Boss MD-500 - Turn on/off via MIDI -Please Help!

C

Cyber87

Well-Known Member
Hi Everyone,

So I have my board all setup - all pedals / loops working great. I have one issue though that I cannot seem to solve. I'm running a Boss MD-500 ( Pre / Post ) -not in loops. So output A of the MD 500 runs into the PBC In 1-4, and coming back into the MD500 Input B from the effects send, Output B runs into In 7-10 --Perfect all is good. The pedal functions as it should , manually switching between preset A and B. I'm trying to figure out how to turn the MD500 on and off via MIDI per PBC preset. Using the PBC Editor I have my MIDI devices all setup. On the Presets/Presets Action Page I setup CC's as I saw one person showed how to do in another thread and it did not work for me quite as expected, so I'm assuming I'm missing something else either in the PBC editor or in the MD500 settings. \

What ultimately happens is this- preset A on the MD500 turns off (as I want it to) when changing from PBC preset1 to PBC preset 2, BUT it automatically toggles the MD500 Preset B on. This is what I do not want. When I switch to PBC Preset 2, I want both A & B on the MD500 off. Does anyone know how to make this work? I did have it working briefly ( and yes, my midi cables are good). What I initially did was this:

MD-500 Effect A on / CC Toggle# 28 on:127
MD-500 Effect A on / CC Toggle# 28 on:0
MD-500 Bypass / CC Toggle #27 on:127
MD-500 Bypass / CC Toggle #27 on:0

I originally tried the first two CC's as another member pointed out. That just switched A of and B on. Once I added the last two CC's, where CC#27 is the bypass state for preset B it seemed to work, but I made a simple change on the devices page to the bank type and it stopped working. Even after I changed the bank type back, and transferred the changes, it still still didn't work. Just FYI - my settings on the MD500 are set to the proper midi channel and I'm using the MD500 in normal mode, so no instances of ever using both A & B presets at once.

I'd appreciate any suggestions.

Thank you,
Mark M
 
You may try setting the pedal up on a page as a bypass button that controls whether the pedal is bypassed or active. then on the presets page, whatever preset you choose maneuver to that page where the button is and use it as set the mode you want(active or bypassed).

As a matter of fact, I'd create a whole page dedicated to that pedal...you can control other easily assignable functions the same way.
 
Diezel,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate it. Will this work though since my pedal isn't connected to any of the loops? I'm just connected to the In1-4 and In 7-10 . I'm a noob with this, so sorry if this is a stupid question. When I was looking at the tutorial in the editor manual on how to do this, it looked like it was only for loop controlled pedals. Perhaps I am misunderstanding.
 
I'll try to help, but I hope it makes sense when I type it...haha. Hopefully this isn't too long...

First off, I DO NOT have the MD-500 and don't have any knowledge of it, so I can't speak to the actual CC numbers or anything.

Basically, what Diezel is telling you above it that when you have MIDI pedal NOT in loops, they obviously have to be told what to do for every preset. For example, it you want them both OFF in preset 1, but ON in preset 2, for preset 2 you have to tell them to turn ON (of course). However, you need to tell them to turn OFF on preset 1. In other words, you really need to TELL them what to do for EVERY preset. Sometimes you may be coming from a preset where they are ON to another preset where they are ON, so they are getting told to come on twice. Seems redundant. But, if you're like most, you may not always be "coming" from the same preset depending upon the day/setlist/song order/how you're feeling at the moment/etc. Does that make sense?

So, several ways to skin this cat...you COULD put IA actions in the "Preset Actions" tab for every preset, telling the pedals what to do (on or off) when that preset it loaded. Downside to this is, you have to do it all in the editor and it's cumbersome. Can't change things without a PC.

What I would do (and what Diezel is suggesting) is that you have a page on your PBC that has 2 IA buttons on it, one for each pedal (or in your case I guess...2 buttons for 1 pedal since I guess this thing has 2 sides). You would set the buttons up as IA Buttons with the "Send on preset change" and "Update State on preset change" CHECKED. What the second one does is basically make it so that the "state" of that button can be changed/saved per preset. So you would make the 2 buttons and make it so that pressing button 1 turns the pedal on, pressing again turns it off. Same thing on the second button for the other side of the pedal. Assign a color scheme so it's easy to see, say...green for on, red for off.

Then...stay with me here....when you are programming presets, you go to the preset buttons page (the one under the Presets tab up top) and navigate to the page that you created these buttons. This is where you are able to edit buttons PER PRESET. Here you click the buttons to the state you want them for the current preset. If you want side 1 ON and side 2 OFF for this particular preset, you make button 1 green and button 2 red. Send that to the PBC. So when you go to THAT preset on the PBC, those buttons will automatically send the state (side 1 ON, side 2 OFF). You then set the state of these buttons for every preset as you create them.

