Newb Question: Changing presets on Strymon & H9

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xlol

Member
Hey there, please be patient with me, very new to guitar and especially new to MIDI controllers. I've been scratching my head over this. I simply can't get the PBC to change presets on the Strymon and H9. I have a newly installed PBC board, and it works well in turning on the loops.

Now I understand you can send PC messages to the Timeline, Big Sky and H9.

e.g. H9 preset 2 is "Shimmer" thus in the PBC editor editor under "PC Messages" menu make sure check box for H9 is on and make "PC: 2" to activate this preset.

I've done that all for my presets, transferred the changes to my PBC 1.0.5. But when I cycle through my presets from my PBC, it doesn't change my Timeline, Bigsky and H9 accordingly. The Timeline and Bigsky doesn't change at all.. and the H9 changes cycles to different presets. I'm confused and don't know how to fix. Can anyone help?
 

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That all looks correct so far. I would check the MIDI Receive channel settings on each of your MIDI devices - they have to match the MIDI channel settings you have in the PBC's Devices page.
 
Thanks for the response. I may need you to walk through this with me please. What is PC offset, Bank Type (H9 doesn't have by default has blank) and max blank?

I'm reading the MIDI specification section of the Strymon Timeline user manual for instance, and I don't know what CC# and Value Range means. It also says:

MIDI Patch changes:
TimeLine presets are arranged in 100 banks of 2 presets each for a total of 200 presets. MIDI access to these presets is available as MIDI program change messages. Via MIDI, the presets are numbered sequentially, for example: BANK 00A = MIDI program # 0 BANK 00B = MIDI program # 1 BANK 01A = MIDI program # 2 BANK 01B = MIDI program # 3 BANK 02A = MIDI program # 4 etc ... To access presets 0-127 via MIDI, send program change messages as shown above

How do I send program change messages as shown above? Do you change presets by assigning a CC# to the IA button, or is it done by PC numbering under PC messages? Thanks for your patience.

Update: Now I see that MIDI Patch banks enable me to access presets 0-127, and 128-199 respectively with banks 0 and 1.
 
The PBC settings look fine - you shouldn't need to change anything at all, except with the possible exception of MIDI channel. Click on each device in the left column and check the MIDI channel setting on the right. Make sure that Timeline is set to MIDI channel 1, Big Sky is set to channel 2 and H9 is set to channel 3.

Next, you need to get into the edit mode on the Timeline, Big Sky and H9 themselves. They each have their own setup menus where you can set the MIDI receive channel - this is described in each pedal's user manual. You have to make sure that the channel numbers you assigned on the PBC match the channel numbers assigned on the pedals.
 
Yes, the Timeline indeed is MIDI channel 1, Big Sky is set to channel 2 and H9 is set to channel 3. I've gone to the Global Presets and set the MIDI channel to correspond with that listed on the PBC device channel. It has not yet fixed the issue unfortunately.
 
I'm using PBC firmware 1.0.5, installed without any problems. Running the PBCEditor v.1.0.5 from the website. I've created presets and named, then in the "Presets" tab, assigned the respective PC numbers in the section "PC Messages".

So for example: Bank 00A in Bigsky and Bank 01A in Timeline with H9 Bank 2 Shimmer active the PC Messages I set would be:
BIGSKY: PC =1 TIMELINE: PC = 3 H9: PC = 2
Quite simple and straight forward in my opinion. So I applied this method to all my presets on the PBCEditor, saved it and "Transfer: Write changes to device"
The RJM PBC board brilliantly reflected all my presets and loops that I want on, the only issue is that the banked presets from Strymon Bigsky/Timeline and Eventide's H9 is NOT changing as I swap between PBC presets. You can observe this from the video.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/9799647/test6.mp4

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/aeg4oknulsnkn1o/AACKSZ40Kk5Fz0178HnbBOZ8a?dl=0
 
Did you try different midi cables ?
In the Global settings, you have to engage " MIDITH ON" on all devices
 
I can't try different MIDI cables because the wiring was professionally assembled. I am in touch with them and have expressed my curious concern over the cabling.

"MIDITH ON" is set. I definitely need help fixing this issue... :(

Out of curiousity, is there a difference in the PBC Editor between "Copy changes" and "Copy settings"?
 
I'm doing this without having the pedals in front of me, so I hope that I'm getting this right...

On the Strymon pedals: Push and hold the Value knob until the display reads GLOBAL. Turn the knob until the display reads MIDICH, then press the knob again. Turn the knob to set the channel number to match the channel set in the PBC editor. Then, press the Type knob. Now, turn the Value knob to get to MIDITH. Press the knob, then turn it to set it to ON. Press Type twice more to exit.

On the H9: Hold the HOTKNOB button and right footswitch until the display changes. Turn the knob until the display reads MIDI. Press the HOTKNOB button. Turn the knob until the display reads RCV CH. Press the HOTKNOB button. Turn the knob until the channel number shown matches the channel you chose for the H9 in the PBC editor. Press the PRESET button once. Then turn the knob until you get to OUTPUT. Press the HOTKNOB button. Turn the knob to set the value to THRU. Hold the HOTKNOB button and right footswitch button at the same time to exit setup.

