VOX Delaylab BANK down problems

[BW13]

Hello everyone, i have a question regarding delaylab controls

i am flashback x4 user and that's totally not enough for me, cuz sometimes i have hour+ set

i fell inlove with vox delaylab and thinking about getting two of em, one for smaller board and one for full one

but the main problem is that you can't go bank down on delaylab ... you can't go from bank 1 from 5 per say as well but i can live without that

still as you know if you are on bank 2 and want to go back on bank one you should go trough all 10 banks

so, my question is ... did someone who uses delaylab solved this problem ? and is there any way

to plug for an example boss footswitch trough expression pedal input an assign it to bank down ?

any advice would be appreciated,

thanks !

[somanytoys]

I'm not familiar with this product, but I would think that if that function (bank down) is not something that's programmed into the pedal, the only other way to get around that is if the pedal accepts MIDI signals to control the bank. Then you'd just have to have some sort of midi controller to hit the switch to send the signal to activate either patch 1 or patch 2, or however many patches you have. That way it's not an up/down function, the midi is telling it which bank # to jump to directly.

That seems like it could be an expensive fix, but if it works, and you do get another of the same pedal, the one controller should be able to control both of them the same way.

[fuzzjunkie]

Does it have an expression pedal out??

I don’t know if it would work on this pedal or not, but the Eventide Factor pedals suffered the same problem. With them you can connect an auxiliary switch to the expression jack and that allows you to bank down. You need to use the pedal’s regular bank up switch or have a dual auxiliary switch to go up and down.

It’s a bit of a hack, but it’s a long running problem. My 30 year old Roland and Yamaha rack units only bank up unless you use midi or the front panel buttons.

[somanytoys]

I looked at the manual quickly ( https://www.voxamps.com/uploads/Support ... M_EFG1.pdf ).

It appears that an expression pedal will only control an effect parameter and the volume; it doesn't say anything about even being able to use a latching or non-latching switch, or what it would control if it could.

And I see nothing about MIDI compatibility in there, or a connection for it, so that option seems to be out.

The only other "practical" alternative (still a pain in the ass) that I can see is to program the patches and the banks in the ascending order that you want to use them, maybe even copying some of them over and over in successive patches and banks if necessary, so that you can get to them by just going up continually. It's not a good fix, but there doesn't appear to be a clear alternative.

[fuzzjunkie]

The only other "practical" alternative (still a pain in the ass) that I can see is to program the patches and the banks in the ascending order that you want to use them, maybe even copying some of them over and over in successive patches and banks if necessary, so that you can get to them by just going up continually. It's not a good fix, but there doesn't appear to be a clear alternative.

It's like it's 1990 all over again, man.

I, and many others had to do exactly that back in the day! I had a friend that had the Boss half rack effects unit, like the Yamaha FX-500 or what ever Slowdive used, and he velcro'd it to the top of his Marshall so he could reach the bank up/down buttons easily. He only used 3-4 settings and just had a bypass switch on the floor. My Roland unit only had 8 setting positions, so I just had to hit the switch 7 times to get back to the beginning. The Yamaha SPX-900 had more patches saved, so I would just copy the ones I used more than once.

[somanytoys]

Yeah, and it's a shame that in this day and age, Vox didn't incorporate a down function, or a switch or midi option in a nice, digital pedal. (I'm assuming it's a recent pedal here). Cost trumps all, I'm sure.

The only things I really have are 2 SPX 90 II's, but I don't have a footwitch for them. Do you know if they will take something like a Boss FS-6? And do you know if the SPX will go up and down with a footswitch, or am I looking at taking my own advice above?!? haha

[fuzzjunkie]

Yeah, and it's a shame that in this day and age, Vox didn't incorporate a down function, or a switch or midi option in a nice, digital pedal. (I'm assuming it's a recent pedal here). Cost trumps all, I'm sure.

The only things I really have are 2 SPX 90 II's, but I don't have a footwitch for them. Do you know if they will take something like a Boss FS-6? And do you know if the SPX will go up and down with a footswitch, or am I looking at taking my own advice above?!? haha

I used a Boss momentary switch. It could be latching or unlatched, but I don’t remember which one. Yamaha made an FC-5 switch for it. So, probably?

Unfortunately you can’t go up AND down. It’s up OR down! You can program the range of patches to step through, 50-51-52-53-54-55, and that will loop back to 50 and start over, OR you can set it in reverse and go 55-54-53-52-51-50, but to do up and down you need midi.

I used to see touring acts using multiples of the same rack units and thought the others were just back ups, but now I think they were using one unit for one setting and the second for a different setting. That would explain all the SPX-90 on patch 32 and another on patch 48 right below it that I used to see.

[fuzzjunkie]

Also, I sometimes wish that the Strymon El Capistan had more than 2 settings, but at least you don’t have to loop through 8 to get back to one. I wonder if that’s why it only has the one memory slot, because the engineer didn’t want to deal with that prob?

