KMI SoftStep?

[Sharp]

anybody know about these?

http://www.keithmcmillen.com/products/softstep/

pressure sensitive MIDI foot pads? weighs a pound? beer proof?!
beats my Behringer.

looks like they're taking pre-orders on the website, im thinking im gonna get in line.

[Taylor Livingston]

Looks like a really nice design. If I was still doing the laptop thing, I would be all over this. I'm having trouble imagining that it's possible to really operate your toes with that kind of precision while wearing shoes, though.

[superbassman2000]

Originally Posted by Taylor Livingston

Looks like a really nice design. If I was still doing the laptop thing, I would be all over this. I'm having trouble imagining that it's possible to really operate your toes with that kind of precision while wearing shoes, though.

that's what i am thinking too--i also want to hear some real-world reviews on it to see if it's live gig proof

[xed]

Nothing is beer proof... just look at my gut.


.

[kevteop]

Originally Posted by Taylor Livingston

I'm having trouble imagining that it's possible to really operate your toes with that kind of precision while wearing shoes, though.

I doubt I could afford a MIDI controller like that and shoes.

[Taylor Livingston]

Is there a price anywhere?

[superbassman2000]

i was under the impression it was fairly cheap (for a midi controller that does what it does)

[Eric!]

$289, he said in the video

[Bryan R. Tyler]

This looks like it would be great to use with your hands and a huge headache to use with your feet.

[Taylor Livingston]

I think that if you really tried to get all that functionality out of it, it would be a huge pain as you say, especially the "Rotary" control. More reasonable for me would be to only use the pads as pressure sensitive switches, or maybe a little bit of X-Y. I would love to have something like this that outputs CV or resistance to control my hardware, but I doubt that's in the pipeline. Still, that price is pretty good, so it wouldn't feel like a waste to have it and only use half the functionality.

[Bryan R. Tyler]

Yeah- the fact that the rotary control saves the last position in the X/Y axis rather than returning to center but doesn't leave an indicator of the last position on the pedal itself would severely limit trying to use it as a live foot controller, not to mention the lack of accuracy you're likely to have trying to get to certain coordinates on a fairly small pad while balancing on one foot. It's an interesting design though. It's like someone had the idea to put a bunch of mini Kaossilators in a row.

[kevteop]

Originally Posted by Bryan R. Tyler

This looks like it would be great to use with your hands and a huge headache to use with your feet.

Velcro it to your cab and you've got an expression butt controller. Now you'll all want one.

[pwsharp]

Bump.

Anyone have a review to post on this? I couldn't find one.

[kester]

I have one that I use with mainstage and my duet 2 for church. It's really useful, because it allows me to switch stompboxes on/off with my foot, turn compression on/off, adjust amp models, you get the idea. However, it was quite a pain to program, and I still have yet to figure out how to do the tap tempo function. The new software v1.2 makes it much easier to adjust the settings on the softstep itself, but you still have to be quite careful with the settings you program into mainstage. The softstep itself is surprisingly thin, they weren't kidding about that. Quite resistant, don't worry about stomping on it because the pads are bigger than they seem (but aim for the edges not the centre). Yeah if you have any specific questions just let me know.

[pwsharp]

Thanks. I'm seriously considering this PU-2 upgrade (http://practicalusage.com/?cat=28) to my FCB-1010 to get the functionality I'm after, namely:

- multi-channel CC operation
- analog volume control via CV->VCA

Then I saw an ad here on TB for the SoftStep & I'm impressed. However, despite its supposed capabilities & lightweight form, my peculiar requirements seem to have me stuck on the path I'm currently on to give the FCB a heart & brain transplant. Shame, I would've appreciated the lighter load. (For performing I would only be interested in SoftStep's standalone mode.)

[kester]

As far as I know there is no cv compatibility, but i think you might want to double check the kmi forums and manuals to be safe. With the new version of the software it's easier to program it in standalone mode, I use midi cc to control the stomp box switches but I'm not sure if you can do multichannel haha

[fokof]

I've posted That thread.