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Posted By: ronfowen Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/01/12 09:27 AM
My Computer - Toshiba Notebook Satellite with Pentium (R) dual core CPU holding 4 gb RAM and using Windows Vista - Home Premium 2007

I have software for deluxe Band In A box 2012

Purchased Scythe (HID) USB Triple foot switch at a price $53.90 (Aud) + delivery in Australia ($9.90)

Anyway loaded DVD disk to my computer and followed directions to allocated Keyboard keys to the pedals.
For pedal one - I assigned the SPACEBAR (This will play or pause a song that is running)
For Pedal 2 - I assigned CTRL + F3 (This opens SONGBOOK Index))

In BIAB I went into Options /Preferences and ticked the checkbox "Pause Play until MIDI or Key received"
Then
With a song playing I can press the No1 pedal and pause/Start play.
By pressing No 1 footpedal twice after the Stop/Pause I can Play/Restart the song (Don't know why it has to be twice other than a message comes up after first press of pedal)

On Number 2 pedal,with CTRL+F3 assigned I can open the Songbook menu in BIAB where I can see a full screen of songs in the selected folder.

I have not gone any further with this to date and still have no 3 pedal unassigned, but I am very happy with this new aspect of control.
Posted By: Pat Marr Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/01/12 02:12 PM
youtube demo of this product:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbDwBiZj91o



NewEgg product description and price:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812999263



alternatives from Delcom:

http://www.delcomproducts.com/products_USBFSW.asp
Posted By: jazaddict Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/04/12 06:47 AM
I got a 3-pedal off Ebay for $26. It took some fiddling to understand the interface; shipped direct from Taiwan. No idea the brand; it says "Foot Switch" and it works so far.

I too put the first pedal on a space,

Pedals 2 and 3 are for use in the Conductor.

Pedal 2 "Loop current section" (can't remember the letter)
Pedal 3 "Stop looping"

The kicker is that you have make sure the focus of the cursor isn't in a text box or it will type the space or letters there. I keep it on a check box, and works fine.
Posted By: allis Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/04/12 12:42 PM
Quote:

I got a 3-pedal off Ebay for $26.



I'm glad to hear others have had good luck with these! Cheap plastic pedals from Hong Kong look shaky in eBay ads, but they last all right in practice. I have used an $8 single pedal of that same sort steadily for 4 years without trouble. It doesn't suffer much of a beating used only at home.

Programmed to send <spacebar>, it will start and stop many sequencer programs; that's a common function. The single pedal is compact under the piano or guitar stool. Multi pedal models provide more function, but start-and-stop is the main thing needed.
Posted By: Danny C. Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/06/12 07:00 PM
Has anyone tried any of these pedals for live gigs? I know it can handle stop, play and pause but could it be programed to get to a playlist or folder and then make a selection?

If it will do this I'll get an order in ASAP.

Thanks,
Posted By: Pat Marr Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/06/12 08:38 PM
Quote:

Has anyone tried any of these pedals for live gigs? I know it can handle stop, play and pause but could it be programed to get to a playlist or folder and then make a selection?

If it will do this I'll get an order in ASAP.

Thanks,




Danny, I think that each pedal can be programmed to send keyboard keystrokes to the computer... so anything that can be accessed by single stroke hotkeys should be do-able with a foot pedal. I believe the manual has a list of hotkeys near the end. Also, the dropdown menus show hotkeys for the same menu command.

so F3 opens a file
the down and up arrows scroll through a list
the ENTER key selects the highlighted song

all of those commands should be programmable into a pedal, so I would say that the answer to your original question is "yes"

When you look at the list of things that can be controlled by hotkeys, it seems like one could easily use several of these pedals.

disclaimer: I don't have one of these pedals, so this response is based on product claims, not on experience
Posted By: Danny C. Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/06/12 08:58 PM
Pat,

Thanks for the quick reply. I am so encouraged by your assesment that I will contact one or more of the switch builders to get the definitive answer.

