the FC-200. The manual is a bit cryptic in this area but it seems to say that 12,9 on the FC-200 should translate to #129 (or 128 w/o the offset).



This is more a a curiosity than a real issue as I don't really need that many patches but it's driving me a bit nuts. If anyone uses teh FC-200 and understands this issue (be it with the FC-200 or my misunderstanding of something) I'd love to read your comments. Thanks!

 

[Bakerman]

It looks like it can only send PCs 29-100 in bank 2 and PCs 1-100 in bank 3 and up. Maybe this could recall any preset on some Roland gear but it leaves gaps on the Axe or anything with 128 presets/bank. So you end up with (for display offset = 1) accessible ranges of 1-128, 157-228, 257-356 (plus 385-484, 513-612, 641-740 on XL).

 

[stringrazor]

Thanks. Yeah, that's how it seemed to me too. Odd that any MIDI controller would be designed that way but I guess Roland didn't care if it worked with other brand gear. I imagine the FC-300 addressed this issue.

Oh well, no biggie, it was still a great score for $0 and very usable. I like the fact that I can have 15 CC switches, 10 on the FC-200 and 5 externally jacked in (I happen to have a 6-switch device I built w/LEDs that works well) for controlling effects, scenes, and the looper. The FCB1010/Uno is a lot more flexible in that it's configuration can be changed dynamically with it's own patch system and it can send multiple msgs with one button press but through it can only have 5 "stomp" buttons w/sync'd LEDs and those can't change with patches.

 

[stringrazor]

FYI, I have written a MIDIDINGS Python script for my Raspberry Pi 3 to translate CC events to PC (program & bank change) events allowing me to directly access or scroll through all Ace/Fx II patches from one FCB1010 bank (no Uno features required). One pedal sends CC 121 events with values 0-127 causing the script to set but not send the value of an internal patch variable. Two buttons send cc 124 and 125 (values ignored) which causes the script to decrease or increase the patch value, wrapping from 0 to 127 and 127 to 0 and sending the appropriate bank change command (which will also wrap from 0 to 2 and from 2 to 0) then sending the MIDI bank (if necessary) and patch change commands. 3 other buttons simply send CC 0 value 0, 1, & 2 to change banks. With these 5 buttons and 1 pedal I can easily directly access any patch or scroll from 0 - 383 (forwards or backwards).

MIDIDINGS is a free Linux app that integrates with Python and standard Linux ALSA or Jack MIDI management to allow complete access to the MIDI stream from all connected devices. It's really an amazing tool! It makes the palm-sized R-Pi computer a perfect stage device for live MIDI processing. I double on keys and also wrote a MIDIDINGS script that allows me to play a bunch of hand-cramping repetitive keyboard chords using just one key.

I believe similar scripts can be written in Windows Visual Basic or other COM language interfaces and run using MIDIOX under the Windows OS. MIDIOX is another amazing free MIDI util originally developed for Win95 but it still works for me under Win7-x64 and likely under Win10 too.