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JeffTadashi « Hard to program, but powerful »
Published on 05/26/12 at 17:27The Behringer FSB1010 is a Midi Floorboard that can fulfill anyone's midi footswitch needs. With 10 banks of 10 customizable presets each, two expression pedals will customizable midi channel, control, and range, two programmable external relay switches, midi in, midi out, and midi through, this footswitch is very midi powerful!
For each preset, you can program 5 different program changes (on 5 different channels), 2 control changes, 2 expressions, and a direct midi note output. You can also set the two external switches on and off; these are perfect for controlling amp channels, such as on Mesa Boogie guitar amplifiers. The hardest part is going through the manual to figure out how to program the unit; it can get very confusing, very fast! Behringer always makes budget, affordable items, and this item is no different. Functionally, it is great, but it is obvious that the ease of programming the unit suffers from cheap development. You have to know your midi very well, which is usually the case anyways with most midi applications. There are lights on each of the pedals, which helps decipher how the preset is programmed (while in the edit more), so that can be helpful.
Depending on what version the software is on the FB1010, some of the system features are different. For example, the newer software has an easier, faster way to recalibrate the expression pedals. On the older software, you have to run though an entire diagnostics test, which includes checking the function of all the pedals.
I've used this pedal for multiple bands, multiple applications, and although I haven't used it in years, I keep it around, because one day I'm sure I'll need it again. Whether you simply need to change channels, or it you want to use the expressions, or just play some midi notes, you can't go wrong with this midi floorboard. Just don't expect it to be easy to program.
For each preset, you can program 5 different program changes (on 5 different channels), 2 control changes, 2 expressions, and a direct midi note output. You can also set the two external switches on and off; these are perfect for controlling amp channels, such as on Mesa Boogie guitar amplifiers. The hardest part is going through the manual to figure out how to program the unit; it can get very confusing, very fast! Behringer always makes budget, affordable items, and this item is no different. Functionally, it is great, but it is obvious that the ease of programming the unit suffers from cheap development. You have to know your midi very well, which is usually the case anyways with most midi applications. There are lights on each of the pedals, which helps decipher how the preset is programmed (while in the edit more), so that can be helpful.
Depending on what version the software is on the FB1010, some of the system features are different. For example, the newer software has an easier, faster way to recalibrate the expression pedals. On the older software, you have to run though an entire diagnostics test, which includes checking the function of all the pedals.
I've used this pedal for multiple bands, multiple applications, and although I haven't used it in years, I keep it around, because one day I'm sure I'll need it again. Whether you simply need to change channels, or it you want to use the expressions, or just play some midi notes, you can't go wrong with this midi floorboard. Just don't expect it to be easy to program.