Issue with PBC sending wrong reverb times to BigSky...

boyce89976

boyce89976

Well-Known Member
Ever since the new firmware, the PBC is sending funky reverb times to my BigSky. When first powered on all my reverbs go to the minimum decay times of the pedal. Rebooting the PBC causes the BigSky to then go to the maximum decay times. Rebooting the whole board at that point restores the decays to the preprogrammed times. Anyone experiencing something similar?

Ron, seen this one before?
 
No, I haven't seen that before. Do you have expression pedals or buttons that are programmed to control the reverb time?
 
I have a Mission RJM expression pedal that controls mix and decay, but it's currently set to not send values on preset change.
 
On power up, the PBC assumes the pedal is all the way up, and it sends messages out because it "sees" the pedal being moved to its actual position the first time it checks the pedal position. I'll have to create a bug fix that insures it doesn't send messages on startup.

Does changing presets get it back to the value stored in the BigSky preset? It should...
 
I don't think that's the problem as changing presets on the PBC won't restore the correct saved values on the BigSky... for example, every preset change changes the BigSky decay value to maximum for the corresponding patch on the BigSky. Yesterday I had to reboot the PBC almost 20 times before the correct values came up on the BigSky.

I'm going to try a factory reset, and reload the firmware to see if that helps. I sent you my settings file... no issues there that you could see?
 
I can see the GT send a burst of expression pedal messages when it starts up, which I would consider a problem, but it doesn't send any expression data when you change presets, which is correct behavior.

When you're switching presets on the GT, does it switch presets on the BigSky, or do you have it remaining on the same preset? If you're not switching presets, I wouldn't expect it to correct the mix level. But, if you are only using one preset, you could try turning on "Send Redundant PCs" on the GT for the BigSky device entry. That might make it reload the preset parameters like mix level.
 
When I switch presets on the PBC it switches presets on the BigSky and the presets are at the maximum (incorrect) decay values on the BigSky... or, the opposite happens and they are called up at the minimum decay values for every preset change on the BigSky from the PBC. If I switch presets manually on the BigSky, the decay values are correct. The PBC seems to be sending some kind of decay value to the BigSky. I've tried both on/off on "Send Redundant PCs" and it makes no difference. If you look at the first song in the settings file... preset 1 and 2 are two difference BigSky presets, while 3, 4 and 5 are the same as preset 2. If the decay value loads wrong on any of them, it remains wrong regardless of the preset chosen.

If I select "send value on preset change" on the Exp pedal, the settings are correct for the pedal position. I may just have to default to that setting for now, even though it's not optimal for my current setup.

I tried a factory reset and reinstalling the firmware last night with no success... same issue. I have 5 performances this week, so really need to figure this out.
 
Ok, I will get a BigSky hooked up and see what it does. I'm quite certain that the GT was only sending program and bank changes on preset changes, so I have to investigate the possibility that this is partially a BigSky issue (keeping the last received expression pedal setting and carrying it over to subsequent presets).

In the meantime, to get out of the state, you may need to power down the BigSky and power it up again. Do this after everything else on the board has powered up. The problem messages are being sent when the PBC powers up, so restarting the BigSky by itself will reset it and will not cause the PBC to send it any messages.
 
I'm not explaining the issue very well... I don't think it's an expression pedal issue because it happens on power up of the pedalboard. On initial power up, the BigSky is entering one of two states:
1) Maximum decay values -or-
2) Minimum decay values

Rebooting the PBC will eventually get the correct decay values to load on the BigSky, but Sunday it took literally 20 reboots of the PBC. Rebooting the BigSky has no effect on the state it's in (Max or Min decay values). In fact, it will power up with the correct value, but when a preset change is sent from the PBC it returns to either state 1 or 2. While in state 1 or 2, every preset change sent from the PBC to the BigSky remains in either that Max or Min decay value state. Now, when I say Max or Min, I'm not referring to the Max or Min range defined by the Expression pedal, I'm referring to the Max and Min ranges of the selected algo's in the BigSky. For example, on Preset 1 of Song 1, the max expression pedal decay for the BigSky is set to just over 3 seconds. When the pedalboard is powered on, the BigSky is either initiated at 20 seconds (max for that algo) or 500ms (min for that algo). The actual saved decay value for that algo is 7 seconds. Same thing on Preset 2 of Song 1, only the max value for that algo is 50 seconds!
 
Also, I never had this issue until the latest firmware. I may try going back a firmware version and see if that helps, just don't know when I'll have time to change it and spend with it to make sure I trust it live.
 
Ok, I spent a lot of time with a BigSky and a PBC. I updated the BigSky to its latest firmware (1.23) before testing. This is what I found:

1). The PBC sends messages based on the current position of the expression pedal when it powers up, except not if the pedal is all the way in the heel position. This is where the parameter changes are coming from.

2). Whenever I cause the preset to change on the BigSky, it will reload the saved parameter values, erasing any expression pedal changes until the expression pedal is moved again or the PBC is reset.

3). If you select another preset on the PBC that results in the same preset being recalled on the BigSky, the BigSky will not change its parameter values, even if "Send Redundant PCs" is turned on in the PBC.

This doesn't sound exactly like what you're seeing, so my next recommendation is to check the firmware on the BigSky and see if you're current.
 
Thanks for diving into it. This is not what I'm seeing. My expression pedal is in the heel down position when all of this craziness is happening. I'm checking to see if I have current firmware on the BigSky now.
 
Not sure if this will help, but when I can get the BigSky back to it's normal state by rebooting the PBC, I can reboot the BigSky over and over without seeing the fault come back.
 
With "send current value on preset change" clicked, it always presents the correct values based on pedal position. If I uncheck that, it all goes wonky again.
 
How many pedals do you have in your MIDI chain? Another thing to try is temporarily connect the BigSky directly to the PBC output. I've heard many stories of MIDI thrus corrupting data in weird ways, primarily Eventide pedals.

'Also, if you have a computer with a MIDI interface, connecting it to the MIDI thru of the BigSky and using a MIDI monitor to display the messages that come out would be extremely helpful in debugging this.
 
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