I'll keep all posted.

Now you can take the rest of the day off!

Thanks again,
Posted By: ronfowen Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/06/12 10:53 PM
Hi Danny - I have not used this pedal in live performance yet as I am still compiling my reportoire of songs, but as I said in my original post (Quote)

"In BIAB I went into Options /Preferences and ticked the checkbox "Pause Play until MIDI or Key received"
Then
With a song playing I can press the No1 pedal and pause/Start play.
By pressing No 1 footpedal twice after the Stop/Pause I can Play/Restart the song (Don't know why it has to be twice other than a message comes up after first press of pedal)

On Number 2 pedal,with CTRL+F3 assigned I can open the Songbook menu in BIAB where I can see a full screen of songs in the selected folder.

You can assign most single keyboard functions to a single pedal such as a Spacebar. When you open the dialogue box to assign a single keystoke there are also three checkboxes that you can click on (SHIFT or CTRL or ALT). In my case to open the Songbook menu I selected CTRL checkbox and then select F3 key. When operated Songbook opens. From there I would have to use the keyboard to scroll the songlist and then ENTER on keyboard to activate the song.
There are other footpedals available on the market that are programmable, but I believe you need to purchase software to support these.
I am toying with the idea for Live performance of using the Jukebox function in BIAB with a pause of say 2-5 seconds between songs so that I could have a automatic play of all songs within a selected folder and using the pedal to Pause/Restart the Jukebox if I wanted to. Hope this will help you
Posted By: Danny C. Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/06/12 11:13 PM
ronfowen,

Thanks for the response and good luck with the gigs, you will have a blast with BIAB.

Also keep us posted on the progress of the foot pedal.

I love the jukebox function . . . My suggestion for you there regarding the 2-5 second in-between songs is TOOOO quick for me man, I like the 6 - 12 second delay, gives me time to intro the next tune. But others milage will vary, stole that line from Mac.

Best to ya!
Posted By: Pat Marr Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/07/12 03:46 PM
here's a link to an ad for another pedal that is used by some people to control BIAB conductor in live performances. Plenty of pedals here to control things


http://www.musiciansfriend.com/keyboards...ktid=37-3670963
Posted By: Tony Wright Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/08/12 11:30 AM
Quote:

I am toying with the idea for Live performance of using the Jukebox function in BIAB with a pause of say 2-5 seconds between songs so that I could have a automatic play of all songs within a selected folder and using the pedal to Pause/Restart the Jukebox if I wanted to. Hope this will help you




I also select "pause until midi or key received" and then use a foot switch to start each song in the Jukebox when I am ready to play - usually after introducing a song. However you cannot stop and restart a song once it starts playing otherwise it will cancel the Jukebox and you have to restart it from the beginning of the song list. I have done this accidently and it is not very professional during a live performance. I have often asked for a feature to "freeze" the jukebox once it is started so that you cannot lose your place in the sequence of songs, but no-one else seems interested.

Tony
Posted By: ronfowen Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 05/09/12 11:09 AM
Hi Tony,
Thanks for the warning about not being able to pause and restart songs in Jukebox with the pedal switch once they have started to play. I was kinda interested in doing that in at least one of the songs that I'm putting together. I wonder why nobody appears to be interested in this requirement? Has anybody got any ideas of how to get around this?
Posted By: Paj Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 07/21/12 08:41 PM
Alt-p will stop/pause playback
Alt-r will resume playback from the pause point.

I would guess that these are the codes that have to be programmed for the footswitch.

I just did a "usb footswitch" search on eBay and a number of vendors/options came up. I think I'm going to try one of the 3-way switches---they're inexpensive enough . . .

Paj
8^)
Posted By: tonnie Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 07/31/12 01:13 PM
Anyone knows if it would be possible to programme pedal 3 to fade the song presently playing and then when a new song is selected it would play back at the normal volume? I want to use this in a live gig situation when someone signals to e.g. make a speach.

