Hi, just been trying to get my A-800 to act as a punch in controller by using the dedicated DP-2 pedal. I would like to be able to activate 'record' by hitting the foot switch. I have set up the A-800 with X1 and it works as an ACT controller, and the buttons seem to work according to the controller map, including the 'record' button, but I can not get this function to be assigned. I have tried 3 approaches: key bindings, A-800's bundled editor and by trying to change sub-menu settings on the A-800 directly, all with no luck. Are there any tutorials out there that explain this - how to switch on 'record' by using the A-800's hold (sustain) pedal, that goes in the P1 input. Can anyone help? Just note, in case you'd like to post on alternative ways on punching in, that I want to be able to switch record by using the pedal. I know there are other ways to switch record on, and many ways to overdub  in X1 but this is how I would like to do it. Grateful for your advice.

There is another relevant forum section with some tips: http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2181430
 
Another approach is to add yet another plug-in (for example Generic Surface) with the same MIDI input to do that. But there are some consequences (you can check my site for more info).

Hi, many thanks will have a look now... Just to add that in the meantime I've ordered a USB PC foot switch. Costs around $10. Enables you to activate a keyboard command. Works a bit like a USB keyboard the difference being you can only execute one command at a time. Good enough to activate record. Not perhaps as elegant as having a pedal attached to the A800 but after a few hours of trying to figure this out thought I'd give this a go. Will post how I get on. In any case, if someone can explain how to do it via the control interface still very interested.

Happy days! Got my USB PC footswitch today. I ordered it on ebay, cost under $10. Took literally under 5 minutes to setup. All you need to do is specify that hitting the pedal activates the letter R. I then started X1 and tested it. It worked straight away. Hit it once - starts recording, hit it again it stops, just like pressing R on the keyboard. It works just like a traditional punch in recording foot pedal. I'm now getting ambitious and might get the triple pedal, cost around $20, so that I can start, stop and record.

Something like http://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_fcb_1010.htm is better solution
 

Many thanks, noted, will investigate further. My first impression though is that if you just want to plug a switch pedal into a USB port in order to punch in record (and don't want to spend more than $20), then having a simple USB PC pedal does the job. I did spend a while trying to sort this via MIDI, so I was very pleasantly surprised how quickly I was able to get a result once I had this pedal. Thanks for the advice though, the Behringer foot controller looks useful if you are trying to simultaneously do a number of different things.