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RE: Behringer FCB 1010 or other foot controllers?



For $10 more than the going $150 for the FCB1010, Sweetwater has the
MIDIMate. I've been using it for about 3 weeks and have found it
completely stable. Others have noted the shortcomings compared to the
FCB1010, in particular lack of momentary switches; I also wish it had a
MIDI in, and more than 1 expression pedal input. On the plus side, the
MIDIMate can transmit on all 16 channels, the FCB does not. 

If you are soured on the FCB 1010 and want a unit mainly to switch
patches on the fly, consider the MIDIMate. After reading these posts and
mulling it over, I'm going to stick with mine for the time being.

Hal Dean


-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Edmondson [mailto:edmondson5@comcast.net] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 1:03 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: RE: Behringer FCB 1010 or Digital Music Ground Control?


I thought the same - built like a tank. I've had two negative episodes
after now very long (brand new unit).

1) the midi in connector, mounted to the motherboard, began 'caving in'
toward the inside of the unit. Now I have to maneuver the midi cable
just right to be able to insert it.

2) at one of the gigs, I press a fcb1010 footswitch to perform a program
change on 2 roland gr-33's. instead of a horn patch, it called up a drum
patch! What a mess! I assume that I had pressed a bank up or something
by accident. It turns out that the fcb1010 had lost it's marbles for the
moment. It was reproducible by selecting a different footswitch and
coming back to the problem selection. After resetting the fcb1010,
everything was back to normal. I can only suspect that the ram content
were corrupted for some reason.

Cheap is as cheap does.

I've been on the lookout for a replacement ever since and I've decided
to enforce a 'no behringer' policy in my studio.

Also, it's a complete bear to program.

Not a big fan.

-----Original Message-----
From: S V G [mailto:vsyevolod@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 09, 2005 12:16 PM
To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
Subject: Re: Behringer FCB 1010 or Digital Music Ground Control?


     Dave,

     Behringer has been slagged a lot on this list as well as others.
Sometimes they really deserve it, as in their budget line of mixers.
Some people on this list swear by their higher end mixers, claiming them
to be superior to the higher priced Mackie's.  This is just to say don't
judge a company on only a few of their products.

     The FCB1010 is built like a tank, it should give many many years of
trouble free operation. 
Just make sure that the pedals are calibrated and that you clear out ALL
of the presets that come with it.  Also be sure to get the latest
EPROM's, you can usually call up the nearest factory outlet in your
country and they'll ship you the latest for free.  That was my
experience anyway. 
The switches are relatively quiet.  Once you get your head around how to
program it, it's easy.  I was never able or willing to go that far,
combined with realizing that it didn't fit my own playing style, so I
let mine go.

     I've never used the Ground Control Pro so I can't weigh in on that
unit.  If reliability is what you're after, you should be pretty happy
with the FCB1010.

         Stephen



> I have been pretty staunchly anti-behringer for
> years, I've justified this purchase by saying to myself that at least 
> I'm not passing audio through it. But I am worried about sturdiness, I

> play about 100 gigs a year and need stuff that is reliable and doesn't

> break. The good side of the Behringer is that it's almost unbelievably

> cheap, and seems to be very flexible as far as MIDI programmability.






                
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