Midi Guru's. I need some help

[Gainfreak]

Me and a friend of mine are setting up a midi switching system for his rig. We have a Digital music corp ground control Pro and we are also using the GCX switcher.
Now here is the Problem. My friend has a Lexicon MPX-1 processor that he will be using for his effects and unless you are new the Lexicon boxes, they have a real lag-time between Patches. My question is, Is there a way to make a monster patch that has verb,delay and chorus and just turn them on and off with the direct access switches on the Ground control? I figured this would help with the lag time because instead of switching patches, it would only tuen on effects as needed on 1 patch.
For the record, I know that I can use a mixer to help a little with the LAg but I don't want to use a mixer since its another thing the signal has to go through.

Thanks!!

~R~

 

[shredhead7]

Yes, you should be able to do that. I don't own the gear that you're talking about, but I have the Behringer Midi controller and the Roctron Replifex. I can setup the midi on the Beh so that the pedals correspond to the midi numbers on the Rocktron that are the On/Off for the various effects.

Essentially, each feature on the Lexicon should be assigned a midi number. So the delay on/off will be 110, the reverb on/off will be 95, the delay length will be 24, etc...You'll have to reference the manual to determine what those numbers are. The rocktron was really easy to program. The behringer was a pain in the ass. It can be done though.

 

[Gainfreak]

Yes, you should be able to do that. I don't own the gear that you're talking about, but I have the Behringer Midi controller and the Roctron Replifex. I can setup the midi on the Beh so that the pedals correspond to the midi numbers on the Rocktron that are the On/Off for the various effects.

Essentially, each feature on the Lexicon should be assigned a midi number. So the delay on/off will be 110, the reverb on/off will be 95, the delay length will be 24, etc...You'll have to reference the manual to determine what those numbers are. The rocktron was really easy to program. The behringer was a pain in the ass. It can be done though.

Thanks bro! Thats just the problem. There is nothing in the manual that shows us the numbers for the on and off commands. We both went through the manual several times each and its pretty piss poor to say the least. I love that fact that a $100 rocktron intellifex has no lag time switching patches but an $800 Lexicon box sucks ass!!!

 

[LIA1]

The MPX-1 is great for studio or live use but is pretty terrible for guitar rigs where you need quick patch changes.

You can send individual FX on/off CC messages to allow for quicker switching. Check out this link http://www.lexiconpro.com/Product_Downl ... owners.pdf In section 6-4 it tells you how to set up these CC's. The unit is pretty open ened and dosen't already have FX pre-programed to specific CC#'s which is why you may have missed it the first time through the manual.

 

[shredhead7]

Did you find a midi table at all? It could be they don't have those assigned, which would be really stupid. I know that my Alesis Quadraverb doesn't have that feature. You can only adjust the delay length/vol/repeats, and similar with the reverb and chorus/flang/etc. Can you assign a patch and turn the delay on/off within that patch? The replifex is laid out like a series of stomp boxes. So your patch has mix-chorus-delay-reverb. When you scroll through the patch, each effects first parameter is on/off. I haven't had any other unit that was like that. If you wanted the effect off on other units, you had to create a patch that didn't have it in it, or just set the mix level to 0% on that effect.

The Intellifex didn't allow on off like the replifex, because of the layout. The layout on the intellifex was a mix-chorus1-chorus2-chorus3-chorus4-reverb, with each one of the chorus' having it's own delay. So they would have a lush chorus with four different chorus modules as the patch, where each module had a delay as one of the parameters of the chorus. It made for a great chorus sound, but it sucked for doing delay stuff, other than basic four tap delay type effects.

I've heard about the delays between switching patches on the Lexi, but never heard it in person. I can't believe that it's that slow. Is it because it was designed for the studio and not the road?

 

[LIA1]

The intended use for the MPX-1 was for the studio where a ½ second delay in patch switching isn’t a problem. There’s a reason that the Rocktron units don’t take as long to load. Their programs aren’t as involved as the Lexicon which you can hear in how great the delays and reverbs. The fact that FX aren’t already pre-programmed to CC#’s is great because it offers greater flexibility in programming. It’s a bigger pain in the a$$ but worth it in the long run. I wouldn’t say the MPX-1 is good as a first multi-FX processor just because it does so much and it can be confusing to use at first.

 

[Gainfreak]

The MPX-1 is great for studio or live use but is pretty terrible for guitar rigs where you need quick patch changes.

You can send individual FX on/off CC messages to allow for quicker switching. Check out this link http://www.lexiconpro.com/Product_Downl ... owners.pdf In section 6-4 it tells you how to set up these CC's. The unit is pretty open ened and dosen't already have FX pre-programed to specific CC#'s which is why you may have missed it the first time through the manual.

Thanks!! I guess my next question would be how do I assign CC values to specific effect so that I can change them in real time and do I need an expression pedal?

