Footswitches

Foot Controllers

See also the Loopy Pro Gear Directory.

For musicians whose hands are busy during performance, footswitches/pedals are invaluable for controlling Loopy Pro. This page is a place for tips about using footswitches.

If you want to make use of tap, double-tap and hold from your footswitch, it must be configured to send MIDI Notes or MIDI CC messages. MIDI Program Change (PC) messages can be used as triggers but cannot be used for hold or double tap.

Expression pedals that can send a stream of values are useful for controlling controls like faders, knobs and dials that respond to more than simple on/off messages.

Full Momentary Setup

For the best, most flexible behavior you want a foot controller to have full momentary behavior which means that when a switch is pressed an ON event is sent and when the switch is released an OFF event is immediately sent. An ON message can be a MIDI CC message with value greater than zero or a MIDI Note message with velocity greater than 0. The OFF message would be the same CC or Note number but with a value or velocity of 0. This sort of full momentary behavior is needed for tap/double-tap/hold disambiguation. Hold messages require full momentary behavior.

If a pedal sends ON messages only (such as with pedals that send an ON for press but send no release message), the messages will be seen as HOLD messages when MIDI learning.

Testing Your Controller

To test your controller, use a MIDI Monitor app. A MIDI Monitor will show you what your pedal is sending. We recommend using a MIDI monitor to see what your controller is sending even if you think you know how it is set up. It is somewhat common for pedals to be sending different messages than one thinks.

We like the free ShowMIDI app (which can also run as an AUv3 plugin). Here is the procedure.

• Launch the MIDI Monitor app as a standalone.
• Press BUT DO NOT RELEASE the first switch and make a note of what message was sent.
• Release the switch and make a note of what message was sent.
• Repeat the press/release with the same switch.

If you did not see the same ON message for each press and and OFF message for each release, your controller is not set up as a full momentary controller. If the controller is configurable, we recommend that you set it up as a full momentary controller.

This video walks through the testing process.

Particular Controllers

iRig Blueboard

The Blueboard should be in one of the MIDI over Bluetooth modes. Hold down the B or C pedal when powering it on to set the mode. Hold pedal B for the Blueboard to send note events. Hold pedal C to send CC events. Either option works with Loopy Pro. For the best results, use the CC mode as the MIDI Feedback works best. In notes mode, the Blueboard's seems less reliable than in MIDI CC mode.

NOTE: To use the Blueboard with Loopy Pro, do not run the Blueboard app. Make a direct connection to the Blueboard by choosing Bluetooth Devices from Loopy Pro’s main menu. In the Bluetooth devices panel, select your Blueboard and tap Connect.

M-Vave Chocolate

The Chocolate has four switches and a port for an expression or sustain pedal. It has several different modes of operation and can be configured with the free CubeSuite app.

The quickest way to set up the Chocolate is to launch the CubeSuite app and choose the Manufacturer Control mode. No additional set up is required with Cube Suite once that mode is selected. In this mode the four switches send MIDI CC 20 - 23. A press sends cc value 127 (on) and release sends cc value 0 (off).

For the fastest pedal response time: use the Manufacturer Control settings mentioned in the previous paragraph or Custom Control mode (with CC messages). Both of these modes are quick to set up and send an On message on press and Off on release.

The Advance Custom Mode offers five additional modes. These modes all require manual entry of the desired messages.

Short Tread/Long Tread Mode. The Short Tread/Long Tread mode lets you set up a different messages to be sent for short and long press. This can be very convenient to send different message on short and long press, but it is important to understand that the response time is not as fast with this mode as with Manufacturer Control or the options that send an ON message immediately on press. In Short Tread/Long Tread mode, the short press message is sent on release of the short press. This adds about 120ms of delay to the sending of the press compared to the modes that send one message on press and another on release. The short/long tread mode has the advantage of slightly less delay for hold message than when mapping the same pedal to short and long press in Loopy Pro. When using this mode, you will want to have the short press send both an on and an off message so that Loopy does not interpret the short press as a hold.

Expected behavior via Bluetooth. Here is a video showing the expected response at a buffer of 256. Here is another quick and dirty demonstration.

Wired Connections

The M-Vave Chocolate (both the plus and non-plus models) can be used wired over USB rather than wireless. Make sure that the M-Vave is turned on. If you connect it without turning it on, the USB connection will be used for charging. You can transfer existing bindings in Control Settings from the Bluetooth device to the wired SINCO device. To do this: go into Control Settings, find the profile that has the binding, view the bindings and tap Transfer to bring up the panel that lets you copy or move the bindings.

Low Latency Setup. This video walks through setting up the Chocolate for low latency operation that should be on a par with hardware loopers. In the video a wired connection is being used.

FCB1010

For best results, use it in notes mode. In that mode a note on message is sent on press and a note off on release. This allows midi learn of tap, double-tap and hold. The other modes send an event only on press.

People report that controller feedback (found in Loopy Pro’s Control Settings panel) should be off for this device.

There is an app that simplifies this device’s setup.

MIDI Captain

The ALLNT preset bank is the MIDI Captain's best choice for Loopy Pro as it is the only preset bank set up for full momentary behavior of each footswitch. This mode sends a MIDI Note On message on press and Note Off on pedal release. We do not recommend the ALLCC preset bank as it does not send a message on release.

Line 6 Helix LT

This foot controller does not respond correctly to Loopy Pro’s MIDI Feedback. In Control Settings, find the controller and turn off the Feedback Enabled option.

Morningstar MC8

This is a capable highly programmable footswitch; however at this time (November 2025), it has a drawback if you want to use tap and double-tap with no delay on a tap. Its internal double-tap detection prevents double-taps from being passed through even if you have not programmed a double-tap into the pedal. If you do program a double-tap, the single tap will be delayed slightly.