Tonnie
Posted By: Pat Marr Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 07/31/12 03:31 PM
Quote:

Anyone knows if it would be possible to programme pedal 3 to fade the song presently playing and then when a new song is selected it would play back at the normal volume? I want to use this in a live gig situation when someone signals to e.g. make a speach.Tonnie



The easiest way to do a live fade is to put a volume pedal somewhere in the chain between your backing tracks and your PA. It would also let you adjust volume on the fly if your backing tracks aren't all at the same intensity. Likewise, if the club owner asks you to "turn it down", you can do so immediately without even pausing the song. A volume pedal in the chain is useful in lots of ways.

And if you ever need to sound like a chipmunk or Darth Vader, a whammy pedal located somewhere between your mic and your PA can stir up some interesting audience reaction.
"LUUKE! COME TO THE DARK SIDE!"
Posted By: eddie1261 Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 08/01/12 03:15 AM
Now let me throw a wrench in here. Pedals connect to a USB port. The USB bus doesn't really know WHAT is connected to it, just that SOMETHING is connected to it. The human interface type devices all have a "code", a hardware ID that identifies it.

If, as in a previous post, you use one pedal for f3 to open, another pedal for scrolling, and the third for enter, you run out of pedals before you get to "play".

So how about adding a second set of pedals?

In theory, they SHOULD get a unique hardware ID and not conflict with the first set. (In theory....) That would give you 3 more actions for your pedals to perform.

I LOVE being "that guy" in the forums....
Posted By: Pat Marr Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 08/01/12 05:39 AM
If anybody on the forum has tried using more than one pedal, I'd like to hear how it worked. My guess is that 2 of the same brand would have a higher likelihood of a hardware conflict than two pedals of different brands. But, maybe not.
Posted By: allis Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 08/02/12 12:57 AM
Since nobody's answering from direct experience...

On my piano, I have a second mouse, a second keyboard, a touchpad, and one of those foot pedals, all hooked up through a USB hub. They stay nicely out of each others' way, and they have caused no conflict with the same peripherals located on the desk. Just grab any mouse that's handy, and it mouses. Type half the line on one keyboard and do the other half on the other, if you want.

If that mess works on Windows XP, I should be very surprised if two foot pedals failed to live peacefully together. USB is just very good about these things.


EDIT I thought of one potential problem. The software has three slots, assigning different keystroke values to as many as three pedals. They are programmable HID keyboards with one key each. The software works for pedals wired together as one. Whether it can program two or three separate pedals is not clear. [Eddie posted about the same problem below, while I was laboring though this.] Personally, I won't bother finding out, because one pedal is only slightly useful, and the second would have nothing to do.
Posted By: eddie1261 Re: Footswitch control of BIAB - 08/02/12 12:09 PM
From a computer bits and bytes perspective, there is no reason a 2nd set of pedals SHOULDN'T work. RB doesn't know WHAT is sending a command, just that something is. Since I have never owned pedals, let me ask someone who does this question. When you run the software that is used to assign pedals to a keystroke, does the software need to keep running or does that info get stored into an ini file, run when you start it to invoke the use of the pedlas and then stop (terminate stay resident) or does it run in the background all the time to hold that configuration? If it is the latter, I would have my doubts that 2 of the same model would work because both of them want to have a pedal called "A", of "Left" or "1" or whatever.

The dual mouse and keyboard scenario is not going to be the same thing because those things are human interface devices and don't have a configuration to make it assignable. By that I mean that the "X" key is always the "X" key unless you do a keyboard map. In that case, you would again be involving a configuration, but I think I have known exactly 3 people in 30 years of tech support who remapped their keyboard. My keyboard has the ; and the ' switched because when I type, I ALWAYS hit the ; when I want an ' , so I just switched the keys, first logically on a keyboard map and then physically on the keyboard.

2 sets of pedals running different mapping software seems to be the issue, not how many USB devices.
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