Mesa Midi Matrix Setup

CaliCaveman

Active Member
Hi all,

I just picked up the Mesa Boogie Midi Matrix so I can control some Mesa amps via midi for my PBC/6X.

https://mesa-boogie.imgix.net/media/User Manuals/MidiMatrix-8.5x11-web.pdf

I have the Mesa box working fine for my Roadster when pressing the buttons manually. So, the next step is to setup Midi. I set the midi channel to 16 and made a custom page in the RJM to setup IA buttons to control the channels of the amp. I'm using the "generic" manufacturer and "PC/CC Device" for model. Based on the Mesa manual, I think I should be using bank type "MSB" and set it to 250 presets. I have the "send PC's" and "Send CC's on preset change" selected for the device.

When pressing a button assigned for channel switching, I see the Mesa device blink red on the store button which according to the manual indicates a midi message was received, but it's either not the correct midi channel or message type. I'm pretty sure it's not the midi channel as I'm not new to midi and I understand that basic idea. I guess the Mesa box does not like the message type it's receiving. I've tried setting some different parameters to troubleshoot, but it's still not working yet.

According to the manual, with the setup I have for the amp I'm using, I should be able to send CC messages #111-118 to correspond to the switch buttons 1-8 on the Mesa unit.

Does anyone have any experience with the Mesa Midi Matrix yet? I know it's new. I can call Mesa at some point if necessary, but I'm wondering if there's just something silly I'm not doing correctly. I'm no expert that's for sure.

Thanks.

Update: I'm able to make PC changes work although it's not something I want to do. This confirms my midi channel setup is working properly, but sending CC messages does not engage any of the switches on the mesa box.
 
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Hey there. Registered to help you out since I was having the EXACT same problem with my RJM PBC 10 and my Road King II.

TL;DR version is that you need to:
-Power-up the MIDI Matrix with Store + Button 6 held
-Press Button 4 to select Range #2 (CCs 111-118)
-Press Store to save the settings and restart the MIDI Matrix

After doing the above, mine started to work with PCs and CCs as I had expected.

Pages 32 and 33 with the "Linked All Off & MIDI Settings (Store + Button #6)" section should have the detailed info for you.
 
Hey there. Registered to help you out since I was having the EXACT same problem with my RJM PBC 10 and my Road King II.

TL;DR version is that you need to:
-Power-up the MIDI Matrix with Store + Button 6 held
-Press Button 4 to select Range #2 (CCs 111-118)
-Press Store to save the settings and restart the MIDI Matrix

After doing the above, mine started to work with PCs and CCs as I had expected.

Pages 32 and 33 with the "Linked All Off & MIDI Settings (Store + Button #6)" section should have the detailed info for you.

Dude! Thank you!

I’ll go test and report back. Wow, totally thank you.
 
Heck Yeah!

Ok, that worked and fixed it perfectly. Thank you so much for the help. I owe you one.
Cool. Glad it worked out.

I mean, what are the chances we essentially had the same amps that require the same settings with the same stumbling blocks within 24h? There can't be many of these out there, let alone many working with PBCs as of today. Wild.

I pre-ordered the MIDI Matrix months ago, and it showed up only a few days ago. I had preemptively made a button page to control it and everything. Got serial #36. I had been planning to use the RJM Mini Amp Gizmo previously, but was struggling trying to figure out how to mount it to a pedalboard in a way where the buttons were accessible and readable easily. Then the MIDI Matrix appeared, and the form factor is better for a pedalboard, IMO.

Also, maybe not something you want to do on the 6X, but on the PBC 10, I even got that (1,2,3 OFF = CH4) thing to work on a 4th button. I do CC 111 ON, then 112 113 and 111 OFF. Didn't seem to work when I just did them all OFF without first turning one ON. Not sure why...
 
Cool. Glad it worked out.

I mean, what are the chances we essentially had the same amps that require the same settings with the same stumbling blocks within 24h? There can't be many of these out there, let alone many working with PBCs as of today. Wild.

I pre-ordered the MIDI Matrix months ago, and it showed up only a few days ago. I had preemptively made a button page to control it and everything. Got serial #36. I had been planning to use the RJM Mini Amp Gizmo previously, but was struggling trying to figure out how to mount it to a pedalboard in a way where the buttons were accessible and readable easily. Then the MIDI Matrix appeared, and the form factor is better for a pedalboard, IMO.

Also, maybe not something you want to do on the 6X, but on the PBC 10, I even got that (1,2,3 OFF = CH4) thing to work on a 4th button. I do CC 111 ON, then 112 113 and 111 OFF. Didn't seem to work when I just did them all OFF without first turning one ON. Not sure why...