To be honest with you, I think all the lexicon boxes blow for live guitar rigs because of the lag time! (I have a pcm80)

Im really thinking about using a cheaper Rocktron box and calling it a day lol

 

[Gainfreak]

Did you find a midi table at all? It could be they don't have those assigned, which would be really stupid. I know that my Alesis Quadraverb doesn't have that feature. You can only adjust the delay length/vol/repeats, and similar with the reverb and chorus/flang/etc. Can you assign a patch and turn the delay on/off within that patch? The replifex is laid out like a series of stomp boxes. So your patch has mix-chorus-delay-reverb. When you scroll through the patch, each effects first parameter is on/off. I haven't had any other unit that was like that. If you wanted the effect off on other units, you had to create a patch that didn't have it in it, or just set the mix level to 0% on that effect.

The Intellifex didn't allow on off like the replifex, because of the layout. The layout on the intellifex was a mix-chorus1-chorus2-chorus3-chorus4-reverb, with each one of the chorus' having it's own delay. So they would have a lush chorus with four different chorus modules as the patch, where each module had a delay as one of the parameters of the chorus. It made for a great chorus sound, but it sucked for doing delay stuff, other than basic four tap delay type effects.

I've heard about the delays between switching patches on the Lexi, but never heard it in person. I can't believe that it's that slow. Is it because it was designed for the studio and not the road?

There is an isane amount of lag time between patches in any of the lexicon boxes that I have heard. they are great for studio use but I think they blow for guitar rigs. Im thinking that he will need to get another processor that is more gig friendly.

 

[Gainfreak]

I actually prefer the effects in my Intellifex to the Lexicon MPX-1 I had, they sound much warmer and more analog to me.

I think the patches in teh lexi box blow right out of the gate but with afew tweaks they can be made to sounds warmer. That said,I think we are both heading towards using the intellifex. way easier to use and no one in the audiance is going to hear the diference between the effects IMHO.

 

[JLeurck]

Me and a friend of mine are setting up a midi switching system for his rig. We have a Digital music corp ground control Pro and we are also using the GCX switcher.
Now here is the Problem. My friend has a Lexicon MPX-1 processor that he will be using for his effects and unless you are new the Lexicon boxes, they have a real lag-time between Patches. My question is, Is there a way to make a monster patch that has verb,delay and chorus and just turn them on and off with the direct access switches on the Ground control? I figured this would help with the lag time because instead of switching patches, it would only tuen on effects as needed on 1 patch.
For the record, I know that I can use a mixer to help a little with the LAg but I don't want to use a mixer since its another thing the signal has to go through.

Thanks!!

~R~

You know who will know the answer to this? Mick (leadfootdriver). I'm almost positive he has an MPX-1 in his TriAxis rig. This has been discussed before at some time (maybe over on HC?) and he had some good input.

 

[Sacha]

I'm sure there's a way to do this, I have the same thing setup with my Eclipse, but I've never tried it with the Lexicon. Check on Huge Racks Inc. they have a lot of good info on stuff like that.

 

[midnightlaundry]

I use the MPX-1. The way I do it is to have a master patch that I share with most guitar sounds. I run 2 expression pedals with a regular ground control. (give me your buddys GC Pro ) So on 1 pedal I'll have full reverb with it backed off, and then when I sweep forward, it will blend out the reverb and in the delay. On the 2nd pedal I'll put a chorus type effect that's off with the pedal full back, and then blends it in the more I sweep forward.

This covers most ground for me. If I need a phaser instead of a chorus, then that's when I change patches, but the delay and reverb will be the same. So i'll just change that effect and copy it into a different # patch.

You program this in the patch function of the Lexi. C11 is pedal 1, and C12 is pedal 2 in the MPX. You can even compensate for the volume loss when using a modulator type effect by programing the mod level to kick up a couple of points as you sweep in the effect on the same pedal.

MIDI rules!

 

[Gainfreak]

I use the MPX-1. The way I do it is to have a master patch that I share with most guitar sounds. I run 2 expression pedals with a regular ground control. (give me your buddys GC Pro ) So on 1 pedal I'll have full reverb with it backed off, and then when I sweep forward, it will blend out the reverb and in the delay. On the 2nd pedal I'll put a chorus type effect that's off with the pedal full back, and then blends it in the more I sweep forward.

This covers most ground for me. If I need a phaser instead of a chorus, then that's when I change patches, but the delay and reverb will be the same. So i'll just change that effect and copy it into a different # patch.

You program this in the patch function of the Lexi. C11 is pedal 1, and C12 is pedal 2 in the MPX. You can even compensate for the volume loss when using a modulator type effect by programing the mod level to kick up a couple of points as you sweep in the effect on the same pedal.

MIDI rules!

Thanks a ton Mick!!
I wish I could give you my buddies pro but Im affraid that I would want to steel it first lol

Im not sure if this is the route he wants to go only because he would want the effects to change on the fly without having to hit an expression pedal. In other words when switching to clean, he would still have to hit the expression pedal to engage the chorus and Im pretty sure that would piss him off lol. Im pretty sure that he is just going to pick up an intellefex and just a call it a day.!

Thanks everyone!!

~R~