Behringer FCB1010

This is a highly flexible (and cheap) midi device controller - I've tried several other similar devices and none come close in terms of value for money. It transmits patch changes, CC changes, has 2 exterrnal jack sockets that can be programmed into a patch, plus 2 assignable expression pedals. I've had it talking to almost all of my midi devices. Many people use it to control ableton live, but I haven't gone there yet. Behringer seem to have little interest in developing the range, which is a shame, since the main drawback of the FCB is the footprint - it takes up an awful lot of floor space, always a rare commodity onstage. Some brave souls have even taken a proverbial axe to it, separating the pedals from he main body. Other modifications include phantom powering down the midi cable. You can read about these at the FCB yahoo group, links below.

The pedal is officially programmed by a series of commands send using the footpedals. Whilst this isn't hugely difficult, there are software packages to make life easier. You can program everything you want, then send it in a single sysex file using midi. This makes it easy to set up application specific sysex files, or to do things like copying or swapping banks.

There's precious little you can't do with it, but as ever, those little things start to annoy you! Luckily there are people out there with the time and energy to take on the manufacturers job and develop/extend the possibilities of the unit. One such person is Xavier De Donde of Belgium, who started by addressing the bugs in the firmware, then added extra functionality, such as the ability to have the upper or lower bank of pedals acting as stomp boxes - in my case I use them to switch effects on & off on my GP100. The lights are latching so you know where you are at any time. All this comes in the from of a cheap replacement chip under the name of Uno.

Xavier hit a brick wall during development, the memory limitations of the unit ruled out useful extras such as stompbox being assignable per bank or even per pedal. To get around this, he designed and manufactured his own GORDIUS external FCB controller, then built this into two alternative pedal units. Guys like this deserve all the support they can get, so I urge you to check out his website and invest - small manufacturers like these are vital for creative musicians.