Bro, this is crazy, it's exactly the issue I'm having right now.

I just tried what you figured out for the RK, but I'm trying to do it via an IA cycle so I can put all the channel switching on one button. It's not working though. I can cycle through channels 1-3 for the amp switching, but when enabling channel 1, it turns on the FXloop too. I don't know why. Also, when hitting channel 4 in the cycle, I was just basically setting channel 3 in reverse to turn it off for the last step out of 4 steps, and everything turns off on the midi matrix which should tell the roadster to turn on channel 4, but it doesn't work.

When you follow the quick start guide, it tells you to boot the unit with "#1 button" and "store" button pressed so you enter the "Mesa Pre-configuration mode". then I select button two for the CC#111-118 like you and the manual state to do for RK and Roadster. Doing this allowed me to do PC changes, but not CC changes. Well, now when doing "#6 button" and "store" button like you suggested, the CC#'s are working, but when making sure buttons 1,2, and 3 are off which should trigger channel 4 to be on, does not work. Also, in this mode, I thought PC changes are also supposed to work, but that doesn't seem to be working either.

If I can get the IA cycle to work for channel 4 somehow, I would be a happy camper. I need to know what CC# or combo would work. I tried your method, but are you doing the 4th button as an IA cycle by turning on CC 111, then next step turning 111-113 off?
 
Ok, crisis over and it's working correctly now. I don't know why CC messages weren't working properly using the pre configuration setup per the manual the first time, but it's working now after going through the setup again with the below method.

So, for the Roadster:

1. Power on unit with "button 1" and "store" button pressed to set the device to "Mesa Pre-configuration"
2. Release buttons and while store is still red, press "button 2" which is what the Roadster should be using (Road King as well)
3. With button 2 green and store lit red, now press store again which activates button 2 and should also activate CC#111-118 (Range #2 per the manual).
4. Power cycle the unit for correct settings to take affect.

For whatever reason, the unit is responding to CC messages now in that mode, and if buttons 1,2, and 3 are off, channel 4 on the amp engages like it should. So, I created the IA Cycle with 4 steps and its working:

Step 1:
turn on 111 (Ch 1 amp)
Step 2:
turn on 112 (Ch 2 amp)
Step 3:
turn on 113 (Ch 3 amp)
Step 4:
turn off 113 (by reversing on and off messages and this turns of ch 3 of amp and the unit turns on ch 4)

Perhaps you should try this again on yours as I think for both our amps, this is the process that should work. When going from channel to channel, the unit automatically turns off the other channels so no other configuration was needed for this to work.
 
I haven't tried the Cycle IA setup for the MIDI Matrix, but my "switch to CH4" button reads like this after some refinement:

MIDI Matrix / CC Toggle #111 off:None on:0
MIDI Matrix / CC Toggle #112 off:None on:0
MIDI Matrix / CC Toggle #113 off:None on:0

Since I can hit CH1, CH2, or CH3, THEN CH4 instead of cycling to it, I have to make sure they're all off.

Earlier I started by turning CH1 on:127, then following up with the rest off again, then it worked. But I think it also just happened to coincide with me tweaking some other settings along with it. I didn't have to turn a channel on, after all. Just shut 'em all off. Boom. CH4 appears. As one would expect.

I still think it's a little weird that they don't have a CC for the Store on this. Makes me just want to utilize the PBC for programming entirely.

The Chase Bliss Audio pedals do similar where you can't exactly replicate the holding down of the stomp buttons on the pedal, so you have to physically hold both with one hand and resend the PC# you want to save your preset to with another hand on the PBC.

I'm trying to eliminate bending over and squatting, and you just... can't.
 
I haven't tried the Cycle IA setup for the MIDI Matrix, but my "switch to CH4" button reads like this after some refinement:

MIDI Matrix / CC Toggle #111 off:None on:0
MIDI Matrix / CC Toggle #112 off:None on:0
MIDI Matrix / CC Toggle #113 off:None on:0

Since I can hit CH1, CH2, or CH3, THEN CH4 instead of cycling to it, I have to make sure they're all off.

Earlier I started by turning CH1 on:127, then following up with the rest off again, then it worked. But I think it also just happened to coincide with me tweaking some other settings along with it. I didn't have to turn a channel on, after all. Just shut 'em all off. Boom. CH4 appears. As one would expect.

I still think it's a little weird that they don't have a CC for the Store on this. Makes me just want to utilize the PBC for programming entirely.

