NPD - DMC Micro Pro (warning, MIDI content!)

[Jakester]

Like many others on here, I've been tinkering with various multi fx and controlling them via external pedals. 

 

I had a Zoom MS50B a while ago which I was controlling using a Gen2 DMC Micro, but I found I wasn't really using all of the effects on it, and those that I was sounded slightly lacklustre (IMVHO). 

 

So I recently found myself with a Source Audio C4, which I love. The editing options are way beyond whatever I can think of, and it covers all of my effects bases, which is squidgy filters, the odd octaver, chorus and some nasty synth bass occasionally. 

 

I predominantly got the C4 to use as a filter with additional options (yes, I know the Spectrum is a better 'standalone' filter but I wanted the occasion synth option). 

 

However, I've rapidly found myself using it a lot more which meant I was needing to use more than the 6 switchable presets (I mean, I wasn't using them all at once but I wanted to be able to change presets more easily on the fly). Which meant going back to something like the DMC Micro I had with the Zoom. 

 

The downside of using the Micro with the C4 was, unlike on the Zoom, there was no display, so the Micro only showed preset number. 

 

OR SO I THOUGHT! Looking at the latest version of the DMC Micro, the Pro, it has a new OLED display screen which means it can show present names as well as numbers!

 

Perfect, so I decided to buy one from Andertons. First downside - Andertons don't sell the gHOST USB adaptor. I've bought one from Disaster Area direct in the past, but for a cheap cable dongle it came to about £25 once shipping was included. Plus, that was pre-B-word so I have no idea how that might have affected things. 

 

I reasoned that Disaster Area probably wouldn't have manufactured their own USB Host cables, so took a punt on this for the princely sum of £2.95:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00DM6EMQ2/

 

Along with a generic USB-B to USB-mini cable. 

 

The last of these arrived this morning, so had a punt at wiring it all up and DISASTER - it wouldn't communicate with the C4!

 

Dangit, thought I - should have splashed out on the DA one instead. 

 

Start going back through the manual and I'd overlooked "make sure the MIDI channel on your device is set to 1". Delve into the C4 setup screen, and voila! They're talking. 

 

Problem 2 - despite loading in the presets on the C4, the Micro was only showing numbers. 

 

More delving in suggests irritatingly the present names don't carry over, so you have to manually edit the names on the Micro to correspond with the names on the C4. Someone suggested online editing on the pedal itself - which frankly sounded like a nightmare to me. 

 

Thankfully Disaster Area have a webpage editor, but even that is a little fiddly - you have reconfigure the Micro to USB MIDI to communicate with your computer, and you have a character limit of 8 letters/numbers. 

 

However, once it's done, it's done, so (leaving aside the fact I clearly forgot to do present no16) I can now have all the present names displayed on the Micro and cycle through the C4 presets easily. Hurrah! 

 

Only downside so far is cycling through switches the preset on - I'm sure there's a setting somewhere so more digging needed. So far it's seeming like a great solution.

 

[Jakester]

Well, I thought it was interesting… 🤣

[BreadBin]

Too technical for me! 👍😉

[SumOne]

Mucking about with C4 + DMC micro persuaded me that I'm gonna wait for source audio to put in one pedal. 

[Jakester]

So I had a bit more of a tinker, rejigged the preset order and had a play with the on/off state in the C4 editor, and it's clearly a DMC setting rather than a C4 one. 

 

I think I've seen something that says there's a global on/off setting for preset selection so I'll have another go later on. Almost there though!