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Connecting a Boss FX pedal via Midi to Ableton?

  • 12-09-2011 10:26pm
    #1
    ShriekingSheet
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,476 ✭✭✭


    Pretty niche question, but hoping someone else has some kind of experience with this.

    Backround
    I have a Boss SL-20 Slicer pedal. It's excellent, but needs to be on the money as regards the beat. It's not like a delay pedal (I also use a DD6), where you tap the bpm with your foot and fire away. It produces more complex sounds, so needs to be more exact, time-wise, especially with electronic-based music.

    Question
    Anyway, it has a midi port. Our band uses Ableton at all times, and I think I can connect the lap top to the pedal, and Ableton will "tell" the pedal what the bpm is and where the "one" is at all times. Is this a correct assumption? Has anyone else done it?

    I have of course RTFM'd, and it seems to confirm the above assumption, but seems a bit... Too easy. A midi lead is a minor outlay compared to the cost of the pedal, but just wanted to check with you guys anyway, in case there's any pitfalls or good advice out there.


Comments

  • #2
    rcaz
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,034 ✭✭✭rcaz


    MIDI output from your laptop's audio/MIDI interface > MIDI input of the pedal.

    Open up Live's preferences and in the MIDI Sync menu, make sure the "sync" option for your interface's MIDI output is turned on. I don't know what kind of settings you'll have to make on the SL-20, but that should cover the laptop end of things! At least it worked for us when me and a bandmate synced our laptops up (so we had the MIDI input on the slave laptop's interface set to sync too).

    The thing I thought was strange when we got our laptops playing together was that the slave (my computer) wasn't just perfectly in time, it was like the master was hitting the tap tempo button on every beat, and it wasn't perfect - it was above or below the proper master tempo by a fraction each time. Not enough to be noticeable, but still not perfect. My computer is much more powerful than the other one, we noticed that the more powerful the computer, the more capable it is of dealing with orders or something? The slower computer was always way out when it was slave.

    Really great fun when you get stuff like this going, we felt like Neo when he stops all the bullets in the hallway :P


  • #3
    ShriekingSheet
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,476 ✭✭✭ShriekingSheet


    El Pr0n wrote: »
    MIDI output from your laptop's audio/MIDI interface > MIDI input of the pedal.

    Open up Live's preferences and in the MIDI Sync menu, make sure the "sync" option for your interface's MIDI output is turned on. I don't know what kind of settings you'll have to make on the SL-20, but that should cover the laptop end of things! At least it worked for us when me and a bandmate synced our laptops up (so we had the MIDI input on the slave laptop's interface set to sync too).

    The thing I thought was strange when we got our laptops playing together was that the slave (my computer) wasn't just perfectly in time, it was like the master was hitting the tap tempo button on every beat, and it wasn't perfect - it was above or below the proper master tempo by a fraction each time. Not enough to be noticeable, but still not perfect. My computer is much more powerful than the other one, we noticed that the more powerful the computer, the more capable it is of dealing with orders or something? The slower computer was always way out when it was slave.

    Really great fun when you get stuff like this going, we felt like Neo when he stops all the bullets in the hallway :P

    Haha, thanks for that. I'll give it a go and post how I get on.


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