Chase Bliss Brothers AM Help

B

bluewrag

Active Member
I purchased a Chase Bliss Brothers AM and I'm having the hardest time to getting presets to recall. I have the pedal set up on MIDI channel 4. My MIDI routing is as follows:

RJM -> MIDI pedal 1 IN -> MIDI pedal 1 OUT -> MIDI pedal 2 IN -> MIDI pedal 2 OUT -> Disaster Area MIDI box IN. After this, I have MIDI device 3 connected to the Disaster Area MIDI box, and then the Brothers AM also connected to the MIDI box. The Brothers AM is set up correctly according to the Disaster Area manual and dip switches.

I don't have an issue getting MIDI pedals 1-3 to receive messages, but Brothers AM is not recalling. I've attached screen shots of my settings as reference. According to the MIDI manual from Chase Bliss, the pedal takes PC messages, but it also has individual CC messaging to adjust parameters. I have both PC and CC messaging set up, but still no preset recall from the pedal. I'm just looking to recall a few presets per song section, not do anything crazy.

My only thought is that I should go from the RJM into the MIDI IN port on the Disaster Area box, and then connect the rest of my MIDI pedals to the box, rather than having the box as part of the MIDI chain, maybe that would make it work but I have not tried this.

These screen shots are for two different presets I am trying to recall, a band in and verse preset. In the band in preset, I want both foot switches on the pedal engaged and on the verse preset, I only want the second foot switch engaged. Both of these need to be presets I have already saved in the pedal, they are just not being recalled right now.
Screenshot 2026-01-23 at 4.02.23 PM.pngScreenshot 2026-01-23 at 4.03.13 PM.pngScreenshot 2026-01-23 at 4.03.28 PM.pngScreenshot 2026-01-23 at 4.04.04 PM.png
 
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Is the Brothers AM receiving CC messages? If it’s not receiving anything, then there are a couple things to check:
- What channel is the Brothers itself set to? Does it match the midi channel you set it to on the PBC? (looks like channel 4 in your screenshot)
- Is device 3 set to pass midi thru? Sometimes you have to enable that.

You’re right to want to put the DA midi box right after the PBC, that’s probably the best place for it so you can minimize the daisy chaining of your midi signal. If you do this, you don’t have to worry about midi thru passing the midi signal from one pedal to the next.
 
CC messages don’t seem to be translating either. The brothers itself is set to channel 4 and MIDI device 3 does not pass MIDI thru, I have that going into the disaster area MIDI box along with the brothers.

I attempted to go straight from the PBC’s MIDI out into the MIDI input of the disaster area, then hooked up the brothers to that via TRS and I am still getting nothing. The only thing I’m getting is a PC preset recall of the same thing - a brittle distortion from the pedal regardless of whether I save an individual preset and assign that via a PC message from the PBC.
 
bluewrag said:
The only thing I’m getting is a PC preset recall of the same thing - a brittle distortion from the pedal regardless of whether I save an individual preset and assign that via a PC message from the PBC.
Click to expand...
If you’re getting a response of any kind, then the midi connection itself is probably working and the issue is more likely about the configuration. It could be the dip switches (try every option, not just the one that should work for Chase Bliss). Or it could be the cable itself - make sure both the ring and the tip of one end of the TRS connect to the respective ring and tip of the other end. The other thing you could try is toggling the various checkboxes on the devices tab. I’m not sure what the Brothers needs, but sending redundant PCs or CCs on preset change seem like they might cause unexpected behavior.
 
My recommendation is to eliminate as much as possible;

(1) Save your existing PBC settings file.
(2) Perform a factory reset on the PBC to do a complete wipe of its settings.
(3) Create one device, the Brothers AM and make sure the MIDI channel assigned is the same the pedal is set to.
(4) In the Devices tab use the "Sequential PCs" option.
(5) Connect the PBC directly to the DA MIDI Box.
(6) Make sure the DA MIDI Box is set correctly for the Brothers AM and make sure the cable is also made properly and without fault.
(7) Connect the DA MIDI Box directly to the Brothers AM.

Go through the PBC presets to see if you get any response from the Brothers AM pedal.
 
Also, make sure that Brothers' MIDI channel is actually set correctly. They way their MIDI channel setup works, it's easy for the pedal to end up on the wrong channel. Make sure that when you're sending it a message to set the MIDI channel, you're sending only one message to the pedal. Selecting a preset on the Mastermind, for example, will usually send multiple PCs and CCs, which might result in it ending up on an incorrect channel.
 
Apart from the other tips peeps have said (such as be sure the MIDI channel is set correctly), one tip I have generally for CBA pedals and MIDI is I never use PC1 or PC2. These are the 2 presets available on the front panel switch of the Chase Bliss stuff and have generally always given me a headache and don't seem to save like the others.

