Help with MIDI foot controller

[quincy_j_clomo]

Hey all! This is my first post. Apologies if this has already been addressed or if this is the wrong forum.

I use Reason for live performance- as a host for synths, an fx platform for instruments and vocals, and a mixer. I just bought a Meloaudio MIDI Commander foot controller to make my fx more accessible when playing instruments with my hands. I am having a bit of trouble integrating it into my rig as I had envisioned.


My original goal was to set the MIDI Commander as my main keyboard, so that whenever I targeted a track I could control some aspects with my feet. I had planned to set the buttons and expression pedal inputs to otherwise unused CC numbers, and assign those CC’s to specific parameters on a per-track basis. So for instance for my bass I could set the expression to be a wah-wah, but for my lap steel set it to be a volume pedal, or my vocals make it a reverb send, or whatever else I decide I want.

The problem I’m running into is that when I override remote mapping to make a parameter foot-controllable, it then ignores whether or not a track is targeted and the foot control *always* controls that parameter on that track. And I cannot assign more than one parameter to a CC # using remote override mapping.


The crazy work around that I think I might need to do is this:
-assign the foot buttons and expression pedals to a midi-to-cv rack extension device,
-cobble together a cv output switching matrix with Thor, a combinator, and a few CV utility rack extensions as I’ve seen described on other posts,
-route the cv outputs of my cobbled together cv matrix switcher to the insert combinator buttons and rotaries of all the tracks I might want to control,
-assign those combinator buttons and rotaries to whichever parameters I want to control on those tracks, and
-use the combinator buttons on my cobbled together cv matrix switcher to selectively mute the cv outputs going to the tracks I don’t want to control at that moment.

This seems like it might work, but it also seems like an absurd Rube Goldberg construction to achieve something that should be fairly simple.


Is there a better, simpler way to achieve what I’m trying???


Thanks!

[demt]

Rube Goldberg

[orthodox]

I would return to the initial intent of making it the master controller, so that it controls only the device you have selected. No need for Remote Override. No need to make it send different CCs, you can call it Expression pedal for all the devices and then translate it into the function you like via Combinator's Programmer panel.

[quincy_j_clomo]

I would return to the initial intent of making it the master controller, so that it controls only the device you have selected. No need for Remote Override. No need to make it send different CCs, you can call it Expression pedal for all the devices and then translate it into the function you like via Combinator's Programmer panel.

I guess I didn’t make it clear in the OP, but part of my issue was that I couldn’t get the buttons to control the combinator panel without remote override. I even looked up Reason’s MIDI implementation chart and programmed the buttons to send the CC’s that supposedly control the panel, but the only way I could get it to do anything was with remote override.

I ended up with a Rube Goldberg solution that I’ll post later today when I can describe it and add screenshots. It totally works, but it’s a bit of a doozy.

[orthodox]

I would return to the initial intent of making it the master controller, so that it controls only the device you have selected. No need for Remote Override. No need to make it send different CCs, you can call it Expression pedal for all the devices and then translate it into the function you like via Combinator's Programmer panel.

I guess I didn’t make it clear in the OP, but part of my issue was that I couldn’t get the buttons to control the combinator panel without remote override. I even looked up Reason’s MIDI implementation chart and programmed the buttons to send the CC’s that supposedly control the panel, but the only way I could get it to do anything was with remote override.

That's not about controlling the Combinator Panel. I'm suggesting that you assign Expression CC (11) to the pedal and open the Combinator's Programmer Panel and use the Modulation Routing table on the right to map Expression Controller to some function of a nested device.