Using the Behringer FCB1010 with the TC G-Major

DISCLAIMER: I lifted this info from the website of Mike Riley as he was going to take this very usefull info down.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

A lot of folks email me with questions regarding problems relating to noise in their rigs and somehow they tend to blame the G-Major. The G-Major is an extremely quiet unit. If you have an amplifier that has a lot of hiss or cable noise, it's only going to be compounded when you plug in an effects unit. Spend the money and buy good cables. It makes no sense to spend $500 on the GMajor only to connect it to your amp with $5 cables from your local electronics store. If you can afford the G-Major, you can afford the $25-$30 for good patch cables. Not only will they sound better, but they'll last longer. I personally use Monster Cables for everything although I have found the D'Addario Planet Waves cables to be pretty good also. They never break, and if they did, they have a lifetime warranty. If your guitar amp emits a lot of hiss through heavy gain, bad cables, or bad tubes, that noise is only going to be amplified through the effects unit. Remember the technical mantra: "Garbage In = Garbage Out" If you have a chain of effects pedals going into the front of your amp, use good cables and try to put all effects on the same power supply. I have used a Boss PSA power adapter and a 9v multi-adaptor cable for years and have absolutely NO line noise. A common ground is your friend. Batteries will work, but they can be a pain to replace constantly, you're more prone to interference, and you've got a more reliable power source with an AC adapter.

BEHRINGER FCB1010 CALIBRATION ROUTINE

For starters, you should first initialize the FCB1010 to factory defaults. Many folks have emailed me with problems where the expression pedals don't work or are not calibrated. I can't stress enough that you should start out with the FCB1010 set to factory defaults. Once this is done, the expression pedals should be calibrated This simply calibrates the electronics within the FCB1010 to ensure accurate operation of the expression pedals. This has NO EFFECT on external devices. I would recommend running this right away as you want to be sure that you are sending the proper MIDI values from your expression pedals. Keep pedal 1 and 3 pressed while switching on the unit. The unit is in self-test-mode now. LEDs are testing. Wait until all pedal LEDs are done testing. Push all pedals now (one at a time, including up and down) until all of the LEDs are turned off.> Wait until relay test is finished. Press the downbutton once. Adjust the left expression pedal (A) to the lowest value. Once adjusted press UP Adjust the left expression pedal (A) to the highest value. Once adjusted press UP Adjust the right expression pedal (B) to the lowest value. Once adjusted press UP Adjust the right expression pedal (B) to the highest value. Once adjusted press UP.

The expression pedals are now calibrated and there should be a MIDI value of 0-127 for each of the expression pedals. NOTE: Even thought they are now calibrated to the proper values, they DO NOT send out MIDI data yet. The expression pedals now need to be 'turned on' within each preset.

INITIAL SETUP OF THE BEHRINGER FCB1010

There are a lot of powerful features that the FCB1010 offers, but I tend to keep things fairly simple and don't use everything. I will list the various settings that I used to get the FCB1010 working with the TC Electronic G-Major.

Direct Select: This feature is configured in the Global Setup. It determines how you will be using
the footswitches on the FCB1010 to select presets. There are two modes that it offers: 1. ON - With Direct Select turned ON, you can type in the number of the preset you want and it will directly jump to that preset. For instance, if you want Preset 124, you press 1, then 2, then 4. This would require pressing a total of three switches: 2. OFF - With Direct Select turned OFF, you would use the Bank Up/Down switches to scroll through the presets in groups of 10, then select the number of the preset you want. For instance, if you want to select Preset # 53, you would press the Bank Up button until Bank 05 is displayed, then press switch number 3. Whichever method you use is up to you. I only use a few presets (1-10), therefore I have Direct Select turned off.

ENABLING THE FCB1010 EXPRESSION PEDALS

In order to do this, you need to refer to the Detailed PRESET Programming section in the manual, specifically section 2.4.3. Basically what you are doing here is telling the FCB1010 that when I want to call up Preset # XXX, the expression pedals should be turned on. Personally, I think they should be on at all times, but I'm sure there's a reason that Behringer designed it this way.

COPYING PRESETS WITHIN THE FCB1010

What I would recommend is call up Preset # 01, enable both of the expression pedals, save the settings, then copy Preset # 1 to Presets #2, Preset #3, etc.. Again, this is a matter of personal preference, but it does save a lot of time down the road. 1. Activate CONFIG in the GLOBAL SETUP (see chapter 2.2 of the manual). 2. Press footswitch 5 to activate the copy function (The VALUE 1 LED lights up and the number in the display starts flashing)

3. Enter the number of the preset you wish to copy and confirm your selection with UP/ENTER (The VALUE 2 LED lights up and the number in the display starts flashing.) 4. Enter the target preset and confirm your selection with UP/ENTER, or cancel with DOWN/ESCAPE.

5. If you want to copy further presets, please press footswitch 5 again. 6. Press and hold DOWN/ESCAPE to quit the GLOBAL SETUP. Once these steps have been completed, you should be ready to connect to the G-Major Guitar Processor.

SETTING UP THE TC ELECTRONIC G-MAJOR FOR MIDI CONTROL

There are two features in the MIDI/IO Menu on the G-Major that will enable your FCB1010 (or other controllers) to communicate with your G-Major. MIDI Channel: First and foremost, the G-Major has to be able to communicate with the FCB1010 Controller. You can change the MIDI Channel that the FCB1010 is sending MIDI data on as long as you set the G-Major to the same channel in the as the G-Major. Personally, I would simply set the G-Major's MIDI channel to 'OMNI' which will receive everything you send it. This way, you can accidentally change the MIDI channel on the FCB1010 (or any other controller) and it'll still respond to MIDI commands. MIDI Program Change: This MUST also be turned on for the G-Major to respond to external controllers (FCB1010). A lot of people miss this step. At this point, you should be able to change presets on the G-Major with your FCB Controller. Make sure this is working before you proceed any further.