So I always make preset 1 of the MIDI controller send PC121 and preset 2 send PC122 (generally the last presets CB support), then preset 3 sends 3, and 4 = PC4, and continue normal numbering from there. That's my default nowadays for anything Chase Bliss and saves some headaches.

Presuming your Brothers AM works like all Chase Bliss things I own (Brothers not-AM, Bliss Factory, and Mood MkII), it will save the state of both sides of that pedal in the preset. So if you're using CB presets and have default RJM set-up it should load the PC, then is setting the state of both sides with CCs. So that *should* work as long as the RJM is set up sending the PC messages before the CCs (otherwise you'll set foot switches and then recall a patch with possibly different pedal states). But you don't need to send on/off CCs as long as you're using different PCs for all your patches and save the patch with the sides set as you want.

Generally I have my RJM PBC and LTs to have "resend preset/midi on second button press" or whatever it's called. This means no matter what I've switched on or off in that patch pressing that preset button will reload the default state of the preset. But it also has the benefit of making it easy to save presets on any Chase Bliss stuff. You can then just hold down both fottswitches on the Chase Bliss thing and resend the preset from the RJM thing.

So it's not quite what you ask, but generally I'd try setting up your first patch to send something other than 1 (e.g. 121 or 101 for the reasons above) and the other to something other than 2 (e.g. 122). Then go to whichever preset you want. Set the Bros AM sides as required. Now press and hold both footswitches on the Bros AM. They'll flip wrong way as you pressed them both, but keep them held down and resend that patch from the RJM. You can now release the Bros buttons. That patch will now have been saved with those sides set as required, just change to another patch and back and it'll have that state it was before you held both foot switches down.

That way all my controller presets use a different Chase Bliss patch. If I want to change which side is set at any point I can just set them, press and hold both Chase Bliss buttons, resend the patch and I'm done. Lots of my patches don't always have either side of the CBA pedala on but they're all saved with a patch that would complement the rest of that preset if I choose to stick it on.

On which note, note that if the Chase Bliss pedal has no patch saved in that slot ever before it won't go "blank" or turn off when recalling the blank patch, it'll stay on the previous one. So you will need to program any of those other PCs >3 to have both sides off if you want them to use neither side. But as noted above, saving presets to the chase bliss pedals is a lot easier with that resend patch toggle on. Otherwise you have to go to a wrong preset, then set the brothers up how you want for a different patch, then hold both foot pedals and change to the patch with the PC you want it saved to. Makes no sense having to adjust the Bliss thing while everything else is set wrong, and I find being able to revert a patch to the saved state useful anyway (how else do I get back to my main sound after garnishing with various pedal spice on the fly?)
 
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(And what RJM say: I think you get it to learn MIDI channel by powering up while holding something, then sending it a message on a single MIDI channel and it'll learn that channel as the one to respond to. So you have to be sure its seeing a message on ONLY that channel during set-up). For that reason my boards have special hidden buttons programmed on far away pages that just send single messages for each button on only that device. If you send a normal general use patch change that tries to send messages to multiple devices you're pretty much guaranteed it'll pick up the first channel it sees: likely ch1 then not work as expected)
 
P.P.S. Also double check the polarity of some of the CCs. I'm sure something in the RJM notes or settings implied one pedal I had was 127 for bypass and 0 for on (or vice-versa) and it was actually the other way around. No idea if that was a CBA one or not though.

But yeah, there's a few idosyncrasies with getting some CBA pedals set-up, but once you've got it, they're then good as gold and seem rock solid.
 
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@Bluewater

FYI, I've replied to your Support Ticket #26055 emails a couple of times but it doesn't seem like you are receiving them, please check your email address and spam folder.

Also "...make sure that Brothers' MIDI channel is actually set correctly. They way their MIDI channel setup works, it's easy for the pedal to end up on the wrong channel. Make sure that when you're sending it a message to set the MIDI channel, you're sending only one message to the pedal. Selecting a preset on the Mastermind, for example, will usually send multiple PCs and CCs, which might result in it ending up on an incorrect channel."
 
Just jumping in on this thread with a CB BrAM issue, not sure if related to PBC/6X. I've set a "save" hold function on one of the PBC buttons, to save Chase Bliss presets (also have the Clean). Whenever I save on the BrothersAM, the opposite setting is saved - ie if I have the right side engaged, then hold down both buttons and the save button on the PBC, the left side will be saved as engaged. Same for both on/off, so I have to engage the opposite settings to what I want to save it, everything else seems to save as normal. Not sure if this is PBC related or pedal related
 
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