Why do this? It's much faster and easier to see in the editor and makes programming easy. Also, let's say you're standing on stage and you decide you need to make a change to this pedal for a particular preset. You navigate to the button page where these 2 buttons are, tap the buttons to make them how you want them, and then do an IA STORE (which is a button you probably already have on a page somewhere...top left button's hold function by default). Now when you go to that preset it will do this NEW setup...whatever you changed it to. No computer needed, and takes less than 30 seconds.

If any of that doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll try to help further. Seems a little confusing if you're new to the PBC (or sometimes even if you're not new....haha), but once you do it you'll see what I mean and it's super easy and convenient. Good luck!
 
Wow. Thank you so much! This step by step definitely helps me and is exactly what I will work on tonight when I get home. I really appreciate you taking the time to explain things so thoroughly.
 
@shoelesscraig , thanks for that detailed response. I had shoulder surgery and can't use my right arm right now, so typing anything on the forum is very hard with one left hand. ...I'm stuck in a chair so I can't do much else though. Glad we could help Mark. If I don't respond with a detailed response...shoe, please step in :).

Make a whole page dedicated to the MD-500. You have 16 pages and it's unlikely you'll use all 16. Have other command changes that change presets or parameters you like to use or want. This way you can add those easily to any presets.

In essence, a whole page will be called "MD500" and use all but two buttons do do whatever you want. The only ones I'd leave is your upper left button as main/store...and maybe another to navigate somewhere else if you like.

...ugh that was work with one hand!
 
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Diezel- many thanks to both you and shoelesscraig for the outstanding support here. I can't wait to get home to start working on it. Wishing you a speedy recovery from your surgery.
 
Ok, so I did everything described above, creating a page for the MD500 and assigning 2 buttons , one for effect A, and one for effect B. I set them up with green for on and red for off, and while it all makes sense to me, the area I'm having trouble with is the CC messages. Which one(s) to use. For the MD500, CC#27 is "bypass", CC#28 is "EFFECT A ON", and CC#29 is "EFFECT B ON". I've tried several variations, but I cant seem to get it to work. I thought since I'm using the cc toggle command that I could simply use the bypass CC message, but that doesnt seem to work. I'm also a bit confused on what values to use . 0 for off and 127 for on? It's all very confusing. I'd be most grateful for any further assistance on exactly which CC's I need to use and what values go where. Also, do I need multiple CC messages per button?
 
upload you .rjs editor file ...we can look at what your doing easier...as a side note make sure you set on a midi ch matching the pedal. i think you have a few modes as well on the pedal to set
 
Mark Mardjani said:
Ok, so I did everything described above, creating a page for the MD500 and assigning 2 buttons , one for effect A, and one for effect B. I set them up with green for on and red for off, and while it all makes sense to me, the area I'm having trouble with is the CC messages. Which one(s) to use. For the MD500, CC#27 is "bypass", CC#28 is "EFFECT A ON", and CC#29 is "EFFECT B ON". I've tried several variations, but I cant seem to get it to work. I thought since I'm using the cc toggle command that I could simply use the bypass CC message, but that doesnt seem to work. I'm also a bit confused on what values to use . 0 for off and 127 for on? It's all very confusing. I'd be most grateful for any further assistance on exactly which CC's I need to use and what values go where. Also, do I need multiple CC messages per button?
Click to expand...

Yeah, Boss' MIDI implementation section of the manual is crap, but from what I see I'm pretty sure it more or less follows a pretty typical control scheme. For what you listed, this will probably work:

Bypass: CC27 value 0 = Bypassed, value 127 = Effect on
Effect A: CC28 value 0 = Bypassed, value 127 = Effect on
Effect B: CC29 value 0 = Bypassed, value 127 = Effect on

That said, you don't actually need to understand that to make this work I think, as the PBC Editor already has Boss pedals programmed into it. As such, your procedure for this will be to set up the MD-500 as a device, then just set up the buttons to do what you want, letting the editor take care of the CC stuff. Here's a walkthrough for what you need to do:

1) Set up the MD-500 as a device on the Devices page. Make sure that the MIDI Channel is the same in the editor as it is on the MD-500 (according to the manual, you'll be looking for the Rx Channel setting). This ensures that the PBC is sending a signal that the MD-500 will receive, and that the MD-500 will actually be listening for it.
2) Make sure the other Device settings are as you want (For example: Do you want each preset to send a PC to change the preset on the MD-500 automatically? If so, make sure "Send PC's" is checked.)
3) Go to the button tab and open up the Button Settings for whichever button you want to edit
4) Clear out any existing IA Actions
5) Select "New Action"
6) Select Action Type "CC Toggle"
7) Set Device to the MD-500
8) On "CC Number", if you click the "Select CC" button, it will bring up a list of controllable actions. If you select one and hit ok, the editor will set everything as it needs to be as far as the CC settings go.