CHANGING PRESETS ON THE G-MAJOR

In the MIDI/UTIL Menu on the G-Major, there is a Program Bank option that allows you to determine which bank of presets you wish to use. There are 100 Factory presets in the G-Major. These CAN NOT be edited! User presets are blank and can be edited and saved for future use. If you want to make changes to a factory preset, you can edit it, then save it to a User preset. The G-Major allows you to select presets within either the Factory presets, User presets, or both. Here are the options as they show up in the G-Major's MIDI/UTIL Program Bank menu: 1. Factory: Allows you to select only factory preset from an external controller. This works fine if you like the factory presets and don't need to make any changes to the presets. 2. User: Allows you to select only saved User presets. I use this option as I prefer to customize all of my presets.

3. Custom: Allows you to select between Factory or User presets. Decide which group of presets you wish to use and select the appropriate option within the Program Bank menu.

USING THE FCB1010 EXPRESSION PEDALS

Within the G-Major, you can assign up to four Modifiers. A Modifier is an external controller that can control various effects parameters. In this case, we'll use the two expression pedals on the FCB1010 as Modifiers. The left expression pedal will be MOD 1 and the right expression pedal will be MOD 2. Here's how you set them up. 1. On the G-Major, press the MOD menu button. 2. Select MOD 1 using the CONTROL PARAMETER wheel. 3. Turn the inner EDIT wheel clockwise and you'll see your control options, which are OFF, LEARN, PEDAL, and CC1-128. Select the LEARN option. 4. Press ENTER and the display will begin blinking "LEARNING". This means that you are in LEARN mode and you can automatically assign your Modifier.

5. Move the left expression up and down. The "LEARNING" indicator will disappear. The GMajor has now automatically recognized your left expression pedal as MOD 1.

6. Repeat Steps 1-5, except select MOD 2 instead and move the right expression pedal during the LEARNING mode. Your right controller is now assigned as MOD 2. Once you have completed these steps, you can assign either pedal to effects parameters within the G-Major. These settings are Global, meaning that they are present within all presets in the G-Major.

ASSIGNING THE FCB1010 EXPRESSION PEDALS TO PARAMETERS IN THE G-MAJOR

This section covers setting up the expression pedals to control various effects parameters (ie: Chorus speed, Reverb levels, Delay time, etc.) NOTE: Only effects parameters for the 'activated' effects can be assigned. In other words, you must have the CHORUS effect button enabled if you wish to control Chorus parameters within a preset. 1. On the G-Major, press the MOD menu button. The display will show you MOD 1, 2 ,3 or 4. Do not worry about what is displayed here! This just lets you know that you are in the proper Modifier menu.

2. Press ENTER. At this point, you will see a list of the various effects parameters that can be modified. In the menu display, you will see the effect listed on the right, and the effects value on the right. 3. Scroll through the various effects parameters using the PARAMETER wheel until you find the effects parameter that you want to control.

4. Use the inner VALUE knob to scroll through the various controllers that are available. Select M1 for Modifier 1 (left expression pedal). Press ENTER. You have now assigned your left expression pedal to control the desired effects parameter. You can repeat this step, except using M2 (Modifier 2) for the right expression pedal. Also, the controller assignment settings made here are unique to each preset and will need to be initialized for each preset within the G-Major. If you copy a preset, these settings will be copied as well. My suggestion is to set up a generic preset to use as a template for all presets, copy it to all of your other presets within the G-Major, then modify each individual preset as desired.

AMPLIFIER CHANNEL SWITCHING

There are two different ways you can use this gear to switch your guitar amplifier's channels: 1. The FCB1010 Controller has two different 1/4" jacks (CNT #1 & CNT #2) that you can use to switch a discrete device ON and OFF. This would be ideal for switching features on a guitar amplifier (Channel, Reverb, Boost, etc.) It is simply a matter of connecting a 1/4" guitar cable from the CNT 1 jack to the applicable jack on the guitar amplifier and programming the FCB1010 preset details accordingly. I have not done this, but I'm sure it's fairly easy. 2. The G-Major has a single 1/4" stereo jack that also allows you to control two different guitar amplifier features. In this case, you would need a 'Y' cable with a male stereo jack on one end and two separate male mono jacks on the other end. Either of these methods will work. I prefer the second method as I like to have as few cables on the floor as possible. I picked up a simple three foot "Y" cable at my local guitar store for about $4.00. It works great! NOTE: If you have a guitar amplifier that doesn't use a standard ON/OFF switch, you may need to contact TC Electronic for support. For example, my Marshall DSL-100 uses a simple ON/OFF footswitch to switch channels. However, my Fender Twin uses its own proprietary footswitch and circuitry. TC Electronic was very, very helpful here! I sent them a PDF copy of my amplifier's wiring schematic and a few days later, they sent me back the schematic for an interface box. I built the interface in an hour and it cost me about $9 in parts purchased at a local electronics store. This

allowed me to use the G-Major to switch the Fender's Channels and effects settings. Take a look at the support forums on the TC Electronic web site as they already have quite a few amplifiers listed.