Loopy Pro: Foot Controllers.

For musicians whose hands are busy during performance, footswitches/pedals are invaluable for controlling Loopy Pro. This page is a place for tips about using footswitches.

Basic Setup. For simple triggers, it is preferred to have the foot controller set up to send an ON message when pressed and an OFF message when released. Typically, these messages will be MIDI CC or MIDI Note messages. Other MIDI messages can also be used but offer less flexibility. Expression pedals that can send a stream of values are useful for controlling controls like faders, knobs and dials that respond to more than simple on/off messages.

The Chocolate has four switches and a port for an expression or sustain pedal. It has several different modes of operation and can be configured with the free CubeSuite app.

The quickest way to set up the Chocolate is to choose the Manufacturer Control mode. No additional set up is required with Cube Suite once that mode is selected. In this mode the four switches send MIDI CC 20 - 23. A press sends cc value 127 (on) and release sends cc value 0 (off).

For the fastest pedal response time: use the Manufacturer Control settings mentioned in the previous paragraph. It is also the quickest mode to set up.

The Advance Custom Mode offers five additional modes. These modes all require manual entry of the desired message.

Short Tread/Long Tread Mode. The Short Tread/Long Tread mode lets you set up a different messages to be sent for short and long press. This can be very convenient to send different message on short and long press, but it is important to understand that the response time is not as fast with this mode as with Manufacturer Control or the options that send an ON message immediately on press. In Short Tread/Long Tread mode, the short press message is sent on release of the short press. This adds about 120ms of delay to the sending of the press compared to the modes that send one message on press and another on release. The short/long tread mode has the advantage of slightly less delay for hold message than when mapping the same pedal to short and long press in Loopy Pro. When using this mode, you will want to have the short press send both an on and an off message so that Loopy does not interpret the short press as a hold.

For best results, use it in notes mode. In that mode a note on message is sent on press and a note off on release. This allows midi learn of tap, double-tap and hold. The other modes send an event only on press.

People report that controller feedback (found in Loopy Pro’s Control Settings panel) should be off for this device.

There is an app that simplifies this device’s setup.