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Old 02-06-2013, 12:09 PM   #1
krm27
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Default Would this $20 usb foot-switch work with Reaper?

I would like to control "live" looping through Reaper using foot-switch, so I can layer guitar parts without having to stop playing. I saw the "pok" wireless footswitch for $300, and have seen posts on people trying to program foot-switch through midi to control functions (which sounds complicated).

I then saw this for $20 on Ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/USB-3-Triple...124#vi-content

This has 3 footswitches to just generally control Windows functions, apparently designed for people with disabilities, not for musicians. It looks like those 3 footswitches can be programmed to signal any keyboard strokes or combination of strokes (though I'm not 100% on this, they say they are "programmable" and I cannot see how they would be useful to people with disabilities if they did not have such programmability). Anyway, it looks to me like it should do exactly what the $300 Pok does, only needing USB connection rather than being wireless (and fewer foot-switches, of course). Still, not bad for $20 if it works.

Anyway, if these are programmed for a combination of keystrokes, it should be simple to program them for the combination of keystrokes that would set up live looping, or any other Reaper command, at least as simply (if not more simply) than programming a foot-switch as midi controller. Am I missing something or will this work?

Thanks,

~Ken
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Old 02-06-2013, 12:37 PM   #2
BenK-msx
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Yes should work.

I like a few others made my own foot switch using the guts of a USB gamepad, which reaper can convert to midi/control msgs to assign to actions etc. Easily done honestly.

Got 5 buttons out of it.

I Feel a bit ill when folk pay shed loads for effectively the same thing that maybe lights up too. These days using osc, a phone or cheap tab could act as a display . but that is a bit more fiddly.
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Old 02-06-2013, 12:58 PM   #3
krm27
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Thanks for the reply.

I had already seen your post on that, actually, but I'm not very techy, and it's also a time consideration with a learning curve. For $20, I think the USB foot-switch may be a bargain for me.

~Ken
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Old 02-06-2013, 01:07 PM   #4
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Oh, I guess one thing I thought might be an issue was if this cheapo foot-switch would have problem with timing. Since timing is pretty critical to looping, and maybe there is a problem with a cheap USB foot-switch having a latency before the computer or DAW registers the command. The sort of thing that might not be an issue of non-music applications, but would be a problem for looping.

I think I'm going to buy the $20 foot-switch and see how it goes, and I'll post my results in the forum.

~Ken
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Old 02-06-2013, 01:50 PM   #5
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No prob, any latency should be the same as you hitting a key on PC keyboard.Should do the trick once keys assigned to the right things, though to do some plug in functions for example you may need a utility to convert keystrokes to midi so that you can midi learn the parameter. Easy to Check if you can do what you want with just keystrokes in reaper first.
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Old 12-05-2013, 04:59 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by krm27 View Post
Oh, I guess one thing I thought might be an issue was if this cheapo foot-switch would have problem with timing. Since timing is pretty critical to looping, and maybe there is a problem with a cheap USB foot-switch having a latency before the computer or DAW registers the command. The sort of thing that might not be an issue of non-music applications, but would be a problem for looping.

I think I'm going to buy the $20 foot-switch and see how it goes, and I'll post my results in the forum.

~Ken
It has been almost a year Ken. Did you have any success with the. eBay $20 foot-switch? Were you able to control Record and Play transport functions? They are still offering these switches on eBay.
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Old 12-11-2013, 02:02 PM   #7
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Sorry for delay. Alas, no news to report.

I went ahead and bought the switcher, but have not yet tried to use it. At the time, I was all hot-to-trot to use Reaper to record my guitar playing and do live looping and stuff for fun. But then I got distracted into song composition, learning about VSTi's and other music production/engineering stuff, and the like, and have not come back to looping, or to any other Reaper function that would require a footswitch.

When I do, I'll report back, but it may be a year (or more). Or, now that the thought has been rekindled, maybe I'll find time over the holidays to attempt this.
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Old 02-13-2020, 12:30 PM   #8
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXs_7wMYWJs
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Old 02-13-2020, 12:56 PM   #9
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I just have an old crappy USB keyboard that comes out of the closet and onto the floor. The spacebar works as is and two other keys have a narrow wood shim velcroed to them to push on, with a few surrounding keys removed to make it a less critically assembled kludge. Not as good as one of those $40 three pedal ones, but $0 and no delivery latency, not to mention my foot pedal needs are not worth throwing money at.
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Old 02-13-2020, 01:22 PM   #10
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Be careful if the switch is designed for a specific purpose. I bought a $20 usb large volume knob with pushbutton, designed for volume up/down/mute, thinking I could remap it to keyboard letter J and K to serve as a scrub wheel in Reaper, but despite a familiarity with Autohotkey, HID registry mappings, etc. I've not been able to get it working.
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Old 02-13-2020, 01:41 PM   #11
TonE
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Which model did you buy? What was the problem exactly? What is the output from the device, what is Autohotkey reporting?
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Old 02-13-2020, 04:19 PM   #12
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OP is from 2013...
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Old 02-13-2020, 06:26 PM   #13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TonE View Post
Which model did you buy? What was the problem exactly? What is the output from the device, what is Autohotkey reporting?
It was a generic model on eBay. Came with no drivers or visible brand/model name. It does control volume/mute, but it shows in in Windows device manager as just "HID device." It's been awhile, but as I recall neither Autohotkey nor various keyboard/mouse/gamepad tracking utilities showed any output coming from it.

My guess is that it communicates directly with the Windows audio system directly, so I wanted to warn the OP that not *all* devices are mappable. But as the previous poster notes, the OP was from 2013, so I'm sure he's long gone by now!
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