Hope that helps!
 
Thank you PianoMan. I am going to give this another go when I get home later. I'm good as far as setting the MD500 up in the devices page, that's been done and I know I have the same midi channel 4 assigned . I am able to send PC's to the MD500, so I know the MIDI is getting through. I am also good as far as setting the IA page settings where I select CC toggle and select MD500 and while I know how to select the different CC messages for the MD500 in the editor (I see the drop down list that pertains to that pedal and the CC#'s) I am confused as to which of the above commands that you listed to use for each IA preset.

To step back for a moment, I created a button page as per Diezel and Shoelesscraig's suggestion, where I have a page labeled MD500. I created an IA button for Effect A and one for Effect B, set green for on and red for off on both. When I try to save let's say both to off state for a specific PBC preset, one of the effect lights on the MD500 is always on even though I saved (transferred)them on the off state on the buttons page in the editor page for MD500, In other words, I can get it to switch, but not turn BOTH MD500 effects off at the same time. Do I put all three of these commands you listed above on both IA CC command pages (effect A and B) and in that exact order? I'm fairly certain that is where I am going wrong. That I'm either using the wrong order of CC commands, to many commands, or not enough commands per IA.
 
Diezel said:
upload you .rjs editor file ...we can look at what your doing easier...as a side note make sure you set on a midi ch matching the pedal. i think you have a few modes as well on the pedal to set
Click to expand...

Diezel- thank you. I'll upload it when I get home . As I mentioned to PianoMan who commented, I think my problem is simply the combination and/or order of the CC commands and on/off values I have set for each of the MD500 IA buttons. I know the correct on and bypass CC'#s for the MD500, I just cant get both MD500 effects to turn off at the same time. They toggle .
 
Ok, I think I get it. I can't say for sure since I haven't used Boss' stuff before, but I'm thinking the issue might be that you're sending redundant commands. If you're including on/off state messages for both effects A/B, then you don't really need to include a bypass message, as having both effects off is effectively the same thing. I'd try deleting the bypass CC messages to see if that makes a difference. Also, make sure that the "Send on preset change" and "update state on preset change" boxes are checked for each of the effect on/off buttons.
 
PianoMan said:
Ok, I think I get it. I can't say for sure since I haven't used Boss' stuff before, but I'm thinking the issue might be that you're sending redundant commands. If you're including on/off state messages for both effects A/B, then you don't really need to include a bypass message, as having both effects off is effectively the same thing. I'd try deleting the bypass CC messages to see if that makes a difference. Also, make sure that the "Send on preset change" and "update state on preset change" boxes are checked for each of the effect on/off buttons.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I'm pretty sure I've tried that previously, but I'll give it another shot. If it doesnt work I'll upload my RJS file as Diezel offered to review it for me . Thanks for your support.
 
Mark Mardjani said:
Thank you. I'm pretty sure I've tried that previously, but I'll give it another shot. If it doesnt work I'll upload my RJS file as Diezel offered to review it for me . Thanks for your support.
Click to expand...

I'm sure between all of us, we can help get it operational. Allowing us to review the file will probably give you quick results. We can make changes that you can test.
 
Diezel said:
I'm sure between all of us, we can help get it operational. Allowing us to review the file will probably give you quick results. We can make changes that you can test.
Click to expand...

Thanks Diezel. I can't thank you and the others in this forum enough for all the support .
 
Diezel said:
I'm sure between all of us, we can help get it operational. Allowing us to review the file will probably give you quick results. We can make changes that you can test.
Click to expand...


OK. I give up. I've tried everything I could think of. I've uploaded my .rjs file. I have only programmed the first two presets. Preset 2 is where have my trouble. For this preset. I have loops 5 & 6 active ( which I want ), and on button page 4 I setup a page for the MD500 as suggested,where I want both MD500 Effect Blocks turned off. I've transferred to the PBC, but Effect A light stays lit. Not sure what I'm missing.
 

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Try going to the Device tab and checking the box that says "send CC on preset change" for the MD-500. Let's try that first. Without that, those buttons can't send their status to the pedal when you change presets.
 
I can't help but think I should somehow be using the bypass CC as well. Although I did try changing the CC's on the MD500 IA buttons page to bypass, that didnt work.
 
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