The Chase Bliss Audio pedals do similar where you can't exactly replicate the holding down of the stomp buttons on the pedal, so you have to physically hold both with one hand and resend the PC# you want to save your preset to with another hand on the PBC.

I'm trying to eliminate bending over and squatting, and you just... can't.

Your config for channel 4 makes sense for a dedicated button.

I’m going to mess with a PC change later as the mode I’m in is supposed to allow PC changes too I think. In theory I should be able to have a PC that stores an all channels off preset and I just recall that for channel 4 on a dedicated button, but your method is working so that’s cool. I’m just happy to have midi on this beast finally.

Actually, nope, the unit is in the mode for CC#’s and won’t respond to PC changes, so your method is the only way to hit channel 4. Thanks.
 
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I'm really glad I found this, but unfortunately going down this rabbit hole has given me more grief than I was originally expecting. Im not using a road king, but a mark 5. I went through the series of steps above and was able to get CC control of channels, EQ, boost, Loop, verb, etc... I had those dedicated on it's on page in my PBC10. It worked great at first, but now seems like something is going wrong because I'm having to press the CC button multiple times for it to send the message to the amp to change channels. In addition to that, I'm completely unable to save presets with CC changes (preset one clean channel with loop 7 chorus, to preset 2 Crunch Channel with delay). I'm not sure what happened or what's going on. Come to think of it, once I factory restored it, I cant even get the amp to change channels via PC changes.
 
I'm really glad I found this, but unfortunately going down this rabbit hole has given me more grief than I was originally expecting. Im not using a road king, but a mark 5. I went through the series of steps above and was able to get CC control of channels, EQ, boost, Loop, verb, etc... I had those dedicated on it's on page in my PBC10. It worked great at first, but now seems like something is going wrong because I'm having to press the CC button multiple times for it to send the message to the amp to change channels. In addition to that, I'm completely unable to save presets with CC changes (preset one clean channel with loop 7 chorus, to preset 2 Crunch Channel with delay). I'm not sure what happened or what's going on. Come to think of it, once I factory restored it, I cant even get the amp to change channels via PC changes.
Did you double check the midi channel is set correctly after the reset?
 
Did you double check the midi channel is set correctly after the reset?
I did, I went ahead and did a factory reset a few more times, and basically got it back to only working with program changes, I really wish that there was a way to utilize the midi matrix for program changes and CC changes, because I like to use the PBC for overall presets, but would like the flexibility of having instant access to change channels or features on a whim.
 
I did, I went ahead and did a factory reset a few more times, and basically got it back to only working with program changes, I really wish that there was a way to utilize the midi matrix for program changes and CC changes, because I like to use the PBC for overall presets, but would like the flexibility of having instant access to change channels or features on a whim.

So, you can do this actually by setting up a page for just the foot controller settings via CC messages. Dedicate a page for the foot controller buttons and then just setup your presets by turning off and on the desired settings on that page for the preset via the PBC (not storing presets on the midi matrix). Make the page visible in your page list on the PBC and now you can manually make changes any time to functions on the fly by accessing that page you created. For example, you select your preset 1 created in the PBC and then page over to the foot controller page you created and now you can turn off and on features there manually without changing the preset you're in. It sounds like you had it set this way before, but you should be able to do this method to have the flexibility of PC's and CC's at the same time.

In general for my amps, I tend to setup dedicated pages this way so I can activate a preset and then still have access to all the amp functions manually as if I had the foot controller on the floor. It's just accessed via the PBC instead of the actual foot controller. For the Roadster in my case, I actually have 1 button set to cycle through the 4 channels so I can fit all the features on one page.
 
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So, you can do this actually by setting up a page for just the foot controller settings via CC messages. Dedicate a page for the foot controller buttons and then just setup your presets by turning off and on the desired settings on that page for the preset via the PBC (not storing presets on the midi matrix). Make the page visible in your page list on the PBC and now you can manually make changes any time to functions on the fly by accessing that page you created. For example, you select your preset 1 created in the PBC and then page over to the foot controller page you created and now you can turn off and on features there manually without changing the preset you're in. It sounds like you had it set this way before, but you should be able to do this method to have the flexibility of PC's and CC's at the same time.

