The Handy Dandy USB foot Controller
USB Foot Controllers
I am a solo performer who started back in the 80’s using Midi sequences and dragging an Atari 1040st and a rack of midi sound modules to gigs. It weighed at least 80lbs. These days everything is mixed to a WAVE file and a 3lb Asus Netbook is my “band”.
One thing I have always used to control playback is a footswitch system. I hate taking my hands away from my guitar between songs. It’s distracting for both me and the audience. Pushing buttons or moving a mouse only makes it obvious to the punters that you are “cheating” and using technology.
Using Win Amp as a player, all I need is the ability to start, stop and advance the playlist.
It’s odd that these USB footswitches have been around for many years but I have never heard mention of them by other musicians. They are so simple in operation and can be programmed to do any keystroke. The uses on stage and in the studio are limitless. Mostly I’m using mine for live playback control, but I also use it to control the transport of Sonar.
At this point in time I counted about a dozen brands on the market. The price ranges from $10 for a single, $30 for a Triple and upwards to around $130 for a more heavy duty model.
Just Google USB foot controllers or USB footswitches and you’ll have pages of offers from Philips, X Keys, and a bunch of no name Chinese suppliers via Amazon. The choice comes down to what you want to pay, the software and how solid is it.
So I’ll review the 2 types I have used. First one is made by PI Engineering, the X keys and is at the upper end of the price and quality scale.
http://xkeys.com/XkeysFootPedals/index.php I bought my first Laptop to use for live music in 2004. Right away I was looking for a footswitch and this was the only thing I could find at this point in time. The price has dropped as I originally paid $250 for mine. They are now only $130.
I have the older pedal and it was made for Windows XP. There is now a new pedal and new software so I won’t bother with details. The software is straight forward and you record your keystrokes and assign them to one of the 3 pedals. It will record any combination of keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can save as many configurations as you like, one for each software application.
And one thing it say’s it will do now is the configuration is saved to the pedal. Sorry I cannot confirm this and if it runs without installing the App.
My pedal bonked out on me after I spilled Eggnog on it at a Christmas Gig. It is exactly 10 years old. It gummed up one of the micro switches. I emailed the company and they sent me 3 new micro switches, FREE. Now that’s customer service. So a big thumbs up to PI Engineering and a solidly built pedal. Looks like it will last me another 10 years now.
The second pedal is one I ordered from Amazon thinking my Xkeys was dead. I was going to just order another Xkeys, but I thought, for $30 why not give one a try. It is made by PCsensor and it was delivered to my Canadian Post box directly via China Post for a total of $30.99 Can. Somehow they mailed it directly and somehow there were no duty or brokerage fees.
http://www.pcsensor.com/index.php?_a=product&product_id=153 I like the software for this one way better as it is so simple and straight forward. It comes on a mirco CD and seems to be for both the single and the triple footswitch. Just type the keystroke directly into the GUI of the footpedal and “assign” it. The pedal needs to be plugged in first. You can now unplug it and move it to another computer and after Windows installs the generic driver it will work just fine with whatever you assigned to it.
It is defiantly not as robust as the Xkeys and I doubt it will last even 5 years with heavy use, but for $30 it gets the job done.
I looked at a few of the other web sites and it seems they will all be very similar in operation. This one looks a bit more solid than my PCsensor brand
The price is in British pounds so works out to double the price for me.
http://www.quietpc.com/usb-footswitch The Philips looks like it is as sturdy as the Xkeys, and sells for $90 Can.
https://www.dictation.philips.com/ca/products/product/foot_pedal_lfh2000_series/ Anyhow I thought I would post this as I believe a lot of you would find one of these pedals ultimately indispensable around the studio. It is so cool to do overdubs and keep your hands on your instrument. Why pay $300 for a controller? You still have to use your hands. You can buy a whole bunch of these for under $100 and each one can be assigned different keystrokes. Not only that, I'm sure you all know what a pain it is to even get some control surfaces to even talk to your DAW. These are so simple because they are really just another keyboard interface that uses your feet.
post edited by Cactus Music - 2014/03/02 16:33:00