In the editor "Send settings" means that it will send all of the settings from editor to the PBC. "Send changes" will send only the changes that have been made since the last time changes were sent to the PBC. This sometimes will make the transfer go faster, but not always.
 
Hey RJM, it's all done accordingly to what you have told me. It still doesn't apply the settings. Any more ideas? Thanks for your detailed instructions.
 
I'm having a similar issue. I'm trying to get a patch change on my Mobius. I have a PBC preset (preset 14) which includes a Mobius tremolo sound. I've created the sound in the Mobius and saved it to the first slot (bank00A). In the PBC editor's presets page, I've selected the device I created for the Mobius to go to bank 1 PC 0, and it works. Once. When I double checked it was working (by changing the patch directly on the Mobius to bank00B and then going to a different PBC preset and back) the PBC can't make it return to bank00A. It's like it can only change the patch once, and to do it again seems to require a transfer from the editor to the PBC. I don't know if I'm explaining this properly, but I've included a couple of screen shots of my editor setting. Cheers.

nb8x2w.png

2igyicw.png
 
Turn on the "Send Redundant PCs" checkbox. With that checkbox turned off, the PBC will not send the same PC number twice in a row. It doesn't know that you manually changed the preset on the pedal, so it thinks its still on 00A and doesn't need to send another PC to change it. With the checkbox on, it will send the PC every time. This feature is in there because some effects processors glitch when you send them a PC, even if it's sending the processor to the same preset.
 
Problem solved with help from RJM and Goodwood Audio
I'm completely amazed by the customer service support from GWA and their professional assembly guitar pedal boards. Extremely patient and kind, highly recommended with no regrets.
 
Thanks Ron, my problem solved as well! Another question though, how would I go about adding an actions to my preset that would put the Strymon pedals I'm not using into bypass? I may want to set up multiple Strymon pedals on the same PBC loop, so I would need to be able to bypass them via MIDI. Cheers!
 
I would recommend setting up another button page that has IA buttons, each of which controls the bypass state of one pedal. Then, in each preset, turn those buttons on or off to indicate whether the pedal is on or off. Make sure that "Send on preset change" and "Update on preset change" are turned on for these buttons so that they will send their MIDI messages when you change presets.
 
Hi Ron, I've never set up a button page before so I'm a little confused. So I click on the "Buttons" tab at the top of the editor, double click on one of the buttons to get to "Button Settings", then in the "General Settings" section, select "IA" from the "Button Type" dropdown menu, make sure "Send on preset change" and "Update on preset change" are turned on, then (I'm just guessing here), in "IA Actions" click "Add CC Action", select the MIDI device, e.g. Mobius, from the "Device" list, and "102: Bypass" from the "CC Number" list, and click "Done". If that's correct, how do I then set this bypass status for each of my presets? Thanks!
 
Simon - I encountered a similar issue to a Timeline/BigSky on/off setting here recently. I'm using a MMGT so my setup may be a bit different. Here's what I did:

Set up a bypass button like you did before. A shortcut would be to right-click the button on the main buttons page > Assign CC > Mobius (or other device) > Bypass. Double click the button to edit it, and, in the IA Actions section, click on the action name, and reverse the Off and On Values (default Off is 127, default On on 0; change those to Off = 0, On = 127). This transforms the button into a more reasonable button that better reflects your intentions, changing the On state to have your Mobius on, and the Off state turns it off. Strymon's great, but their MIDI implementation of "Bypass" seems backwards.

Send on preset change/update on preset change should both be checked. If not, check them. This will ensure the Mobius is on or off on any preset when you hit the preset button, and it's visual state is also updated.

Then, to enable your Mobius on a preset, go to that preset, and you'll see your buttons below. You can click on any button to turn them on or turn them off. For preset 1, if you want your Mobius on, then click the Mobius button, and it should highlight. If this is on a different button page, just page over (Page-/Page+) to the page where it is, and click it so it shows it as on. If you don't want it on, just leave it off (or turn it off if you had turned that button on before).

The PC section checked/unchecked status is simply whether or not a PC message is sent to that device. You can enable that or not. Not enabling it would leave the Mobius on the same preset as you were previously at; enabling it will call up a new preset. This is a little confusing, as unchecking does not disable the device - it simply does not send a PC to the Mobius.

Hope that helps.
 
Hi dougc84, I followed your instructions, and after scratching my head for a while about why it wasn't working, I tried ticking the "Send CCs on preset change" box in the Device Settings, which was off by default, and that did the trick - thanks so much for your help! The only issue I'm having now is that the song I'm trying to program in (I'm in song/setlist mode) has 6 presets, and button 6 doesn't take me to preset 6, it takes me to preset 1. Also, when I push button 1 or 6, both 1 and 6 light up. I've looked at Page 1 on the Buttons page, but can't see anything different for Preset 6.
 
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