In general for my amps, I tend to setup dedicated pages this way so I can activate a preset and then still have access to all the amp functions manually as if I had the foot controller on the floor. It's just accessed via the PBC instead of the actual foot controller. For the Roadster in my case, I actually have 1 button set to cycle through the 4 channels so I can fit all the features on one page.
Interesting, i thought that you had to set up the midi matrix to use only PC’s or ONLY CC’s. If i could have individual presets that switch settings via PC and then be able to use the CC IA page for smaller changes (eq, solo, verb, etc…) in real time would be a game changer
 
Interesting, i thought that you had to set up the midi matrix to use only PC’s or ONLY CC’s. If i could have individual presets that switch settings via PC and then be able to use the CC IA page for smaller changes (eq, solo, verb, etc…) in real time would be a game changer

You leave the Midi Matrix to use CC's only, but by setting up a dedicated page on the PBC that controls all the amp functions on that page, now you can go to presets on the PBC and just edit the page you created for each preset on the PBC. So if you want channel one with eq and no loop, you turn on or off those features on that page which is using CC's to turn on and off those functions dedicated to buttons on the page for that particular preset.

Leaving that page visible in your global settings so you can cycle through your presets and then to your page setup to control the amp settings like a foot controller then give you the flexibility to make changes to the amp settings on the fly while that preset is active. See below where I have functions dedicated to foot switch settings on a custom page. In this preset, I have Step 4 active for that switch which calls up channel 3 on my Roadster. So whenever I hit preset 10 on my presets page, the amp switches to channel 3......I then have that page visible from the global settings so I can page over to that Roadster page while in preset 10. If I want to change something on the fly now, I can do that. There's no need to use anything but CC's from the Midi Matrix this way. You have your cake and eat it too setup this way. Does that all make sense?

If I want to modify that preset, I just click on the buttons I want on or off and when I select preset 10 in the presets page, they will be active. I can always access that page while in the preset to make changes on the fly.



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You leave the Midi Matrix to use CC's only, but by setting up a dedicated page on the PBC that controls all the amp functions on that page, now you can go to presets on the PBC and just edit the page you created for each preset on the PBC. So if you want channel one with eq and no loop, you turn on or off those features on that page which is using CC's to turn on and off those functions dedicated to buttons on the page for that particular preset.

Leaving that page visible in your global settings so you can cycle through your presets and then to your page setup to control the amp settings like a foot controller then give you the flexibility to make changes to the amp settings on the fly while that preset is active. See below where I have functions dedicated to foot switch settings on a custom page. In this preset, I have Step 4 active for that switch which calls up channel 3 on my Roadster. So whenever I hit preset 10 on my presets page, the amp switches to channel 3......I then have that page visible from the global settings so I can page over to that Roadster page while in preset 10. If I want to change something on the fly now, I can do that. There's no need to use anything but CC's from the Midi Matrix this way. You have your cake and eat it too setup this way. Does that all make sense?

If I want to modify that preset, I just click on the buttons I want on or off and when I select preset 10 in the presets page, they will be active. I can always access that page while in the preset to make changes on the fly.



View attachment 2420
Does this set up then allow you to store multiple presets in a sauna that have different amp settings?

for example:
Song one contains four presets:
1) clean channel with EQ, compression and reverb
2) clean channel with no EQ, boost pedal, and overdrive pedal
3) crunch channel with EQ, reverb and delay pedal
4) lead channel with delay, reverb, and solo boost

Now, say I am in the middle of a song, and I am feeling that I want my second preset to be the crunch channel with a boost and overdrive, does this set up allow me to do that, and then also switch back between preset one or preset three?
 
Does this set up then allow you to store multiple presets in a sauna that have different amp settings?

for example:
Song one contains four presets:
1) clean channel with EQ, compression and reverb
2) clean channel with no EQ, boost pedal, and overdrive pedal
3) crunch channel with EQ, reverb and delay pedal
4) lead channel with delay, reverb, and solo boost

Now, say I am in the middle of a song, and I am feeling that I want my second preset to be the crunch channel with a boost and overdrive, does this set up allow me to do that, and then also switch back between preset one or preset three?

I don't use song mode if that's what you're doing, so I'm not sure if you can use the page button to move off of the song page and over to the foot controller page you setup to make manual adjustments there or not, but I would think you can.

I just use preset page, loops, page, and custom foot controller page. If you're doing it like that, yes, you just have to hit the page button to activate the loops page, then select the boost loop to on, then page over to the foot controller page, then select the crunch channel. That becomes a tap dance and defeats the purpose. You would be better off just adding additional presets to your song if in song mode so you just tap a button once to make all that happen.

Alternatively, you can use the hold function on a button there by doubling your preset count for a song to 8 buttons for example based on your 4 presets above. If you just hold the button down on any preset, you could activate what you're wanting to do, then press the button again to go back to the normal preset for that button.

If you haven't spent any time watching Ron's tutorial videos, you should dig in and check those out to learn the ins and outs. I'm really glad he made those as they are great reference material and probably cut down on his questions in the forums I imagine.
 
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