I know their new Volante delay has 8 patches, now I wonder if you can go up and down, or just up through them? I think it does both? The Eventide Space does both, but the Factors only go up without the auxiliary switch.

[somanytoys]

Well, the Boss FS-6 (I think that's the name) is a dual switch, and can be set to latched or unlatched, independently. I guess it won't work trying to use one for up and one for down, if that has to be selected/programmed on the SPX. I still have one that I used with a Boss RC-2 looper, which actually crapped out on my about a year ago. First Boss pedal I think I've ever seen die. I'd like to see if there's a way to rescue some of the loops on it, but it would probably take removing the memory and hooking it up to something else, I'm guessing, since it won't even power up (not even with a battery).

Actually, what you said below gives me an idea - I have 2 SPXs in a rack, so I could probably set each with a different patch and then just AB/Y them or something. I haven't really done a whole lot with them yet, but I do need to get something going with them, it just seems like so much thought needs to go into rigging it right. I've been using 2 of Keeley's Realizers that replaced my Loomers instead for the reverse sounds, they're pretty good at it and they're a lot smaller than the SPXs (haha). Those 2 paired against 2 Infinite Jets get some really nice sounds bouncing around out of 4 amps.

I need to look further into midi. Real midi. My pedalboard controllers are midi capable, and are all midi-linked together, so that I can control 4 of them with 1, but I don't have a real controller for things like the SPX, and I'm not really looking forward to truly figuring out how to use midi properly. It's probably not as painful as it seems trying to read up on it, when you actually apply it and get to understand it. One day, probably...

[cestlamort]

If you can only go up, it might be worth considering limiting the number of banks you are using / duplicating banks.
Bank 1: Bank 1
Bank 2: Bank 2
Bank 3: Bank 1 (copy)
Bank 4: Bank 2 (copy)
etc.

I did something along those lines with my FX500 (which lives on top of the amp).

Sidenote: it's weird how MIDI (like acid wash jeans?) is suddenly back in style. I will say that there's nothing like trying to work out MIDI implementation / dumps / etc. to make me feel like an idiot (MIDIot), as I can never ever get stuff to work right (and I have a PhD, albeit in books, not numbers).

[fuzzjunkie]

Well, the Boss FS-6 (I think that's the name) is a dual switch, and can be set to latched or unlatched, independently.

Yes, the Boss switches that I use are dual mode. I ‘m pretty sure that the Roland units are different from the Yamaha. I have four and they slot together into a strip. One bypasses my Roland Chorus Echo, the 2nd turns the Chorus on and off, the 3rd scrolls through the 8 Memory patches on a Roland DEP-5, and the 4th does the same on the Yamaha SPX -900. I want to say the Rolands are all set for Latched and the Yamaha for Un-latched, but it could be the opposite.

When I got a Roland GP-16, I also got a midi controller, and found out that Roland breaks their banks into groups of 8, while the Yamaha is groups of 10, so the midi number for patch 48 on the Roland would be 36 on the Yamaha, or something confusing like that. I had to program the controller to send 2 different signals, one to the Roland and another to the Yamaha to keep them on the same page.

[somanytoys]

Okay, I'll have to give that a shot, and make some good use of that footswitch.

Duplicating the patches was kind of what I was thinking, too. I didn't think that the SPX 90 had banks, just individual patches, is that right? But I can just duplicate my patches (or banks) and just scroll one way.

Yeah, I haven't gotten very far into the real nuts & bolts of MIDI, but it does seem intimidating. I have a few pedals that accept MIDI, the Meris ones at least, but I'm not sure I'd need or want to get that deep. Luckily I only have 2 rackmounts to bother with, both SPX, so hopefully I won't have to do algebra to figure out the right midi signals between 2 different ones.

I'd still probably have to get a real controller, unless I can use/program something else as a controller. Maybe the Pedal Palettes I have are capable of that, I can't remember. I may need to read up on that. Still, some good, useful ideas and information, I appreciate it.

[cestlamort]

Worth noting that the Boss FS-6 can have latched and/or unlatched switches, but the new(er) FS-7 is latched *or* unlatched for both.

[somanytoys]

So, that's progress?!? That seems weird. Good to know it's not an upgrade, though.

I hope it works with the SPX, that would be a very nice use, rather than just continuing to collect dust. I figured I'd find another use for it one day...

[fuzzjunkie]

Duplicating the patches was kind of what I was thinking, too. I didn't think that the SPX 90 had banks, just individual patches, is that right? But I can just duplicate my patches (or banks) and just scroll one way.

It doesn’t have banks as far as the patches are concerned, but it does as far as midi is concerned. I think that’s right? But it’s Base-10, so it coincides with the patch number, so patch 36= midi 36, but on the Roland, which was Base-8, it would be patch 36 = midi 44, (if I did my math correctly)