Whammy Setup

S

stringtheorist

Well-Known Member
Can anyone help troubleshoot my Whammy DT device setup? I have it set to MIDI channel 2 in Devices (checked this is the same on the DT). I have an IA button set up to transmit PC change. Cabled up directly from PBC MIDI Out to the DT's MIDI In. DT setting doesn't respond to button press. (Send On Preset Change and Update State On Preset Change are both checked.)
 
That sounds correct to me. Either your cable's bad, your PBC's MIDI output isn't working, or the Whammy's MIDI input isn't working. I would start swapping cables, or connect another pedal (set to MIDI channel 2) in place of the Whammy to see if it responds.

One more setting to check as well: make sure Send PCs is turned on for the Whammy on the Devices tab.
 
rjmmusic said:
That sounds correct to me. Either your cable's bad, your PBC's MIDI output isn't working, or the Whammy's MIDI input isn't working. I would start swapping cables, or connect another pedal (set to MIDI channel 2) in place of the Whammy to see if it responds.

One more setting to check as well: make sure Send PCs is turned on for the Whammy on the Devices tab.
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Thanks. The messages are picked up when I send the PBC MIDI cable direct to the DT but it isn't getting transferred through my Kemper (Out or Thru) so I guess the problem is with how I have the Kemper set up.
 
The Thru port should work without configuration. I recommend double checking, and if it doesn't work, then you may have to contact Kemper.
 
I finally got some result using a Midi Solutions MIDI Thru box. Got the Harmony/Whammy effect to change as predicted but not the Detune effect. I can see the LED on the Whammy flicker when the PBC sends the message but it doesn't settle or engage the on switch.
 
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Interestingly, any command to the Whammy/Harmony effect needs to be the last or only one sent by the preset switch in order to function. If I add a PC Detune command in after it, the Whammy message isn't sent.
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The Whammy uses PC messages in a non-standard way. Turn on Direct Send PCs/CCs and Send Redundant PCs for the Whammy device in the editor and it should fix the problem. The GT tries to filter out redundant PCs and CCs, which works for devices that follow MIDI's rules, but not the Whammy. Turning on Direct Send and Send Redundant PCs will bypass all of the redundancy checking and allow all PCs to be sent to the device.
 
rjmmusic said:
The Whammy uses PC messages in a non-standard way. Turn on Direct Send PCs/CCs and Send Redundant PCs for the Whammy device in the editor and it should fix the problem. The GT tries to filter out redundant PCs and CCs, which works for devices that follow MIDI's rules, but not the Whammy. Turning on Direct Send and Send Redundant PCs will bypass all of the redundancy checking and allow all PCs to be sent to the device.
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Thanks but the only difference now is that a message is sent to the Whammy upon preset off as well as preset on but it still won't engage on the unit. It comes only briefly and then is instantly bypassed.
 
Check how your buttons are configured. You probably have a conflict in there somewhere. Remember that any button that has Send and Update on Preset Change turned on is going to send a message on every preset change. If you have multiple buttons that send PCs to the pedal, you will probably need to group the buttons so that only one button (the active one) sends its PC message.
 
rjmmusic said:
Check how your buttons are configured. You probably have a conflict in there somewhere. Remember that any button that has Send and Update on Preset Change turned on is going to send a message on every preset change. If you have multiple buttons that send PCs to the pedal, you will probably need to group the buttons so that only one button (the active one) sends its PC message.
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All the Whammy effects I use are stored to a button page where Update on Preset Change and Send on Preset Change are turned on. If this is causing a conflict, how do I set up groups to make only the active one send its PC message?
 
Edit each button, set the group number. All of the Whammy-related buttons should be set to the same group number (let's say group 1), and all of the DT-related buttons should be set to another group number (left's say group 2).

Then, on the Globals tab, select group 1 at the bottom of the screen, turn "Send off messages" off, and turn "Allow all buttons off" ON. Do the same for group 2. Now, when you press a button in the group, the other button(s) in the group will turn off, but only the button you actually pressed will send its message. Likewise, only the active button in the group will send its message when you change presets.
 
rjmmusic said:
Edit each button, set the group number. All of the Whammy-related buttons should be set to the same group number (let's say group 1), and all of the DT-related buttons should be set to another group number (left's say group 2).

Then, on the Globals tab, select group 1 at the bottom of the screen, turn "Send off messages" off, and turn "Allow all buttons off" ON. Do the same for group 2. Now, when you press a button in the group, the other button(s) in the group will turn off, but only the button you actually pressed will send its message. Likewise, only the active button in the group will send its message when you change presets.
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Thanks Ron... That's done the trick.
 
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Curiously, one of the DT functions seems to be set to ON by default for all presets up to #60 (the second half of these are blank), even though in the Editor my working presets all have the Whammy device unchecked by default and no PCs being sent.

If I bank up beyond preset #50 all the presets turn the DT on and then when I bank down again it remains on even though my presets in this range have the DT turned off. Why is this?
 
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Can't be sure without seeing the settings, but do you have any other source of PC messages? Maybe buttons on another page, another MIDI device entry set to the same channel, etc.?
 
Ron... On my Whammy functions button page, should the Update on Preset Change and Send on Preset Change buttons be on or off?

The other thing I'm not clear about:
In the Editor, The PC# designation for the whammy/detune effects appear both on my button page and on the Preset pages. In Presets, there is a Whammy device entry under PC Messages where my PC# is entered, and then there is an IA Preset Actions box where the same information can be entered. At present, I have nothing entered here but I notice that the Whammy also responds if I enter an IA action. Should I do this? What happens if the PC# entered elsewhere conflicts with what I put here? Which takes precedence?
 
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So I'm getting close but still not there. Present issue seems to be that the DT won't always go into bypass mode when I engage the Whammy.
 
So, you never want the DT and Whammy on at the same time? If so, set all buttons to group 1. Then turning on Whammy will turn off DT, turning on DT will turn off Whammy.
 
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